Naoko, Takeshi, and Kimi went inside the next room, and were quite surprised by what was inside. Compared to the rather comfy and casual room they were just in, this room seemed cold and professional. There was a countertop in the middle of the room, which stretched across it a fair distance, and on it were what appeared to be some rather odd-looking glass containers and some interesting equipment, including electrical hotplates, bunsen burners, and thermometers. Around the room, mostly up against the walls, there was a good deal of large, metallic equipment that Naoko didn't recognize. It looked like a bunch of tubes, pots, and gauges, and its purpose was lost on him. There was even a massive metal tank up against the wall on the upper-middle part of the room, with a decent-sized glass window showing its contents, that being some sort of dark, viscous liquid that seemed to fill it up completely. Next to that was a simple sink, with a hand towel hanging on the wall directly above it, plus a glass storage cabinet filled with glass bottles.
"Well, this is…" Takeshi began to say. "...I don't know entirely what I'm looking at."
"I'm getting some weird vibes from this room," Kimi said. "Is this some sort of laboratory? Because that's what it looks like to me."
Naoko could figure why she'd think that. With all the odd equipment and glass containers, it definitely required some sort of expertise to operate the room's contents. But what was this place's purpose? Naoko could notice that a lot of the glass bottles and containers were filled with liquids, a lot of which was transparent. Combined with the temperature measuring equipment, it seemed like chemistry was involved.
Kimi seemed to take it upon herself to investigate the glass storage cabinet. She couldn't reach the top of it, but she could still see that the containers inside of the cabinet were mostly labeled. And, well, they weren't very inviting labels.
"I see that quite a few of these are labeled as unsafe to drink," Kimi said. "A lot of flammable ones, too. What the hell is ethanol?"
"You don't know what ethanol is?" Naoko asked confusedly.
"Some chemical?" Kimi guessed. "Fuck, I dunno, I'm not a chemist."
Naoko and Takeshi both got closer to look at the cabinet's contents themselves, and Naoko noticed something interesting. "Ethanol? Denatured alcohol? Is this…Is this place supposed to be a distillery of some kind?"
"Denatured alcohol? You mean like the kind of alcohol that you drink?" Kimi asked.
"I don't think so," Takeshi replied. "But I remember learning that ethanol is what causes people to become drunk. I guess it's basically pure alcohol."
"Seriously?" Kimi looked intrigued. "...Wait."
She stopped and began to examine a part on the bottom of the cabinet that seemed a bit out of place, mainly because it was made of some sort of metal, rather than glass. She pulled on the handle, but unfortunately, there was a lock on one of the metal cabinet doors, so it didn't budge.
"Ah, shit. I thought maybe there'd be some more in there," Kimi said glumly.
"More what?" Naoko asked.
"Well, booze, obviously. Y'know, Alcohol! The good stuff!" Kimi said.
"Why would you be excited about that?" Takeshi questioned. "I mean, we can't drink. We're only, what, eighteen years old?"
"Can't?" Kimi replied skeptically. "We're cut off from civilization. We can do whatever we want. Besides, do you really wanna wait two years just to be able to get your hands on some alcohol? Get real! We'll probably all be dead by then."
"Uh…" Takeshi seemed like he needed to get his thoughts together before responding. "Legally and morally-speaking, I don't think that's how any of that works. Besides, it doesn't seem like we have any drinking alcohol here."
"You said ethanol was alcohol, didn't you?" Kimi pointed out. "We can drink that, can't we?"
"Maybe," Takeshi figured. "But it's still a bad idea."
"Pfft," Kimi responded curtly. "Why? 'Cause it's 'against your religion' or something?"
"Well, no, not exactly," Takeshi said. "I was actually raised in kind of a Moderationist household, so…"
"So what?" Kimi asked rhetorically.
"Look, this isn't important," Naoko interjected. "The important thing is that getting drunk probably isn't a great idea. It could really land us in hot water if we're not careful."
"Thanks, Naoko," Takeshi replied gratefully. "I'm glad we can agree on this."
Kimi sighed. "Alright, alright, I get it. Maybe it's not a great idea to get shitfaced. But…"
"But what?" Takeshi asked.
"I…I dunno, actually. I thought maybe I'd have a counter to that, but…Well, maybe if we can avoid any sloppy makeouts or any of that gross shit, it won't be so bad? That's what I think."
"Well, we should let everyone else know about this before we come to a decision on that," Naoko reasoned. "C'mon, you two."
Naoko led Kimi and Takeshi into the room that Eryu, Yori and Mareo were in the process of searching. Looking in, it looked like the three were being a bit thorough, though there wasn't as much to see on the surface as the room Naoko was last in. There were some things about the room that were rather interesting, admittedly, such as the fact that the walls were painted a stark white, and had a couple of different charts and posters plastered on them, including the periodic table of elements and some sort of biological process Naoko wasn't particularly familiar with. The room had counters lining the walls, as well as two columns of counters in the middle of the room, with cabinets and drawers built into them at numerous spots. On the counters themselves, it looked like there was some equipment there, a lot of it not dissimilar to what was in the other room, such as bunsen burners and unusually-shaped glass containers like beakers and flasks. Aside from those things, though, there were some things he could see were different, though a lot of them looked unfamiliar to Naoko. He could see a microscope, some tongs, what looked like some sort of water dispenser with two nozzles pointing upwards, and some more complex stuff that was plugged into the walls.
Naoko saw Eryu, Yori, and Mareo on the other side of the room, inspecting one of the more odd-looking devices, a white, metallic contraption that opened up at the top. "See? These slots must be where you're supposed to-" Yori had been pointing something out to the others upon entering, but she wasn't able to finish her sentence, as Eryu had already turned his head.
"Naoko? You're done already?" Eryu asked.
"I'm not sure," Naoko admitted. "I just wanted to bring something we found to your attention. So what about this place? Is it a laboratory? Because that's what it looks like."
"That seems to be the case, yes," Yori confirmed. "What about the room you three just investigated? Does it have any sort of clear purpose?"
"Apparently it's a distillery," Takeshi replied. "It has a lot of stuff contained in it. Mostly liquids, like ethanol. That's actually why we wanted to talk to you guys."
"Ethanol?" Mareo wondered aloud. Naoko could practically hear the gears turning in his head. "...That's the active ingredient in alcohol. Did you stop your search and come here because you found alcohol?"
"Damn. You figured this out quick, Android Boy," Kimi remarked, sounding legitimately impressed.
"I had something of a hunch, just considering the fact that you aided in the search," Mareo explained.
"Well, the only reason we stopped searching was because Naoko and Takeshi made a big stink when I brought up the idea," Kimi claimed. "I just figured, maybe if we have it, we-"
"Yeah, no," Eryu interrupted her. "That's a terrible idea."
"Wha-Hey! You didn't even let me explain it, you jackass!" Kimi snapped, flat-out offended.
"I knew where you were going with it," Eryu replied curtly. "Look, we're only eighteen years old, and we've had three murders in two weeks. The last thing we need is less inhibitions."
"I second that opinion," Yori nodded. "I'm sorry, Kimi, but I think it's best that we leave the consumption of alcohol off the table."
Kimi looked like she wanted to argue back, but simply humphed instead. "Fine. So, if everyone else thinks it's a bad idea, then we're not touching the stuff after all. Is that it?"
"Well, actually, ethanol has some medical uses as an antiseptic," Mareo chimed in. "We could move it all to the medical room if we wanted to."
"That sounds like it'd be alright. Let's talk more about that after this is wrapped up," Eryu proposed. "There's a lot of ground here we still haven't covered."
"Well, while we continue our search, perhaps we should share a particularly interesting item we found," Yori suggested, gesturing towards a white, three-ringed binder on a nearby countertop.
This intrigued Naoko, who decided to take a look as everyone else took a look around the room. He picked it up and opened it, and inside was an alarming amount of scientific jargon that he was largely unfamiliar with. He had at least some scientific knowledge, sure, but not of the kind he was seeing. Just based on the odd language used and the images provided with the text, it looked like it was all to do with chemistry.
It looked to be something of an instruction manual, explaining how to combine different elements and chemical compounds to create…all sorts of things, really. It seemed to lack any detailed descriptions of what the end products were meant to be exactly, but different names (or what at least could be assumed to be names) were mentioned for each section, and it looked like it was meant to all be ordered numerically. Skimming through its contents, Naoko saw names like "BTR-5", "HITBP-10", "ISPE-13", and even a very familiar name: "LITA-22".
Naoko looked up in surprise. "Is this what I think it is?"
"If you think it's a set of instructions to create various chemical compounds of unclear purpose," Mareo replied, "then…most likely."
"I recognized the naming convention straight away," Eryu chimed in. "There's exactly one compound in there that we know just what it is, and that's LITA-22."
"What does that mean, then?" Naoko wondered aloud. "Is this where the LITA-22 that was used on us was made?"
"Hey, don't ask us," Kimi replied. "The real question is what the hell the rest of that thing is about. What else can we make with that?"
"I have no idea," Naoko shrugged. "There are a bunch of names, and a bunch of directions on how to make all these different compounds, but I don't see any specifics about what any of the others are supposed to do."
"Do we even have any of the stuff here to make anything with that?" Takeshi asked.
"There seems to be a lot of materials stored here for that exact purpose," Mareo replied. "It seems as though some of it has already been used to create some compounds, though. Perhaps the LITA-22 was made recently."
"Sure. I guess if IMONO made it, then that could explain why some of this stuff has already been used," Naoko figured, turning his head towards Yori. "What do you think, Yori?"
"Hm?" Yori replied, seeming to have just been focusing intently on something else. "Well, it's not too absurd. IMONO controls those humanoid robots, so I assume such tasks could be performed by just about any of them."
"Sure," Naoko replied simply, more focused on Yori than their current topic. "Is…there something wrong, Yori? Did you find something?"
"I'm not sure," Yori replied, gesturing towards a nearby drawer near the upper-right corner of the room. "I would say it's more odd than anything."
"What is?" Takeshi asked.
"This," Yori replied, opening up the drawer. It looked empty, aside from a few writing implements. "This drawer. It's a bit different from the others."
"How?" Naoko asked.
"Well, we've looked through most of the drawers in this room so far," Yori began to explain, "and they've been mostly the same. However, when I looked in here, I found myself having to look again. It might not seem like much, but it appears that there's somewhat less storage space in this drawer than in the others."
"What does that mean?" Naoko asked confusedly.
"I'm not entirely sure yet," Yori admitted. "Perhaps it's worth looking into."
"If you guys wanna harp on how one of these drawers is slightly different than the others, knock yourselves out," Kimi remarked.
"I know you're joking, Kimi," Yori replied bluntly. "I should, however, point out that making snarky remarks about it doesn't make it any less odd."
"I dunno if it's odd, as much as it's just kinda…there," Kimi challenged. "How do we know it wasn't just put together wrong or something?"
"Well, there's only one way to find out," Yori replied, giving the drawer another look.
Naoko went up and looked at it himself. Comparing the inside of the drawer to a nearby one, it looked like the one Yori was looking at was a bit different. The bottom of the drawer was slightly higher than the others. That, indeed, seemed weird. Why would it be any different from the others in its construction? The answer to that would soon be answered once Yori crouched down and seemed to notice something else.
"There's a small hole on the bottom here," she said aloud. Naoko got down to her level and saw she was right. A small hole, slightly smaller than one's pinky finger, was on the bottom of the drawer, which wasn't there on any of the others. Seemingly having just had an idea, Yori reached into the drawer, pulled out a pen, and stuck it through the hole. That seemed to be just the key to figuring out what was going on exactly with the drawer.
Naoko got up and saw that the bottom of the drawer raised at an angle as Yori stuck the pen through the hole. Once it was raised high enough, Naoko removed the bottom of the drawer to see what was underneath. He saw more items underneath, but they didn't look like the kind of things needed in a laboratory setting. They looked more like personal belongings. They included a watch, a music player, a picture of what appeared to be a family, and, perhaps most interesting of all, a small, black notebook.
"What the hell?" Naoko let out. Everyone who wasn't also looking in on what Naoko and Yori were doing stopped to look at that point. Naoko and Yori, meanwhile, looked at each other.
"I think we just found something very interesting," Yori said. "Should we go and get Mariko and Ishi? This may be something everyone should see."
"Let's figure out what all this is first," Eryu suggested, reaching into the drawer to retrieve the black notebook. "There's probably something interesting in here."
"A black book?" Kimi wondered aloud. "And you found it in a secret compartment in a drawer?"
"An accurate description, I would think," Mareo replied.
"Well, no duh," Kimi remarked. "I swear, if we find a bunch of names written in there, I'm gonna flip."
Eryu opened it up and looked at the first page. "I see one name here. Or, at least I think it's a name. Is 'Katana' a name?"
"That's the name of a sword," Kimi pointed out.
"True, but it's also a name," Yori replied.
"Well, this seems to be a journal owned by someone named 'Katana'," Eryu said, flipping to the next page. "Here we go. Whoever this is, they have a journal entry right here. Maybe I should read it out loud."
"That depends," Naoko said. "Does IMONO want us to see this?"
"If it was left here, then maybe," Eryu figured. "Hang on, I'm reading this right now, and it looks like-"
Eryu was interrupted by the doors to the room slamming open as an IMONO Droid made its way into the room at a brisk pace. Everyone inside the room looked over as it did so, and Naoko couldn't help but wonder if his initial hunch was correct. Whatever this all was, it seemed like IMONO was unhappy with them for having found it.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing here?!" Eryu shouted angrily at the Droid. The Droid didn't change its pace at all, and closed the distance between itself and Eryu, who seemed to realize what it was there for only after it suddenly grabbed the notebook and pulled it away from him. "What the-?!"
"THAT IS NOT YOURS. I AM SORRY, BUT THIS IS NOT SOMETHING THAT YOU WERE MEANT TO FIND."
"Huh?" Kimi responded bemusedly. "Wait, since when could you talk through your Droids?"
"IMONO, what are you doing?" Naoko asked concernedly.
"TAKING THIS AWAY FROM YOU ALL. AS I SAID, YOU WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO FIND THAT."
"Then why didn't you remove it from the room?" Takeshi asked.
"WELL, I SUPPOSE I WOULD HAVE, HAD I NOT DECIDED THAT GIVING YOU A NEW FLOOR TO ENJOY WAS IMPERATIVE."
"Oh. So, this was a mistake on your part?" Mareo asked.
"OH, NO, NOT EXACTLY. I WAS SIMPLY UNABLE TO KNOW THAT THAT SECRET COMPARTMENT EXISTED, YOU SEE."
"How come?" Yori asked.
"DO YOU SEE THAT CAMERA THERE?"
The IMONO Droid pointed upwards at a particular part of the ceiling, on the same corner of the room as the drawer with the secret compartment. There was, indeed, a camera there, pointed downwards. The meaning of this was clear to Naoko.
"So, the drawer isn't visible on the camera," he deduced.
"CORRECT. PERHAPS A MORE THOROUGH INVESTIGATION WOULD HAVE UNCOVERED IT, BUT I WAS PRESSED FOR TIME."
"Hang on a damn minute, because I still have a lot of questions here," Eryu interjected. "First of all, just because you can't see the drawer on the camera doesn't mean that you wouldn't know there was a secret compartment in it."
"FIRST OF ALL, THAT'S NOT A QUESTION. SECOND OF ALL, I DON'T FOLLOW."
"You're in charge of this place!" Eryu exclaimed. "You should know what's in it!"
"I WOULD SAY I KNOW THIS FACILITY FAIRLY WELL, YES."
"But you didn't know the secret compartment was there," Eryu countered. "There's no way you made it yourself, so who did?"
"YOU'RE NOT AT LIBERTY TO KNOW THAT, I'M AFRAID. NOW, IF YOU'D KINDLY STEP AWAY FROM THE DRAWER FOR A MOMENT, I WILL CLEAR IT OUT TO REMOVE SOME OF THE UNWANTED ITEMS INSIDE."
"Why? So you can cover for your fuckup?" Kimi asked almost tauntingly.
The Droid's stance shifted a bit, as if it itself was upset with her. "THIS IS NO TIME FOR BACK-TALK, KIMI. I'M SERIOUS ABOUT THIS. NAOKO, YORI, IF YOU WOULD KINDLY STEP AWAY FROM THE DRAWER."
Naoko and Yori exchanged worried glances, but seemed to be in agreement not to challenge IMONO at this particular juncture. They did as instructed, letting the Droid walk up to the drawer and take from it some of the items inside, including the photo.
"GOOD. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR COOPERATING. NOW, I SHOULD BE TAKING THIS TO BE STORED AWAY ON THE SIXTH FLOOR. THEN, THIS DROID WILL RETURN TO GUARDING THE OFF-LIMITS ROOM."
"Hang on," Eryu said, "I have more questions. What the hell is up with this place?"
"THAT'S A VERY BROAD QUESTION, YOU KNOW."
"I'm talking about this whole facility," Eryu replied. "You still haven't told us much about it."
"I HAVE NOT. IF YOU WISH TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS FACILITY, I'M AFRAID I MUST DECLINE TO SPEAK ON IT FURTHER."
"At least tell us why this room even exists," Eryu requested exasperatedly. "I don't think we have any use for a laboratory full of weird chemicals."
"PERHAPS YOU DON'T, BUT I DO. THIS IS WHERE I CREATED THE LITA-22 THAT I USED ON ALL OF YOU SOME TIME AGO."
"We figured as much," Yori said. "Do you plan on using this room any further? Because if so, that might be difficult, considering the fact that we have access to it as well, now."
"THAT IS A FAIR POINT. I WILL HAVE TO MAKE USE OF THIS ROOM WHILE YOU ALL ARE AWAY. PERHAPS DURING NIGHTTIME. IT IS A DIFFICULT DEVELOPMENT, CERTAINLY, BUT ONE THAT CAN BE OVERCOME WITH SOME PRIOR PLANNING. IN ANY CASE, I ONLY HOPE YOU ALL WILL STAY ON YOUR BEST BEHAVIOR AS I DO MY IMPORTANT WORK WITHIN THIS FACILITY."
"Important work such as…?" Kimi asked rhetorically.
"WELL, AT THE MOMENT, BANKEI IS STILL WITHIN THE OFF-LIMITS ROOM. I WILL NOTIFY YOU WHEN SHE IS READY TO BE RELEASED. UNTIL THEN, IT IS TIME TO BRING THIS DISCUSSION TO A CLOSE. I JUST REQUEST THAT YOU PLEASE PUT THIS QUARREL OUT OF YOUR MINDS. FAREWELL."
Without saying another word, the Droid, items in tow, went back out the double doors of the room, and out of sight. Naoko looked at the others, and he could tell by their expressions that they were in agreement that what they had found wasn't something they could just drop. They'd have to talk about what just happened, whether IMONO wanted them to or not. Perhaps Hoshi's parting gift would be able to come in handy.
A/N: As hinted at by this chapter, this is going to be a bit of an interesting arc. I say this because, just as a heads up, there is indeed going to be more talk of underage drinking from here, and don't be surprised if there's a bit more in the way of explicit language than a lot of the story thus far. Just a fair warning going into this.