*
Bad news, one of her juniors had gone missing. Did any of the other park goers go missing as well? How was this possible?
Sariel could only conclude that when the event deactivated due to The Observer's defeat, Dina didn't come back. She thrusted out her radar, raising her detection range to its maximum. Sending out wave after wave of magical particles. No matter how far Dina ran, she couldn't escape the entire park in the brief period Sariel wasn't watching her. What did this mean? Was it magic? Did The Observer take her away?
That's impossible. It could barely dedicate all its processing power to battle, it was no more intelligent than a wild animal thrashing about. Attack and defence was all it could muster even with its malleable eldritch energy. That leaves her with the fact that someone used The Observer as a decoy, the best time to kidnap Dina would be when Sariel and The Observer were trapped in their Oblivion Magias. After all, it was a spacial temporal isolation technique, only by cutting off any connection to reality can skills manifest at their maximum potential.
The insides of an Oblivion Magia were like a vacuum of irreality, an empty canvas upon which the fiber of the universe resides over. A blank slate where fantasy and the sublime manifest without resistance. If anything were to occur, then that would be the best pocket of time. Aura... Did she see anything? She was on the outside, but then... When the event occurred, all normal citizens were also hidden away in the normal dimension.
From our perspective, when the world turned black and white, everyone who wasn't a magical girl also disappeared into thin air. Naturally, if something occurred to Dina during the event, it wouldn't be observable by either of us no matter where we stood. Then, did she get spirited away right as the event ended? That's what my senses told me... The cognition blocking temporarily caused me to forget Dina's existence after the event, that's why I adamantly felt like I was missing something. As if something was being stolen from me right under my nose.
Cognition blocking, spiriting away... Was it done by a higher power? Sariel clearly couldn't deal with this on her own, not without making herself the bait.
"Aura... Have you noticed..." (Sariel)
"... Where... Where is Dina?" (Aura)
Her voice sounded suppressed, all the life sapped out of it. She brought her food down to the table, Pepper had already begun eating since she got her food first. It didn't seem like she could hear us, as long as the topic mentioned Dina. She continued to eat as if we weren't talking at all. The cognition blocking on non magical girls are almost permanent, Sariel wasn't sure if breaking it would be the right move, Pepper might start freaking out.
How would she break it, you might ask? Probably a douse of magic energy would be enough, just like radar, it was a generic technique any magical girl could learn. Pinpointing the curse and smashing it with raw magical energy, it was primitive but efficient. It wasn't like ancient times when curses needed to be treated methodically like chronic illnesses. The sheer density of a magical girl's magic will shatter any curse like paper mache.
"I'm afraid, I don't know. This isn't something I've dealt with before. See even pepper can't hear us." (Sariel)
"That's weird... It's scary." (Aura)
She truly was afraid from the lack of information. There's nothing Sariel can do, there's no traces of the crime scene nor was there any clue. The only thing she could afford was to look for Eterna and ask for answers. It's been a while since she felt this helpless, if possible she never wanted to embrace this feeling ever again. It's the very reason why she wouldn't let up on her training, but even strength couldn't help her solve mysteries.
"I have a feeling something's missing. The two of you wouldn't happen to know what it is, would you?" (Pepper)
She wasn't any intimidating in particular, she spoke softly with a casual tone similar to asking what they wanted to eat for dinner that day. Even so, their hearts sunk for a short moment. At least until Sariel spoke up.
"N-no. I don't think have the faintest idea. Do you remember missing anything? I think we did every ride in this park, right?" (Sariel)
She couldn't distinguish if it was her own composure or her shamelessness that meted out this answer. The arid afternoon air tickled the skin on her neck as it gently caressed her jaw, flowing past her into the unknown.
"Are you sure, senpai? Don't you remember saving that one special ride? The exclusive one that's hard to get in line for?" (Aura)
"Well, yeah. But it's hard to get in remember? There's too many processes like winning a prize at the arcade section and whatnot. We couldn't possibly do that today, so it was rule out from the start!" (Sariel)
She successfully juggled it. It wasn't an impressive skill in particular, but if it's experience of avoiding the supernatural in conversational topics, she had it in spades. It wasn't even enough to make her blink. Encountering The Invader with Arin and Lastia had increased her OPSEC capabilities. Anyone would argue that it's an excessive skill a high school girl shouldn't have, but it was inevitable all the same.
The Invader was the hardest enemy yet, and even after its defeat it had controlled fate itself to bring about mutual destruction with its adversaries. It was no coincidence that Vinia evolved and stepped up to fulfill the final Heavenly King's vacancy when The Invader died. She could still feel its effects today... It took both Arin and Lastia away. At the end of it all, she wanted to save those two who were most precious to her.
"Alright girls, let's call it a day. I'm pooped after everything we did today." (Pepper)
Is the cognitive blocking causing fatigue? Her mind's processes are likely being curbed from making neuro connections, it's like running at a wall, but she can't see the wall and she keeps forgetting that she ran. Like having too many processes in the background, slowing down your computer without noticing.
"Alright, shall we head off?" (Sariel)
"I'll clear the trays on the way." (Aura)
"Thanks." (Pepper)
Her complexion seemed a little pale. Thankfully they weren't ending things early, she needed the rest.
"Aura, see her home. Make sure she gets back safe." (Sariel)
"Alright." (Aura)
She was a good and smart junior, quickly picking up on her friend feeling under the weather. It wasn't related to modern diseases but the supernatural, so if a medical practitioner saw her it might have been troublesome.