As you make your way over to Asunaro – you almost feel bad about putting this big of a responsibility on the shoulders of the Saints, given their own half-strength compared to Homura's team – you figure you can kill two birds with one stone and get your phone calls to the Aozakis taken care of. Today is Sunday, and Aoko said that her sister would be back from her business today, so you're hoping to catch Touko in the act so you can finally negotiate the transfer of Kim into her custody and get on with it. There's countless people whose lives are riding on the ability of Aozaki Touko to return their bodies and minds to normal after Kim's brutal experimentation, and the fact that she's been gone as long as she has is really trying your patience.
That's your first mission before reaching out to the Saints today: if Aozaki is back from her business, then you'll need to negotiate the transfer of Kim – and possibly Magnusson, if you can persuade her into offering up something of equal value to the blond man and his runes – and finally get the little rat bastard out of the Saints' hands before he can cause them any problems. Otherwise, you'll have to figure something else out. You don't really want to think about what might happen if Aozaki isn't back yet, especially because you're banking on her technical knowledge to restore Kim's victims to normal, and having her disappear on you or revoking her offer of assistance after being forced to renege on your own arrangements in her absence, would be one of the worst outcomes of this whole mess. So when you call the number of Aozaki's workshop, you're disheartened when you hear the voice of her sister announcing "Garan no Dou prosthetics, how can we help you?" because it means you're going to have to start thinking about worst-case scenarios. "Hello?"
"Sorry," you say. "It's just 'Mister Parent' again. I was hoping your sister might have been back by now, since it's Sunday, but if she's not around-"
"I really am sorry," Aoko responds. "I was hoping sister would be back by now, too. But, it is a rather long flight back to Tokyo from London. Maybe she's just been held up for some reason."
"No, that's fine." It really isn't fine. It wasn't fine when you heard that Aozaki had vanished those few days ago, but you'd been willing to wait until today because you'd been assured that she'd be back by now. But if she's not, you really can't afford to wait on those two any longer. You have to do something about them before they have a chance to escape and wreak havoc again. "I'll just… I'll just have to start thinking about other arrangements, then, if your sister still isn't back."
Aoko "Hm"s on the other end of the line. "I'm sorry, then," she says. "I'll have to let my sister know that plans have changed when-" "When what plans have changed, Aoko?" Now that is a promising voice you hear interruption Aoko. "Sister? 'Mister Parent' was just on the phone with me. He said he's going to have to change the plans he made with you since-" "Like hell he is." You hear a scuffle coming from the other end of the line, and you just barely hear "Now get the hell out of my workshop before you break something. Again," before Aozaki Touko takes over. "Listen here, Mister Parent: You so much as think about changing our arrangements, especially if it means I don't get that bastard Kim, then you can forget about getting these corpses back that you've had Shiki shuttle in. You got that? I will come to your city myself if I think you're hiding Kim from me."
You're just glad enough for Aozaki to be back that you won't even dwell on the threats she's making. Sure, in any other circumstance, her threats towards your city and the victims currently in her care would be cause for concern, but with her back, "That won't be necessary, seeing as you actually managed to come back on time," you say. "How was London?"
"Rainy and miserable," Aozaki says. "As to be expected. But at least Agra's still in business." You feel a faint smile form on your lips, remembering fondly the hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant Rin once took you to. You've never eaten a better chicken tikka than the one you had there, so many years ago. "Kind of pissed at this whole thing, but that can be something for Kim to worry about."
"You got in trouble with the Association because of him stealing your research?"
"No, but once I've got my paws on him I intend to take my anger over this mishap out on him," Aozaki says. "So, how is the little bastard, anyway? Still running around like he owns your city?"
"That's the good part, actually. We got him." You're damn proud of that fact, too, in spite of what it ultimately cost Homura to accomplish. You should call Homura when you're done here to make sure she's doing okay, especially after last night. "Which brings me to the reason I'm calling. Now that you're back, how soon can you be ready to have the Ryougis transport him to you; and how soon can you start work on reconstituting his victims?"
"How soon can you get him to me?" Aozaki asks. "Because the sooner I have that bastard in my grip the better off I'll be."
"Well, I'd like to have him out of our hands as soon as possible. I've heard from Homura that there's already one Enforcer scouting us out from a distance, so no telling when the rest of Franziska's goons might show up." You hold your breath, and ask Aozaki "Since you were in London, did you have any time to see where Rin was at with regards to holding off Franziska?"
"Do you know how long a flight from London to Tokyo is?" Aozaki asks. "When I saw Tohsaka yesterday, everything seemed to be stalled out pretty well, at least for you lot. But a lot can change in just one day, so if the situation's changed, I wouldn't be able to tell you. Hasn't she called you? Wouldn't you have heard something from her first if anything had changed, or if their timetable had been moved up?"
"I wouldn't know," you respond. "That's why I asked." But, if you've heard nothing from Rin, and Aozaki says that things back in London are stalled, then you'll take that as a positive sign. "Now then… I've got some more good news, if you're interested: We have Magnusson, too. We never really bothered to make long-term plans for him, but if you're interested, I could include him as a package deal along with Kim, if you thought his collection of runes might be of interest to you." Of course, "We'll need something of value equal to a mage of his calibre, though, but I'm sure we could talk about knocking a few zeroes off that price you quoted me before."
"Or something else," Aozaki says. "Because materials to fix up or fabricate the bodies you'll need won't come cheap, and ever since Shiki and Mikiya retired it's been hard keeping business running." Aozaki lists off all the reasons why that would be the case, ranging from her borderline-Sealing Designation status, her inability to find help good enough to replace what they did for her, the rising cost of living making it harder for a small do-anything shop like hers to remain competitive while also paying her employees a fair wage – that one, you can relate to, because you remember Kiritsugu's frequent grumbling about how the economy wasn't what it used to be after the bubble burst; a complaint Minako has made herself about growing up and raising a child in the post-bubble nineties – "On top of which, since I've mostly switched over to being a prosthetics specialist, it's hard to build new clients, and even harder to milk the ones I have. Can't believe I'm saying this, but it feels like taking advantage of someone, you know? Holding their limb hostage if they can't pay up. Anyway, there's only so much I'd be willing to knock the price down by, just on account of how much materials and labour are costing. But if there's some other way I could cover the cost of taking Magnusson's runes off your hands?"
"If you're implying what I think you are," you say, not sounding enthused about the offer in the slightest, "You should know that I'm happily married." Minako is also ten times the woman Aozkai will ever be, but you're not going to insult your potential business partner over what she must imagine is another specialty of hers. "If you can't think of anything else, I suppose we'll table the matter of Magnusson and his runes for now."
"But I want them~" Aozaki whines. "Come on, Mister Parent, cut me some slack here, would you? Or at least, don't do anything rash with his body before I've thought of something I could offer you for it."
Aozaki has a keen sixth sense. Even if you didn't say anything, killing Magnusson was always on the table, as was scraping his magic crest to either ransom back to his family or, if it were possible, grafting his crest onto someone from your team. Of course you're aware of the risks, but you figure that, being magical girls with self-repairing bodies, access to the Old Runes themselves, as well as magic circuits that are stored outside of their bodies, in the event that something goes wrong someone like Homura or Oriko would be much better-suited to taking the rejection than, say, Hitomi would if she tried.
Which does raise the question of who you should consider. With her proximity to Lancer and her own improved healing abilities courtesy of Uruz, Oriko seems like she'd be the natural best choice, but Homura has already asked so much of Oriko, and you'd hate to put even more on her, especially something so dangerous. You'd be terrified of asking Homura or Kirika to take on something so dangerous. Tomoe is in bad enough shape as it is without taxing her magic circuits even more from a potential rejection, and Kyouko is in bad shape mentally and putting something like this on her would just foul her chances of recovery even further.
Really, it has every chance of being a terrible decision, which is why you're not going to go ahead with anything until you've had a chance to get the entire team together and can talk over the potential risks involved; and that's only if Aozaki can't think of anything to offer you in exchange for Magnusson; and speaking of Magnusson… "All right," you say. "I promise not to do anything rash with Magnusson's body before you've had a chance to think of something. But just know: We can't hold him forever." You can't expect the Saints to hold him forever. "We might decide to do something non-drastic with him before then. You should still be able to pray whatever rune knowledge he has out of him no matter what we do."
[ ] Do you have anything else you need to address with Aozaki?
[ ] What arrangements do you need to make in order to move things along
-[ ] With the Saints?
-[ ] With Mikiya and the Ryougis?
-[ ] Are there any arrangements you need to make closer to home?
[ ] What arrangements do you want to make regarding Magnusson?
-[ ] Keep him confined with the Saints
-[ ] Arrange for his transport along with Kim
-[ ] Find somewhere secure to keep him closer to home
[ ] What do you say to Homura when you call her?
[ ] Is there anything else you've missed?
[ ] Other (write-in)
