"...I wonder what happens if we take pictures of them. Since we're not, like, outside. Is it gonna look like the sidewalk or..." He pulls his phone out and snaps a pic.

Haru notices the string changing color and giggles.

The phone believes it has taken a picture of a completely black dark location with nothing in it.

"Bummer. Alright then I guess we go."

"Yeah."

The flying saucers prove annoying to deal with in time stop because they're doing some kind of spatial distortion or size-changing behavior where they start too small to see and accelerate toward the intruders, or grow, or both, and get to their full size, so it'll take frequent stops and starts if they want to kill the flying saucers, but eventually they can find the witch in the heart of the barrier's galaxy. It's... a black hole, and not fazed by bullets or arrows, but it's at least a pretty discount black hole and doesn't pull them in more than a slight aesthetic amount, and it does go down to magic blasts.

"Did this witch eat Azumaya? It didn't look like it'd have given him trouble. He might've just run off."

"It's not like they're not all making it pretty obvious that they'd like to run off, certainly, though I wouldn't've guessed he'd be the first one. Maybe it was some other witch, or he just got really unlucky and a flying saucer clonked him right in the pauldron with his gem on it."

"You know, I'm not sure I'm totally sold on this whole 'be a magical rock' thing. Say what you will about living in a brain, skulls are a lot more durable than crystals, and more to the point I have a lot more ingrained instincts about protecting my head than my arm or something. I guess that's one advantage of my having moved my gem here," he says, tapping his choker.

"I don't actually know that skulls are more durable," Haru says, touching his own gem, which at Yutaka's insistence he's moved to a brooch again. "The saucers could certainly take your head off if they hit you at full speed and full size, and if you lived in your head that'd be game over."

"I guess but that's true of anywhere... I think they'd be better at taking my arm off than my head?"

"Yeah, but taking your arm off isn't necessarily a lose condition if it's not crushed, whereas if you live in your brain severing your head is it."

"Okay, point. I still think the instincts thing is important, though."

"I'm not sure it is but maybe that's because all my instincts are 'don't run, walk sedately while staring at the floor', so."

"That's not true, I've seen you dodge things coming at you!"

"If I were doing that on instinct I'd fall on the floor every time! My instincts are worthless because they were trained on having dyspraxia for seventeen years!"

"I suppose that's true. Anyway, let's try to dowse for witches and/or Azumaya some more I guess? Probably not gonna get anywhere but..."

"Seeds are seeds, yeah." Dowse dowse. They find a familiar, one of the cherry blossom witch momonga, but it dies to an arrow without fanfare, and then they come up empty.

"I'll throw money at it and find out who he is and then we can break into his house and see if he's rapidly relocated or something."

"I guess there's a finite number of teenage boys named Azumaya but it can't be small and it could be a fake name."

"And then I can look through the pictures."

"It might work. I'm just not terribly optimistic. Hopefully everyone believes that you're concerned for his welfare and not tracking him down for draft dodging."

"Dunno how convincing that'll be, given the givens, but yeah."

did you know something

are you okay? hunkered down?

you said I oughtn't tell you...

No. He backspaces that and just sends a

yeah

"We are not in point of fact hunkered down," Haru says, shooting at another vanguard gingerbread man.

"There's not much point in telling the truth right now."