Rin and Mille
The hallway the girls stood in came off more intimidating than it should have. Before them was what seemed to be a big, empty open space that was sparsely yet tastefully decorated, with the door to the mystery magus's apartment at the end of it. But both girls knew full well that the hall was far from mostly empty...
Mille touched her forehead with her finger and drew the invisible outline of a rune before stepping forward. She took in a ragged breath, a drop of moisture that was most definitely not sea water making its way down her forehead.
"Are you okay?" asked Rin.
"I'm fine," Mille replied, "just focused a bit too much prana into it." She looked back at Rin and gave her a pointed glance. "I can take care of myself, you know."
"I know, I know. Just don't go wiping yourself out before we've even hardly done anything." Rin tilted her head slightly. "Is that the detection spell you were telling me on the elevator?"
Mille nodded before turning back towards the door. "Yeah. I can see all their bounded fields now. Looks like they have a fair few. Though I think we should be able to disable them. Follow me."
The redhead took a deep breath before heading forward, not bothering to wait for Rin to follow suit. ...and quickly found herself careening towards the first two of the barriers, the rug having proven both more thick and underfoot than she had dared realized.
She first felt a surge of prana, no doubt some sort of alert to the mystery magus, before finding a good portion of her torso encased in ice. She shivered a bit before turning her head towards Rin, who was already heading towards her.
"D-don't w-worry about me, s-start w-w-working on the others! I-I-I'll unthaw my-s-self!"
Rin put her hands up and stepped away. "If you say so." She looked down at Mille with a sly grin. "Though I have no idea how you're keeping such a cool head when your plans have just been put on ice."
Garrison glowered in Rin's general direction. "You're lucky I have to focus on getting myself free so I can help you with the remaining fields. By the way, the next one is about a foot in front of me."
Rin adopted a bit more serious expression and nodded, making her way forward. Mille made a gesture that resembled the fire rune in the air, creating a surge of heat that began to melt the ice away. Another ragged breath coursed through her as she looked up at her raven-haired partner, who to her horror seemed to have suffered a similar fate of tripping her own shoe and was stumbling forward.
"Wait, Tohsaka, you're getting too close!"
Rin's left arm barely crossed the threshold. She braced herself for whatever trap came next, but... nothing happened. There was a surge of prana that simply dissipated.
She blinked, and turned to look at Mille, who looked similarly bewildered. A flash of understanding passed between them. Rin stepped forward, not stopping until she reached the door. Each field vanished in succession like the last one Rin touched had done, with Rin safely touching the door knob.
Mille, now on her feet and dripping water again, looked straight at Rin, frowning. "They just... dissipated. D-did you have some sort of anti-magic spell cast?"
Rin shook her head. "No, not at all." She looked back at the now trap free hallway. "There's only one logical explanation for this." She looked down at her left arm. "They must have reacted to my crest. Whoever this magus is? They most definitely are Tohsaka."
Mille didn't say a word. Rin turned and gingerly opened the door, which was unlocked. Either it had unlocked with the vanishing of the bounded fields, or the magus hadn't even bothered to lock it. Inside, the room had a slightly more modern edge to the decor, likely from being pre-furnished. There was a TV and a remote, both of which seemed to have collected a bit of dust. With care, Rin made her way further inside, and noticed there was a pair of doors. Gingerly, she walked over and opened the one closest to her.
All the confirmation she needed was right there. Gem fragments, burn marks, the signs of old magic circles faded away, sparsely furnished with more old fashioned, sturdier furniture, papers spread almost haphazardly over a wooden desk off in the corner. There was now no doubt whatsoever- a magus lived here, and the gem fragments indicated that this man was indeed a Tohsaka.
"So what now Tohsaka? I don't see anything here that indicates that he caused the rift, but we can't be for sure."
Rin nearly jumped at the sound of the voice behind her. She couldn't hide the hint of irritation as she turned to face her shorter companion. "You have a one track mind, don't you?"
There was hardly a reaction. Not even a hint of indignance, just a simple look of acknowledgement as if Mille didn't find this to be a negative trait in the slightest.
Rin sighed. "We'll wait here, ask him what he knows. Even if he's not connected to the appearance of the rifts, he might know something."
Besides, Rin added mentally,
since this man is most definitely a Tohsaka... I have a few other questions for him as well.