>"It is not that I have any confidence we could have succeeded in stopping her, but that - for a moment - I thought something good might have come of allowing it. You heard Suwako scream at me to shoot her, too."
>"And Rose doesn't seem to have any serious injuries, at least. Though we're all battered, of course."
>"I saw what was happening to Patchouli, too." Reisen says. "That could have happened to Sanae, too."
>"We're all alive." Reisen repeats, this time the words bringing a small smile to her face. "That sounds good. We're all alive."
>Starting to open? As in, someone appears to be coming out? Who?
>That question is answered a second after you think it, and for a moment, you swear that it is Patchouli herself who comes out of the house. But a closer look shows the differences. This woman is taller than Patchy, wears a pair of red-rimmed glasses, and her hair, a shade darker than your friends, is a bit shoter, and tied into twintails, a look you've never seen Patchy wear. She looks so much like Patchy that she has to be a relative of hers. You'd guess older sister, but Patchy never mentioned a sister before. She even has the same studious look to her face, but this woman's also shows a level of habitual compassion that Patchouli lacks as well.