damned_institute | Night 63: Road to/from Doyleton

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Night 63: Road to/from Doyleton

[From here.]

But being outside was probably just as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than it was being trapped inside the bus with that nurse.

Besides the many other deformed nurses that were roaming around here, Zero caught sight of numerous forms flying overhead, casting large shadows on the ground as they passed by. They looked like...eagles. But deformed and horrific-looking, just like the nurses. At first, they seemed content to simply circle overhead, screeching, like vultures swarming above a carcass. But then many of them suddenly swooped down and headed straight for some of the prisoners running in the street.

Kind of like the one flying at Zero right now.

"Kh--!" The once-Reploid barely managed to dodge the monster as it dived for him by falling to the ground and rolling back onto his feet. The bird flew upwards again, slowly flapping its wings, then circled around as if to try again, another eagle joining it. To avoid them, Zero quickly moved out of the open, where he was obviously a target, and circled around one of the buses, keeping his back to it for cover. But he knew he wasn't going to be safe here...not when there were nurses on the ground and so many eagles above.

Not since the night he had become temporarily stronger had there been so much visible chaos... And if that one prisoner hadn't started a riot, this wouldn't be happening right now...!

As he stood contemplating the best route for escape, Zero glanced around quickly, searching the fleeing prisoners for anyone familiar or anyone who might need help. He was defenseless, so protecting someone else would only get him so far (and he certainly didn't want a repeat of two nights ago), but they all might have a better chance of survival if they grouped up...

[Leanne, Lana, and Harvey, WHERE YOU AT.]

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As Sora ran ahead, he wasn't surprised that the bird was flapping forward to meet him. It wasn't like someone his size running at anything was going to be intimidating unless he was armed, after all. He was basically presenting himself to be attacked, which he knew but which Tsubaki might not understand.

Right as the monster was clawing out with one of those silver talons, Sora heard someone calling for him to watch out. It disoriented him for a second because he knew he recognized that voice, but he wasn't sure where it was coming from.

The bird's talon reached him then, slicing shallowly through his chest, but right after that Tsubaki's weapon came forward, forcing the bird back. Before Sora was completely aware of what had happened, he felt his heart swell; there was a flash of light and then the Keyblade had appeared in his hand.

"Okay!" he said, ignoring the pain in his chest as he spun around to face Tsubaki. "Let's get out of here!" The man who had yelled out to him was around too, so Sora hoped he heard.

As quickly as he'd started for the bird, he wasn't able to reach before it got a hit in on the kid. Thankfully Tsubaki was able to keep her head about her better and kept Sora from getting ripped to pieces with the next moments. Whatever weapon she held proved enough to force the bird back Kurogane's way, closing the distance and granting him a much quicker attack than he'd anticipated.

Using Tsubaki's attack as a diversion, he reached the bird from behind and immediately swung the branch up, striking the sharp end through the base of its left wing and pulling back as hard as he was able. The Aquila shrieked at the strike and began flapping both wings furiously to remove the branch, all the while reaching its talons out to grasp Kurogane. The ninja dodged what he was able, letting the claws strike at the branch once or twice, but took some cuts in the process as he refused to let go.

So long as he held the branch caught in the Aquila's wing, there was time enough for the kids to get away, and what was more, he had the chance of grounding the thing if it thrashed enough to tear its wing apart. Both the kids' and his chances of escape were much higher without having an airborne adversary.

"Get going!" he ordered at the two, hearing Sora's own call to leave and hoping Tsubaki would follow suit. Kurogane knew he could keep this one from following after them for a least a few moments, long enough that they could take cover and maybe see to Sora's wound. He could handle himself afterwards.

Whoa! That’d been too close!

She didn’t know how bad the wound was, but it definitely seemed like the bird had made contact with Sora before he’d managed to arm himself. And now Kurogane was in the thick of things himself! As strong as the man was, she didn’t trust the injured monster not to get in one last shot--and she certainly didn’t trust either Sora or Kurogane to be fighting in their states.

Recalling her scythe, she gave a mental command for the chain to shorten so that it wouldn’t drag on the ground when she ran. And running was a high priority, no doubt about it. “You too, Kurogane-san! Let’s--” She broke off as a dark shape passed over her head, close enough that she was buffeted by the gust of wind it created. The smell of rotting flesh filled her nose, a stomach-turning reminder that there were more monsters waiting to take their downed companions’ places.

“Let’s go!” she finished, running for Sora. The woods to the side of the road was the closet hiding spot around, and it was the first place she thought to head to.

Sora got a good view of what the voice -- who he now realized was Kurogane, standing on the other side of the monster from them -- was doing, and he realized that the man was trying to give them an opening to run. Not about to throw that in Kurogane's face, Sora turned with Tsubaki and started to run for the woods. His chest was burning from the fresh cut and he placed his free hand to the wound as he ran.

It didn't take him long to reach the woods -- he was used to running around like this, after all -- and once Sora was pretty sure he was safe, he paused and leaned himself against the trunk of a tree, forcing himself to catch his breath.

"So much for our plans, huh?" he said between breaths as he glanced over at Tsubaki. At least they were both armed now, but he hoped that Kurogane was able to make his way over here too. If not, they were going to have to run out there and get him.

He had expected some protest from Tsubaki about him keeping up, but didn't have the ability to pay it any mind for having to deal with the beast. Whatever protests she had were short though as she and Sora left as ordered, running for the forest.

Once they were out of sight, he felt some relief for more than one reason. Not only were they safer from the birds, there wasn't any chance of either getting caught up in the cross fire. He could do as he needed now.

His feet dug hard into the group as he struggled to take more control over the branch and which way it went. For now he had the thing grounded, but he couldn't just let go and expect it wouldn't be able to fly again. If nothing else, he wanted at least one of them down for the night. With the bird's constant flailing, it wasn't until it raised its wings on an attempt to fly that Kurogane was able to do more than retain his footing.

"Like hell!" he snorted and, taking his chance, put all his weight into shoving the branch towards the bus. Balance lost under the shift, the Aquila's wings dropped back, claws scratching the ground for some friction. A talon dug into the concrete just before the rest of the hulking bird crashed against the bus side. Some windows shattered inwards as the bus itself rocked but didn't tip. And whether the bird was only stunned or worse didn't matter from then on. That was good enough.

Kurogane only needed a few moments to wretch the branch from the Aquila's wing and stake it through the feathers in both the middle and end. That was all he could manage before both wings started flapping again, and it was all he needed. One damaged wing would keep it from flying and away from them. He backed off quickly then, leaving the branch stuck in the tip of the Aquila's wing as he disappeared into the forest. He'd get another.

Tsubaki tried to keep an eye on all directions in case of more oncoming birds, an impossible task made that much harder when she kept shooting glances over her shoulder at Kurogane. Why wasn’t he coming yet? What was he planning to do now that he’d given the both of them time to escape?

Her heart was pounding. Gah! Why is this always happening!

Long stems of grass slapped at her legs as she pelted through the ditch and into the trees alongside Sora. The woods stood in dark and gloomy contrast to the moonlit road they’d left behind, but at least it was safe in the line of the trees they stopped in. She put her hand on a tree trunk, inhaled through her nose, and gave one last look behind her. Kurogane and the giant bird were out of sight now.

First priority, though, was the injured boy beside her. She stepped away from her tree and moved closer. Under normal circumstances, his comment deserved a smile, but it wasn’t an expression she could pull off with the cries of hunting birds filling the air. “At least we made it,” she said, eyes on his chest. “How bad is it? Let me see.”

At first, Sora had assumed that Kurogane was right on their heels, but it quickly became obvious that he hadn't followed them in the first place. He felt bad for leaving the man behind, but he'd wanted them to get to safety, hadn't he? Sora just hoped he was all right.

If he didn't show up in the next few minutes, then they'd run back out there in search for him. That was what Sora decided.

It wasn't much of surprise that Tsubaki was worrying over his wound, and Sora had to admit that it stung. At least it was distracting him from the fever, although Sora realized that wasn't exactly the best way to deal with his symptoms. He breathed heavily as he stared down at his chest. His shirt had been sliced through and now the blood was soaking into it. He was pretty sure some of it was dripping down toward his abdomen, too.

"It's not as bad as it looks," he insisted. "I didn't let it slice too deep." The problem was that the shallower cuts tended to bleed more. Sora held tight onto his Keyblade, crossing his fingers that it wouldn't vanish just because he was out of immediate danger.

In the darkness, the unfamiliar brush gave Kurogane more difficulty than he was accustomed to, if only for being out of practice. The Institute had little by way of thick trees save for the few out in the yards, and he'd been enclosed there for over a month now. He hadn't been able to practice navigating more than the same damn hallways over and over. Now he had to find the kids in an unfamiliar area with monster birds seeking them out while sliced up on most parts of his body.

For once, his night was starting to feel less like a chore and more like a challenge.

"Hell..." he huffed without finishing, knowing that he didn't have time or the ability to be thankful for the change-up. He'd wanted to break free from the monotony of never getting anything done at night, but not like this.

Out of practice though he was in the setting, he knew how to track and found the kids' path easily enough, stepping through the trampled grass and catching sight of some of the bent and snapped limbs from trees and bushes. Soon enough he spotted the two near a tree base.

"You all right?" he called up before reaching the two. He knew Sora had gotten clawed at, less so than himself, but he hadn't seen if Tsubaki had been hurt any. The night would be worse if all three of them were injured with what monsters would be catching the scent of their blood.

“We should try to stop the bleeding, anyway,” Tsubaki said. She wished she hadn’t ditched her jacket! The extra clothing would have come in handy when it came to making bandages; as it was, she only had her t-shirt and pants, and ripping those up wouldn’t exactly help.

Now would’ve been a perfect time to use the first aid kit she’d bought at the store--but that was gone. Gone along with the nurse who’d confiscated it in the first place.

“Do you have anything you could part with to make a bandage?” she continued, only turning her attention away from Sora’s wound long enough to ascertain the long-legged figure coming toward them through the brush to be Kurogane. Out of the three of them, Tsubaki expected Kurogane was the most capable of taking care of himself on his own, but she was still relieved to see he hadn’t let the monster get the best of him. “Fine!” she called. “Glad you made it.” The bruise she was going to have on her shoulder was minimal in comparison to the others’ injuries. “Now we should treat the worst of those cuts while we can.”

Something to make a bandage? Sora glanced down at himself, immediately taking note of his sweater which he'd tied around his waist some time ago. It had been too much to keep it on when he'd been in that packed bus with a fever, but that decision had turned out to be a good once, since it hadn't been sliced apart when the monster had attacked him.

Sora untied it and handed it over to Tsubaki, figuring that she could use that scythe to cut it into strips. At that point Kurogane showed up, and Sora immediately felt a weight off his shoulders when he saw him. The man looked like he'd taken a beating himself, which really didn't bode well for how the rest of the night would go.

"How about you?" he called back, moving a little closer to the man to try and get an idea of how injured he was. Kurogane was still standing, so it definitely could have been worse. Still, Sora knew that he'd gotten hurt trying to give them a clear part by which to run away, so he had to make it his business, even if he had his own injuries to think about.

If Tsubaki had gotten hurt, it wasn't anywhere visible, and with her claiming to be fine, there was no room to press her. She didn't sound to be lying, however. Sora didn't look too bad himself either, and Tsubaki was already seeing to his chest wound, so that was good.

Unfortunately that left Kurogane as the object of their concern.

He knew he'd taken most of the bird's attack, as the two could probably see, but he hadn't stopped to give himself a once over to know the damage. Pain was something he'd trained himself to ignore while in battle, but now that he was out of immediate danger, he knew at least one injury was going to hinder him. He had a gash to one shoulder, one on his leg and two shallow cuts at his side without counting any bruises that were undoubtedly forming, but the most pressing was the one he'd taken to his left arm. Shallow though it may have been, with his arm already inflamed from the rash, the added sting of torn flesh made ignoring the thing impossible.

"I'll survive," he eventually told the two as he worked himself to remove his jacket. Once off he took to wiping down what blood he could before pressing it over the arm wound. "We need to keep moving. One may not be able to fly any more, but that won't stop the rest from coming after us."

As much as she’d didn’t want to take away Sora’s outer layer, when he offered her his sweater she didn’t see much choice except to take it. “If you get cold later, tell me,” she said, crouching down and spreading the material over her knees. They would have to figure something out if either of their health started to take a turn. Since she was the only one who wasn’t sick, Tsubaki was the least concerned about herself, knowing the elements weren’t likely to affect her quite as much.

Somehow she’d also managed to come out relatively unscathed compared to the others, too. Sometimes she wished her luck would rub off on other people--Sora and Kurogane needed it more at the moment.

While Kurogane worked off his jacket, she started cutting the sweater into pieces, some long, some small. Once she had enough to fold into pads to cover the wounds and tie them in place, she gathered the cloth up and followed Sora over to where Kurogane stood. “Here, we’ll put this over the cut to help stop the bleeding and tie it off,” she said to Sora, handing him a square of what used to be his sweater. With practiced hands, she used a longer strip to fasten it under his shirt. “That should hold so long as you don’t do anything crazy…” Like run at any more bloodthirsty monsters.

Kurogane had the greater number of injuries, so she saved the rest of the makeshift bandages for him. “Now for you,” Tsubaki continued, rounding on the other man. “I’ll get your arm, and that cut on your leg.” And she hoped there would be no arguing about it. All the growing dark spots on his clothes--blood--told her he had more wounds than she had available bandages for, but she’d do the best she could.

That just left the obvious: getting out of the danger zone before the number of injuries increased.

“We should head toward the hospital. It’s the closest place we can go to.”

For some reason, Sora wasn't too surprised to find that Tsubaki made a good nurse. She took charge immediately, helping him with his chest wound first. He took the strip of cloth she offered him and pressed it against the wound, wincing as he added more force. He knew that as much as it hurt to push down, that pressure would stop the bleeding.

Once that was done, he lifted up his arms, giving Tsubaki the room she needed to tie the rest around him. It was a little bit awkward, but he wasn't in any position to complain about that. He felt his cheeks grow hotter as she drew close to him, and backed away as soon as she was done.

"Don't worry, I don't think I'm going to get cold," he said, shaking his head. Not with this fever that didn't seem to want to go away. The boy stood by as Tsubaki finished with Kurogane's wounds, and then raised an eyebrow when she suggested where they go next.

To the institute? It felt strange running back toward the very place they were trying to get away from, but Sora didn't have any plans for escape tonight. He couldn't go anywhere until he had Riku and Kairi at his side, after all. So after a moment of contemplation, he reluctantly agreed. "Okay. We should stick to the trees, though." If they got lucky, none of those birds would be able to get through to them.

If they'd been inside, in a room or even in a hallway where there were only so many directions danger could come from, the ninja would have shrugged off the offer of assistance in favor of moving onward. He knew how to handle his own injuries. Being outside however, and in an unfamiliar location had him choosing to let Tsubaki do what she would without any protest. She was stubborn, same as him, and getting frustrated at each other because he wouldn't let her help would only waste time and likely let the birds know their location.

With Tsubaki and Sora both agreeing to head back to the institute, Kurogane's thoughts went to what others were thinking. Most were probably thinking the same - that the institute offered some form of safety. And chances were that Landel was counting on that being the case.

"He set this up. That doctor," Kurogane stated through gritted teeth while Tsubaki did a better job than him of seeing to his injuries. His eyes wandering back towards the road as he added, "If we're heading for the Institute, be prepared for a trap. Both along the way and inside."

With everyone relatively patched up, Tsubaki felt a little less ill at ease. The first aid wasn’t much, but it was something. Some small piece of control.

“Yeah, staying under cover is safest,” she agreed. Kurogane was also right--or at least he wasn’t wrong. She didn’t want to start assigning blame for what had brought them to this moment, but the combination of the bus crash and the Head Doctor’s love of surprises had not worked in their favor. “He couldn’t have known one of the buses would crash like that, but…” A sigh left her. “Anyway, it seems like a lot of people have managed to get free of the buses. If they went for the trees like us, everyone should be all right to find their way back. We’re not too far away.”

She was speaking as someone who likely had the skills to navigate herself to shelter. All three of them were formidable in their own right, though not all groups were going to be so well-rounded as theirs.

“Let’s stick together, all right? With all these monsters around, we’re safer in numbers.”

It was true that they might be stumbling right into a trap, but from what Sora understood, there wasn't usually any way to avoid danger at Landel's. No matter what they did, they were going to get attacked or surprised in some way. It wasn't like the forest seemed much safer. Still, Kurogane seemed to have meant that as a warning rather than a protest, so their minds were all made up.

"Sticking together, right!" He nodded to Tsubaki, smiling at her as one more thanks before he started down through the brush toward the institute. While he didn't know if everyone had safely fled the buses, he hoped that was the case. He couldn't imagine how terrible it would be to get picked off while stuck out in the cold like this, and by one of those nasty birds no less.

He had wandered through forests and jungles in the past, so Sora was light on his feet as he wove through the trees. With the combination of the fever and his new injury, he had to admit that he was starting to feel woozy, but he tried his best not to focus on that. Every now and then he had to use his free hand to catch his balance on a tree trunk, but for the most part he was holding himself together.

Right, the crash hadn't been all Landel. Kurogane had been hoping to keep the idiotic oaf from mind and didn't comment on the matter again. They weren't heading back to the buses anyway.

He trusted what he'd seen of Tsubaki's skills enough to know that she could handle herself in the woods, however this was the first night he'd traveled with Sora. There was little he could go by on how the kid fought, but after that unarmed lunge at a bird, he couldn't say he wanted Sora leading their trek back. That smile against the threat of danger hadn't helped any either. "Take it east, kid," he warned, keeping pace easily for the length of his strides, "We'll get there."

And they probably wouldn't like the entrance any better. Since there was that strong possibility of a trap, Kurogane kept his eyes out for another branch that could become a decent enough weapon should things go bad.

That night of all nights, Tsubaki’s focus needed to be razor sharp. Doubtlessly, there were other prisoners out there who required help, but right then she had two people she considered friends in need of her support. They were both sick, and no matter how one looked at it, she had to make sure they made it out of danger okay.

Hence why she quickly moved to the perimeter to keep an eye out for threats. Her human body wasn’t half as effective as a weapon/meister team working together, but she still had the skills to silence her movements until she was nearly indiscernible from the shadows. But she never wandered too far away. For Sora and Kurogane’s sake as well as for her own, she didn’t want to get separated and have some kind of forest dweller attack.

At one point a felled tree rose up in her path; she hopped over the trunk, keeping close to the other two. “Hey, so you mind if I ask why you had to run at the monster to make your weapon appear?” she asked Sora in a low tone.

He still had his blade in his hand, but if he needed to re-summon it down the line, tussling with a creature bare-handed hardly seemed like a good idea.

Sora didn't really have any doubt that the three of them would be able to make it back. They'd already handled the worst part of this whole mess, which meant that they only needed to focus on keeping their guard up until they reached the front doors. It might be tough getting from where the trees stopped to the building's entrance, but this was really nothing compared to some of the danger he'd been in before.

When they reached a tree that had fallen over, Sora tried to skirt around it, not wanting to aggravate his wound when Tsubaki had taken such care to wrap it up. Tsubaki managed to jump up without any trouble at all, but she also hadn't sustained any injures.

Her question earned a sigh from him, because it wasn't something he liked explaining. If Sora had had any say in it, he wouldn't have had to take such reckless actions just to bring out his weapon, but there wasn't much he could do about it. "It's just how my Keyblade works here. If I want it to come to me, I have to put myself in the line of some sort of danger first." It was hard to do that without getting injured in the process, unfortunately.

With Tsubaki watching the perimeter and Sora giving some defense for why he'd gone head first at the bird, Kurogane did not feel as much of a need to worry over the latter. Because of that he was able to divide his attention less between finding a weapon and keeping an eye out for any threats. The area around them wasn't the only place an attack could come from. They knew what was above, and there was no telling what sort of monsters could potentially be below foot.

Jumping the fallen tree, Kurogane finally found what he was looking for, and in a better position than the one he'd gotten before. One of the branches on the downed tree looked good enough, and was snapped partially off already which made getting it free by way of a kick all the easier.

"And you can summon something as well..." Kurogane followed up on Tsubaki's question, watching her and remembering how the chained blade had come from her hair.

It was good that the two could get their own weapons by magic or whatever it was. He didn't have that kind of ability, but he was decent without a weapon. Normally, at least.

“So that‘s what you meant before, when we were with Hokuto-san…” replied Tsubaki. The way their abilities were repressed made everything harder than it should’ve been. Whatever a Keyblade was or meant to do, it sounded special, though. Special enough that it was probably worth the risk to put himself in danger in order to make it appear.

As unfair as the restrictions were, that was the Institute in a nutshell. Saying anything about it would only be pointing out the obvious, so she let the thought lapse and focused on her footsteps, at least until Kurogane turned the question around on her.

That’s right, we haven’t fought together much before, have we? She looked down at the scythe still in her hand. Like Sora, she didn’t want to send it away if it meant expending energy to morph her body again later.

“Yes, more or less… But it stays attached to me because I am the weapon. It’s a bit like an extra appendage.”

Right, there had been that time with Hokuto, hadn't there? Sora hadn't had the time to fully explain back then, but thinking back just reminded him of how many people had vanished since he'd first arrived here. It was such a large number that he didn't even want to start counting.

While both he and Tsubaki were taken care of when it came to weapons, Kurogane had to work a little harder for them, but at least there was no lack of branches here. Not that those were the best choices for a weapon, but when they'd been stranded out in the forest what else could they do?

He glanced over at Tsubaki when she explained herself, not quite understanding. Which meant it was his turn to ask something. "You're the weapon? What's that mean?"

Though as they talked, Sora realized they were reaching the end of the trees. Between them and the building was a large open space where the buses usually parked, and tons of those birds were circling around overhead. He sighed and looked back at the others. "We're going to have to run from here."

Kurogane was close to asking the same question when Sora beat him to it. He had been to enough places that his belief wasn't in question over her claim, but he was a little curious. Being a weapon was a lot different from having or being able to summon one. Likely more convenient too.

With the trees thinning, their cover was soon gone, however the Institute was in view by that point. As were more of those damn birds. Sora was right that running was the best option, even with the three of them now armed. Just so long as they got inside without there being something else in the way a straight dash should do it.

He looked between the two, noting that he'd been the only one to take any injuries to his legs. Running from here was sure to hurt like hell, but he could handle it for that long. Sora would be fine, and unless Tsubaki was trying to hide something, she should manage it as well. Nodding, he added, "Don't stop until you're in."

_{[WOW, sorry this took so long, guys. :(]}

Mmm… how was a good way to put it without making a big fuss over it? Tsubaki trusted the both of them to have the information, but for worlds that didn’t have demon weapons, trying to explain their existence was a bit more difficult than talking about commonplace things.

“Um, where I’m from there’s a type of people called demon weapons. I don’t know if you have something familiar? Demon weapons like me can look human, but we have another form that we can take--a weapon form. And then people use us to fight with. The scythe is sort of what I would look like if I could transform all the way, but I haven’t been able to while I’ve been here.”

Well, that wasn’t strictly true--she’d been able to use her smoke bomb mode the night everyone’s powers had returned. With or without a meister, being able to access her transformations would have made their journey through the woods much easier. But unfortunately, she was stuck as a human, and her human body could only do so much to help.

At the very least, she could cover Sora and Kurogane until they were inside the building.

Tsubaki crept closer to the treeline alongside them, keeping to the back. “You two first. I’ll take up the rear.” As far as she was concerned, until Sora and Kurogane were back at full strength, she was the best one for the job.

Demon weapons? It was the first time that Sora had heard such a thing, and he considered himself pretty well-traveled. It just went to show that even with all of the worlds he'd seen, there was still more stuff out there that he hadn't learned about yet. He had a hard time picturing Tsubaki as a weapon that someone else was throwing around in a battle, but...

At this point, he was pretty much ready to believe anything. He couldn't really talk, seeing how he'd turned into a lion and a merman in the past.

While he would have liked to ask more questions, now clearly wasn't the time, as they'd already caught the attention of one of those birds. Its cry pierced through the air, alerting others to the fact that there was fresh prey for the taking.

Not willing to argue with Tsubaki about formations right now, Sora took off, forcing his ill, injured body forward despite its protests. If there was one thing Sora had done plenty of since leaving the islands, it was running. He found that it was hard to breathe and each step he took made his chest burn with pain, but Kurogane was right -- there was no way they could stop until they'd made it inside.

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Night 63: Road to/from Doyleton

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/shows off why she doesn't NPC monsters...

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