"Ah?" Tomoko paused for a moment, before taking a deep breath.

"The vase is designed to target what it deems... 'non-valuable' sources of mana," she explained, "And it doesn't even target humans unless specifically told to. I don't think it can drain spells without any kind of alteration. In any case, hopefully my daughter can help you find any evidence there might be. She placed several of the latest spells as part of her training."

Toshiko folded her arms, eyebrow raised.

"Is there some reason you can't show us yourself?" she asked. That, after all, was really rather suspicious. Was there a particular reason that Tomoko couldn't do it herself, or...?

".. Oh, my, forgive me," replied the black-haired woman hastily, "I've been... today has been rather hectic and, er... I've been reestablishing a barrier spell placed on this room. None of the books were taken, but it was... It's strange, this isn't even close to the room the vase was stored in."

How... strange. That was certainly unusual. If what Tomoko said was true, this room was hardly a good entry point for a thief. And yet the barrier had been disabled?

"Do you know how it was disabled?" Toshiko queried.

"Well, one of the sigils was just... gone," the black-haired woman replied, "I can show you if you like, but I'd like you to check out the site of the theft first. Yuuno!"

Well, it seemed that the daughter would be there soon regardless.

[url=http://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=1738648]The fashion sense of the girl who proceeded to enter the room shortly after was rather unusual, though it still fell under the realm of gothic lolita. She looked, perhaps, like she was in her early teens.[/url]

"Sure sure," she said, waving her hand, "This is... Ando-san aaaaand..."

She trailed off for a few moments, staring at Ryuuko. Toshiko decided to let her pupil introduce herself, this time.