Day 56: Bus 1

[scintillatingly]

Claire (the second) had turned out to be a nice and interesting person. Sora wished that he'd had some more time to chat with her, but the failing light and the urging from the staff had made it clear before long that their trip was coming to an end, meaning that he'd had to rush to make his purchases. That was how Sora ended up walking back to the

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[blood_and_pocky]

So it was a lukewarm update from Zack. Aidou gave a softer sigh and looked up at him in a scrutinizing way, one eyebrow lifted.

“A weapon…” He digested this piece of information, though considering their acquaintanceship was perfunctory and that there was the possibility of Zack one day vanishing without warning, the benefit was mostly all Zack’s. And whoever might inherit it from him down the line. A proper one, though…? “Where from? Was it made for you?”

His hope that those unusual weapons makers were growing in number was slim. Aidou didn’t have much use for them himself, but they were at least a variable worth considering when they were around to create workable items for other people. And unless Zack had stolen it or won it, Aidou’s next best guess was that he’d been given it.

“Been anywhere? Done anything?” The vampire pressed with a vain optimism that Zack might have come across something that Aidou didn’t already know about. The downside to casting around was that Zack could very well behave like Anise and conceal things simply because he could. If he sensed a lie, the fuming part of his mind felt justified in really giving the human a kick. “Have you been a part of any of the unusual events at night?”

The noble did have some information to share, but in the big picture it was a feeble achievement for two people to stand on.

[zack_fair]

At least the talk of the weapon had caught the teen's attention. Zack wasn't surprised by that, though, since it had become obvious during his time here that weapons were a hot commodity. He didn't know if Aidou even knew how to use one, but a lot of people just wanted information here, and he wasn't interested in hiding anything.

Not that there was really much to tell, if he was honest. "Well, it was kind of just a lucky happenstance. Someone I knew met another patient who had some leftover weapons. Not sure how he got them, but I guess he didn't have much need for them, so he handed them over."

Zack was more than happy with the short sword he'd gotten even if it wasn't his preferred blade. It would take some getting used to and he was going to have to adjust his fighting style slightly, but he hadn't gotten to First Class for nothing. He'd work it out.

Either way, it seemed that his plan to change the subject had worked well enough. Aidou didn't seem completely calm yet, but he also wasn't seething as much as he had been before. For that reason, Zack continued to answer the teen's questions. "The only interesting place I've been to was Doyleton at night, but that also was the night that those shadow things showed up." Not the best memory for him.

"I also couldn't stop from falling over myself a couple nights ago, but from what I heard, a lot of people were going through weird stuff that night." They were well on their way back up the hill now, so Zack figured that this conversation could get them through the rest of the trip.

[blood_and_pocky]

Drawing his tongue along his teeth, Aidou let his gaze wander in thought. There was a ball of pain right between his eyes that had little to do with too much sun exposure. Although it went against practicality, he was in no mood to talk to anyone, even someone as benign as Zack. Even so, it was better than contemplating how many times he’d been inappropriately touched in this hellhole.

He shuddered in disgust. The longer the soldiers stayed in power, the more invasive their methods were going to become, if their current track record was any indication.

But the present was still calling.

The talking shadows had been an equally undesirable event, and the noble narrowed his eyes, turning his face more sharp and less childlike. “You used one of the rings?” he asked. Getting to town on foot was not an option unless one was very fast and very strong, otherwise. Seemed like everyone was still using Landel’s rings, much to his chagrin. “I heard that, too.” Without experiencing anything out of the ordinary himself, thankfully.

And then there was the change in regime itself.

“What’s your rank?”

[zack_fair]

It was really no surprise that Aidou knew about the rings, although now Zack had to wonder if the young man had one of his own. It was hard to believe that he did, since he obviously would have used it to get down to the basement faster if he did. No wonder he was so interested. "Yeah," he replied. "It was my friend's, so I didn't technically use it, but I went with her." That was an idea, though. If Tifa lent the ring to him -- or if they decided to work at it together -- the basement might actually become a real goal. He'd have to talk to her about it at some point, when they actually worked up the courage to speak to each other again. He didn't know if Cloud being here again made it more or less awkward.

Aidou didn't offer up much information about how he had handled the odd occurrences of the past week or so, but Zack doubted that any of that was going to help him out in his escape plans. The less they dwelled on what they'd been through, the better, or so he thought. He was pretty sure Aidou would agree with that, and he was still doing what he could to not stir the fire anyway.

The question about rank seemed to come out of nowhere, but it wasn't as if Zack minded answering. He was sure that Aidou was the highest possible rank if he'd been here as long as he'd claimed, which made him feel kind of pathetic answering with his. He clutched at the dogtags, fishing them out from under his shirt. "C rank. So not as bad as it could be, but..."

He wasn't eating gourmet meals anymore, that was for sure.

[blood_and_pocky]

That the shadows had appeared the same night Zack had been in Doyleton kept him from asking if Zack had actually done anything while there. With or without Landel’s sadistic tricks, he could only guess what could be wandering around the town at night, ready to intercept prisoners. Maybe more zombies.

If he had a choice, Aidou might have preferred a night with rotting corpses over suffering the ride back to the hospital. Zombies, he could annihilate easily. The staff, on the other hand…

“But you don’t get the privileges those who’ve been here longer do,” the noble finished, not masking his disdain. At that point, rankings based on duration made the most sense. He snorted, eyes dark. Although his color was slowly returning to normal, the same could not be said of his resentment, and some of it still seeped through. Burying it all again honestly felt like an impossible task, far beyond his best efforts. But he had to compose himself, didn’t he? Not just for the sake of conversing with the person before him, but for enduring dinner and the night to come. And the next day, and the next day after that.

“Higher ranks are nothing to be proud of,” he went on. “At any rate, it’s useful to confirm. My rank is S.” So long as Zack was paying attention, it was possible to guess as much; hiding it was redundant. The ranks, like the pins displayed on their berets, were not a secret. “I’ve also confirmed another piece of information. The two trophies collected in the basement’s trials are needed to open the southernmost door. The door people warn not to enter.”

The rings were still held questions for the vampire, but Sasuke and now Zack had essentially proven they did what they were rumoured to. If something had happened to either of them or their companions, Aidou expected they would have said as much.

[zack_fair]

From the sound of it, Aidou didn't think very well of the new ranking system that had been put into place. It was hard to figure out why -- he could have an issue with the military in general or maybe he simply thought it was a waste of time -- but Zack wasn't about to argue. He'd had more than his fair share of exposure to ranking politics due to his time in Shin-Ra, after all. While it did feel odd to be at the bottom of the ladder again, Aidou was right. In the end, it didn't mean much.

"I figured," he replied when the young man gave his rank, and Zack had to admit that anyone who was just looking at them would have guessed it was the other way around, that he was S and Aidou was C. That was merely a matter of age, though, whereas the institute went by experience.

"Anyway, I can handle bad food and mistreatment without much of a problem, so it's fine," he said with a shrug. It wasn't like he could do anything to prove himself as better than that, so there was no point in getting hung up on it.

Aidou had apparently gotten some more information about the basement, though. He didn't explain how he'd confirmed the facts, but Zack was willing to believe him. So two trophies (what kind of trophies?) were needed to get through to the final part of the basement; the dangerous part. Zack had to wonder if it was all worth it or if it had been set up to distract them and waste their time, but there was really only one way to know that.

"Are you still trying for it?" he asked. He felt bad that he had more or less ditched the operation, at least over the past few nights, but they hadn't been getting anywhere and even his patience only went so far.

[blood_and_pocky]

“You say that so easily,” the vampire murmured. “We are very different creatures.”

There were others like Zack, too. People who adapted at a far greater rate than Aidou would’ve expected. He could endure the insults, too, but to get over them so quickly? Either Zack was clever at playing the long-term game, or he was used to making his dignity a lower priority.

Why would anyone do the latter? Zack’s lack of acknowledgement and anger became glaring absences at the thought. It made Aidou’s eyebrow lift sharply in open appraisal this time.

“Where is your pride, exactly? Being part of a fighting force isn’t meant to strip you of that. Quite the opposite. Don’t you just want to…” Ugh, what was he going to say? Don’t you just want to kill someone? Tear the place down until you finally have the answers for what its purpose is? Those were his wishes, and he wasn’t so stupid as to project them onto others. Some people just wanted to come and go quietly. But if Aidou was correct, Zack was still young and he had friends from his home here. Where was the good in merely ’handling’ things?

A non-vampire with such an imperturbable standpoint. Aidou wasn’t sure whether to believe it or not. Then, what would Kaname-sama do in the same situation? Akatsuki, had he still been present?

Aidou grimaced slightly. “Never mind,” he relented. “I am, among other things. It would be stupid to leave it, even if it’s supposed creator is gone. I assume by that question that you have another direction?”

[zack_fair]

Zack wasn't sure when this had turned from a discussion into an opportunity to judge him, but his eyebrows ended up shooting up when he realized that Aidou was questioning his pride. There wasn't much he could say, though. At one point he had been proud to be a part of SOLDIER, but that had been lost by now. What did he have instead? Well, pride in himself. He didn't think that his ability to take abuse meant that he didn't have any.

"I could kick up a fuss and get angry and fight back, but... in the end, that's not going to get us anywhere," he pointed out. "Just sitting there and taking it is almost harder to do." It took a certain amount of self-control. The other thing was that, so far, everything that had been done here hadn't matched up to some things he'd been through in the past.

If his friends started being put in real trouble -- if they were experimented on or tortured -- then Zack would probably feel it more. Then he'd probably be just as angry as Aidou seemed to be right now. But seeing how he'd died already, anything that was done to him here was peanuts.

It seemed like it would be better to steer away from that subject as quickly as possible, though the whole issue of what he was doing with his nights wasn't a very good alternative. Zack sighed and stared out the window, realizing that they were getting close to their destination now. So far so good.

"Not... really. I mean, I've been trying to get places, even if it's just heading outside, but I keep running into that problem of night ending too early." At this point, now that he was armed, he was getting pretty tempted to just set out on his own one night. He knew that his friends would murder him if they found out, but he was sure he could charm his way through that situation if it came up.

[blood_and_pocky]

Aidou knew he was only going in circles, and he knew that comparing Zack to himself, as well as to other humans, was meaningless. There was no way of quantifying their individual experiences. It was unfair at a time when Aidou didn’t feel like being fair, and although his hatred wasn’t directed at Zack himself, the man had a right to take offence. Aidou wouldn’t have been surprised, yet, true to his word, Zack didn’t seem to take the insinuation personally. Aidou would have, certainly.

The noble made another disgruntled expression. Getting snide with strangers and kicking them in the face was one thing, but… Zack was an unbiased acquaintance and supposed to be something of an ally.

“I know,” he said. “That’s not what I meant. I apologize.”

Too many apologies he shouldn’t have had to make. He wanted to be home.

“Your interest is in the grounds outside, then?” Aidou finished. It didn’t make much of a difference if Zack didn’t have a select focus as it seemed.

[zack_fair]

"It's all right," Zack said, waving the teen off. He didn't take insults to heart that much, and it had been a sort of roundabout one in the first place. He could understand someone letting things slip when they were irritated, so he wasn't about to hold a grudge. That just wasn't his style. He'd even tried to give Genesis a second chance when the guy had given him more than enough reason to want him dead.

Ahh well. Maybe he was a softie and maybe he wasn't. He'd certainly spilled his share of blood during his lifetime, though Zack didn't think that meant he had to be brooding and angry all the time.

It looked like Aidou had misunderstood, though, and so he shook his head and quickly clarified. "Not necessarily just there. I'm just trying to make progress somewhere, whether it's going outside or down into the basement, but nothing's been working out. Actually, I think my main goal was getting myself a weapon, so now that that's taken care of hopefully things will go smoother."

Zack knew that having a sword in hand wouldn't somehow cause time to go slower at night, but he had to rely on something in this place. A weapon was as good as anything else for that.

[blood_and_pocky]

Aidou nodded. When there were multiple avenues to pursue and no clear understanding of how they all tied together, anything could be something. If Aidou could be everywhere at once--if he could have even just half his strength back--he would spend his nights looking at just more than one stupid, gaudy basement. Hime might have vanished, but her information was one of those avenues.

“Everything here is ten times more difficult than it should be, thanks to these imbeciles,” was the noble’s reply. So Zack was moving uphill at a crawl. So was everyone else, Aidou included, much to his own displeasure. If incompetence was the problem, things would be far simpler, but no, there had to be games, and tricks, and nights that seemed to end whenever they felt like.

“There’s a group trying the door in the basement tonight. If you have no interest, I’ll inform you if anything comes of it.” Swapping information was easy in comparison to actually getting said information, lately. Though it sounded like they had made a limited amount of headway themselves, Aidou still wasn’t pleased to have heard about Sasuke’s 'group' secondhand. But that was yet another issue too late to do anything about. Now there was only benefiting from it. “Now that you have a weapon, what do you expect to be doing?”

You cool with wrapping it up soon?

[zack_fair]

Even if the comment was delivered with that same undertone of anger, Zack had to admit he agreed with Aidou. The people in charge here made everything extremely difficult for them, and while that was obviously the point, it didn't stop it from being unbelievably frustrating. Zack had been used to succeeding, to always being the top of his class, so to speak. This constant failure was enough to wear down on his pride in a totally different way from what Aidou had been implying earlier.

"You can say that again," he replied with a sigh, rubbing at his eyes as he watched the bus pull up the driveway toward the institute. He did find it interesting to hear that there was a group that was going to get through the final part of the basement -- hopefully successfully -- tonight. He wasn't sure how Aidou found out all of this stuff, but he'd clearly had enough time to establish a decent communication network during his time here. Without cell phones on hand. It was impressive.

"Let me know how that goes, when you find out," he agreed with a nod. He would then at least have some idea of whether or not it was worth it, hopefully. In the meantime, he'd... Well, what would he do? That was what Aidou was asking now and he still needed to figure it out. This past day or so he'd been so focused on Cloud that he hadn't really thought about it. "I guess... keep searching. Either upstairs or outside, but try to get somewhere." With Cloud at his side, his hope was that they could move quickly and efficiently, but he knew that it wasn't necessarily up to them.

Yep, sure! We could just end it here if you like. :D

[blood_and_pocky]

The vampire would have much preferred focusing on allies and night time efforts, but of late his attention had been split between multiple things--and now, with the girl, he had personal business to deal with. Letting himself become pressed for time was sloppy, and yet he hadn’t gotten around to confirming plans until now. Though in regards to the coming night, perhaps it was best that Zack didn’t express interest in going to the basement, too. The people meeting were already large in number and discouragingly varied in background, from what Aidou could glean.

If Aidou ended up going, too, that would be one less stranger to question him if something--anything--like last night happened again. He didn’t like to think there’d be a repeat, but how many times had it been already? The episode with Naruto had been close enough, and there were still people around who asked too many questions.

He nodded in silent assent before saying, “The same to you should you come across anything.” Which was a task that, even for those who’d grown up in the shadows, was dangerously close to blundering around blind in the dark.