Night 58: Main Hallway, 1-West

[princeofthemoon]

[ from here ]

Sesshoumaru had not been in the building for nearly long enough to really know it, and his knowledge had not been expanded yesterday as it might otherwise have been, because of the poisons that had been fed into his system - poisons that somehow worked, which had been a disconcerting and unpleasant experience. In the end, though, all

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[ultimagi]

[from here. sup sesshoubaby?]

Her footsteps were steady on the hard floor. There were others nearby, but nobody she could recognize. She wondered if Bella and Lana were both alright. The former had been so frightened by that ghost...

But thinking on that wouldn't change anything. The girl was more concerned with finding the stairs.

There are at least two file rooms, Edgar had said. One here on the first floor, near the lobby; the other on the second floor, in a corridor near the eastern stairwell. She had not seen the lobby, and she had never been to the second floor. Similarly, she wasn't even sure which direction was east in this building. But, she thought, if she could find a staircase, there seemed a good chance she could eventually find the corridor he mentioned. Having never seen the second floor, anything she learned up there could help her

[princeofthemoon]

Sesshoumaru's eyes flashed bright red in the light cast by the flashlight for just a moment as he turned to look at the young woman who was hesitantly approaching. He might not have noticed her as soon as he did, but the flashlight remained steady as her footsteps came closer, and although he was weak he would have been pathetic indeed to miss such obvious markers.

Her movements, though hesitant, were precisely controlled and economical, the precise steps and gestures of one who had been trained to fight, and trained well. This alone was intriguing. As a result, he looked slightly curious (or as much as he ever looked anything) as his eyes darted over her, taking her in.

"Hello."

[ultimagi]

For as certain as the girl's body seemed in subconscious motion, her expression carried none of that. Uncertainty even in neutrality. Her gaze, in examining the man, lingered for a moment on the space where an arm should have hung, but she returned her eyes to his. What an unusual color, she thought.

This was no time to get distracted. This was a time to speak. The girl swallowed, bowing her head once--more for thought, for gathering words, than for politeness, but who needed to know otherwise. "I'm... told," she started, already fighting back waves of anxiety and panic, "that it's... unsafe to travel alone."

And was it any safer, she thought, trusting any stranger with her safety, more than she trusted herself alone? Edgar had said he'd been here for a long time. Even if she couldn't trust what connection she assumed he believed they shared, he probably hadn't lied about that. Right?

She pushed on. "I know you don't know me," she hoped, rather, "but... would you... mind? Going with me?"

[princeofthemoon]

Sesshoumaru watched her coldly, or blankly, or something in between. He seemed neither interested nor disinterested, and concealed the flash of displeasure when her eyes lingered on the empty sleeve, neatly pinned up. But for the mutt he would still have his arm, which was annoying - it was an inconvenience to be left with one arm instead of two on many occasions, but all the same not something he usually dwelled on, or minded except sometimes distantly. But, in his true place and true time, there were few who even realized he had lost his left arm. His proficiency - already great, and which had been pushed further by the new challenges - and the way that his sleeves hung was sufficient to deceive most opponents - even if not intentionally, because he did not care one way or another. Most did not live long enough for it to matter. Here that was not the case, and unlike usual, here the idea of being judged as crippled and underestimated was annoying. Perhaps due to the thought that it would hardly be an underestimation at all. He felt

[ultimagi]

"I don't know," she said, for it was the truth; she knew nothing about him but his appearance in the darkness, and the sound of his voice. She might have seen him in passing in the cafeteria, or the sun room, but the girl had spent so much time wrapped up with either herself or her conversations that she paid little attention to what existed outside them. It wasn't as though she knew he was some great combat fighter, or well-versed with the building's layout. Just from appearances, and from her own limited understanding of the world, it would seem more logical for her to think that someone who had been so careless to have lost an arm (or so unlucky as to have been born without one) to be a less-fit companion than someone else

[princeofthemoon]

He watched her, unreadable, but seemed surprised for a minute at her answer. The flash of emotion passed. He focused for a few moments - she smelled perfectly human, without the sharp, dangerous sunlight-scented arrow that purity tended to have. Of course, there was no guarantee that he could still smell it, but she didn't seem like a priestess. He blinked, and relaxed his focus to allow his senses to slip back to normal, and back to other things, and examined her again, eyes flicking over her. "I am more like you here than I should care to be." Sesshoumaru's voice was bland, almost dry, his face inexpressive, but there was something underneath that - annoyance, maybe, or frustration, maybe in his eyes, or his slight movements, or running deep under the emotions in his voice

[ultimagi]

That settled that, then. The girl nodded, speaking evenly. "I had, too." It made more sense to her to check there first anyway; she had no knowledge of what was on the second floor, and few of the people she'd spoken to had seemed to either; at least, Edgar had some idea, but hadn't gone where she was intending, and Izaya hadn't a clue at all.

At least he had confirmed her hunch as correct. Did that mean what she'd felt before in the cafeteria had been right as well?

No matter. It wasn't what mattered right now. The girl's shoulders relaxed marginally for only a moment, but with a sweep of her flashlight she turned her head to the rest of the hall. "There's a staircase..."

She, of course, had no idea specifically where.

[princeofthemoon]

It did seem rational; for all that Sesshoumaru had spent the day in a drug-induced haze, it had not escaped his notice that the activities he was herded to had taken place on the ground floor. The second floor appeared to be held apart.

His eyes glowed in the ambient light again for a second as he turned. "Look to your left," he said lightly, before walking towards the staircase. He didn't turn to see if she followed.

[princeofthemoon]

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