Nightshift 24: Hallway outside entry room

[traitors_smile]

The giggling and the stinging scent of pepper faded as Gin and Jack changed their route to the second set of stairs near the doctors offices.  It was Gin's first time leading, usually Jack took that job, letting him take up the reasonably safer rear guard.  He kept his flashlight trained on the path ahead of them, his knife in the other hand.  With

Comments

[runed]

"It's.. ah.. fine. Thank you. " Nel watched Hokuto as she worked, absently noticing that her face had warmed a little bit when the black-haired girl's hand brushed her panty, cheeks blooming very slightly in the darkness. The feeling was foreign, though - she hadn't blushed in months, though such a thought was far from her mind at the time. It didn't even occur to her that she had never been touched there before, not even accidentally. No, all that was on her mind was the pain, and hoping for Okami Amaterasu to make it out safely.

She looked down each dark hallway. They were alone, as far as she could see. There was some commotion coming from somewhere that was different from what was going on in the Sun Room, but she couldn't really tell its origin unless she really concentrated on it. "As of right now, I don't know if there are any safe places besides our rooms. I'm surprised monsters haven't jumped out at us already. Right now, our main goal is to wait for the goddess and those reckless young men." She pulled her pants back up when all was said and done.

[akarusa]

Hokuto stood, shaking her head a little. "While we've got time... what is this place? I woke up in a bed somewhere, but I don't know where the room was--or anything else." She looked down at her outfit and made a face; it was so plain and yet so ugly. It also gave her no clues at all about their location; she'd never seen what people wore in mental hospitals, and in the medical hospitals she'd seen, patients wore kimono-like gowns. So, she was a little lost.

She did notice Nel's blush, but was planning on pretending she hadn't touched somewhere she honestly hadn't meant to unless confronted... at least between girls, there weren't likely to be any accusations. Even Sumeragi Hokuto got too embarrassed to say anything, sometimes!

[runed]

"You don't.. know anything?" Nel seemed honestly surprised at that, but this girl looked like she had no reason to lie.

She sighed slowly, sliding down the wall. If she had to run later, she still could and would - she was no stranger to quick sprints, given her identity.

"Well, tomorrow, I imagine that a nurse will come talk to you. She'll call you by a name you've never heard - mine's Jeanne Dupont. And she'll tell you you're in Landel's Institute to get better." She looked up at the other woman, face cold as stone. "Dayshift - it's completely different. Smiling nurses everywhere, a talking box that cheerfully ushers us on. You'll see soon enough. Nightshift is.. well, it's how you see it." She motioned to the walls around her. "This is my first night, too. I'm your senior here by only a few hours, it would seem."

She thought briefly back to what Rufus Shinra had said. She remembered his face perfectly, his smile twisted with bitterness. How dark this place was, how untouched by Apris! She would have to push through. "I've been told a good place to go get weapons... I want to go there next if we can. I'll be fine... we just need to be able to equal things out some."

[akarusa]

Hokuto just shook her head, a little incredulously. "What are we supposed to be getting better from?" She touched her chest, but it was as smooth as she remembered it, and her heart still beat without a problem. She didn't feel sick at all--using magic had drained her more than it should, but not enough to make her actually feel weak. She'd used all her power on Seishirou, though... was there a connection?

She, personally, didn't dare sit down; Nel was hurt and needed to be protected. Hokuto hadn't seriously used her fighting skills in nearly a year, but she wasn't remotely out of shape or rusty. She was increasingly nervous, but at least it would keep her alert; instincts were not to be ignored when danger was lurking. It went against her nature to just hide nearby and wait when she could be doing something, but--if she felt Nel was safe enough alone she'd give the others a few more minutes, and then go after them.

[runed]

"I'm... not sure. I think they're telling us we're all delusional, that our lives we had before we came here weren't really ours." Her words were cold as she remembered the nurse from today. "It's funny - I might even have been tempted to believe them and try to 'get better,' after all."

She closed her eyes for a moment, pausing and listening to the sounds around her, hearing everything perfectly just this once, before speaking again. "All that stopped when I saw a man from my own world. There's no way we could both have hallucinated the same past." Albel had laughed in her face and called her Aquarian scum. It had been so expected from him.. yes, he was the same Nox she knew, no doubt about it.

"There's a chance you'll get to see someone you know soon, too. Who knows. I'm the fourth person I know who's shown up here, though I haven't made contact with the other two."

The bandage seemed to be working, in other news - the steady trickle was slowing.

[akarusa]

Hokuto was silent for a while. "So they'll try to tell me I only dreamed what I did to my brother?" she asked finally, voice soft. "And what I did to save him?" She very much blamed herself for what had happened, and nobody was going to convince her otherwise. She wasn't going to go into a catatonic state over it (even if he had); as before, she was trying simply to pick up the pieces. For now, it seemed she had a life to move on with; she would mourn, but she would find the strength to go on. Just like she hoped Subaru was doing.

And, despite it all, she hoped Seishirou was taking her advice, too. She'd made sure Subaru was protected; now, Sei-chan was one of few who could make him remember that he was loved.

Hokuto wasn't trying to be mysterious; it was just so recent for her that she found it hard to talk about. If Nel wanted to coax her into doing so, she could; it was just going to be a little while before she spoke of it freely. She would give anything for the dream explanation to be true... but not even for a second could she delude herself into thinking it was.

[runed]

"Precisely. Just like they told me my memories of serving the Holy Mother were false." If Hokuto had expected Nel to ask her what she was talking about, she'd be sorely disappointed. Nel wasn't the type to pry unless she was on a reconnaissance mission, or performing an interrogation. As far as she was concerned, Hokuto's business was her business, and she should reveal only as much as she wanted to.

"Do you want to go back?" the soldier carefully asked. The other woman was experiencing some sort of strong emotion, Nel could tell that much, and she didn't want to press any of the wrong buttons.

[akarusa]

"More than anything," Hokuto half-whispered. "I don't care if it's as a ghost--Subaru needs me." He was too soft-hearted; she was so scared he would just follow her into the dark. Losing her would harden him, though--probably more than she ever wanted for him. At least, it would if the sorrow of it didn't kill him.

She closed her eyes for a moment, centering herself, as her grandmother had taught her. When she opened them again, she was back under control--not so close to crying. It didn't mean she was any calmer by a long shot, but this wasn't the time for a breakdown.

Besides that--this was a sorrow that was beyond tears for her, too. She realized then that sacrificing herself the way she had would effect more than just her friends and family--but herself, as well. Who will you become, Subaru? And... who will I?

[runed]

Nel knew far too well how important duty was.

She didn't profess to know anything about this Subaru person, or organization, or country, or whatever it was. The brother Hokuto had spoken of, perhaps. But she knew the gravity of duty, and she knew how it was to be needed desperately. She'd left Aquaria to embark on a much more important mission, to save her entire plane of existence, but she knew the Queen needed her. She knew Clair needed her.

Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that somehow she wasn't needed after all. After all, Albel had mentioned that he remembered Nel returning to Elicoor with her group. Was she.. possibly.. another Nel, a different Nel who had arrived here at the same time that the Nel that Albel had known had returned to Elicoor?

She reached out gently, weakly, to brush her hand against Hokuto's leg, a gesture meant to calm her. "..I don't mean to presume, but I've a theory that you might still be in your home world. After all, my comrade had memories of me that had to have occurred after the last point I remember. It might be different with you, though - you say.. you're a ghost?"

[akarusa]

"I don't know," Hokuto admitted. "Amaterasu-sama said I'm alive here, but that doesn't change that I died. If I were a ghost--Subaru can speak to the dead, so that... would solve a few problems." It still meant not growing up, not having a spouse or children of her own--not even getting to have that first lover, probably--but as long as he needed her, she didn't care. "But unless there's something nobody told us, it looks like we're alive here." She looked at her hands; there was a bit of Nel's blood on them. The dead, literally speaking, didn't bleed.

"Where in Japan are we?" she asked finally. It didn't really matter if they couldn't get out to go anywhere, but she wanted to know. It sounded like the staff here would make excuses for why she couldn't call home, but... she hoped they were still in Tokyo. At least then she'd still be close to home.

[runed]

Nel dropped her hand to her side again, looking up at the girl in the darkness. The blush had left her face far behind by now, still without a thought from the soldier. "No, we're alive here.. I have faith that we are. Although if you're dead, that could pose a problem in getting you back. No, I'll have to consider everyone's circumstances both separately and in a group - I'm sure we can get everyone back to their original places if we research it."

She thought for a moment at the word 'Japan,' then the look in her eyes grew a little stark. "I've never heard of Japan, but that doesn't mean it isn't where we are. Where is that?"

[akarusa]

Hokuto nearly fell over at the last part. Yes, she was starting to realize just how strange this place was, but... "It's a country on Earth, the third planet from the sun... Sol system, I think it is?" The only time she paid much attention to planets was when she was reading her horoscope.

Landels was a mental hospital, Nel had said? Well... Hokuto certainly couldn't deny that the place was insane! "Uh. So, what country and planet are you from?" she asked dryly.

[runed]

Nel had heard of the Sol system, certainly. Her friend and comrade Fayt came from Earth - a mere student, swept up in a war on another planet that ultimately led to his saving the universe they knew.

How much had changed since she'd been ordered to track them down.

She paused for a moment before answering definitively. "I'm a soldier of Aquaria, on the planet Elicoor II." That was only part of it - she didn't feel like offering her full title, though. "Our home planets share a galaxy and similar traditional food, but not much else. I've never been there, but I've been to Moonbase, which is quite close."

She didn't expect Hokuto to have heard of Elicoor - as it turned out, most of the people she'd met didn't. It was, after all, supposed to have been an underdeveloped planet. How much confusion that had caused between the outsiders and herself! How many lies had to be so quickly fabricated.

"Though there's a chance you've never even heard of Moonbase - I don't know how old of a structure it is, and this place seems to pull people from vastly different times."

[akarusa]

Hokuto tried to think if she'd ever heard of a star, at least, called Elicoor; after a few moments, she shook her head. "We made it to the moon a few years I was born, but there's no permanent base." Either Nel was from the farfuture--maybe something had happened in 1999 after all?--or they weren't even from the same timeline.

It should have sounded a little far-fetched, even for the sister of an onmyouji, but right now she figured she should keep an open mind!

"So, you know magic?" she asked thoughtfully. She'd seen those ice needles. "I know a few spells, but my power levels feel lower than they should--right now I don't feel all that confident in anything higher-level than Barrier." She looked at the door to the Sun Room as she spoke; she was really getting worried, the others should have come out by now. She was curious about Nel's magic, but more than that, she was hoping they could somehow combine what they had to end things quickly. It had been, briefly, five against one... and the one had still been winning. Not good.

[runed]

Nel nodded. "The short time we were there, I only was able to learn of its satellite status. Forgive me if I'm not very knowledgeable on the subject, as I'm quite new to modern technology, given my origin - but what I saw was quite permanent." She hesitated momentarily, reviewing the information she'd retained of Moonbase in her mind. It was a beautiful, if slightly constitution-shaking sight, seeing a planet she never knew from something that spun around on it. Perhaps someday there would be bases on Irisa, Erinia, and Palmira, the three moons that circled Elicoor.

Somehow she doubted that.

And then there was the question about the magic. She supposed 'magic' could be a broad term for it, though she'd never really known runology to be anything else.. "I'm a runologist - it's a bit like magic, but not really reducible to parlor tricks. As a weapon, it's quite useful, though it shouldn't be completely relied on, especially in a place like this. It's no crutch, and it's no substitute for physical ability. Am I right in assuming you know mostly defense spells?"

If so, that would tell Nel a lot about her new friend's personality. People usually did, after all, study the sorts of spells that would suit them most. Unless, of course, they were made to learn them whether they liked it or not.

[akarusa]

"What I can do isn't much above parlor tricks," Hokuto said wryly. "A weak shield, or putting people to sleep. Magic's not really my area; I tried, I couldn't learn much, I moved on. I used to be able to make paper wards--if someone passed in front of one, it would explode and I'd know--but it wore me out so much it wasn't worth doing. It's been so long since I tried it that I can't even remember the incantation anymore... and since my magic feels even weaker now, there's no way I could do it anymore."

She'd considered learning kendo once, but standing there in the dark hallway of a place she still knew next to nothing about, Hokuto was glad she'd learned to fight in the style she did; it meant being unarmed didn't bother her. Every second that passed made her want to go back into the Sun Room and see what was happening, and if they did, she was going to be prepared.