Nightshift 26: F-Block Bathroom

[visualize]

[From here.]Now, there was something obviously wrong with a man casually stepping into the female bathroom, but to Jade, if it existed it was free game. He refrained from turning on his flashlight, seeing as that his night vision was well developed enough to pick out the details even in pitch black

Comments

[razing_phoenix]

"I didn't think there would be," Guy called back as he followed the man in. Though it seemed even darker in here, and the tile made the room a bit colder. Why would girls be hanging out in this place at night? It seemed a lot less sanitary, though that might just be a trick of the mind.

Nothing jumped out at him just from taking a simple look around. Did that mean they had picked the wrong place? Guy moved a little further into the room, but when he found he had almost run into a sink, he sighed and glanced over at Jade.

"Can I turn on my flashlight?" He'd heard it called that, so he assumed that was the proper name for the piece of fontech he had been carrying around.

[visualize]

"If you must," Jade sighed in disheartening way, already making his way down the stalls and began to push each one open. There was certainly nothing out of the ordinary besides the heaviness that still clung to the air like Dist to his leg. He had a feeling that disappointment was an emotion widely used in this Institute for various reasons, and the more he searched through the stalls the more evident it became that nothing was awaiting them.

"Have you managed to gather any information pertaining to the one responsible for this?" He asked after looking into the third stall down the line.

[razing_phoenix]

Maybe Jade didn't need light to see, but Guy had long ago learned that Jade wasn't normal. Not even human, maybe. He was still convinced he had some sort of cooling system in his normal attire, but he had never been able to find out for certain.

Still, he had more or less received permission, so he pushed the button that would turn the light on, using it to scan the room. There was nothing out of ordinary, and it didn't seem like there were any monsters around, either, so it wasn't a trap. Then again, the radio could have meant something else...

"Huh?" Guy glanced over at Jade - judging from the man's expression, he hadn't found anything, either. "No, not really. I guess it's the guy who talks over the intercom, but I don't know much about him." Was he worse than Van, even? Did his plans reach that far? It was hard to say.

[visualize]

That bit of information was easy enough to figure out on one's own, but maybe Guy hadn't resided there long enough to gather any more on this enigmatic man. Whatever the reason was, the blond's answer didn't help him much overall. One would think that it was the thought that mattered, but it wasn’t like Guy was giving him flowers on his deathbed.

It wasn't until Jade walked out of the last stall did he answer. "It would do us all some good if you wandered between the veterans and find anything you can about him. Not that I'd that trust you with a task like this on your own, it's obviously more of a group effort."

The Colonel heaved another over dramatic sigh before meandering over to Guy's side. "It doesn't look like whatever that man was hinting is here, we should try elsewhere." He already had a few places in mind, but it wasn’t wise to dawdle around with one task for too long.

[haiiro_no_chou]

[From here.]

Making a brief sweep of the room with her flashlight, Rukia advanced a little more cautiously. She hadn't yet been inside the bathrooms at night, and now she could see why Renji had told her they wouldn't be able to get clean there. Instead of the usual, bright white and red tiles, they were greeted by dingy grey and brown, made to look even more sinister and filthy by the lack of light. Rukia almost considered going back to her room for slippers, but she supposed the grim wouldn't kill her. As kids, they had waded through much worse in the canals and ditches of Rukongai.

"So," she said, her voice echoing slightly, "You've done this before. What's the plan?"

[stray_shinigami]

Renji grabbed the blanket off of Rukia's bed, then headed out. As he followed her, he answered her question. "Last night, when we went to get Kairi and Adel, there was a new kind of monster. A big metal thing, looked like gold. I couldn't manage to get my knife through it except at its back. But... I remembered something that asshole on the radio said, a couple nights ago. So," he grimaced, remembering the entire situation, though the monsters were certainly more light-hearted than what had come after. "Yeah, I tried drinking some of the blood from the monsters. And it healed all my injuries. Worked on the other guys, too. Kinda gross, though. But in case you ever run across them, it's useful."

The bathroom was just a short walk; he set his flashlight on one of the sinks, then spread the blanket across a section of the floor. "We just start unscrewing stuff," he said, pointing at the sinks and showers. "Once I get one of the faucets off, I can start trying to get the big pipes out of the wall. But you can see... it's kinda dirty in

[haiiro_no_chou]

"Huh, can't say I've seen anything like that," Rukia said, glancing back at Renji. "Good thing you found its vulnerable point. What did it taste like, anyway?" She made a face; drinking blood didn't sound terribly pleasant, but if Renji had gotten a clue from the guy on the radio, Rukia figured that maybe she should pay more attention to him from now on.

Nodding at Renji's explanation, Rukia set her own flashlight on the floor, pointing up, and went to one of the sinks. "Yeah," she said, grimcacing and rolling up her sleeves. The sinks looked just as filthy as the floors and walls. They didn't look like they came apart very easily, but maybe if she just kept turning the faucet handles...

[stray_shinigami]

Renji paused for a moment to think. "It tasted... uh... I don't know. Slippery." He shook his head. "I mean, I've probably tasted worse things before." They'd certainly eaten some scary things to survive, when they were kids.

He started unscrewing the knobs on the sink next to hers; he was well practiced with this now. "Once you get the knobs off, I can try to break the faucet out. It's not the best metal, but it's good enough. The shower knobs and heads also unscrew all the way if you give it some strength."