((From
here. ))As Claude stepped into the dark hallway, he made sure to shine his flashlight beam enough to light their way forward. Doing a quick scan of the area, Claude noticed the closed doors along their path. He swallowed hard. Were they torturing Ashton in one of these rooms? Who else did they have trapped here
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Why weren't there more people here?
Okita slipped into the hall and began methodically checking all the rooms. Like a pale ghost he slipped in and out of them one by one. The first room had been slow, a careful sweep for enemies preceded his entry. The second was only a quick check for anything lurking in the darkness. After that, it was desperation. He almost ran into the last room and for a long while, he didn't emerge.
Emptiness.
It was empty. Hijikata wasn't here. He'd either been rescued earlier or...
He hadn't been there at all. Okita hadn't seen anything, felt anything that reminded him of the man he'd devoted his life to serving. It was as if he'd never been.
"...Hijikata-san?" he called, as if the shadows could be hiding him. If only that were true. Standing in the final room, staring at a bloody and empty table, Okita felt something begin to stretch all too thin within him. His voice echoed in the room, a whisper that sounded far too loud. "Hijikata-san?"
He lied. He isn't here.
Okita gripped the sword so tightly he could hear the metal creak in his palms, his nails digging into his own skin, drawing blood. Quietly, he stepped from the last MU room, keeping his head low to avoid Homura's eyes. Liar, he wasn't here. I wasted time coming to this place when he had been taken elsewhere. Crimson blood was beginning to trace veins down the sword, but Okita didn't notice.
"...where is he?" he asked. His voice was deeper than Homura had ever heard it, but it was controlled, heavy, and definitely dangerous.
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Then he emerged from the final room, looking far more vicious than a man should. Controlled, contained, but only just barely, and Homura readied his sword for when that control snapped.
"I don't know." Homura watched, keeping his eyes on Okita, unwilling to drop his guard for his ally. The man was reckless, prone to emotion, and that made him a liability in so many ways. But Homura would do what he had to in order to tame the man, because the wild was no good for his purposes.
"This is where they bring the patients to be tortured. If he isn't here, then I don't know where they would have taken him."
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He wanted to kill this man for bringing him here.
As if he hadn't heard Homura speak, Okita repeated his question with poison in every word. "Homura-san, where is he?"
He brought the sword around, not quite pointing it at the demi-god, but it was clear that the weapon could soon turn either way. If Homura didn't know, then Okita would look by himself. He couldn't stand the idea of Hijikata being tortured, but beyond that he would die if the man had abandoned him here. He had promised to keep Okita with him so long as he was useful. Had the swordsman outlived his purpose? Had Hijikata returned home with his information and left his first captain behind? That couldn't be right, but...
Doubt was the slayer of all men.
If Homura didn't know, Kenshin was next.
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But Homura would protect his interests, and if Okita attacked him, he would retaliate.
"Pointing your sword at other patients will do no good, Okita." Homura himself, Kenshin, anyone else--the demi-god was talented enough at pushing people away. He didn't need Okita to help with it.
"I don't know what they've done with him. I had hoped he would be here." Homura frowned, doubting Okita would appreciate his next words. "I've seen notices during my time of people disappearing from this place. No one seems to know where they went, only that they were gone."
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Or so he thought.
Gone. Hijikata wasn't just missing or taken. He could be gone. How could a man just be gone? Had Hijikata really returned home without him? The thinness wore out, something snapped.
"I have to find him," he said quietly, the softness returning to his voice. It didn't matter who he killed to find his answers. No matter what Homura said, he would find his commander. He'd act alone if he must, but it was time for him to start the search. Slowly, he walked forward, moving to push past Homura and out into the darkness of the Institute to begin his fruitless search.
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In some ways, Homura would prefer it.
"Okita." Homura wouldn't let the man pass without a warning; he had little desire to impede in the search, but at the same time, couldn't let Okita kill as he pleased. "Don't act recklessly. The patients aren't the ones responsible--"
But before he could say more, the intercom sounded, the voice of the head doctor echoing off the empty walls just before darkness came.
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