Nightshift 33 - Main Hallway 1-Center

[broken_exorcist]

[[from here]]

The hall was empty when he arrived, which was something of a relief.  Last night the hall had gotten fairly crowded with people coming and going and even people trying to keep others out of the Sun Room.  He knew there'd been some kind of fight going on in there, so maybe it'd been for the best to involve as few as possible.  For now,

Comments

[boot_i_licious]

[from here]

Rinali stepped into the hallway and leaned against the wall. There were a lot of people here as usual, which made her feel comfortable...but Allen wasn't. She took her time getting here, and Allen, the sweetheart that he was, wasn't the most cautious of people. He should've been here by now.

Still, maybe he got held up or had to do something first, so she decided to just wait for the time being. Allen would be coming along soon. Besides, Rukia should be coming along shortly as well.

[haiiro_no_chou]

[From here.]

Rukia edged around the corner leading toward the hallway outside the sun room. She had been here last night, trying to avoid Sora and Allen, when she had met up with Nakago and Mozenwrath. They had at least provided her with some light, since hers was failing, but she hadn't trusted them at all.

There were enough people in this hallway so that Rukia could at least turn off her flickering flashlight. She didn't see Allen, but perhaps he was farther down the hallway...

She moved along quietly, keeping an eye on those around her. No, no Allen. There was a girl with dark hair, though, standing all by herself. Rukia was pretty sure she had seen Allen with her before, so she must be Rinali. Approaching, Rukia ventured, "Ah, excuse me. Are you Rinali?"

[boot_i_licious]

By the time Rukia had turned up, Rinali was starting to get concerned. It wasn't like Allen to be these late! She almost jumped when the woman spoke with her. "Oh! Yes, I am. Are you Miss Rukia?" Wasn't Rukia one of the shinigami? She couldn't remember for sure, but it did make her a little more cautious. She couldn't understand why Allen liked them, after all she'd seen them do was exceptionally cruel or overly harsh.

[haiiro_no_chou]

"I-- yes, I am," she said, smiling a bit nervously. "But please just call me Rukia." She thought it was awfully strange how Allen and some of the other kids called her "Miss Rukia". It just felt odd, somehow. "It's nice to meet you, Rinali."

Looking around one more time, Rukia asked, "I guess Allen hasn't shown up yet?" She was stating the obvious, but that was part of being polite, after all. His absence worried her, though.

[boot_i_licious]

Rinali smiled, though it didn't quite seem as genuine as normal. She was too worried about Allen to be honestly happy. "Okay then Rukia. It's a pleasure to meet you."

She glanced around again nervously. "No, he hasn't," she said. "This isn't like him. I hope he's alright..."

[haiiro_no_chou]

Rukia frowned a little. He may have run into trouble on his way to the sun room. Or he might have been taken for those experiments... She didn't want to think about that, though.

"Do you know where his room is?" she asked. "Maybe we should go that way and see if we run into him."

[boot_i_licious]

"I don't," Rinali said, growing even more concerned with each passing minute. "Allen always came to pick me up. You don't think..."

She didn't want to finish the statement. What if he'd been taken, experimented on?

[haiiro_no_chou]

"Hm," Rukia said, thinking. She pulled out her notebook and leafed through it, but she hadn't taken down Allen's room number.

Noticing Rinali's concern, though, she tried to calm the other girl. "Oh, no, I'm sure he's just been held up. I bet he saw someone being attacked by a monster, and stopped to help." It was a perfectly natural explanation for why Allen might have been so late, but Rukia was worried, all the same.

[boot_i_licious]

Rinali laughed just a little, as Rukia's suggestion helped alleviate some of her concerns. Not all of them, but at least there was a rational explanation why he was late that didn't involve him bleeding to death in a bathroom somewhere. "Knowing Allen," she said. "That's probably true. Well, should we wait for him here, then?"

[haiiro_no_chou]

Rukia thought for a moment before responding. "Well, Captain Hitsugaya asked me to check out the file rooms right near here. Maybe we could go in and have a look at those, and stick our heads out into the hallway to look for Allen every so often?" In truth, she was worried about Allen, but going to look for him would probably prove fruitless. With only one flashlight, they might simply miss him in one of the dark corridors. And if he had been taken for experiments... Well, there was nothing they could do then, was there?

[boot_i_licious]

Rinali pondered Rukia's words, feeling ill at ease. "Ok," she said at last. There wasn't a lot they could do out here anyways aside from wait like anxious children, and that wouldn't help anyone out in the long run. "I don't know where the file rooms are," she admitted. "So I'll keep an eye behind us if you'll take the lead?"

[haiiro_no_chou]

Rukia nodded, trying to look more confident than she felt. "Okay. It's close, so we don't have to go far."

She couldn't keep her mind off the file room and its contents, and they would be there soon! The drawing had to be there. And maybe more information, too.

[haiiro_no_chou]

[Going here.]