Night 41: M71-M80 Hallway

[secret_orchard]

[M74]

When the lights went out, Armand already had some of what he needed to take laid out upon his desk. He dressed by feel in the darkness, and made certain to steal another pillowcase from the bed to fold into his pocket. He put his journal and pen in one pocket, gripped his sword in one hand and tried to carry the light and full pillowcase bag

Comments

Re: M77

[remedying]

Yukari continued to watch Yuffie as she walked ahead of her, leading the way as she played around some with the shuriken. It was obvious something was a little off with the way she was handling it, plus her earlier action implied she wasn't used to it feeling so heavy, so Yukari became somewhat wary of it being swung around nearby. She anticipated Yuffie insisting otherwise if she commented on it, so instead of saying anything at all, Yukari only distanced herself just far enough where she felt comfortable about the space between them.

Perhaps a silly feeling, considering she was in a team comprised of a bunch of teenagers who wielded weapons of their own, although Yuffie had a very whimsical disposition and Yukari had no idea how she truly worked when in a position to use it. Maybe she had the completely wrong idea about this.

Until she found out either way, Yukari had no qualms about taking precautions.

She stopped a few steps behind once they reached their next destination, and Yukari felt something inside her twitch as the question was asked. "H- hey!" Yukari hissed, careful to keep her voice low; Yuffie had already knocked and she didn't want to give whoever was behind the door any hints of her suddenly flustered state. "For the last time, we're not..."

Was it even worth trying to convince her anymore?

Re: M77

[meitantei]

"C-come in!" Shinichi called, still not quite sure what to make of what was going to be happening tonight. It sounded like there were at least two girls outside the door, both of them around his age or younger. That was consistent with the tone of the notes he'd gotten on the Bulletin earlier, but writing could never be entirely trusted. The notes he got from one of history's greatest swordsmen, for example, were decidedly...feminine.

For the hundredth time today, and probably the millionth time since he'd woken up here, the detective wondered just what, exactly, he'd gotten himself into.

Re: M77

[thatdamnedninja]

"Does he know that it's not true?" Yuffie laughed. Damn, this chick still made it so easy; it was good to know that she was as much fun off the board as she was on the board. She didn't push the subject, though, letting it drop as the guy inside called out. He sounded kinda… familiar? Weird. Adjusting her grip on the shuriken so that it wouldn't lead to the dumb spectacle of her getting stuck in the doorframe, she let herself in.

-- Wait, what the-- "-Ki-- uh, you… must be Kudo." But he looked almost exactly like Kaito! Clearing her throat, she stepped to the side to let Yukari in (and took a quick, subtle inventory of the room as she did so). "Nice t'meetcha. I'm Yuffie."

Re: M77

[remedying]

Yukari rolled her eyes and sighed-- she had a feeling she might be doing so often, tonight-- before dropping the topic just as quickly as Yuffie had. What a dumb question, of course he did! Kaito might have been a terrible flirt, but she was pretty sure by this point he didn't mean it in any seriousness. Besides, this wasn't like highschool where everyone had dumb little flings here and there ... Please, this was completely not the place for those.

In yet another manner of regaining her dignity, Yukari brushed down the bottom of her skirt, following the other girl inside. Not long after closing the door behind her, Yukari suddenly took on a surprised expression once she saw who was sitting on the bed. "Shinichi-kun," she gasped aloud; what a coincidence they would meet again, although she hadn't been expecting it to turn out like this. He looked a lot worse than when she first met him just the other day.

Re: M77

[meitantei]

Shinichi blinked. He'd been expecting girls, yeah, but he hadn't been expecting girls that were so...exposed. His teenaged and very male brain couldn't help noting how much thigh was showing. How had they gotten those clothes? The girl who had introduced herself as Yuffie was wearing a...bizarre short-shorts and belted shirt combination and was lugging around an impractically-sized shuriken. She looked like she wouldn't have been out of place at a cosplay convention.

The second girl, who was apparently Yukari--the girl who had mistaken him for Kuroba yesterday--was dressed slightly more appropriately. She was wearing a school uniform of some sort, though he'd never seen one (in Tokyo, anyway) that used a bubble-gum pink blazer. Huh.

He gave the second girl a grin and a feeble half-wave with his uninjured hand. "Takeba-san, it's good to see you again," he said. "And, uh, nice to meet you, Yuffie-san." He laughed. "You...thought I was Kuroba, didn't you?"

Re: M77

[thatdamnedninja]

There wasn't much in the room aside from the obvious; furniture, two girls, and one guy. Yuffie set her shuriken point-down on the floor, one hand wrapped gently around the top-most blade to keep it from falling over. "Guess I did," she scratched the back of her neck with her free hand, grinning. "You guys could pass as twins. You get that reaction all the time, right?" And how useful it must be, if used in the right way!

Yuffie could tell just by looking at him that tonight… well, it was gonna be interesting. She wasn't sure if Clear Tranquil would heal his injuries completely given its limitations, but anything was preferable to walking around with those wounds. They'd just have to wait and see.

She looked around at Yukari. "So, uh, you guys know each other already?"

Re: M77

[remedying]

Heh, Yuffie had the exact same reaction she did when she first saw Shinichi. He already said they weren't related, but a small part of Yukari was still skeptical; was it really possible to meet someone who looked so much like yourself? The world was a pretty crazy place, if it was.

"Er, kinda," Yukari responded. "We talked a little before."

Re: M77

[wearsthehakama]

Yuffie again? Kaoru frowned and stood behind Kenshin, waiting for someone to open the door. She wasn't sure how she felt about this girl, even if Kenshin did have a good opinion of her. "I'd like that, Kenshin," she replied and shifted her weight.

Re: M77

[meitantei]

Shinichi laughed, even though it kind of hurt to do so. Meds were wearing off; hopefully this healing thing would happen soon. "Lately, yeah. I just met him the day I came here, but even one of my best friends thought I was him for about two minutes." Which was kind of insulting, come to think of it. He'd have to take that up with Hattori later.

"Yeah," he agreed with Yukari, "we just talked--"

Oh, more knocking. Was this the Himura person that was supposed to be getting healed too?

"Come in!"

Re: M77

[thatdamnedninja]

"Hattori, right?" She'd seen their exchanges on the bulletin often enough, though there were more elements of a guess in there then she'd have liked back home. Oh well. It wasn't like she was stalking these guys. Yuffie smirked, but there was no malice in it; just a light-hearted jab. "He seems the type--"

-- More knocking. Loosening the fingers that were settled around her shuriken as she glanced around at the door, Yuffie used her left hand to produce one of her two knives. Just a flick of the wrist with her hand in the right place, and then she had a neat little blade in her hands. She never got bored of doing that. She tossed it up a little, then let it balance on her finger. "Hey, guys! I know you've all got dates to get to, so this won't take too long."

Re: M77

[remedying]

Yukari blinked oddly once again when Yuffie started playing with the knife effortlessly, one she didn't even know she had on her (that giant thing she had wasn't enough?), as if it were nothing more than a child's toy. Briefly, Yukari considered pointing out that maybe doing so wasn't one of the safest stunts to be pulling, especially in such a closed space, but there were even more people coming in and debating with Yuffie ... well, she wasn't up for that right then.

So instead she simply turned her odd look at the door; by now, Yukari figured that they weren't just picking up something else like they were at Mori's room. "What're you planning on doing here?" she asked Yuffie curiously, regardless if she would have probably saw sooner or later anyway.

Re: M77

[wearsthehakama]

Kaoru repeated Kenshin's bow and introduced herself, "I'm Kamiya Kaoru." The boy looked terrible, and she bit the inside of her cheek. Whatever was going on right now didn't have a lot to do with her, and she'd just be quiet until they were ready to leave. Kaoru's thoughts turned to Kenshin's question of whether she would want a katana over a bokken. It was strange, and somewhat suspicious question.

Thinking, she found herself toying with the ends of Kenshin's hair.

Re: M77

[meitantei]

Well, weren't they polite? Whoever they were. Shinichi was fairly certain that the redhead and his companion were the "Himura" and "Kamiya" that had been mentioned on the board. They certainly seemed acquainted with Yuffie (who seemed doing something oddly hypnotic and vaguely dangerous with a knife). The man's introduction confirmed his identity. The cast on his arm strongly indicated that he was Himura, but the high rate of injury in this place meant that it couldn't be considered as conclusive evidence.

But that was beside the point. It looked as if Himura had directed the introduction to him, so Shinichi inclined his head (as close as he could get to a bow) and smiled. "Nice to meet you, Himura-san. I'm Kudou Shinichi. And, really, it's no intrusion at all!" Man, this guy was polite. Plus, the way he spoke was just...odd. Only people in historical dramas talked like that. Plus, with the sword at his side...

...Oh, great. The detective resisted the urge to facepalm. Another samurai.

"So...uh...since everyone's here, shall we...begin?"

Now if only he knew what it was, exactly, they were going to be doing.

Re: M77

[thatdamnedninja]

Yuffie grinned at the two as they stepped into the room, the knife disappearing from her hand as though it'd never been there in the first place. Her? Show off? Never. "And for the unfortunate's who've never had the pleasure of pic-- uh, talking to -- her before, this here's Yukari Takeba."

Now that they were all they were all gathered up and squished into the tiny little room, though, it was time to get started. She nodded to Shinichi, then glanced briefly over her shoulder at Yukari. "I'm just gonna heal 'em up a bit, that's all." And she was just gonna hope with everything she had that it worked. The last thing she needed was to find out that her Limits were losing even more strength. "Like I said, won't take too long."

Deep breath, now. There was no danger, no attack, no battle; no blood or screams or desperation, so she'd have to draw on something else to focus her spirit. And it was so difficult. All the anger at Landel, the frustration, the need to protect, to fight and survive; she found it and then -- her fingers had tightened around her shuriken. Eyes closed, head bowing, she brought the weapon up. Turmoil to tranquillity; it was like standing in the middle of a whirlpool and for the duration, she forgot to breathe. Blue energy expanded, in three bubbles, shining and with a vague hiss of intangible water and air. It lasted seconds; it felt longer.

The bubbles burst, in arcing chains of even smaller ones. Yuffie gasped quietly for air - air that burned, that didn't feel like it was enough. The shuriken dropping point first back onto the ground; it cut her palms gently. Wha-- What was this? She could feel herself shaking minutely. Her palms were cold, she felt weak.

[In case you need a visual reference. Start from 0:17]