sdatislife
in
damned
Night 48: M21-30 Hallway
Shinji was worried. He'd been waiting for a while - Kaworu still hadn't arrived. He didn't know why and as always his insecurities had begun to flare up. Maybe he'd changed his mind. Maybe he didn't really want to see Shinji. Maybe he'd simply been hallucinating the whole thing. Shinji glanced down the darkened hallway, flashlight dangling from his
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He stepped into the new hall and didn't waste anytime looking for the number that Asch gave him. He knew that unless Asch moved faster than him-it was possible, but not terribly likely-he would have to have crossed paths with Luke in order to get out of the room. He felt good about this; Asch would be in there. Frustrated, but definitely in there, and they would talk about what happened. It was possible it could even be done before Guy arrived, so his best friend wouldn't have to deal with speaking to Asch.
His body turned and moved him toward the room itself: M22. Though Luke hadn't had much of a chance notate it, he'd made sure to memorize it. There wasn't any other time that Asch would actually give him a chance to do this. And in the future, he realized he might have to make it so Asch didn't have much of a choice.
Disappointment hit him immediately when he stepped inside. There was no Asch, no familiar scowl and red hair. When Luke looked toward the other side of the room, he saw someone sleeping. Someone that definitely wasn't Asch. He considered waking him, but it didn't seem like a good idea. Whoever it was, they probably wouldn't appreciate Luke bothering them. And it wasn't like he ever thought twice about rifling through someone else's things before-though he doubted he would find anything like gald or apple gels lying around Asch's things.
He worked quickly to move through what remained. The flashlight was there, which was strange. Luke dropped it and looked for whatever else remained, and came upon the pipes that Asch mentioned before. It was with this finding that Luke realized that Asch simply wasn't here. The flashlight was one thing. Without it, he could make his presence unknown, if he wanted to be that daring. But without a weapon, he had no means to defend himself, and Luke knew it was unlikely that Asch would be that reckless, even after everything.
Truthfully, he would have preferred finding that Asch had taken his flashlight and gotten out before Luke found him. It was much better than finding him gone completely.
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Even though the room Guy was looking for was most of the way down the hall, he was only about halfway there when he realized that Luke was standing outside what had to be M22. That seemed strange. If Asch were around, they'd either both be out here or both be inside. Unless Asch had actually locked his door to get Luke to leave him alone? Could the doors even lock from the inside?
There was no point in speculating, though. Frowning to himself, Guy adjusted everything he was carrying (flashlight and the sack of metal in one hand, short sword in the other) and picked up the pace so that he could reach Luke that much faster. He was curious now.
"What happened?" he asked once he was in earshot of his friend. "Did you not get here in time?" Guy found that hard to believe, but you never really knew with Asch.
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"That's not it," he replied, looking somewhat crestfallen. Asch's death had been reversed by this place-twice. And now that he was gone, it meant that he was either alive somewhere or ... Luke wasn't certain. Dead wasn't an option. If he was dead, Luke would know. This place didn't break their connection to that degree, and he remembered what happened before. Asch wouldn't have much strength to give, but their bond was unmistakable.
He turned toward the door. "His flashlight and pipes were here. Wherever he is, he's not looking to protect himself." Luke frowned, shaking his head. "I got here pretty fast. Unless he wanted to avoid me and is hiding, there's no way he could do it. And that doesn't seem like Asch, anyway." All that said, Luke managed to avoid saying the obvious: that Asch was gone. He figured Guy would pick up on it, anyway.
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As Luke continued to explain, Guy found that his logic was pretty sound. As stupid as Asch was, it didn't make sense for him to run off somewhere while unarmed, even if what he had to choose from were just some pipes. He nodded, arms crossed over his chest as he tried to find a better explanation (for Luke's sake) and came up with nothing. "You're probably right. Still, he could come back. Don't worry too much, all right?" Easy for him to say, true, but he didn't need Luke getting any more down when he was most likely still trying to get over his brainwashing.
It seemed cruel to be pushing Luke onto the next objective, but Guy figured that keeping his friend's mind busy would probably be a good thing at this point. "The guy here who can make weapons... he's free tonight. I organized for us to go see him, if that's okay with you," he finished awkwardly. It was hard to offer a proper consolation when it was about Asch, and Guy felt bad for that. But he didn't want to seem insincere, either.
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"All right," he said, making no comment on Asch. Again, he wasn't pushing it. It was hard enough for Guy to hear him caring about his original; he didn't want him to keep having to give false consolation. "We'll head over there, then. It probably means we won't get upstairs tonight unless we move fast, huh?" Not that this was a problem. That just meant they would have to move in that direction the next night, and since he was going to be out with Anise all day, maybe she could come with them next time.
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When Luke mentioned that they probably wouldn't be able to get upstairs after this change of events, Guy gave it some thought and then shook his head. "We might still be able to, depending on how fast we move." There was no point in lingering around here if Asch was nowhere to be found, and so Guy started to head back the way he'd come, wanting to get them moving right away. "It is out of our way, but we probably won't run into any trouble on the way." That was his hope, anyway. Monster attacks around the halls were fairly rare.
[To here.]
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