Night 51: Ballroom

[hajike_tobiume]

[from here]The flickering glow of torches seeped up the stairs as Momo lead her group down into the belly of the beast. It was a warmer glow, inviting almost, though the shinigami knew better than to expect such a welcome. On the contrary, the warmth was a warning unto itself

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[zack_fair]

So Aidou had only sort of known Gaara, even though they'd been roommates? That probably meant that Gaara hadn't been around for much time before; more than that, it had been a while ago. So this was more or less a clean slate for the redhead. Not that that was necessarily a good thing, but Zack didn't think it was something he should drive himself crazy about, either.

At least Zack could be pretty certain that he had never been here before. Seeing how he'd been dead until he'd woken up here, that would be pretty impossible, wouldn't it? And no one had ever mentioned it to him, so he figured he was safe.

Not that that mattered, since they had managed to make it all the way to the ballroom despite the interruptions. Zack took in the impressive sight once more, and was glad to see that the large area was monster-less this time around. Not that tussling with that fire-breathing demon hadn't been fun, but...

There were other patients ahead of them, though. He didn't recognize any of them, but he did have to wonder if they were after the same thing that they were. One of those miniature artifact things, right? Ahh, but he had to follow Aidou's lead from here on out.

"So," he said, eyeing the blond, "where to now?" There were a few doors to choose from, after all.

[buryyourdemons]

There was much information to be picked apart that were buried within the last minutes. The blond had been his cellmate. Like the boy he was roomed with currently. When Gaara was here last. He could wonder at the interactions, but if the man was the same as he was currently, the Suna-nin couldn't see the conversations going far. So, in that, at least, he shouldn't be concerned about a lack of security.

With sense on that matter regained, it could rise neatly to all but shatter at the Uchiha's words. If there had been cohesiveness to the explanation, he could have accepted it. Accepted the fact that he had been previously kidnapped to the same place and retained no memory of it. But the time didn't match. Sasuke spoke of being here weeks, when he had only fled his own village in a shorter time than that. "...You were just seen in less time than that." Days, a week at the longest. If that.

This information slid through him, even as he noted the trapdoor in the fridge. Even as they descended into something that didn't fit in with the quiet institute and dissolving lies at night. His eyes slid from side to side, taking in the surroundings to question later. The trapdoor had already been open. This meant that this place was known to a few at least. So simply another level or was there something beyond that?

[blood_and_pocky]

Aidou was as pleased as the next person to find the ballroom was also unoccupied--at least by any of Landel’s threats. Company was not ideal, but at least other prisoners were easier to deal with.

Debatably. The odd prisoner out within their own group was pulling up the rear and obviously working to process the impossibilities that he--and those who lasted more than a few days--encountered each day and added to the lists in the periphery of their thoughts just as quickly. The noble didn’t care to know how or why, but there was no denying this Gaara was different from the first one, and that it was likely he wouldn’t remember Sasuke in the same way. Knowing so little about the unsociable boy as he did, though, the dynamics at play behind Gaara’s comment were a little curious to him.

A certain amount of reservation. More often than not, it was what most of Sasuke’s acquaintances from home tended to exhibit towards him, and not merely because of his injury

Jumping the last three steps, Aidou gave Zack‘s question a moment before inclining his head to the southernmost door. “There.” For once another of the hospital’s hounding curiosities was within reach.