NIGHTSHIFT 52: M31-M40 Hallway
[Currently M36]Touya had thought that the last vestiges of his exhaustion due to the drain of his power had all but vanished, but apparently it had made one last stand. Touya awoke briefly when his nurse had brought in dinner, the last thing he remembered being talking with Yue in the hall
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Sighing, the boy took the scissors Nataku had given him just days before and cut a hole in the seat of his pants for his tail. Nataku was gone, too. He'd been replaced with a kid that had red hair and with whom Ritsuka hadn't talked much yet. It wasn't so much the other kid's fault though. Ritsuka hadn't been much in the mood for talking as of late either.
With his pants back on and his tail free from being sat on or otherwise cramped up, Ritsuka went about preparing for the night. He had to do something. He couldn't just--
The intercom came on and Ritsuka turned his head toward it, narrowing his eyes. That bastard was hurting more people, maybe even killing them, and Ritsuka had no idea how to get to him or stop him. Well, even without an idea he sure could try. He knew it was upstairs somewhere. People whispered about the fabled third floor, right? There had to be some way up there. Stairs or an elevator or something.
Suddenly, the lights burst to life and Ritsuka dropped to the ground, covering his ears as his extra pair flattened against his skull. The sound of the electricity surging wasn't extremely painful, but it bothered his cat ears and sent them ringing. What an annoyance...even if it meant the lights were on. Ritsuka glared at the intercom and opened his closet, pausing as he realized there were things in there that did not belong to him. "...Just what is going on tonight?"
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"Nataku's former roommate in M35," Yuffie reminded herself, out of impatience rather than any real need. "Nataku. M35. M35, Nataku."
Who's the roommate? she wondered vaguely, as she kicked up into an aerial cartwheel. It would've been handy if Okita'd been able to tell her that, but-oh well. Too late now, and it wasn't too important. Yuffie just hoped that they wouldn't be jerks about handing over the stuff
Before long, she found herself skidding to a stop outside the room. No delays; good. Hopefully she'd still be able to beat Okita back to his room. "Knock knock," she called out, before rapping lightly against the door. "Anybody home?"
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Peeking his head around the corner, he went to the door and opened it - just a bit - to look out at the person in the hall. Thanks to the lights being on (if dimly), he could see that it was a girl, about half a head taller than him. She wasn't wearing the usual Institute uniform though and that set Ritskua's cat ears back. The Special Counseling patients didn't travel though and they certainly didn't knock before breaking someone in half and sending them sailing, so he opened the door a little wider. "Can...I help you?"
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All the same, now she was really hoping that there wasn't going to be any trouble. She'd never had any trouble picking on kids (or anybody, really; a target was a target when they had something you needed-not just wanted, needed), but it wouldn't do a whole lot of good for the History Club's reputation if word got out.
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She rocked back on her heels and it seemed like she was over it, so his ears started to perk up again. At least until she mentioned Nataku. That was a sore spot like nothing else and Ritsuka dropped his eyes slightly as he clenched his jaws to stop from saying anything stupid like how he was sorry or whatever else. It took him a moment, but he eventually nodded and stepped aside to allow the girl to come in. "I think there are some of his things in my closet. I found them just now."
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Besides, if there was enough stuff, it might be a good idea to have both her hands free just long enough to throw together some kind of carry sack. She eyed the sheets covering both of the beds contemplatively, then the pillow cases. Both would work, depending… but! No point in going near 'em, until she knew it'd be necessary. "I'm Yuffie, by the way," she added. It was easier than trying to offer some… platitude, or whatever. The kid had lost his roommate; Yuffie'd been happy enough to be rid of Sen, but who knew? Maybe some people actually got close to the people they'd been forced to share space with.
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She was so cheerful. It reminded him of the Zero twins. Maybe that was what it was.
"Ritsuka," he replied automatically at the self-introduction. "Aoyagi Ritsuka." His tail flicked behind him as he recognized her name from the bulletin board and then he motioned to his closet. If she wanted to grab it, she was welcome to it. Even if these were the only things Ritsuka had left of Nataku, from his brief look at them, the things had almost all been weapons which was the last thing Ritsuka could use, or would want, as a memento. He would have preferred a photograph, something... Something like what Soubi had left him. A painting, memories, something. Instead, there were things meant to hurt people.
Ritsuka turned away and sat on his bed. "Go ahead. I think there's a weapon in there though, so be careful."
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"Nice t'meet'cha, Ritsuka!" she said instead, flashing a grin at him over her shoulder. And, just to spite herself, she added, "You're probably from Japan, huh? I think Landel's got a thing for you guys. It's weird."
It was a blasé assumption, without a whole lot of thought behind it. Yuffie was a little preoccupied rooting through the lil' guy's closet for whatever his old roomie had left behind. She found it all soon enough; clothes, a gun, a box full of ammo, a half bottle of whisky, a pack of cigarettes-ew-and a couple of keys… a machete, and then six scalpels. Yuffie whistled under her breath, shaking her head. "Somebody sure was busy…" There was no way she'd be able to haul everything back to Okita's room bare-handed.
… Wouldn't be able to haul it all back to her room, either…
Yuffie shook the temptation off, though a brief, sly little grin told all. With a hop and a skip, the young ninja whirled her way over to the unoccupied bed. "I'm gonna borrow a pillowca- ah…" Was it just her, or had her shadow just… moved? On it's own? Disquiet jolted in the pit of her stomach. "Eheh… What was I saying? Oh, right. Pillowcase! I'll be takin' one~."
From there, it didn't take too long for Yuffie to pack everything. She was used to cramming whatever she could carry into small, makeshift carry-bags; it was a skill that'd been honed during her years as the world's best materia hunter. Even the weapons found their way in, safe and careful and without incident.
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Ritsuka himself hadn't taken the time to look. Or rather, he hadn't had the time to look before Yuffie had appeared. It wasn't in his nature to pry into other people's business more than necessary, though, so he sat on the bed, watching her to make sure she didn't suddenly go crazy with the sword at her waist. He didn't think she would, but weapons made Ritsuka nervous as a rule of thumb.
"Hey, wai--" He wanted to protest her theft of his roommate's pillow, but the deed was done before he had a chance. Even with the way she'd paused, distracted by something Ritsuka couldn't see. "You could have asked, you know," he shot back as Yuffie crammed everything into the pillowcase. Even if the items tended to magically pop back every night, that bed wasn't hers (not that it was his, either) and Ritsuka didn't really want to explain to his roommate why he let some random girl steal his bedding. "You got everything you need?"
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She slipped into a slow, off-balance pirouette, and twirled all the way back to her shuriken. Now that she had what she'd come for, there was no reason to hang around. Maybe if the kid had been somebody super interesting, kitty-bits aside, she'd have lingered… dug around a little here, pick pocketed a little there… but, no.
"Looks like that's everything." Her movement didn't stop when she scooped up her shuriken. It carried on, flowing jauntily from a spin into a hopping skip as she headed for the door. Her creeping, wavering shadow haunted her out of the corner of her eyes, but she ignored it with everything she had. "Thanks a bunch, Ritsuka! I'll see you around, maybe"
Or not. With one last, blindingly bright grin, Yuffie slipped out of the door, tapped it shut behind herself with the heel of one boot, and pranced away down the hall.
[Back out here
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At least she'd only taken what she'd come for and hadn't robbed Ritsuka blind of what little he had. Not that he thought she would, but there had been something in the way she'd eyed the bedding that made Ritsuka think that she possibly did this taking other peoples' stuff thing pretty regularly.
He would have said goodbye, but Yuffie was gone before he had a chance. Instead, he went to his closet and pulled his backpack out. Careful not to jostle the healing wound on his neck as he slipped it over his shoulders, Ritsuka sighed and decided he'd go out and try to do something tonight. Muraki hadn't wanted him to run out recklessly, but if he didn't start picking up medical supplies, he'd be useless tomorrow evening. With one more look at the room and a silent goodbye to Nataku, Ritsuka headed out for the evening.
[to here]
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