Clearing the last stretch of hallway, Link arrived at the door to the medical wing. Taking a steadying breath for whatever might be waiting for him, the Hylian gave the lock a good bashing with his light before pushing it open.
The door to the medical wing was already open. Soma frowned slightly as she approached it, trying the knob with her free hand. Broken. So someone else was ahead of her. That made sense--she'd had to stop by Lingormr's room before coming here--but she couldn't help but feel apprehensive all the same.
Lingormr was in his room now, though. He wouldn't be in the medical wing. Sliding her handgun free, she switched off the safety and carefully pushed inside.
As reassuring as the sight of other patients in the halls was, she still couldn't help but feel a little nervous. How much time had passed? Hopefully not much.
Link was shocked to see that nobody else was in the hall. He didn't realize that Soma had passed by him while he was in the operating rooms, but still... Why weren't people coming out for the cure? Or at least to get supplies?
"Once we get through those doors," Taura said, pointing at the right set, "we'll have to look around. Be ready for anything," she added. She ran her fingertips over the point of her throwing star, grinning. She didn't especially want a fight; that was Goku's job on this team, but that didn't mean she wasn't ready for one. Sick people would be easy prey. Taura wouldn't.
"Ready!" He was more than ready! This was what he lived for: eating and fighting! Enthusiasm got the better of Goku and with the end of his nyoibo slammed to the ground he used its leverage to raise his stubby legs off the floor, kicking the double doors clean open. The sound was startling, to say the least, as they slammed against the walls form that exuberant push.
As they continued on their way, Claude looked toward the halls on the left, staying on guard in case something barreled out of there. It was unlikely, but Claude hadn't been on this side of the first floor enough times to totally discount the possibility. And even if they managed to pass through here without any mishaps, there wasn't any guarantee they'd slip through the med wing unnoticed. Last night was proof of that.
"The door isn't far from here," he announced in case Luke hadn't been this way before. "If we're not the first ones, then it'll probably be unlocked." Which was both good and bad, since it meant they'd spend less time flinging themselves into the door, but it also left them with a potentially altered or stolen clue.
So they were all on the same page. Anise just hoped time was going to be on their side. She and Claude had to hang on for as long as they could. And if other sick people were going in the same direction, she really hoped none of them were going to transform and come after them. They needed this to go smoothly.
The doors to the Medical Wing soon came into sight, and from the way they were left open, it was immediately clear that someone had gone in ahead of them. "I guess it's not just us," Anise commented. Looking around, there weren't any obvious signs of danger. Maybe there really was a chance that this night was going to go better than the last.
The tension between his friends led him to grip his sword extra tight. They all had been here before and perhaps they expected a nasty surprise. That seemed to be the story of their lives, honestly. It could be a pain sometimes. Looking back at Claude, he hoped the man had been used to this sort of lifestyle before hanging out with him because they weren't the safest group. Though, the replica guessed after a few weeks, he had gathered that. If he was still here, that said something about him.
"Huh." Like Claude had said, they weren't the first to come through here. "Alright, everyone stay sharp." It went without saying, especially when he was the one new to this place, but he felt like he should still remind everyone to be cautious.
The look that Claude sent him wasn't missed. Neither of them had bothered to mention what they had seen on the way to meet Anise and Luke, because the other two didn't need the added stress. Guy did his best to shove that whole encounter from his mind, because thinking about it now would only distract him from their current objective.
As they neared the medical wing door, Guy was relieved to see that unlike last night, the walls and floor weren't covered in blood. That meant that there probably weren't any immediate threats to worry about once they headed inside, but it was just as likely that there was a different sort of obstacle that was going to stand in their way.
At Luke's comment, Guy nodded, grabbing tight onto his sword as he headed into the medical wing with the rest of the group.
Sechs could see the entrance to the Medical Wing just on the edge of his flashlight's reach. With little time to lose, Sechs risked another draining sprint down the hall until he reached his destination. Panting quietly in the darkness, he made no hesitation to bring his axe down from his shoulder before shoving his way through the door.
Now was the tricky part of finding the X-Ray Room. Damnit, if only he was with that Ritsuka kid again...
Several groups and individuals had found each other while Lana had been waiting; Dent had vanished into thin air, which didn't suggest he'd come down this way, but it was possible.
She tried to imagine prosecuting a case in a world where people could vanish into thin air and it seemed completely normal. It boggled the mind. She was used to ridiculous theories, sometimes from her own detectives, but this would have half the force quitting. And not the half she'd prefer to see in...less critical occupations.
"I'm not surprised. Larger groups move more slowly, and none of us are exactly athletes." Well, Nina could be, but she hadn't shown any abnormal abilities yet. "We won't be the first ones in there, which is both good and bad. If there's an ambush, we might be able to hear it soon enough to avoid it. If a--" she began, and then started coughing. Best to get it out of her system now. "A reward, then it's already gone. But we're here for information, so that shouldn't bother us."
L's misgivings about the entire enterprise rose to the surface again. The previous night's clue had been real, but it had also been given in such a way that it had caused a number of patients to make plans that were, in his opinion, too risky. In that respect, he felt some relief in seeing that the door to the Medical Wing was open. It could mean that others were also skeptical of the idea that they needed to perform amateur abdominal surgery, or it could mean that they had come to the medical wing to do the surgery... but either way, it spared him and Lana the effort of having to open the door in their current condition.
The aspect of the clues that troubled him was that they had to take on faith both the idea that the messages truly came from Harrington, and the idea that that was a good thing. This clue they were chasing might turn out to be as vague or as discomfiting as the first one. Even if it wasn't, even if what had been left was truly helpful, Lana's words reminded him that someone might already have come and altered it. That idea tempered any relief.
He hated feeling like he was out of good options, and like any or all of it might have been largely illusory, like this could be the latest in the series of hoops to jump through. It rankled to give Landel or Aguilar or anyone else the satisfaction of seeing him do it, yet without knowing for sure, he didn't have any choice--not if it seemed that death was on the table. That increased the frustration and annoyance that he already felt at being ill.
He moved along quietly, trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder and how much he would have preferred to be in bed with a pot of hot tea.
At least they had made it most of the way to their destination with no incident. Even with Nina at his back, he continued to glance behind, partly to keep an eye on her. She didn't seem as if she was about to hit him with the bat; instead, she seemed as alert to their surroundings as he could have wished.
He glanced out into the corridor, letting someone else take the lead. It seemed clear, although two shorter halls were to their right and a stairwell to their left: ambushes could come from either of those. The door to the front room wasn't far off.
"There's a question of why the clues have been so cryptic as to be almost useless... but it's been proved over and over that Landel has the ability to make it physically impossible to talk about certain topics. What if Harrington is unable to give us more explicit information?"
Nina passed him as he spoke, into the lead this time. She at least knew the way to the front door, although she knew that she would have to let someone else head up the front once they were outside.
She had been listening to him the entire time, of course. To both of them. She had pondered over Lana's words about this being atypical from the moment the other woman uttered them. if this was unusual, why? What did that mean?
Not that she was given time to ruminate on it. Walking along she received even more disturbing information. She checked the stairwell and the shorter halls carefully before moving forward.
"You think this is as close as Harrington can get to telling us anything?" she said as she did, sounding obviously disturbed.
"Okay. The coast is clear."
With that, she moved into the main hallway, no waiting for them to follow. She knew that they would.
As they walked closer to the end of the hallway, the former Hero realized the doors to the medical wing were already opened. He stopped before them, looking for any indications that someone or something lurked within. He didn't hear or see anything, but that didn't mean much. For all they knew a NEXT with invisibility could be lying in wait ready to pounce, yet again.
Wild Tiger was really going to be pissed if Lingromr showed up again. What was that saying? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Well, he prayed that wouldn't be the case or he would lose all self-respect for making such an amateur move. Plus he would have to pop the guy one again.
At least there wasn't blood on the floor this time, Barnaby thought to himself. Of course, that wasn't much consolation when they had no idea what to expect on the other side of the door. Squaring his shoulder, he tried to listen for any signs of a struggle up ahead.
All he could hear was the sound of his own breathing, and the heavy thud thud thud of his beating heart. He really shouldn't have felt winded after wheeling himself such a short distance, but Barnaby didn't have the time to worry about that right then.
"Yes," he answered after a moment. "You should probably go first, though."
After patiently waiting for Kotetsu to lead the way, Barnaby wheeled himself into the med wing.
But that was neither here nor there. Nothing to do with this outcome but everything, for he and Nigredo... And Rubedo... None of them would have existed but for those abominable experiments, and it was so ironic, really. That it could be said he was still serving his purpose. Even now.
He breathed out a sigh, a corruption of a laugh, and just continued on.
Byrne continued on as well, remaining blissfully ignorant of the two children that were currently stalking him like vultures. His focus was reserved instead for the gnawing pain in his abdomen and the sounds of footsteps all around him. Calm footsteps, thankfully.
Once again, there were many patients out in the hallway but no monsters that could be seen or heard, so the prosecutor reassured himself that he was in no immediate danger. As long as the living alarms around him were safe, he was safe, too. (But for how long? Who knew what the hell was going on in the X-Ray room itself? Wasn't hard to imagine a huge struggle going on in there, whether it be between the patients themselves or an unwelcome Institute-bred 'guest'...)
No time to worry. He'd deal with any danger when he got to it. For now, keep going; the medical wing door was practically within sight now. At least, Byrne was mostly sure that was the med wing door. He remembered it being on that side of this particular hallway when he'd looked at his maps, and, not to mention, everyone else around him was going towards it. So it had to be it. Right?
(Yes, this would be his first time going into the medical wing ever, and he had little idea of what to expect. Just follow the traffic - that was his plan for now. They probably knew where they were headed...hopefully.)
There was plenty about Albedo's world she didn't know about, and what she did know didn't necessarily provide a great deal of illumination. There was only so much someone like her could understand about a world so different from her own; things like child soldiers and retro viruses were things she knew of, but the intimate details eluded her.
She didn't bother to ask. There were unspoken rules for this sort of thing, weren't there? Don't ask, don't tell.
"I'll follow your lead," Yomi said instead. She'd been the leader in name as well as in nature for a long time, but since this wasn't her game, she wouldn't play it for him. "Unless you want me to sit back on this one."
[ and get this going since I had to hiatus for so long. >_< ]
Follow his lead. Now there was something he hadn't heard before.
This was as good as anything. A dark hall, a good amount of meters away from the dreary sheep near the sun room door. "You can act how you want," he replied good-naturedly to Yomi, before speeding up a step and raising a hand to grab the attention as he called out to the man before them. "Um. Hello? Do you have a moment?"
A polite, unsure child. A perfect ruse if not for the weaponry strapped at his back.
A polite, unsure child that Byrne was definitely not going to ignore.
...Even if he did have an arsenal of weapons on his person. But it was too dark for the prosecutor to notice that right away. He just heard a voice calling out to him, which stopped him even though he wasn't completely sure that it was calling out to him specifically. Then he looked, and sure enough, a boy he'd only seen in passing during the day was approaching him, looking like he might be bothered by something. Someone else was not far behind him - an older girl, teenager looked like - but the boy seemed to be the one in need, so Byrne's attention was on him for now. (He wished he could say he was surprised to see someone so young in this place, but Landel was making it hard to be surprised by anything anymore...)
"Yes?" Byrne's hand pulled away from his stomach almost immediately as he turned around to face the boy. If the kid needed something, it wouldn't be right to look very obviously like a sick patient - or at the very least, someone who probably needed more help than him.
Wow, did that sentiment barely last a few seconds before he finally noticed something very obviously wrong with the boy. Specifically, the fact that he had knives at his sides and on his back--wh--were those SHOTGUNS? Where did he--?! The older man's face had perhaps never been paler in his whole life. What--how--why?!
...Okay. Okay. That threw him off a bit. Let's pretend we're not bothered by this. Yes. "Is, uh..." Trailing off, still staring. Okay, so maybe it threw him off a lot. Understandably so! Who--what kind of kid walked around with all those weapons strapped to them!? That's dangerous! That's--no, no, try again. Calmly. Or at least try to be. "Is something wrong?"
Dangerous words, those. Allowing her to act whoever she wanted was just asking for trouble.
Yomi smiled, nonetheless. When all things were said and done, the boy had less to fear from her than most.
(The rest of the world, but not him.)
She waited to see what he was going to do to lure in the shambling figure. When he flagged the man down, as innocent and right-minded as any normal child, she took a few steps forward, keeping her grip on her katana loose, hand choked up too high on the handle to be proper.
"Hey, don't just run up to people," Yomi said to the boy. Albedo of all people would have been able to pick up on the change in the way she spoke. Gone was the drawling confidence and caustic amusement; she layered her tone like an onion, projecting uncertainty, exasperation, and wariness in varying degrees. The very picture of a young woman with worries and feelings, as if the old Yomi or Yoshiko were standing in her place, not the inhuman thing she truly was. "He might be--"
A pause, an intake of breath.
"Well, I... guess you don't look like one of the brainwashed people, mister."
...Oh, Yomi was effortlessly perfect. He remembered, somewhere inside of him, how much he had loved her that night in the hardware store in Doyleton. How she had looked, covered in blood and beautiful. This was nothing like that, but it was a similar sort all the same. How the inhuman interact with monsters and men. It was a show and a sensation, all the same.
Albedo bit his lip slightly, and looked back at Yomi--only she, close as they were, would be able to see the amusement in his eyes. Otherwise, he was the perfect child trying to be brave--trying to understand and make sense of the mess they were in, by any means necessary.
At least the latter half of that sentence was truthful. Perhaps the man should have paid more attention to the weapons and less to their visage. Monsters worn the skin of men for ages past, after all. Still. It only proved helpful. It wasn't as if Albedo was depending on a long conversation.
Yomi provided a starter, and Albedo accepted her ruse. He glanced back to the man, trained eyes running over his form and figure. "There're... some patients... Some who are sick. They start attacking people." Albedo's eyes widened to show how extreme that was. What an irony. "Are you sick, too, mister... um?" The boy continued, a hesitant prompt for a name.
Hopefully, in response to that, Albedo would have the two items needed. And this ruse would end as quickly as it started.
"Byrne," the prosecutor answered at the boy's prompt, concerned and confused eyes darting back and forth between him and the older girl with him. For kids that were armed better than anyone Byrne had ever seen in this place (the girl even had a sword that he just now noticed - and never mind those shotguns), they sure seemed to be frightened regardless of their current state. Not that Byrne could really blame them. Just the idea of normal people becoming bloodthirsty, otherworldly monsters was downright unsettling even to an adult, never mind a child. It was worse not knowing who exactly was going to change. They had every right to be wary.
But even so, he certainly didn't want them to get the wrong idea about him. "I'm...well. I'm not one of the people Landel said would change tonight." I hope, he kept to himself. He smiled, attempting to look as reassuring as he was hopefully sounding, but the weariness on his face and the rash on his arm were as clear as day. Saying he was ill would only be stating the obvious. Yet, he was avoiding verbally confirming what the kids were fearing. Better to not upset them more than they already seemed to be.
"Anyway, are you going to look for the second clue, too?" It took a bit of willpower to ask that question and not 'where the hell did you find two shotguns?', but it was better to see what they were doing and if they needed any help first.
All they needed now was a games show buzzer and an announcer to say, "We have a winner!"
Yomi tilted her head. Strangely enough, the man probably would have been safer had he been one of the five scheduled to transform. One didn't need to be a rotting carcass of a monster to start attacking people in the halls; Landel had seen to that with his offer to Albedo.
And despite the reddened skin on his arm, and the obvious tell of illness, the man claimed to not be one who would yet change. Well. That made everything quite simple.
Of course, Albedo could go after patients who were already shifted, but the fine doctor had said infected patients, and it was simpler to bring down a human man than it was for an unknown beast. "I'm afraid not," the boy said, with a complete change in tone. The unsurity was lost, given way for an eloquent type of speech, mocking around the edges, that sat strange on a twelve-year-old. A hand went up to the grip of one shotgun, the other hand untying what was keeping it in place.
Nigredo had given him that nice little pistol, something more familiar to be sure, but Albedo knew his weaponry like any good soldier. At this range, a shotgun blast, a scatter spray of pellets pummeling the form, would be easily fatal with no regeneration. And the simple solution, in this case, was the one the entity chose.
The gun was pointed at the man almost languidly, a familiarity with the weapon easy to see in his stance, despite the size. "I have other things in mind, though-- Take heart," he said, smiling brightly, an inhuman display of teeth. "You'll be cured of your illness after all."
This was partly her fault, wasn't it? All of it. The complete and total lack of empathy, the detachment, the hush right before a life was snuffed out. She had had a hand in this, even if her role had merely been to say nothing when she should have spoken up.
However, should have was different than could. In a way, it made sense that she would balance out doing something good with doing something terrible. The sesshouseki had to keep the scales balanced.
And she couldn't... she couldn't do anything to stop it.
The shotgun fired, rattling her eardrums, but Yomi didn't so much as blink as the man's body jerked under the impact.
At first, there was confusion. (Yes, more than Byrne was already feeling.) The boy's expression and tone changed from insecure to oddly unsettling in an instant. And then, a moment later, there was a shotgun being pointed directly at him by a boy who clearly knew how to use it properly. A boy who was once scared but was now smiling, his levels of unsettling rising to alarming levels.
Byrne should have questioned that arsenal out loud before anything else. He should have been more suspicious. He shouldn't have believed that no patient would ever single him out for slaughter like this, especially not a child. But he'd made a serious mistake - one he would never be making again, as the deafening sound of the shotgun confirmed.
The situation turned on him too quickly to allow for any sort of proper reaction. No time for any meaningful last thoughts beyond Is he really about to--. Just an explosion, and then darkness. Any pain the prosecutor might have felt from the blast didn't last long, either. The powerful spray of pellets that tore through his body - blood - his final startled gasp of breath -
He barely recognized any of it, if at all.
And then, the force of the shot having knocked Byrne off his feet, he fell backwards to the floor, eyes remaining wide open with shock and fear. And just like that...that was it.
Kyousuke had thought he'd be able to adjust to the pain as he walked, but it didn't seem to be easing up a bit. He wondered if he should pause for a moment, although he doubted it would help very much. Maybe if they got to that clue, he could find somewhere in the medical wing to rest for the remainder of the night. That might be for the best...
But whether he intended to stop or not, he was forced into it when he was seized with a sudden fit of coughs. It caused him to hunch forward a little, struggling to stay upright; he could have doubled over in pain right there from the pressure it put on his ribs. It passed fairly quickly, but when it did subside, he could taste something distinctly metallic. He pulled his hand away from his mouth slowly and held it front of him. ... There was a dark splotch on it. There was only a faint trace, but there was no doubt this was blood.
For a moment, all he could do was stare, before slowly curling his fingers around the stain, bringing his hand into a fist so tight it drained all color from his knuckles. He lowered it to his side, but he didn't lessen his grip any, and clicked his tongue. That... probably wasn't a good sign.
The Doctor was glad to hear that it was at least Tsurugi's second night—not for the fact that he'd been here longer than a day already, but for the fact this wasn't his first venture outside his room. Hopefully it meant that the boy already had some idea of what to expect (and if he'd run into a brainwashed patient last night, it seemed he did).
He was silent at Tsurugi's question, wanting to think it over for just a moment instead of working things through out loud as he often did. He'd been here for a month and still wasn't sure—well and truly sure—of the 'point of all this'. He had his guesses, he had the theories that could be pieced together from the intercom and radio and bulletin board, but...
Well, even if he didn't have the full answer, he could at least share what he did know. It may not have been reassuring, but surely it was better than knowing nothing at all. He opened his mouth to do so, but before he got a single word out, Tsurugi started coughing.
That couldn't be good. If it had been just a cough or two, that would be one thing—but he was obviously struggling during the brief fit, and the Doctor saw the stain on his hand. Perhaps the boy's injury was more serious than he'd been led to believe.
"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked carefully, crouching down slightly to close the gap in their heights, so he could look Tsurugi in the eye. It was, in some respects, a pointless question—of course Tsurugi wasn't alright; he was already injured before, and now he'd just coughed up blood. He groaned, and added, "Oh, I should have made you rest after all..."
Unfortunately, it was too late to turn back now; it would take longer to get Tsurugi back to a room than it would to forge ahead into the medical wing. "Do you think you can make it a little further? We could find somewhere for you to rest once we're out of the hall."
Was he alright? The question sent a surge of frustration through Kyousuke, less for the concern, and more because he had no real answer. What did he expect him to say? He couldn't ignore what just happened. But on the other hand? He was still standing. Still breathing. Getting air in was no problem at all, it was just the pain that made it so hard. ... That had to count for something.
"I think that was all of it," he answered instead, trying to swallow back down the taste in his mouth. It was evasive, but he was telling the truth—it didn't feel like he was going to start again for the time being. He wasn't sure beyond doubt that it would last, but maybe if he didn't aggravate things... Either way, he couldn't stop here, in the middle of a hallway.
"... It's fine. If the x-ray room comes first, I'll go there. If somewhere to rest does, I'll stop. A little farther won't make much of a difference." Or so he had to hope. He did have to grit his teeth as he started walking, but it couldn't be helped. He'd just have to take a careful pace until they could make it somewhere that looked safer.
The Doctor frowned at Tsurugi's answer, but nodded. He was... glad that the boy thought he'd be fine to go a bit further (there was no way he could just abandon the boy after bringing him along this far), but... Would it really be alright?
"If you need to stop for a moment, let me know," he insisted as they started walking again, heading for the already-open doors of the medical wing.
Beyond the Sun Room doors and down the next hallway, Kurogane followed at a safe distance until he saw the group disappear through another set of doors. He came to a stop outside and waited. Their words were still enough for him to continue and it seemed others had been there before even the group he'd tailed.
A lot were stuck under Landel's plot. He didn't know how many, but he was doing everything in his power to make him one less of those.
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The door to the medical wing was already open. Soma frowned slightly as she approached it, trying the knob with her free hand. Broken. So someone else was ahead of her. That made sense--she'd had to stop by Lingormr's room before coming here--but she couldn't help but feel apprehensive all the same.
Lingormr was in his room now, though. He wouldn't be in the medical wing. Sliding her handgun free, she switched off the safety and carefully pushed inside.
[to here]
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As reassuring as the sight of other patients in the halls was, she still couldn't help but feel a little nervous. How much time had passed? Hopefully not much.
[to here]
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Link was shocked to see that nobody else was in the hall. He didn't realize that Soma had passed by him while he was in the operating rooms, but still... Why weren't people coming out for the cure? Or at least to get supplies?
[To here]
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"Once we get through those doors," Taura said, pointing at the right set, "we'll have to look around. Be ready for anything," she added. She ran her fingertips over the point of her throwing star, grinning. She didn't especially want a fight; that was Goku's job on this team, but that didn't mean she wasn't ready for one. Sick people would be easy prey. Taura wouldn't.
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[To here]
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As they continued on their way, Claude looked toward the halls on the left, staying on guard in case something barreled out of there. It was unlikely, but Claude hadn't been on this side of the first floor enough times to totally discount the possibility. And even if they managed to pass through here without any mishaps, there wasn't any guarantee they'd slip through the med wing unnoticed. Last night was proof of that.
"The door isn't far from here," he announced in case Luke hadn't been this way before. "If we're not the first ones, then it'll probably be unlocked." Which was both good and bad, since it meant they'd spend less time flinging themselves into the door, but it also left them with a potentially altered or stolen clue.
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The doors to the Medical Wing soon came into sight, and from the way they were left open, it was immediately clear that someone had gone in ahead of them. "I guess it's not just us," Anise commented. Looking around, there weren't any obvious signs of danger. Maybe there really was a chance that this night was going to go better than the last.
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"Huh." Like Claude had said, they weren't the first to come through here. "Alright, everyone stay sharp." It went without saying, especially when he was the one new to this place, but he felt like he should still remind everyone to be cautious.
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As they neared the medical wing door, Guy was relieved to see that unlike last night, the walls and floor weren't covered in blood. That meant that there probably weren't any immediate threats to worry about once they headed inside, but it was just as likely that there was a different sort of obstacle that was going to stand in their way.
At Luke's comment, Guy nodded, grabbing tight onto his sword as he headed into the medical wing with the rest of the group.
[To here.]
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Almost there...
Sechs could see the entrance to the Medical Wing just on the edge of his flashlight's reach. With little time to lose, Sechs risked another draining sprint down the hall until he reached his destination. Panting quietly in the darkness, he made no hesitation to bring his axe down from his shoulder before shoving his way through the door.
Now was the tricky part of finding the X-Ray Room. Damnit, if only he was with that Ritsuka kid again...
[To here.]
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As the little group entered the hallway, Nina gasped. She had already seen the door to the medical wing.
"It's open!" she said. Someone had gotten there first. But who?
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She tried to imagine prosecuting a case in a world where people could vanish into thin air and it seemed completely normal. It boggled the mind. She was used to ridiculous theories, sometimes from her own detectives, but this would have half the force quitting. And not the half she'd prefer to see in...less critical occupations.
"I'm not surprised. Larger groups move more slowly, and none of us are exactly athletes." Well, Nina could be, but she hadn't shown any abnormal abilities yet. "We won't be the first ones in there, which is both good and bad. If there's an ambush, we might be able to hear it soon enough to avoid it. If a--" she began, and then started coughing. Best to get it out of her system now. "A reward, then it's already gone. But we're here for information, so that shouldn't bother us."
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The aspect of the clues that troubled him was that they had to take on faith both the idea that the messages truly came from Harrington, and the idea that that was a good thing. This clue they were chasing might turn out to be as vague or as discomfiting as the first one. Even if it wasn't, even if what had been left was truly helpful, Lana's words reminded him that someone might already have come and altered it. That idea tempered any relief.
He hated feeling like he was out of good options, and like any or all of it might have been largely illusory, like this could be the latest in the series of hoops to jump through. It rankled to give Landel or Aguilar or anyone else the satisfaction of seeing him do it, yet without knowing for sure, he didn't have any choice--not if it seemed that death was on the table. That increased the frustration and annoyance that he already felt at being ill.
He moved along quietly, trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder and how much he would have preferred to be in bed with a pot of hot tea.
At least they had made it most of the way to their destination with no incident. Even with Nina at his back, he continued to glance behind, partly to keep an eye on her. She didn't seem as if she was about to hit him with the bat; instead, she seemed as alert to their surroundings as he could have wished.
[To here.]
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He glanced out into the corridor, letting someone else take the lead. It seemed clear, although two shorter halls were to their right and a stairwell to their left: ambushes could come from either of those. The door to the front room wasn't far off.
"There's a question of why the clues have been so cryptic as to be almost useless... but it's been proved over and over that Landel has the ability to make it physically impossible to talk about certain topics. What if Harrington is unable to give us more explicit information?"
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She had been listening to him the entire time, of course. To both of them. She had pondered over Lana's words about this being atypical from the moment the other woman uttered them. if this was unusual, why? What did that mean?
Not that she was given time to ruminate on it. Walking along she received even more disturbing information. She checked the stairwell and the shorter halls carefully before moving forward.
"You think this is as close as Harrington can get to telling us anything?" she said as she did, sounding obviously disturbed.
"Okay. The coast is clear."
With that, she moved into the main hallway, no waiting for them to follow. She knew that they would.
[To here.]
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As they walked closer to the end of the hallway, the former Hero realized the doors to the medical wing were already opened. He stopped before them, looking for any indications that someone or something lurked within. He didn't hear or see anything, but that didn't mean much. For all they knew a NEXT with invisibility could be lying in wait ready to pounce, yet again.
Wild Tiger was really going to be pissed if Lingromr showed up again. What was that saying? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Well, he prayed that wouldn't be the case or he would lose all self-respect for making such an amateur move. Plus he would have to pop the guy one again.
"Ready?" he asked his partner.
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All he could hear was the sound of his own breathing, and the heavy thud thud thud of his beating heart. He really shouldn't have felt winded after wheeling himself such a short distance, but Barnaby didn't have the time to worry about that right then.
"Yes," he answered after a moment. "You should probably go first, though."
After patiently waiting for Kotetsu to lead the way, Barnaby wheeled himself into the med wing.
((To here.))
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But that was neither here nor there. Nothing to do with this outcome but everything, for he and Nigredo... And Rubedo... None of them would have existed but for those abominable experiments, and it was so ironic, really. That it could be said he was still serving his purpose. Even now.
He breathed out a sigh, a corruption of a laugh, and just continued on.
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Once again, there were many patients out in the hallway but no monsters that could be seen or heard, so the prosecutor reassured himself that he was in no immediate danger. As long as the living alarms around him were safe, he was safe, too. (But for how long? Who knew what the hell was going on in the X-Ray room itself? Wasn't hard to imagine a huge struggle going on in there, whether it be between the patients themselves or an unwelcome Institute-bred 'guest'...)
No time to worry. He'd deal with any danger when he got to it. For now, keep going; the medical wing door was practically within sight now. At least, Byrne was mostly sure that was the med wing door. He remembered it being on that side of this particular hallway when he'd looked at his maps, and, not to mention, everyone else around him was going towards it. So it had to be it. Right?
(Yes, this would be his first time going into the medical wing ever, and he had little idea of what to expect. Just follow the traffic - that was his plan for now. They probably knew where they were headed...hopefully.)
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She didn't bother to ask. There were unspoken rules for this sort of thing, weren't there? Don't ask, don't tell.
"I'll follow your lead," Yomi said instead. She'd been the leader in name as well as in nature for a long time, but since this wasn't her game, she wouldn't play it for him. "Unless you want me to sit back on this one."
just gonna time slip
Follow his lead. Now there was something he hadn't heard before.
This was as good as anything. A dark hall, a good amount of meters away from the dreary sheep near the sun room door. "You can act how you want," he replied good-naturedly to Yomi, before speeding up a step and raising a hand to grab the attention as he called out to the man before them. "Um. Hello? Do you have a moment?"
A polite, unsure child. A perfect ruse if not for the weaponry strapped at his back.
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...Even if he did have an arsenal of weapons on his person. But it was too dark for the prosecutor to notice that right away. He just heard a voice calling out to him, which stopped him even though he wasn't completely sure that it was calling out to him specifically. Then he looked, and sure enough, a boy he'd only seen in passing during the day was approaching him, looking like he might be bothered by something. Someone else was not far behind him - an older girl, teenager looked like - but the boy seemed to be the one in need, so Byrne's attention was on him for now. (He wished he could say he was surprised to see someone so young in this place, but Landel was making it hard to be surprised by anything anymore...)
"Yes?" Byrne's hand pulled away from his stomach almost immediately as he turned around to face the boy. If the kid needed something, it wouldn't be right to look very obviously like a sick patient - or at the very least, someone who probably needed more help than him.
Wow, did that sentiment barely last a few seconds before he finally noticed something very obviously wrong with the boy. Specifically, the fact that he had knives at his sides and on his back--wh--were those SHOTGUNS? Where did he--?! The older man's face had perhaps never been paler in his whole life. What--how--why?!
...Okay. Okay. That threw him off a bit. Let's pretend we're not bothered by this. Yes. "Is, uh..." Trailing off, still staring. Okay, so maybe it threw him off a lot. Understandably so! Who--what kind of kid walked around with all those weapons strapped to them!? That's dangerous! That's--no, no, try again. Calmly. Or at least try to be. "Is something wrong?"
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Yomi smiled, nonetheless. When all things were said and done, the boy had less to fear from her than most.
(The rest of the world, but not him.)
She waited to see what he was going to do to lure in the shambling figure. When he flagged the man down, as innocent and right-minded as any normal child, she took a few steps forward, keeping her grip on her katana loose, hand choked up too high on the handle to be proper.
"Hey, don't just run up to people," Yomi said to the boy. Albedo of all people would have been able to pick up on the change in the way she spoke. Gone was the drawling confidence and caustic amusement; she layered her tone like an onion, projecting uncertainty, exasperation, and wariness in varying degrees. The very picture of a young woman with worries and feelings, as if the old Yomi or Yoshiko were standing in her place, not the inhuman thing she truly was. "He might be--"
A pause, an intake of breath.
"Well, I... guess you don't look like one of the brainwashed people, mister."
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Albedo bit his lip slightly, and looked back at Yomi--only she, close as they were, would be able to see the amusement in his eyes. Otherwise, he was the perfect child trying to be brave--trying to understand and make sense of the mess they were in, by any means necessary.
At least the latter half of that sentence was truthful. Perhaps the man should have paid more attention to the weapons and less to their visage. Monsters worn the skin of men for ages past, after all. Still. It only proved helpful. It wasn't as if Albedo was depending on a long conversation.
Yomi provided a starter, and Albedo accepted her ruse. He glanced back to the man, trained eyes running over his form and figure. "There're... some patients... Some who are sick. They start attacking people." Albedo's eyes widened to show how extreme that was. What an irony. "Are you sick, too, mister... um?" The boy continued, a hesitant prompt for a name.
Hopefully, in response to that, Albedo would have the two items needed. And this ruse would end as quickly as it started.
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But even so, he certainly didn't want them to get the wrong idea about him. "I'm...well. I'm not one of the people Landel said would change tonight." I hope, he kept to himself. He smiled, attempting to look as reassuring as he was hopefully sounding, but the weariness on his face and the rash on his arm were as clear as day. Saying he was ill would only be stating the obvious. Yet, he was avoiding verbally confirming what the kids were fearing. Better to not upset them more than they already seemed to be.
"Anyway, are you going to look for the second clue, too?" It took a bit of willpower to ask that question and not 'where the hell did you find two shotguns?', but it was better to see what they were doing and if they needed any help first.
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Yomi tilted her head. Strangely enough, the man probably would have been safer had he been one of the five scheduled to transform. One didn't need to be a rotting carcass of a monster to start attacking people in the halls; Landel had seen to that with his offer to Albedo.
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And despite the reddened skin on his arm, and the obvious tell of illness, the man claimed to not be one who would yet change. Well. That made everything quite simple.
Of course, Albedo could go after patients who were already shifted, but the fine doctor had said infected patients, and it was simpler to bring down a human man than it was for an unknown beast. "I'm afraid not," the boy said, with a complete change in tone. The unsurity was lost, given way for an eloquent type of speech, mocking around the edges, that sat strange on a twelve-year-old. A hand went up to the grip of one shotgun, the other hand untying what was keeping it in place.
Nigredo had given him that nice little pistol, something more familiar to be sure, but Albedo knew his weaponry like any good soldier. At this range, a shotgun blast, a scatter spray of pellets pummeling the form, would be easily fatal with no regeneration. And the simple solution, in this case, was the one the entity chose.
The gun was pointed at the man almost languidly, a familiarity with the weapon easy to see in his stance, despite the size. "I have other things in mind, though-- Take heart," he said, smiling brightly, an inhuman display of teeth. "You'll be cured of your illness after all."
The blast rang out, loud in the dark.
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However, should have was different than could. In a way, it made sense that she would balance out doing something good with doing something terrible. The sesshouseki had to keep the scales balanced.
And she couldn't... she couldn't do anything to stop it.
The shotgun fired, rattling her eardrums, but Yomi didn't so much as blink as the man's body jerked under the impact.
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Byrne should have questioned that arsenal out loud before anything else. He should have been more suspicious. He shouldn't have believed that no patient would ever single him out for slaughter like this, especially not a child. But he'd made a serious mistake - one he would never be making again, as the deafening sound of the shotgun confirmed.
The situation turned on him too quickly to allow for any sort of proper reaction. No time for any meaningful last thoughts beyond Is he really about to--. Just an explosion, and then darkness. Any pain the prosecutor might have felt from the blast didn't last long, either. The powerful spray of pellets that tore through his body - blood - his final startled gasp of breath -
He barely recognized any of it, if at all.
And then, the force of the shot having knocked Byrne off his feet, he fell backwards to the floor, eyes remaining wide open with shock and fear. And just like that...that was it.
That was the end.
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Kyousuke had thought he'd be able to adjust to the pain as he walked, but it didn't seem to be easing up a bit. He wondered if he should pause for a moment, although he doubted it would help very much. Maybe if they got to that clue, he could find somewhere in the medical wing to rest for the remainder of the night. That might be for the best...
But whether he intended to stop or not, he was forced into it when he was seized with a sudden fit of coughs. It caused him to hunch forward a little, struggling to stay upright; he could have doubled over in pain right there from the pressure it put on his ribs. It passed fairly quickly, but when it did subside, he could taste something distinctly metallic. He pulled his hand away from his mouth slowly and held it front of him. ... There was a dark splotch on it. There was only a faint trace, but there was no doubt this was blood.
For a moment, all he could do was stare, before slowly curling his fingers around the stain, bringing his hand into a fist so tight it drained all color from his knuckles. He lowered it to his side, but he didn't lessen his grip any, and clicked his tongue. That... probably wasn't a good sign.
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He was silent at Tsurugi's question, wanting to think it over for just a moment instead of working things through out loud as he often did. He'd been here for a month and still wasn't sure—well and truly sure—of the 'point of all this'. He had his guesses, he had the theories that could be pieced together from the intercom and radio and bulletin board, but...
Well, even if he didn't have the full answer, he could at least share what he did know. It may not have been reassuring, but surely it was better than knowing nothing at all. He opened his mouth to do so, but before he got a single word out, Tsurugi started coughing.
That couldn't be good. If it had been just a cough or two, that would be one thing—but he was obviously struggling during the brief fit, and the Doctor saw the stain on his hand. Perhaps the boy's injury was more serious than he'd been led to believe.
"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked carefully, crouching down slightly to close the gap in their heights, so he could look Tsurugi in the eye. It was, in some respects, a pointless question—of course Tsurugi wasn't alright; he was already injured before, and now he'd just coughed up blood. He groaned, and added, "Oh, I should have made you rest after all..."
Unfortunately, it was too late to turn back now; it would take longer to get Tsurugi back to a room than it would to forge ahead into the medical wing. "Do you think you can make it a little further? We could find somewhere for you to rest once we're out of the hall."
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"I think that was all of it," he answered instead, trying to swallow back down the taste in his mouth. It was evasive, but he was telling the truth—it didn't feel like he was going to start again for the time being. He wasn't sure beyond doubt that it would last, but maybe if he didn't aggravate things... Either way, he couldn't stop here, in the middle of a hallway.
"... It's fine. If the x-ray room comes first, I'll go there. If somewhere to rest does, I'll stop. A little farther won't make much of a difference." Or so he had to hope. He did have to grit his teeth as he started walking, but it couldn't be helped. He'd just have to take a careful pace until they could make it somewhere that looked safer.
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"If you need to stop for a moment, let me know," he insisted as they started walking again, heading for the already-open doors of the medical wing.
[To here]
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Beyond the Sun Room doors and down the next hallway, Kurogane followed at a safe distance until he saw the group disappear through another set of doors. He came to a stop outside and waited. Their words were still enough for him to continue and it seemed others had been there before even the group he'd tailed.
A lot were stuck under Landel's plot. He didn't know how many, but he was doing everything in his power to make him one less of those.