Night 71: Secret Stairs

[ninelivesonce]

[from here]

The stairs looked the same as they had before -- the light flickered as Taura peered up them, searing her sensitive eyes and then leaving them light-blinded in turns. "Let's hope they're right about what's up here."

It would be the perfect place for an ambush, after all -- a single chokepoint, and them rushing towards it like fools, but she did it anyways, beginning the climb up the stairs.

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[knightspirit]

[ from here ]

Kyousuke squinted as he entered the new room, trying to let his eyes adjust to the new, unexpected source of light. It was a strange room... It didn't fit the image of the rest of the institute at night, or of the stereotypical secret passage. In fact, by how bright and modern everything looked, he had to wonder if this had ever really been so secret at all.

For now, he stepped onto the escalator, gripping onto the side tightly as he began to move up. It was slow, and quite a long passage, which kicked his impatience into gear and made it more and more tempting to just run up the stairs, but the slow pace might have been an advantage, since he still wasn't entirely convinced there wasn't anything here. The last thing they needed to do was run directly into a trap.

"I wasn't expecting all this," he mentioned quietly.

[lighthearted]

Sora was shocked to find that the switch actually worked. Not that he thought the others had been lying to them, but it was still a surprise that this passage had been here this whole time and none of them had even known. But how could anyone have realized that they needed to pull out a random book to find this? He still didn't know who had originally found it, but he wished he could thank them.

Sora followed Tsurugi into the next room and looked all around it. It had a tall ceiling to accommodate the escalator. This place was totally differently from the rest of the institute, like it had been put in after everything else. Could that be possible?

There wasn't much time to spend just gaping at everything, though, and so Sora stepped onto the escalator after Tsurugi, clinging to the railing as he spotted the speakers set into the walls along the way up. "Me neither," Sora admitted. "I've been here for months and I had no idea this was even here!"

[knightspirit]

"I wonder if it gets used much," Kyousuke thought aloud. Not so much by the patient populace, as far as he'd heard, but someone must have been making use of it; it looked anything but abandoned. But he guessed the details of the place didn't matter so much. As long as it could get them to where they were going, that was was all that really mattered.

As the stairs pulled the two of them up, the boy's thoughts wandered back to Kratos and Lloyd, and since it looked like this trip would still be a minute, maybe this would be a good point to tell Sora what was going on. "... Listen," he began. "When we get up there, there's something else we should be looking for, too. Do you remember ever seeing something like a gem and a metal plate on the back of Kratos' hand?"

[lighthearted]

Sora had no idea if it was used or not. It definitely looked like it was taken care of, if nothing else, since there weren't cobwebs hanging around or anything like that. Did the nurses go up and down this way? It was a strange thing to think about, but that might be the actual truth of it.

Before he could remark on it either way, though, Tsurugi brought up something else. It wasn't that common for Tsurugi to start a new topic of conversation all on his own; he tended to let Sora take charge with their talks.

Which meant this had to be important. Sora turned toward Tsurugi, frowning slightly as he tried to think back. "I think so, yeah!" he said. "Why do you ask?"

[knightspirit]

Even though he'd already started talking about it, Kyousuke still had to pause. This wasn't exactly the sort of information he should spreading around, especially without permission, but... Well, it didn't matter. He could trust Sora with this.

"Apparently, they removed it, and if we don't find it, he might be in a lot of trouble. I don't know how it works, but... He could turn into monster. Another friend of mine is in the same situation."

There. He said it. Considering what had been happening lately, there was a possibility that would hit too close to home for Sora, but that also meant that he knew exactly why this should be kept quiet from the patient body. That monster sickness had been bad enough for everyone as it was, and nobody needed to go through round two. He frowned.

"... But I don't think I'm supposed to know about it. I won't ask you not to say anything, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't." Which was about all he could say on the matter. Kyousuke didn't want Kratos to know he was trying to help, but it wouldn't be fair to Sora to drag him into this and ask him not to say anything to the man, either. In the end, he wouldn't be able to blame him if he did.

[lighthearted]

Wait, Kratos might turn into some kind of monster unless they got that gem back for him? How did that even work? Sora knew that it didn't matter, though. What mattered was that Kratos was in trouble and they had to do something about it as soon as possible, before the worst happened.

It was true that it hit close to home, but that just meant that Sora understood the risk here and realized how vital it was that they find that gem. He was relieved that Tsurugi had told him, since the more people keeping an eye out, the better. Sora just wished that Kratos had told him, but maybe he hadn't thought it was the right time when he'd just come back.

Kratos had helped him when he'd been a risk, so now Sora would do the same.

"Wait," he said, even as they reached the top and he stepped off of the escalator, "what do you mean, you're not supposed to know? I mean, I won't say anything if you don't want me to, but..." He did struggle to keep a secret when it was something like this, but Sora didn't want to betray Tsurugi's trust in him.

[knightspirit]

Kyousuke stepped off the escalator along with Sora, but he paused when the question came. Considering the things he'd just told him, it was more than a fair question, so he was going to have to address why he rather not have it mentioned.

"He wasn't the one who told me. It was another friend in the same situation," Kyousuke explained. Basically, he was trying to help Kratos without his knowledge, which he knew probably sounded strange, so he he continued. "... It's not really that I don't want him to know. I'd rather just not say anything unless I actually have something to go on." If not what they actually needed, than at least some major clue. "It's just easier this way. And this way, he can't try and ask us not to help."

Not that he intended on listening if the man did ask them to back off, but this was a little different than it had been with Sora. He owed the man for a lot, and that made things more complicated.

[lighthearted]

So it was like that. Sora could understand where Tsurugi was coming from. Why bring it up to Kratos when it was already a tough subject for him, if all he had to say was that he was trying to help? Better to just come forward with the gem once they found it.

Sora didn't know how easy it was going to be, though. When the institute took something from them, it was pretty much guaranteed that they wouldn't be able to get it back. Then again, with the third floor now accessible, maybe there was a chance that they actually could find Kratos' gem.

"Works for me," he said after a pause. He wanted to ask what the logistics of it were, because he'd never heard of someone turning into a monster because some gem got removed from their body. They should probably focus on moving forward, though, and so he went forward to open the door...

And never saw what was on the other side.