Night 61: Main Hallway, 1-West

[madeinthehrl]

[from here]

The main hall was dead quiet as Soma rounded the corner. The last few nights, this place had been bustling with fellow patients; the sudden calm was very nearly unnerving.

Still, she tried to put it out of her mind. Marie didn't sense anything out of the ordinary--yet.

[to here]

Comments

[overlimit]

Riddles? Rita raised an eyebrow. It sounded like Taura knew a little more than she did about the upcoming challenges. But discussing that could wait until they were all present, so Rita held on to that thought for the time being.

Time passed, and several patients came and went through the hallway, but none stopped to join them. As the minutes crawled by, Rita's expression grew increasingly annoyed, both at the delay and at the monkey kid's restlessness. Eventually, her patience reached its limit.

"... I think we've waited long enough," she announced after a long silence, unfolding her arms and looking over to Taura. "I don't know what's keeping him, but like you said, we can't wait forever. We should get going." Though Taura was the one to say those words in the first place, Rita hoped she wouldn't be too hesitant to move along without Okita.

Rita raised her right hand to show the red-jeweled ring she was wearing. "We'll be using this to get to the basement tonight. Grab on to my arm when you're ready." Her left arm was extended to the two others. While physical contact with other people (especially brats) was something Rita avoided as often as possible, she was willing to put up with it for a few minutes if it meant a smooth ride to their destination.

[ninelivesonce]

"Agreed." She'd made the plan clear; they were lucky they hadn't been ambushed, either by monsters or by time's irregular march, and their luck wasn't guaranteed to hold. She set her hand on Rita's upper arm, gently.

Maybe this would be easier; the History Club's luck had gone beyond bad to horrible, recently, and misguided loyalty was no help to anyone. "I'm ready when you are, Goku. I'll tell you both what more I know once we're on our way."

[monkeyboy]

It was a good thing they were finally making a move because Goku was growing so nauseated from spinning he wasn't sure if he could continue standing upright, let alone function as an integral member of their mission. Call it a hunch, but Goku was pretty sure Birdy wouldn't appreciate him coloring the floor with tonight's dinner.

"'K-Kay," he struggled with the single syllable as he teetered over to Rita. The young boy reached out and grabbed onto the girl around her thigh. Bracing himself for who knew what.

[overlimit]

No one seemed to be objecting, which meant they could move on. Rita nodded when Taura placed her hand on the offered arm, but glared when Goku grabbed her leg instead. What part of arm sounded like leg to him? Was he really incapable of following such simple instructions?

Rather than snapping at him, Rita let out an exasperated sigh and turned to face the wall. Yelling at him to do it right would probably just waste time. She'd deal with it, but only for as long as it took to get to the basement. Fortunately, that was only going to be a few seconds.

"All right, here goes," she said, giving the others a brief warning before pulling back her fist and smacking it into the wall, smashing the ring.

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