Chief Prosecutor Lana Skye (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fourstonewalls) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
damned_institute2012-08-12 10:32 pm
fourstonewalls) wrote in damned_institute2012-08-12 10:32 pm
Night 65: F11-20 Hallway
To die for...
Was that idle chitchat? A red herring? The nausea making a convincing case for the chicken's immediate release and acquittal on all charges? Her stomach did a little flip as the gavel came down, pronouncing it not guilty. But wouldn't that mean it wasn't poisoned? Objection, your honor. This case makes no sense. She fell back onto her pillow for a second, head spinning. She was lightheaded, and giddy, and in no shape to be gathering her things in the dark -- she'd landed on the flashlight -- and heading out into it.
Nevertheless, she eased the flashlight out from under the small of her back and switched it on. A circle of light flickered into life on the ceiling, as the Head Doctor's voice came back on the intercom.
Five. How many were sick? She held the gun up into the light, probably thoroughly freaking out Ilia, even as she kept it pointed only at the near wall. What made a human? Guilt. Or innocence. A lawyer's answer, to pick both, but it was true. Animals didn't know what they did. Humans did. Temporary insanity, turned into a monster. It was a defense on legal grounds, but not on ethical ones. She wouldn't let it come to that.
Harrington's little interjection cut into the path her thoughts had wandered down. Another clue. This time, she was going to see it for herself. As long as she was still herself to do so. A good reason to hurry.
[to here]
Was that idle chitchat? A red herring? The nausea making a convincing case for the chicken's immediate release and acquittal on all charges? Her stomach did a little flip as the gavel came down, pronouncing it not guilty. But wouldn't that mean it wasn't poisoned? Objection, your honor. This case makes no sense. She fell back onto her pillow for a second, head spinning. She was lightheaded, and giddy, and in no shape to be gathering her things in the dark -- she'd landed on the flashlight -- and heading out into it.
Nevertheless, she eased the flashlight out from under the small of her back and switched it on. A circle of light flickered into life on the ceiling, as the Head Doctor's voice came back on the intercom.
Five. How many were sick? She held the gun up into the light, probably thoroughly freaking out Ilia, even as she kept it pointed only at the near wall. What made a human? Guilt. Or innocence. A lawyer's answer, to pick both, but it was true. Animals didn't know what they did. Humans did. Temporary insanity, turned into a monster. It was a defense on legal grounds, but not on ethical ones. She wouldn't let it come to that.
Harrington's little interjection cut into the path her thoughts had wandered down. Another clue. This time, she was going to see it for herself. As long as she was still herself to do so. A good reason to hurry.
[to here]
no subject
She shook her head, trying her hardest to make those thoughts disappear. Her friends were working so hard to help her - this couldn't all be in vain! But even though she wanted to believe that, she'd spent the last shift writing down her final regrets and wishes, in case she met a sudden end. She hoped no one would have to read them. That will, as it could probably be called, was left tucked into her notebook. Maybe someone would find it if she disappeared. Maybe not.
Unlike most nights, Anise didn't bother changing into her Fon Master Guardian uniform. Instead, she wore the looser sweatpants and long-sleeved shirt provided by the Institute. She wanted to be prepared in case they had a chance to perform the surgery sooner rather than later, and those clothes were easier to work around. For equipment, she brought Tokunaga (of course), her meat tenderizer, her flashlight, and an empty pillowcase, which she stuffed into her pocket.
She didn't know if there was any hope for her or not, but she couldn't sit down and give up yet. She had to go meet Luke and the others.
[to here]
F16 → F11
No... Ilia dumped the box onto her bed, searching. No, that seemed to be it. But it was enough. Ilia whispered a curse, then grabbed her flashlight and headed out. She ran to the back of the hallway, then started pounding on the door.
"ROSE!" She knocked again with knuckles tight and white. "Rose, let me in!"
No answer.
Ilia wasn't waiting. She turned the doorknob and stepped inside. The room was immaculate. It looked as though no one had slept there for a long time. Abandoned. Rose was gone.
".... dammit!" Ilia angrily punched the door frame, awarded with a bruising pain that did nothing to rectify the situation. Her friend was gone, sent "home," and there was nothing cursing and standing around uselessly could fix.
Determined not to let her friend's disappearance rest in vain, Ilia swiped the back of her hand across her eyes and returned to her room. She picked up one of the X-Acto knives and wrapped the blade in some of the bandaging she had on hand. That done, she slipped it into her pocket and booked it out of the room and down the hallway.
[to here]
F15
It was only the interruption that came after that kept Tsubaki from completely losing her breath at the thought. Although she’d suspected this was coming… still, five? Whatever the new clue was, it’d better be something they could put into action right away!
And she was still a long way from even being able to investigate what the clue was. Scar came first, as planned.
Dressed and ready, she stopped in the doorway on her way out, one hand on the frame. “I’ll be back just as soon as I can with my friend. I’m worried about him coming here alone. Stay inside the room if you hear anything strange outside, okay? Be right back!”
With that, she let herself slip back into the familiar embrace of the shadows and took off.
[to here]
Re: F15
Tsubaki spoke first after the announcement, making the choice for her in the process. Rapunzel was almost relieved, if no less tense. "Okay," she answered, unconsciously gripping a fistful of bedsheets in one hand. "I'll be here. Hurry."
It wouldn't have been the first time she was stuck in one place with nowhere to go.
[Scar, The Once-ler, Flynn, and/or Castiel.]
no subject
Almost, almost... Her sense of relief only grew the closer she and Scar got to F15, where she knew Rapunzel was waiting. Almost home free!
When her room came into view, Tsubaki pulled back on the handles a little, causing the wheelchair to slow. "Here we are," she announced. Raising her voice a little, she said, "Rapunzel, I'm back!" before pushing Scar across the threshold ahead of her.
Their room looked just the same as she'd left it, which she was glad to see. Not that she'd been gone very long, but anything could happen in a short amount of time. After she'd brought the wheelchair to a stop on Rapunzel's side of the room, she stepped out from behind it and offered both Scar and her roommate a smile. "This is the friend I told you about," she said to Rapunzel with a gesture to Scar. "Scar-san, this is Rapunzel."
no subject
He glanced up at the young girl Rapunzel, giving a nod of acknowledgement. And there Tsubaki went with that word, again. He had hardly known her twenty-four hours and he was apparently already her friend. Despite Scar's cynical disbelief that there was truth in that statement, it was still warming to be cared about.
"Tsubaki tells me that you can heal people." He watched Rapunzel, hoping he wasn't being overly intimidating. (Though, no one looked intimidating from a damn wheelchair.)
no subject
"It's good to meet you, Scar. And I can, though not as well as I could back home," she admitted, looking Scar over with no small amount of dismay. If he was to the point of having to be wheeled around, she wasn't sure just how much she could help. "I can do a little bit to help whatever's been hurt the most right now, though?"
Rapunzel tried to gauge what that might be. Probably the legs, she was guessing, but other things could put a person out of commission like this too. The wound on his wrist looked pretty serious, so if he was cut like that anywhere else...
no subject
The man was better able to answer Rapunzel's question than she was, but there was obviously a personal element to how and why Scar had obtained his wounds in the first place. As merely an observer, Tsubaki thought maybe her clinical detachment might help to smooth things over, so she moved back to Scar's other side and used her finger to start measuring out the general lengths and positions of Scar's gashes. Getting to the root of the medical problem would hopefully keep everyone focused.
"I think there are knife wounds to the muscles here and here that are causing the worst problems," she started to explain, pointing toward the affected areas on Scar's back and the backs of his thighs. "Is that not right?"
no subject
It didn't affect him, though, so he didn't bother thinking on it too long.
"Yes," he said stiffly, "There are slashes on the backs of my legs and on my back." Scar did not know what kind of limitations Rapunzel was talking about. Did the power sap her own energy? Or was it limited in its healing effects? There were others more deserving of the limited power. This much, he knew. "If you could fix my legs enough to make me walk, I would be grateful." It hurt too much to move efficiently, right now, and although the wound in his back made many movements difficult, he wasn't spending another moment in this chair.
no subject
For now, Rapunzel nodded, gesturing toward Scar's legs. "Yeah. Yeah, I can do that. Tsubaki, can you roll up his pant legs?" she asked, already getting her hair prepared.
Once the wounds were exposed, she would be able to wrap sections of hair around them and begin the incantation song. Thinking about what else she would be doing tonight, she figured she could close the wounds and fix the inner workings of things just enough to let Scar get up. It would be a delicate fix, a splint of twigs and leaves on a bird's wing, but it would be better than nothing.
no subject
Rapunzel had such a strong heart, but she knew that the other girl was also terribly new to… situations like the Institute. The struggle and the confusion. The badly hurt people who might depend on her healing gifts. She wanted her friend to know her efforts weren’t in vain.
After what had happened to him, it was clear enough that Rapunzel’s power would find a good home in Scar. With a look at the man, Tsubaki followed up on Rapunzel’s request by saying, "If that’s all right with you. Her power is in her hair so she’ll have it touch the wounded areas directly." Granted, it was a little strange, but Tsubaki had seen stranger. In a logistical sense, the most difficult thing to contend with was the awkward placement of Scar’s injuries, which almost required them to remove the clothes entirely, but she sincerely doubted Scar would want to do that.
no subject
"I apologize." But the wounds were too tender to get the legs of his pants rolled so high and over the bandages. Scar stood slowly, teeth grit and eyes narrow as he moved to lean against the wall by the bed.
Still, though. Magic hair? He half believed that this was some kind of joke as he unwound the white strips of cloth, revealing the ugly stitched gashes. The Ishbalan sneered, not wanting to look at them.
no subject
Really, she shouldn't have been so flustered, especially not when there were more important things that needed doing tonight, but... Well, it was her first time seeing a man even partly naked. Mother Gothel had never said much about what lay below the belts of those "brutish, violent men", and the one anatomy book that had ever graced the tower's presence only really told her about certain... "parts" that were different between men and women. And pictures in a book were always nothing compared to seeing something in real life.
At least he still had his underpants on?
"A-apology accepted," said Rapunzel, hoping the darkness of the room would hide the redness of her cheeks. It was doing a decent job of helping her to not focus on Scar's bare legs, at least. That was something she needed after getting up to wrap the sections of hair around the wounded calves. Once a loose wrap was done (she did her best not to agitate the injuries), she shuffled back maybe a little faster than intended, sitting back on the bed.
Rapunzel took a few moments to breathe, closing her eyes. When she was ready, she began the incantation, and soon, the room filled with a familiar warmth and glow.
no subject
"There's nothing to apologize for," she assured him, shadowing him closely. "Put your weight on me if you need."
Between yesterday and that night, the wounds were in much better condition, mostly because they were no longer raw and bleeding freely. The Institute's treatment, despite its sinister underbelly, was at least efficient when done right. Tsubaki held her breath, waiting as Rapunzel twined the coils of her hair about Scar's legs and settled back to work her magic.
She'd seen it in action a few times already, but it was always the visceral memory of Rapunzel using it on her that struck her first and foremost. Golden light carried on song notes that seemed to sink into the hurt spots, soothing, warming, strengthening... Magic, beyond a doubt.
no subject
Scar shook his head silently at Tsubaki's offer to help him stand. He was sick of using her as a crutch. He watched, eyes narrowed, as Rapunzel wrapped her hair about his legs, unsure of the exact moment his mouth fell open. It was unlike anything that existed in Amestris, and could really only be described as magic. That girl's hair was definitely glowing, and Scar could feel the muscles knitting themselves back together. It was becoming easier to stand with every passing second.
no subject
It took about five minutes before Rapunzel gave out and let the light fade. She knew if she went on much longer, she was going to get seriously woozy. At this point, in combination with what the Institute had already done for him, the man's wounds were just under half healed — closed, but with angry red scars still in place. He would be able to walk without much trouble, but running and jumping and other kinds of intense activity were going to be tricky.
"How do you feel?" asked Rapunzel, a slight faintness in her voice that wasn't there before. She hadn't realized yet that her eyes were still closed, either.
no subject
As the glow began to dim, she exhaled, absently mimicking the slow departure of energy from the room. Her first instinct was to ask Scar the same thing, and she cocked her head questioningly. His body language definitely seemed less tense.
"I'll undo Rapunzel's hair if you want to try walking," she offered before starting to bend down.
no subject
"That's..." He looked up to Rapunzel, mouth slightly agape. "You have my thanks." He wasn't going to ask for anything else. The girl seemed tired from that, and there were more people who would want to be healed, he was certain.
Scar gave a nod to both girls, thanked Tsubaki for bringing him here, and left the room.
[To here]
no subject
To Scar she said: "Don't worry about it. Come to me anytime, don't be a stranger." She gave the man a faint grin and a thumbs up as he left.
Once they were alone, she turned back to her roommate. "Thanks for bringing him here. Sorry if I'm holding you up from being anywhere."
no subject
Tsubaki was sorely tempted to go after him and ask him what his plans were, but there was still Rapunzel to think of.
She looked away from the door to give the other girl a smile. “No, no, thank you for helping. I know he’s grateful even if that was a bit abrupt.” Rapunzel was another person who was going to need all the help she could get. Crossing to her own side of the room, Tsubaki picked up the cup sitting on her desk and brought it over to Rapunzel. “I’m sorry, you must be tired from doing that under these conditions. Here’s some water. I didn’t drink any.
In answer to the girl’s question, she smiled a little brighter and added, “It’s okay, I’d rather see you settled first before I go. Do you want me to wait with you?”
no subject
As they moved down the hall, Castiel went about answering Gabriel's earlier question. "I've only met her once." It was shocking that the girl had been so willing to offer her help, but Castiel also realized that his situation was both urgent and severe. That didn't make Rapunzel's generosity any less surprising, though.
But humans were puzzling in that way.
He wasn't sure how many times Kratos had interacted with Rapunzel, but he imagined the man would answer for himself if he wanted to. Once they reached the door, Castiel looked toward Kratos, quietly asking him to knock it. If Castiel pulled away from Gabriel, he might end up stumbling into the door instead of rapping on it.
no subject
"Hey guys," she said, inviting them in and walking back toward her bed, careful to step over her own hair as she did so. "If you didn't show up in a few more minutes, I was going to go find you. The other guys who were supposed to come tonight didn't show up." Which worried Rapunzel a lot more than she let on; Eugene was supposed to come tonight, and the Once-ler maybe too. "Is everything okay out there?" she asked, hoping that there wasn't some kind of Institute-wide disaster that everyone was getting caught up in.
After a few moments, she turned to the man in the group she didn't know. "Sorry, I didn't get your name? I'm Rapunzel."
no subject
He caught Castiel's small cue as they finally came to Rapunzel's room, and stepped up, one fist raised to knock, just as the door opened: it seemed Rapunzel had heard them coming. Kratos recovered swiftly, lowering his fist and stepping inside as if nothing had happened.
"We nearly ran into a monster on the way here," he said, removing his gloves and rolling up his sleeves in preparation. "If you heard the broadcast earlier, more people have been transformed tonight. One such person was lurking just inside the men's blocks, but thankfully, we were able to avoid a confrontation. I'm afraid that might have been what caused the delay, though. It was a...disturbing scene." He avoided mentioning that it was Sora; it was better to not distress Rapunzel prior to the operation.
Kratos glanced at Castiel as he replaced his gloves, frowning briefly as he tried to get the leather to go smoothly over his Crystal. "How do you wish to go about this?"
no subject
The hair was nearly the only thing she had in common with the Rapunzel Gabriel knew. In the first instant, that was relieving, but a moment later Gabriel checked and scolded himself. He didn't know this girl, not really, but that didn't meant she was a good replacement for his Rapunzel's suffering.
Instead he smiled warmly. "I'm Gabriel; I arrived here earlier today. It's my pleasure to meet you, Rapunzel."
no subject
Gabriel helped him to sit, and Castiel was thankful to no longer have to lean on anyone. He watched as Kratos switched out his gloves and assumed that it would help the process somehow. They were all looking to him for guidance now, but in reality he barely knew how human surgery worked. He had hoped that Kratos would know where to go from here.
Still, the first step seemed to be removing his shirt, and so that was what he did. His sleeve almost snagged on the stitches on his shoulder, which looked rather sloppy after his encounter with Lingormr last night. But that was really the least of his worries.
Castiel then leaned back on the bed until he was laying flat on his back. He looked to Rapunzel first. "You'll need to remain close enough that your hair can wrap around me, is that correct? But we'll have to make sure that you stay out of Kratos' way as he works." Hopefully they could coordinate their positioning among themselves. Castiel looked to Gabriel next. "What sort of help will you be providing, exactly?" The other angel had made mentions of being able to strengthen him somehow, but he was clearly a different brand of angel, and so Castiel didn't know how it all worked.
no subject
She could still feel sickened on another patient's behalf, though, whether she knew them or not. All the more reason they had to work fast, find out if this worked or not. If it was too late for some, they could still be in time for others. Castiel was proof of that.
"I... I can imagine. I'm really glad you all got away safe, then," Rapunzel answered Kratos, remembering to breathe after her stunned silence. "You didn't have to fight or get hurt any further, right?" she asked, looking up at her friend with concern in her eyes. She wanted to ask where the monster had gone after they left it, or if it had been out to find any other patients. However, she already knew the answer to that. If the person had been turned into a monster, it was almost a certainty that it would go after patients at whatever chance it got. All she could do was hope that the patients it went after had the kind of luck that these three had just now.
After a moment longer, Rapunzel realized she had almost missed the new person (Gabriel) introducing himself. She turned to him next. "Pleased to meet you too, Gabriel. I know I don't exactly look it, buuut..." Yeah. "Believe me, I am. It's always good to make new friends in here."
Then it came time to see to the patient of the hour. Rapunzel nodded at Castiel's question. "So long as it's touching some of the skin on or around whatever's been hurt, it'll work, yeah," she answered, already coiling up some of her hair and trying to find a good spot to get started. "Kratos just has to be careful not to cut any of it. Any pieces of my hair that get cut loose their power," she warned, trying not to think about the actual kind of cut that Kratos was going to have to make tonight.
no subject
He picked up his sword and cast a critical eye over Castiel's bare chest. It would take two cuts, perhaps? One to slice into the abdomen itself, and then another to reach the stomach...the issue was the depth of each cut. Now would be a nice time to have those two scalpels he'd taken from the medical wing, but alas, he'd given them both to Eugene, and Eugene had done who-knew-what with them after that whole debacle with Lingormr.
There really was no time to waste thinking about things that could have been, though, except that right as he he was about to give up on any further possibilities and simply proceed, a thought struck him. Someone else here did have a smaller blade that he could use.
"I should be able to avoid cutting it." Actually, that was the easy part. Kratos looked away from his soon-to-be patient. "Speaking of which, Rapunzel, do you happen to still have that knife from last night? I would prefer a smaller blade to work with, for precision's sake."
no subject
The Archangel also turned to Castiel, stepping carefully over Rapunzel's hair to the head of the cot and pulling up a chair. He would be out of the way there, hopefully, but still be near enough to lend a hand and grant comfort where necessary. "I'm going to be lending you my strength," he said, and then glanced up at Kratos. "We've nothing to stop the pain, have we?" Gabe looked back at Castiel. "I won't be able to take it away, but at least I can give you the fortitude to endure it."
He knew he could do it. The link between him and others was still open, whenever he drew near enough for contact. Gabriel only hoped he would have enough to offer.
no subject
He took note of Rapunzel's comment about her hair. The last thing any of them wanted was to strip the girl of her power, so Castiel was certain that Kratos would take care with that.
As for what Gabriel explained, Castiel had to admit that it sounded like it would be a help. He was no stranger to pain, but he was used to a different kind, the sort of thing that targeted his Grace rather than this physical form. He didn't feel scared, but he was somewhat anxious, and having an extra boost of strength would be a help, especially given that they didn't have much in the way of medical supplies as far as he was aware. He doubted that Rapunzel would have collected any when she had her own power to rely on.
"That should be a help," he told Gabriel with a nod. "Thank you." He turned to the others and bowed his head. "All of you." He might as well say it now, before he was in too much pain to get words out.
F14
Sonia blinked. She hadn't been completely sure if she had been awake or not until she'd heard Landel's voice. Sitting up with her eyes wide open now, she listened to the announcement, but the shocked look on her face didn't stay there for long. The moment he referred to it as an experiment, she was angry all over again.
Then another message, much louder than Landel's, overtook the intercom somehow. The only way any of this could possibly make sense was if she assumed she had been sleeping for some time.
"...What day is it?" she asked herself once the message had finished, glancing down at the sheets covering her. She could already feel herself panicking. "How long was I asleep for?" That and the intercom message were enough to keep her from thinking too much about what had happened before she had fallen asleep. What about Sora and the others? Were they okay!?
Just then, she thought she heard the door creak. "Mokona!?" she called softly, hopefully, quickly getting up to check it out, but not before fumbling around under her pillow for her flashlight.
Whoever it was, they were gone now.
She stood still for just a moment as she thought things over. So someone was helping from the outside: Harrington. Sonia didn't think it was safe to trust him just yet, but it was the best lead they had!
The X-ray room had to be in the medical wing, but whereabouts? I guess I'll just have to find out. After making sure she had her medallion around her neck, she left the room, ready to face the night alone. She didn't have a choice.
[to here]
F19
Hah! He'd finally made it. Niikura opened the door to Shiina's room slowly and then crept in, flicking on the lights as he did so. It looked like Shiina would have been the only one in here if she had been turned back during the day, which was nice because that meant no dealing awkwardly with roommates.
After closing the door behind him, he immediately went for the box sitting on one of the beds in the room. The gloves were on top, neatly folded and seemingly awaiting his arrival. Niikura smiled as he picked them up and then stuffed them into one of his pants' pockets. That was one thing down. Time to go meet Mike. They needed to get to the medical wing, and fast.
[back out and all the way over to here]
F18
Dreaming, she'd been falling again. The same out-of-thin-air falling they did during their first grand misadventure, when Kuchiki-san was a princess, and they were all knights racing to her rescue... when she found out that being a knight wasn't something she could've done back then. But that was Soul Society, so seemingly faraway now; that time when the shinigami were on the opposing side, and the black-and-white boundaries had been laid, had been proven wrong. Hueco Mundo was different — there was never any falling into it from the very beginning. There was a time when she'd been the princess, when capture wasn't so much of a steep drop as it was a willing surrender, a stepwise procession. But that's the thing about being the princess — it's a lonely existence, so easy to slip into old-fashioned roles, and easier still for reality to shake up the make-believe.
Easier to fall even when you thought you were at your lowest point.
But this time, there's none of that.
Orihime woke to the starting of her own body, to the expectation that she'd be coming out the other side of Urahara's portal suspended in the sky again. The feeling of the bed beneath her came as a surprise, but so, too, did the darkness of the room... the lack of Sado-kun, Nel-chan, Kurosaki-kun... The aloneness had hit her first.
"...Hello?" She called out, but the darkness yielded no answer. The springs creaked, and certainly the bed was not a sofa... but still. The blandness of the room reminded her of the overbearing white that had once been the constant center of her vision more than a year ago. When she gripped her sleeves, she half expected the heavy drape of a white dress to hug her form, smooth and insidiously comfortable but for the way they wrapped a bit too tightly when she folded her arms.
But no.
These were not the clothes she left with, nor were they anything befitting a sacrificial offering. Grey sweats, a grey sweater — a brief flicker of panic had hit her, but when her fingers reached up and pressed against the hairpins holding back the left part of her bangs, her nerves had calmed. Someone had redressed her, had chosen to let her keep her hairpins out of sympathy (out of knowing?), but who? Now that her eyes were adjusting, the black & white outlines seemed a little more greyed out, yet edged and defined. She, in her bed, was not the only occupant in the room... or so it was laid out, for there was another bed made to the side of her, clean and presumably untouched.
"...Um... Urahara-san?"
Perhaps it was an error made in transit? Jumping through portals always seemed like a pesky sort of business; what if they didn't lead where you wanted them to go? What if someone wound up hundreds of years in the past and —
No, no, focus...
"I think... um, I think maybe I took a wrong turn somewhere," she continued warily, and the hint of laughter that she used to punctuate only served to disconcert her than to set her at ease. It was eerily silent, eerily empty for she couldn't sense a speck of reiatsu in the air around her. Something worse than death. She pulled herself out of bed and onto her legs, took a tentative step towards the door and suppressed the shiver that threatened to run down her spine at the harrowing creak that sounded out beneath her feet. "Sado-kun? And Nel—" And say, if she had made a wrong turn somewhere... would the rest of them have landed safely in Hueco Mundo?
"Kurosaki-kun...?"
But this wasn't dreaming, was it? And if it wasn't, what was she supposed to make of this new reality?
The entire room was plain, tiny really. Even her apartment back home could be considered lavish, royalty-worthy, fit for a queen in comparison... She opened the closet, only to find pairs of plain clothes and a coat; the dresser, only to find pens (for the empty journal, she presumed), keys and... batteries? The radio spat out static when she tried it, but a brief inspection of the back of it revealed that it wasn't a battery-powered contraption.
Rude as it might have been, she yanked open the closet of the other occupant(?) in the room with her and ignored the metallic wail of the hinges giving to the excessive force. Empty. Orihime gave her own closet another more thorough look-over. She checked the pockets, shook out the coat and the sweatshirts, looked for anything that could have needed batteries. Maybe her captors turned her into a robot, after all?
Fortunately, pulling her pillow from the bed yielded the flashlight before she had decided to try swallowing the batteries. Too little too late, she thought as she walked towards the door again, considering her eyes had already adjusted to the—
Darkness.
So much of it, she believed she could reach out and touch it, feel it soft and tangible beneath the pads of her fingers. Again, her blood chilled within her veins; briefly, she remembered the sight of a white back, leading her into darkness without an end in sight. Even then, there was still the moon, still the white of sand illuminating the vast emptiness that had been Hueco Mundo.
She had to find the others. She had to find herself, really. She turned on the flashlight (F18, said the door — she stored away this piece of information for later), took a deep breath and...
... stepped out into the hallway.
[ to here ]