Sasuke had smelled the hallways as much as Aidou had, but there was something bizarre about seeing it in the same way. He'd long taken to travelling the Institute barefoot -- the easier to sense his path in the dark -- but the logic of the decision rarely defeated the moments of regret when the various byproducts of Landel's entertainment ended up on the soles of his feet. He'd been grateful to move beyond the putrid smell, surreptitiously pressing his feet a little harder across the tile floor to clean some of the scum off as they'd neared the female block.

Which had been fortunately cleaner and quieter. Sasuke merely nodded to agree with Aidou's inelegant observation, relieved more that their progress would continue unimpeded than that nothing had happened to Aigis. That she was sleeping could have been as much a side-effect of Landel as illness, but they had little time to determine it either way.

If it were the same as last time, then the disease would move at the same pace for everyone infected, but the different and bizarre nature of it put that in question. It was doubtless something worth further exploration, but for tonight --

"Very well," he said, and then with the voice of weary experience: "If she still sleeps now she will likely sleep through the night."

Landel had a way of keeping people awake or asleep quite against their wishes, after all. Without further preamble, Sasuke reached out a hand, found Aidou's shoulder (with ease, vision clearer already than the morning), and drove the other fist with its bauble into the wall.

[[to here]]