damned_institute | Nightshift 30: F1-F10 Hallway.

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Nightshift 30: F1-F10 Hallway.

[ inside f7]

“What?” Kairi had been in the middle of getting off of the bed when she heard the announcement the head doctor made, surprise overtaking her face. Hadn’t the man on the radio been well known? Hadn’t he helped all kinds of people?

Her look of shock slowly turned into a sad frown as she moved across the room, not saying a word other than the “what?” she had muttered before. This place was so horrible –

Moving to her dresser, Kairi pulled open the doors in hope of perhaps finding another flashlight. What she found instead was something much better (in her opinion, anyway) and much more useful!

“Oh!” she exclaimed happily as she pulled the pink dress out of the wardrobe, a grin crossing her lips. It had been such a long time since she had seen the pink dress she usually wore, and to see it now just randomly sitting inside the large wardrobe was a pleasant surprise! Before she could really even think, she slowly began to change into the outfit, pausing once she was done to look down.

She looked like herself again! (Minus the bandages, anyway)

Pumping her fists, Kairi did a quick hair flip and let out a happy giggle.

Now all there was to do was wait for Axel.

After a few moments of waiting, Kairi decided that perhaps it would be better to wait in the hall. After all, nothing would happen ... and if something suspicious came, she'd just run back into the room.

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Orihime nodded, swallowed. "I should be able to heal the physical wound..." But she didn't know about the important ones, the ones that were really causing Ururu so much pain. Maybe the little bit would help. "Is there one?" She asked uncertainly.

She moved one of her hands to stroke Ururu's hair. Each one of those sobs tore out a little piece of her.

Ururu nodded quickly. Oh, she remembered that too well, could see it clearly when she closed her eyes. Kisuke-san bleeding, because Ururu couldn't help. "I remembered lots of things." The girl sniffled, the effort of talking making her tears lessen, if only a little. "L-like being nailed to the ground. To try and help."

But it was strange, because Ururu hadn't remembered any of that before. It seemed like something she wouldn't forget. It was so real now. So clear.

When Orihime mentioned healing, Ururu pulled away from Rukia, just enough to show the mark on her arm. "Just this. It hurts." And indeed it did, a cold so cold it burned. But as much as it did hurt, Ururu's pain wasn't the only one felt in the room.

"Rukia-san is hurt too. She was limping before."

Rukia looked alarmed. Had that really happened to Ururu?? It seemed too awful a thing to do to such a gentle girl, but if she was remembering it... Unless it was some effect of the ghost's touch? It was very confusing, and Rukia felt like she just couldn't make sense of the situation.

She shook her head at Ururu's concern, looking to Orihime. "Worry about her first. I can use a little kidou to heal myself." She knew it wouldn't grow the toes back, but she could at least jump-start the healing process in her foot and knee.

Orihime nodded. She'd almost forgotten about Rukia's own abilities and what Ururu had gone through sounded horrible. She moved away a little and supported Ururu's arm gently with one of her own. The gesture was more for comfort than anything. Her ShunShunRikka went to work right away.

It was more difficult than she expected it to be. She should be able to get rid of it entirely but.. "There's something really off about that mark." She said, her brows knitting. It wasn't quite like foreign spiritual pressure but there wasn't anything else for her to compare it to. "Don't worry Ururu-chan. It'll stop hurting soon."

Ururu nodded, though in reality, the girl felt like she couldn't do anything but worry right now. About Kisuke-san and herself, and everyone else around her. And now Orihime was trying to heal her, except Ururu knew how much it drained the older girl to heal here.

It was a lot to worry about, and it all kept cycling through her mind.

"Pl-please be careful, Orihime-san." Ururu didn't want the older girl to pass out like she had before, especially not healing her. She'd already done so much wrong, it'd only make everything seem worse.

But strangely enough, as the mark began to fade, Ururu herself began to feel a little better. Not just her arm, but somehow everything seemed less dark than it had before. It didn't make sense, but the little girl was glad for it.

Especially because she could finally stop crying.

Rukia watched in silence as Orihime used her strange ability to make the tattoo on Ururu's arm go away. Even though she had seen Orihime heal people before, it still amazed her; it was like nothing the shinigami could do. No wonder Aizen had taken such an interest in the young woman.

Looking up from Ururu's arm, which looked good as new, Rukia watched Orihime's face. If her friend started to faint, she would try to catch her.

Just a little more...a little more...done. "Feeling any better, Ururu-chan?"

Orihime swayed a little, managing to keep upright by sheer force of will. She wasn't going to faint but that healing had exhausted her more than the ones she'd done before, like whatever had gotten a hold of Ururu had been pushing back against her. She didn't think she had much more in her for the night.

She offered Rukia a reassuring smile. She wasn't going to faint. Fainting was not an option.

Ururu nodded slightly when the light of Orihime's power faded, leaving perfectly unmarked skin behind. But she wasn't so concerned about how she was feeling as she was about how Orihime was feeling. She didn't miss how the older girl swayed, almost like the night before.

"Maybe you should lie down for a minute, Orihime-san." Ururu was willing to move to make room, and even help Orihime rest. She looked up at Rukia, knowing the Shinigami would agree. "Thank you for helping me. I feel better now."

"Yes," Rukia agreed, "You should lie down." She reached around Ururu, to touch Orihime's arm. "Rest a while, and don't worry about holding us up. I won't be going anywhere in a hurry." She smiled crookedly, trying to lighten the mood.

"That's good." Orihime pulled the sleeve of her shirt over her hand and gently patted the tears away from Ururu's cheeks. "It's ok to worry about yourself a little bit. No more tears?"

"I've never been better," She insisted. She still moved to lean against the side of the bed, letting her eyes drift shut for a moment. With something to support her, it was a lot easier to say things like that. "I just need to catch my breath. Just don't go anywhere alone, ok?"

After a short rest she would be fine.

Ururu nodded slightly, and this time, she felt more sure about doing it. For some reason, even though she could still remember everything, the mark going away made some of her pain go away too. It was weird, and Ururu didn't really want to think about it.

She just had to be more careful when it came to ghosts. And to make sure no one else got hurt by them.

When Orihime moved to rest, Ururu slipped off the bed. She had said Fai would be coming, but the man wasn't here yet, and that made the girl worry. She moved to the door, not far, but enough to be able to see out into the hall.

Fai wasn't there.

"Do you think Fai-san is in trouble?" Ururu turned to Rukia with concern, and with an unspoken hope. She knew the Shinigami could read the spirit threads, but the girl didn't want to ask. Rukia needed her kidou to heal, and maybe Fai wasn't hurt at all.

Still, it was hard not to worry about him.

Rukia watched Orihime for a moment, just to make sure her friend wouldn't topple over, then turned her attention to Ururu as the girl moved away. "Fai?" she asked, confused. What did he have to do with anything?

It took her muddled brain a while to catch up. Orihime had said that she was bringing someone else along, but she didn't seem to have done so. Rukia gave Orihime a questioning look. "Oh, was he the person you were going to bring along?"

Rukia wouldn't have minded, not really. But Fai, for his own reasons that she couldn't quite understand, didn't seem like he wanted to be around her. He was a strange one; in the couple conversations she'd had with him, she didn't think he'd told her a complete truth once. Yet she couldn't be sure, since she didn't know him well at all. It was more of a gut feeling.

Rukia's eyebrows furrowed when Ururu looked to her. Maybe because the three of them had been together the day of the "field trip"? She was about to say something when the radio crackled. Listening to the Head Doctor's messages was usually irritating, but tonight his words seemed more confusing than usual. Which didn't seem right; he wasn't using too many metaphors or riddles. Just... Rukia felt like she couldn't think straight.

She shook her head. "Do you think he's telling the truth?" she asked her two friends. "Maybe it's just another trick..."

Orihime nodded. "He said he was going to stay in tonight but I gave him the room number just in case."

She wasn't entirely sure what the intercom was talking about. It took her a moment to link the announcements together, but when she did she shook her head slowly. She didn't think the head doctor needed to trick them into anything. "I don't know." She told Ruika, worried. "Do you want to look?"

Ururu tilted her head to the side, listening to the announcement carefully. They always seemed really bad, but really important at the same time. It made Ururu wish she could understand what they were talking about a bit better. She didn't know why they were all here after all, and the people who talked over the intercom and the radio seemed to.

Then Rukia and Orhime began to talk, and Ururu quietly waited. She was okay letting them decide what to do. She just wanted to help as best she could, and she was good at following directions. That's why her chores always got done, even when Jinta-kun's didn't.

"I see," she said, sure that it was just another of Fai's lies. Orihime's words reminded her, though... "Speaking of that, what rooms are you two in? It's good to know."

As for trying to find the radio man's corpse, Rukia knew she couldn't attempt it in her current state. She shook her head. "Not yet. Maybe I can heal myself a little. Then I might be useful." She couldn't seem to recall if she had tried to heal herself before - there was usually someone else around for that - but it was worth a shot.

Rukia began to mutter the words of a basic healing incantation... and stopped.

There was nothing.

It wasn't just difficult, like dredging up her power from a deep pit of mud. It was like there was no power at all, not even a mud pit. Eyes going wide with shock, Rukia stammered, "Wh-- My... kidou... It's gone."

Orihime thought back to her room number. She hadn't really been paying much attention to it when she left but she'd wanted to remember just in case. She counted on her fingers. "I'm in...32 I think."

She watched Rukia begin the healing incantation. She'd heard that using their powers caused the shinigami a lot of pain but it didn't look bad so far... It didn't look like she was doing anything at all. She'd been about to ask Rukia if she was ok when the woman spoke. She scrambled to the edge of the bed. There was no way she'd heard that right.

"What?!" Orihime gripped the sheets, shocked for a long moment. "Did something happen to you too?" She didn't even ask if Rukia was sure. The shinigami knew her own powers best. Better to focus on what they could do now.

"F30. My roommate's name is Skuld-san." Ururu had taken great care to remember her room number, especially after the night Orihime had worn herself out helping people. She wanted to be sure she knew where to go back to in case someone needed a safe place to rest.

Orihime and Rukia seemed to have decided, so Ururu was content to sit back and watch for the moment. At least until Rukia said her kidou was gone. Ururu's eyes got wider then, because even she knew that gone was very different, and very worse than just hard.

But there was little the girl could do to offer help. Ururu had never been able to use kidou like a shinigami could, or like the humans who had come by Kisuke-san's store. But they both had seemed to want to go out so much, Ururu looked down, and spoke softly.

"Um, I can help you walk, Rukia-san." It wasn't the same, or anywhere close to it, and Ururu knew it. But it was all she could do, and Ururu wouldn't be okay until she'd offered that much at least.

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Nightshift 30: F1-F10 Hallway.

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