damned_institute | Nightshift 36: Outside the Institute: North

"Waiting until morning is dangerous, though. What if you get killed before they send us back to our rooms?" Usopp pointed out. He vaguely recalled hearing something about some way to avoid being sent back or something like that, somewhere out here, but didn't have any hopes of looking for or finding it with such a hazy memory. In fact, finding anything at all other than rocks would be promising, though...

Right, rocks! Usopp stopped abruptly, and leaned over to start picking some decent-sized ones up off the ground, putting them in his bag. "We can just look... around." Was that too vague? Usopp thought he heard the sound of other voices echoing over the wind, but it could have been his paranoid imagination, or their own voices echoing back to them, or... "We'll look for the least dangerous-looking places out here!"

Brook grinned brightly despite how morbid the idea actually was. "Yohohohoho! But, Usopp-san! I've already died before!" He could still be dead really, but he wasn't so sure with the skin and all. Testing it wasn't such a good idea either.

Usopp shuddered at the reminder, and gave Brook a sour look that wasn't very obvious in the dark, considering the distance between the standing man and Usopp crouching to grab rocks. "Don't say things like that! Just--assume you can't die here. I mean, assume you shouldn't die here, but you can, but you won't because you shouldn't! Okay?"

With those orders in place, Usopp stood up again, trying not to make a complaining noise at the added weight to his bag. He could unload some into his closet later. "Hey, Brook, you don't mind if I store things in your closet sometimes, right?"

Brook only laughed more at his friend's babbling. "I shall do my best!" he promised, but he wasn't exactly what he was promising too. Whatever it was, Usopp didn't want him dead, and that was probably a good thing.

"My closet's still open," he nodded, "You may use it whenever you wish."

"Great!" Usopp was happy to hear it confirmed, anyway, and added, "You know my room number is 33, right?" It was just good to be sure. They should all exchange room numbers, and write them down to make sure they didn't forget, just in case. Maybe they should have another meety.

It made a sort of weird sense that the very night he decided to give his boots to Sanji, he also decided to go hiking. But how could he have predicted that the courtyard'd be too hard to pass two nights in a row? Grunting a little as they started to pass over a rockier area and he had to actually climb a bit, Usopp was jealous of Brook's longer limbs. "I'll bring things by and put them in your closet, then. That'll work out... great." Standing on a particularly large rock, he tried to look around, but between the trees and the darkness, he had no idea where they were, and he couldn't see the Institute anymore either. The cape fluttered some more, and he decided to pause to strike a dramatic pose as long as the opportunity was there.

"Thirt-- oh, no, eighty-three!" he corrected. It wouldn't work if Usopp ended up going to the wrong room. He could walk in on something!

He walked along without much trouble, only just noticing Usopp's problems with the terrain. Brook would have spoken up except that Usopp had stopped to look then. "Should we be going so far? What about the others?" he asked, worried. It wouldn't do if they managed to escape but left the others back at the dreadful institute. Brook refused to abandon them!

"No, you're in eighty-three, I'm in thirty three." Usopp corrected back, speaking slowly. Maybe kind of a Zoro type...?

Looking around at the terrain, it was dangerous in a 'hiking' sense, but not too dangerous yet in the 'magical person with flying little angel and shiny hammer is going to kill you' sense, so he jumped down from the rock and kept on walking. The fact that he didn't know the way back was a side issue anyhow, since people who walked away woke up in the Institute too. "We'll tell everybody if we find anything interesting out here, once we get back. This is the story of our brave exploration, Brook!"

"Exactly!" Brook nodded, not understanding the mistake he'd made for a few moments. "Oh! You said thirty-three was your room, didn't you?! Yohohoho! My mistake! I should be better with my hearing now that I have ears, right?!" he laughed more.

Brook was sure to listen closer this time, and he thought what Usopp said was smart enough. "All right, then! Lead the way, Usopp-san!"

Nodding in response to Brook's agreement, Usopp kept walking. The path evened out abruptly, and he paused again as it did, looking around with the flashlight.

"There's tracks here... it's like there was a path here. Well, or there used to be." He looked back and forth down it, but it was clearly not a path taken often anymore, even if it was still lingering. Robin would be better suited to this sort of thing, or Nami... the flashlight glinted against something ahead, and Usopp jogged down the road a bit to see a bent, worn down sign with an arrow on it attached to a tree.

"Well, we found something." Usopp stared at the sign for another minute, then shrugged. It was easier walking on the road, at least. "We should follow this path to see if it leads to any more important clues!"

"How old do you think it is?" Brook peered down at the trail, following where Usopp's light went along it. He looked up when both the light and his friend went off on a jog and followed. This was sort of like an adventure, now that he thought about it, and those were supposed to be more fun than scary. Maybe this wasn't all that bad.

"Four years," Usopp answered decisively, as though he had any idea. Considering this place, it could be an eternity, or replaced carefully every night like the other things inside the Institute. At least the path made travel a little easier, although the darkness was a bit intimidating and he wondered how far they could really go in one night. Where were they going, anyway? The path to Doyleton was the other way, if he remembered right.

"Ohhhh," Brook nodded. It looked older to him, but Usopp seemed so sure that Brook wasn't going to argue. He didn't know himself, so why should he?

As they walked along, Brook became a little bored with the silence and began humming to break it. Just a light tune to remove the silence and keep down any nerves he might have still had.

Usopp was surprised for a moment at the humming, but then decided he liked it; it beat listening to the sound of wind blowing through trees in what had to be the absolute creepiest tone possible. Not that he was accusing the wind of being deliberately creepy, but he was suspicious.

Finally, pointing his flashlight further down the broken-down road led them to something new. Boarded over, and covered in warnings to stay out, it looked like an abandoned mine. Usopp stopped stock-still in his path, staring at it. "That's... not a lot better than going down into a death-basement... is it?"

Brook's humming came to an abrupt halt at the signs warning to stay out, and just as Usopp had stopped in his tracks, so too did he. That... wasn't usually a good sign, or signs in this case!

"Ah... w-well... there certainly weren't any signs s-saying to stay out of the basement," Brook stammered, agreeing that it really was no better. This could actually be worse really!

"... Right. But an evil guy told us all to go downstairs. This, we don't know who put up the signs. They could be people like the doctor trying to tell us to go away from something good... but they might be other patients, or someone else entirely, warning us about really bad things." Usopp stared at the ominous entrance a little longer before turning arbitrarily away from the road.

"We definitely can't go explore something like that without the others! No way! So we'll just remember that on our great exploratory journey we found this place, and then when we next talk to everybody, we can tell them, there's a mysterious mine shaft up... north-ish... after you hit a road and follow it a little while."

He started walking away, trying to resist the urge to run before something could jump out of the entrance and attack them. "And we'll continue bravely exploring and discovering new things for later!"

"But there's no way to know which is is, Usopp-san," he protested, feeling a sort of dread. Usopp didn't actually want them to try and go in there, did he?

Thankfully Usopp reasoned away from entering the spooky-looking place, and when he moved away Brook readily followed. "Yes! Of course! Yohohoho! That's a good idea!" he agreed, nodding.

One nice thing about traveling with Brook was that the tall man seemed just as happy as Usopp to run away from whatever looked overly threatening or ominous or maybe just weird. The downside was that, walking off the worn path again, Usopp found himself having to start climbing awkwardly over rocks and work his way around trees in the dark.

"Brook... sing something good for travel? Some dramatic traveling music is exactly what we need!" The sound of Usopp clumsily making his way through rough terrain was probably loud enough as it was, a little singing couldn't hurt anything.

Oh! A request! How long had it been since he'd had one of those?! Well, Luffy and everyone did ask for songs now that he was on their crew, but still, it was nice to be asked! "Certainly! Yohohohohoho! Let's see...!" Brook's face brightened as he considered just what song might fit with Usopp's requirements.

There were a few that were much lighter, but with the "dramatic" part, Brook had to think just a bit more. He'd been straying away from darker songs while on his boat, after all, but that didn't mean he'd forgotten them!

"Ah, I know just the one!" he announced suddenly, then began singing despite the lack of accompaniment.

Leaves are falling all around,
It's time I was on my way.
Thanks to you, I'm much obliged
For such a pleasant stay.

But now its time for me to go,
The autumn moon lights my way.
For now I smell the rain,
And with it pain,
And its headed my way.
Ah, sometimes I grow so tired,
But I know I've got one thing I got to do

Ramble on,
And nows the time, the time is now
To sing my song.
Im goin round the world,
I got to find my girl, on my way.
Ive been this way ten years to the day, ramble on,
Gotta find the queen of all my dreams.

Usopp didn't recognize the song at all, but it was good, and Brook's voice echoed really nicely in the night, over the sound of the wind and Usopp's own stumbling efforts to proceed. By the time the song had finished, Usopp had started wrapping the bedsheet 'cape' closer around his body, trying to keep himself from shivering in the sleeveless coveralls.

Instead of commenting on the music, when Brook went quiet, Usopp asked, "Brook... does it feel like it's getting colder to you?" Maybe it was just his imagination, or more time exposed to the cold. Wasn't a bigger body like Brook's more vulnerable to it, probably? Maybe not...

Well, whenever the night ended, they'd wake up safe and warm in their beds anyway. They just had to keep moving in the meantime. Compared to their time on Drum, this was nothing! True, he'd worn a coat there, and had a vague memory of flowers and Vivi and a swollen face, but all of that had probably just been his overactive imagination.

"Mmm? Colder?" Brook had noticed that the temperature was a little chillier than when they'd first hopped over the fence, but he was still enjoying it more than anything. It was a feeling! So what if he was shivering just a tad? Shivers were feelings too!

"Yes, I'd say so. Do you not like the cold, Usopp-san?" he peered down, seeing how his friends was clutching at the blanket-cape.

"O-of course I'm fine with the cold! I like it even colder, in fact! I once dug an entire civilization out of a snowbank the size of an island, you know, in a single afternoon, and do you know what they called me when they were done chattering their teeth and had all had some hot cocoa?" Usopp could really use some hot cocoa at the moment, himself. Hopefully breakfast would be something warm, but it usually was. "T-the great Captain Usopp!"

Stepping forward a bit more, finding it a bit difficult to balance between holding his cape and climbing over tricky ground, Usopp pointed the flashlight clutched in one hand shakily ahead. Further, he thought he could almost see the reflections of patches of snow.

"Eh!? R-really?!" Brook had never known and wouldn't have ever guessed either! Usopp certainly didn't look the type to accomplish such a feat, but neither did Luffy look like he should be able to stretch all over the place! His new crew was still amazing him after Thriller Bark! "That is impressive, Usopp-san!

"Thanks..." Usopp was already distracted from his tall tale. No, that was definitely snow ahead. He shivered a little just from the thought, and started looking around with the flashlight for the clearest path. It took a moment for him to register that one of the dark patches wasn't where forest or rock showed through snow, but where someone had spilled blood. Once that realization hit, it took much less time for Usopp to squeak and hide behind Brook, one hand still shakily reaching around Brook to aim the flashlight. "Br-Br-Brook! Blood! The snow's bleeding!"

Brook jumped when Usopp made the decision to hide behind him and quickly put up his metal bat to defend. One only retreated if there was danger, and that was exactly what Usopp had done! When he heard the exclamation, however, he did not lower his weapon, but gave Usopp a glance backwards. "But, Usopp-san, snow can't bleed!" Brook insisted, just as shaky as his friend, though not as freaked out by the sudden find. He, at least, wasn't trying to switch places with the man behind him, but he had begun to shiver a little more. And not from the cold.

But it was there sure as anything, bloody snow glistening in the shaky beam of Usopp's flashlight.

"Skeletons can't walk around either, and you said you used to do that all the time!" Usopp pointed out, still shivering. "... m-maybe there's a body under the snow?"

There wasn't any sign of steps towards or away from the snow, but maybe it had snowed over... whatever... was bleeding. Usopp stared around Brook's lanky limbs for a few more moments, then made up his mind. "P-poke it. Poke it with the bat, Brook! See if anything moves!"

He wasn't sure if he hoped there would be something actually bleeding under there, or not.

Nightshift 36: Outside the Institute: North

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