damned_institute | Nightshift 36: Outside the Institute: North

Momo came to a stop when they entered the clearing and started down at the giant crater. Or was it a crater? No... it appeared more that it was a location where humans had removed stone from the ground.

"I am unfamiliar with what humans call this type of rock mining," she stated before gingerly kneeling down next to Hokuto. It was clear the girl was trying to hide her leg, and failed to fool the shinigami.

"Hokuto-chan... let me see it," she said gently, not wanting to issue a direct order.

Finally, they had made it! Sora just wasn't sure what this place was. The equipment scattered around meant that someone just have been trying to build something here, but he didn't know enough about that sort of thing to guess what. Or maybe they had just been digging for something - like fossils, or some sort of valuable material?

He wasn't really sure, and there wasn't a good way to find out unless they went digging themselves. Seeing how only one of them had a shovel, he doubted that would work out very well. And what were the chances of them actually finding anything?

The quarry seemed to go pretty far down, though. Even using his flashlight, he couldn't get an idea of where the bottom was. He moved a little closer to the edge, a few feet away from the two girls, and that was when he lost his footing. Sora yelped and flailed his arms in the air, knowing that he would fall into the quarry if he didn't right himself somehow.

In the end he did start sliding toward the edge, but he was able to throw his free hand out and grab onto a rock to save himself from taking the plunge. The arm holding his flashlight was left to hang at his side, so his grip was certainly precarious.

Man, had he screwed up or what? He tried to push back his fear as he snapped his head up toward the others. "I -- I think I need a hand here," he said, doing his best to sound calm.

Hokuto flinched and scrambled forward to help Sora; not good. She didn't stand up, but got on all fours as close to the edge as she dared. "Take my hand," she said, reaching for him. He could toss his flashlight to safety or drop it, his choice, but he was probably going to need both hands free to get back up safely.

She'd never pulled someone up like this before in her life, helping friends on the playground didn't count, but she knew enough to keep herself in a position as stable as possible and not shift her weight any further forward than she had to. Sora couldn't weigh too much more than she did, if at all, but that probably mattered more than strength; they might need Momo to help, but Hokuto was pretty sure she needed to be the one to really pull Sora up.

If they ever came back here, it would be with rope.

With Momo's broken arm and injuries, she knew there wasn't much she could do to help pull Sora up. Hokuto was right, this would rest in the girl's hands. What the shinigami could do, was be an anchor for Hokuto.

Digging her sword into the ground, she held onto it's solid grip and hooked her other arm, the one with the cast, about Hokuto's leg. This was, if she stretched too far, Momo would be able to keep her from falling in as well.

"If he can't reach, use your shovel for added length," Momo replied, her voice strained.

Sora let out a sigh of relief when Hokuto was quick to come to his aid. He could already feel his fingers starting to slip, which meant there was no room to hesitate. Doing his best not to move any more than he had to, he pulled his arm up with enough force to throw his flashlight back up onto solid ground.

The moment the flashlight had safely left his hand, Sora reached out for Hokuto. His relief increased when they were able to clasp hands, and he braced his feet against the side of the wall as he started pulling himself up with both arms.

With their combined strength, it would hopefully be okay. His heart was still pounding, though - ever since learning how to fly in Neverland, this sort of fear hadn't concerned him. But Landel's had taken all of that away, and now he really only had friends to rely on.

Luckily, he did have them. Maybe he didn't know these two very well, but they were both good people. That much was obvious.

Hokuto braced herself as well as she could--Momo definitely helped--and did her part in pulling Sora up. She hadn't quite been at the best angle for this after all, so she found herself leaning to the side a little; as long as it didn't throw her off-balance, whatever.

Unwilling to take any chances, as soon as it was safe to she pulled Sora towards her as well as up; the sooner he had his feet on the ground, the better.

Hokuto being Hokuto, she overdid it a little, and used enough force to pull him on top of her...

At least it looked like disaster had been averted... for now. Though, as Momo stood back up and got a look at the two teenagers, she couldn't help but giggle.

"I'm sure your princess would love to hearing about this," she teased. Becoming more serious, she added on, "Are you alright, Sora?"

Well, he definitely made it up without any harm! But not without a price, as Sora soon found himself on top of Hokuto, and he had to fumble to put his hands on the ground rather than anywhere on her.

Suffice to say his face was red as he got off of her as quickly as he could. He could only hope that neither of the girls could tell, considering how dark it was. Speaking of which, finding his flashlight would be a wonderful distraction, and Sora was heading over to pick up the light when he heard Momo's comment.

"Princess?" he asked, turning toward her and blinking. She knew about Kairi? Wait -- Kairi wasn't his princess, necessarily, and had Momo assumed certain things about them, or--

"It's not like that," he quickly sputtered, completely unaware that the shinigami hadn't been talking to him in the first place.

At least he hadn't groped her? Of course, the mere thought had Hokuto giggling; an innocent, accidental touch wasn't anything to get upset about, but the look on Sora's face would have been hilarious.

"She means my princess," she assured, sitting up and flashing a grin. "Alita Forland. Why, you have one too?"

Momo had the grace to cover her mouth as the mirth escaped her restraint. Sora's reaction was too cute and the shinigami hadn't even meant the teasing to be directed at him. Though, this made her wonder about Kairi. She'd never met the girl, but she knew Sora and Kairi were from the same world.

"Yes, I meant Hokuto's princess," she replied. "My apologies if I made you uncomfortable."

"You have a princess?" Sora blurted out, a little more bluntly than he'd meant to. That was sort of a strange concept, but seeing how he didn't know the details, he wasn't exactly in a place to judge.

As for Hokuto's question, Sora quickly shook his head. "Not really. I mean, we're just friends, but she is a princess." That had been a real shock to find out, and it was still strange to think of Kairi that way - but at the same time it fit perfectly.

Dropping the smile that had somehow crept onto his face, Sora glanced between his two teammates. "Anyway, I guess we should find the real way to get down there, huh?" In all of the commotion, he had forgotten that they were supposed to check out Hokuto's leg.

Hokuto grinned. "Yeah. It's hard to find things to do on dates around here, but we manage."

Something about Sora's denial... she couldn't resist leaning forward and saying in a stage whisper, "If you want to be something more than 'just friends' with her, I'm happy to help." She would never, ever ever give up her love of playing matchmaker--she'd thought of it, but even after what happened last time, it was just a part of her nature.

She wasn't trying to hide the scrape on her leg, and the stinging pain wasn't about to let her forget about it, but she was hoping that in all the excitement, everyone else had.

Everyone, but Momo. The shinigami remembered what she'd been doing before Sora's unfortunately slip. Her eye focused on Hokuto's leg as she approached her.

"Now, now, Hokuto-chan," she said lightly, as she knelt down next to the girl, "just because you have managed to woo a princess doesn't mean that gives you any authority on how to woo another. I gather your princess isn't the typical kind, anyways."

She put her hand to the leg and raised her flashlight from where it hung at her belt and shined the muted light at the injury. "Hold still," she said, taking a moment to cut off a piece of cloth from the end of her sash before tying it around the girl's leg.

Sora honestly wasn't sure what to think about Hokuto and her princess. He hadn't really heard of that before, though that didn't necessarily mean anything was wrong with it. Love was love, right? He was glad that she had been able to find something worthwhile in this situation, whether it be friends or something more.

At Hokuto's suggestion, Sora's eyes widened and he immediately threw both hands up in front of him and waved her off. "No, no, that's okay! Like I said, it isn't like that."

They were just friends, right? That was how it had always been. Sora, Kairi, and Riku - friends forever. If something in that formula changed, he wasn't sure what would happen.

Now that Momo was tending to Hokuto's leg, Sora took a second to catch his breath after that scare earlier. He realized he probably should apologize for that (it had been a pretty foolish mistake), but he got the feeling they would both just brush it off.

Hokuto giggled, and tried to refrain from patting Sora on the head. "Okay." The little smile on her face said Tell me if you change your mind.

When Momo finished bandaging her leg (at least nobody had made a fuss) she stood up, carefully, and looked down into the quarry. "Now what?" she murmured. The "KEEP OUT!" signs were there for a reason... but personally, if she was a mad scientist setting up high-stakes games, she'd think this place was perfect to hide things. There was the danger of not being able to get back up... but chances were, when dawn came it wouldn't matter where they were, they'd get returned to their beds anyway.

Momo got to her feet after giving Hokuto a gentle pat on the leg and surveyed the giant pit as best as she could.

"Well... let's see if we can find a path down into it. Perhaps there's something useful among the equipment," the vice captain said. "If not, we'll move on and see what else we can locate out there."

She smiled. "Let's all watch our footing."

Glad that everything had been taken care of without much of a problem (Hokuto didn't seem to be hurting too much), Sora nodded as Momo explained their next course of action. Actually getting down there to get a better look would be great, but if there was no safe way to do it, then they would just have to try looking elsewhere. (Once again, Sora missed a time when this wouldn't have been a problem.)

He wasn't sure if he should still be taking the lead after almost falling into the quarry once before; on the other hand, that meant that he would be extra careful now. With his flashlight safely in hand, Sora turned and started moving along the perimeter of the quarry, searching for any way to get down.

"If tonight's a no-go, we should be able to find rope somewhere," Hokuto said thoughtfully.

Part of her pointed out, And you have how much rappelling experience?

Okay, point taken... maybe not this exact team. Or possibly anyone in this team, since she could hardly imagine Momo using anything like rope to get up or down cliffs.

"...well, to start with," she added. "Sora-kun? Have you ever been mountain-climbing? I'm not even totally sure what we'd need."

Given her eyesight, Momo decided it was best for Hokuto and Sora to concentrate on finding a path down. She trusted herself to detect incoming monsters, but not sudden dips and such in the ground near the pit's edge. Stepping a bit away from the edge and turning to face the surrounding terrain, she addressed the two teenagers.

"You two search thoroughly. I will keep guard in the meantime. Alert me when you've discovered something."

Even though rope seemed like it would be easy to find, Sora wasn't sure he had actually ever seen any of it lying around during his searches of the institute. And while makeshift ropes could be made, he didn't think that would be very safe.

Glancing over to Momo when she gave out her order, Sora nodded and gave her a mock salute. "Will do!"

As he continued walking with Hokuto, he considering her question and ended up shrugging. "I've gone up into the mountains, but I haven't climbed steep mountains with a rope or anything like that," he explained. He had been able to defy gravity at one point, though, so he hadn't really needed to do anything like that. "I've climbed pretty tall trees, but that's not really the same, is it?" He'd done a whole lot of things, in fact, but this was certainly a completely new adventure for him.

"Probably not," Hokuto admitted.

A second later, she stumbled again, but this time she managed to catch herself. She took a second to glare at her shoes; she'd thought they were a better choice than the patient-issued outdoor slippers, since she could be certain these would stay on, but they kind of weren't made for hiking.

Sighing a little dramatically, she said, "The roughest natural terrain I'm really used to is parks. I've been to the base of Mount Fuji, but we weren't there to climb it."

Momo shook her head silently as she listened to the teenagers talk. The shoes Hokuto was wearing were as ridiculous as the girl's outfit, but hopefully this night will have served up a lesson that heels are not for field work.

She kept pace with the others and moved aside some branches of a bush, checking to make sure there was nothing lying in wait. Nope. Momo was starting to get an odd feeling that this night was going too well. Sure, one member with a nice gash on her leg and the other almost falling to his doom was indeed a good night.

Maybe things were looking up for once. Maybe she'd have good news to bring Hitsugaya. Maybe that grin on Momo's face whenever she thought of him would go away.

Nah...

When Hokuto stumbled, Sora's hand immediately went out to grasp for her shoulder before he could properly think about it. By the time he'd grabbed her, though, she had already caught herself, and so he quickly let his hand drop away. He wasn't very good at this sort of thing, but he preferred risking a little embarrassment to ensure that the girl didn't take a fall again.

Her shoes were pretty impractical, but Sora could admit that slippers weren't much better. Sometimes he wondered if it would be better to go barefoot, but that obviously wouldn't work on this sort of terrain.

"Mount Fuji?" he asked, tilting his head at her. "Where's that?" There were obviously lots of worlds he'd never been to, but he was still curious.

"Japan, where I'm from. Have you heard of it?" It was where a lot of people were from, so he might have heard about the country at least. Hokuto added, "I lived in Tokyo, one of the big cities. It's not a place with much magic, and danger is unusual in most of it. So this is all pretty new to me--I can fight, but before this I wasn't in many real battles."

She wondered if she should mention the outcome of the last one; well, it was an important part of her past. And despite how little experience she had with genuine danger, she wasn't afraid to face it head-on.

Momo hoped Hokuto wouldn't bring up the death she suffered prior to coming to the institute. It wasn't particularly relevant and the shinigami believed it would put a sad face on Sora. A night without sad faces would be quite nice.

"Maybe Sora's been to a mall, Hokuto-chan," Momo prompted, steering the conversation a bit away from Hokuto's battle experience. Though, now that she'd said it, maybe mentioning the mall hadn't been a good idea considering the way Hokuto had reacted to the vice captain not even knowing what one was.

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