damned_institute | Nightshift 36: Outside the Institute: North

"Yeah, I have!" Sora confirmed with a quick nod. "Only from other people here, though. It seems like a lot of people come from there!" It made him wonder what kind of place it really was. He had met a wide range of people from there, so it had to be a pretty interesting place.

Though Hokuto insisted that there wasn't much out of the ordinary there. Then again, just because it wasn't dangerous didn't mean Japan wasn't an exciting place!

"If that's the case, you're pretty brave to be doing all of this," he responded with a small smile. He couldn't imagine coming to this place with zero experience. Sure, he had taken to the Keyblade Master thing pretty well, but that had felt more gradual to him, and he'd had people like Aerith and Leon to help him adjust.

Hearing Momo's comment, he glanced over his shoulder at her. "A mall?"

Hokuto got the hint; for whatever reason, this wasn't the time. (She also wondered just where and when Sora was from if he'd never been to a mall either--he'd sounded modern enough to her!) She settled on smiling back at him. "Malls are my natural habitat--I'm a teenage girl, they're giant shopping centers, I've spent more hours than I can count in them."

As for her being brave, somehow she kept a straight face as she said, "When there are causes to help out with, I can't just spend every night in bed."

Oh boy, Sora didn't know what a mall was either. Momo was pleasantly surprised, though, that Hokuto didn't have the spastic reaction that she'd had when the shinigami admitted to not knowing what a mall was. She chuckled at the girl referencing it as her natural habitat. Maybe she'd take some time on the living plan once they'd destroyed this place (when she had the chance) to go visit one of these malls.

The vice captain had moved a bit further along the side of the rock pit, doubling back to get around an outcropping of boulders, when she felt it - the sudden cessation of a shinigami's reiatsu.

Momo stopped abruptly, her eyes widened in shock and she visibly went pale. "No..."

The words were barely audible as she whirled around to the south, staring off into the distance as if she could see the institute. She'd gotten so used to the various reiatsu levels of the other shinigami fluctuating throughout the night, that she had barely noted the changes until the one vanished. Feeling panic rising, Momo narrowed her eyes and forced the spirit threads into focus, a headache immediately developing, as she looked for that one thread.

Where was it? She searched, blood starting to drip from her nose, but couldn't find it. It was simply gone. She raised a shaking hand to her mouth, her breathing a little ragged. "No..."

Renji was dead.

"A big shopping center, huh? Well, I've been to places like that, but I didn't know there was a name for them," Sora explained. Weren't those just marketplaces and things like that? Then again, he didn't really know what scale Hokuto was talking about. She might mean something on a whole different level than Traverse Town or Hollow Bastion.

Just as Sora thought he might have spotted a way down - was that a ladder? - he became aware of the fact that he didn't hear Momo following along behind them.

Frowning, he paused and turned to see that she'd halted some distance back, and she wasn't even looking toward them. It was almost like she was staring at something, but even when he squinted, Sora couldn't see anything.

"What is it?" he called out to the girl, trying to make sure he didn't yell too loudly. There was a chance she was staring down a monster that he just couldn't see from where he was standing, and if that was the case then they needed to be extra cautious.

Hokuto turned when Sora did; when she saw Momo, she realized something was very wrong. She didn't see any monsters around, so she went over as quickly as she could without risking another fall.

Her friend looked shocked and horrified, and her nose was bleeding... so she'd been checking up on someone, and gotten bad news. Who about? And are they hurt, or...? Hokuto wished desperately she was even an Academy student, so she could check herself; instead, all she could do was ask her. "Momo-chan?"

In the very back of Momo's mind, she could tell that someone had moved next to her and that she was being talked to, but that's as far as the recognition went. The shinigami did not respond, only took a step toward the south, hand still covering her mouth, as she tried to process what had happened.

Renji was dead. Renji... the loud-mouthed, crude teddy bear she'd gone to Academy with. One of her best friends. Probably her closest male friend after Hitsugaya. He was gone. Gone...

How could this happen? In this place, Renji had the upper hand given his Eleventh Division honed fighting skills. Renji should not have died. But with Rukia gone... No. Momo couldn't make sense of it all. Hitsugaya's team was supposed to take care of him tonight.

Hitsugaya.

The vice captain closed her eyes upon feeling Hitsugaya's comforting presence still. It was weakened, yes, but he was still there. But Renji... She searched for his spirit threads once again - just to be sure.

...

Momo's sword hit the ground first as it slipped from her hand and, a few moments later, she dropped heavily to her knees, not even feeling the sharpness of the stones beneath them. Placing her palm to her temple, the shinigami bowed her head and stared at the ground. She wasn't crying yet, the disbelief holding that off for the moment, but her intake of breath sounded very much like a strangled sob.

Sora watched as Hokuto moved over to check on the other girl, but he didn't fully realize that there was something wrong until the shinigami fell to the ground. He wasn't quite sure what would have inspired this in her all of a sudden, since she'd seemed just fine a few minutes ago, but Sora wasn't going to question that right now.

Instead, he ran over to join them, falling into a quick kneel next to Momo even though he wound up scraping both knees as a result.

"Hey!" he said, putting a hand to her shoulder and trying to make eye contact, but she seemed to be in a whole other world. He spotted the blood near her nose and realized she must have been trying to use one of her shinigami skills.

"What happened?" he tried once more, though he was starting to get the feeling that he didn't want to know. Momo had seemed so composed before - what could have caused this sort of change?

Hokuto put her arms around Momo's shoulders; whatever it was, she wanted her friend to remember she wasn't alone.

Please, not Hitsugaya-taichou... She couldn't bring herself to ask, though, so she just stayed where she was, hugging Momo close and waiting.

Absently wiping the blood off her face with her sleeve, Momo finally remembered where she was and who she was with. She felt the warmth of someone hugging her and an insistent voice calling to her with a hand on her shoulder. She leaned just a bit into Hokuto's hug before shrugging out of it. She then turned to face Sora, tears glistening in her eyes though they did not fall.

Sora had been Renji's friend. This was going to be hard for the boy.

"Sora...." Momo put her hand over top of the boy's, fingers curling around them so if he decide to do what she almost did upon hearing the news, she could keep him in place. Her other hand, the one with the cast, moved to his shoulder. "I'm so sorry..."

She swallowed, the words a thick lump in her throat. "Renji's... he..." She shook her head a little, her voice breaking. "He's dead."

When Momo turned to him specifically - grabbed for him and looked at him with that sense of loss - Sora felt the ball of dread that had been collecting in his stomach grow to a point that it was almost unbearable.

The moment she spoke Renji's name, he knew what had happened, and it took all of his willpower not to pull away from Momo out of shock. Instead, he tightened his grip on her hand and stared blankly at the girl.

They had both known him, and while he wasn't extremely close with Momo, this was something they could both understand.

Not that Renji's death made sense - the news was sudden and crushing and almost unbelievable, except that he knew Momo would never joke about something like this. The pain she was in was obvious enough, and Sora knew he must have been mirroring that now.

"Why?" he asked, even though he realized there was probably no way she could answer that. "How?" Renji was supposed to be a pillar of strength - no matter what happened, he was supposed to be there. Regret for not having seen Renji much recently gripped the boy, and he was tense, frozen in place.

Renji? Gone? Hokuto stayed silent and kneeling where she was; she'd never gotten to speak to him, but even seeing him around, she knew enough to like him. And now, hearing he'd been killed... she bowed her eyes, closing her eyes for a moment. I'm sorry. Wherever you're going... I hope you're all right.

She didn't know what happened to a shinigami when their gigai was destroyed, but Momo's reaction was more than enough to tell her that it wasn't anything trivial.

For a lot of reasons, this might not be goodbye forever, for anyone--this place could and did bring back the dead, after all. But for now, all they knew was that he was gone, and so he would be mourned.

Shaking her head slightly, Momo moved her hand from Sora's shoulder to stroke back his hair in a gentle, comforting motion. "I don't know what happened, but..." She drew in a shuttering breath. "His reiatsu and the captain's had been fluctuating for a bit."

She closed her eyes a moment. "I've known Renji for nearly half a century. I am certain he went down fighting and he protected someone important to him," she said in a quiet voice. Renji wasn't a noble, so he would reincarnate, but she didn't think that information would matter.

"I'm so sorry..."

Being touched this way wasn't something that Sora was used to, though it was comforting to just feel that someone else was there. Momo had been much closer to Renji that he ever was, he realized, and that made him feel like he should be stronger in this situation. He should be the one comforting her.

Still, he couldn't deny the way he was feeling, the tightness in his chest and the stinging at his eyes. Even if they'd only been friends for a few weeks, Sora had considered Renji a real friend. They had been through a lot together in that short space of time, and it just didn't seem right to know that he wouldn't be seeing the man around during the shifts anymore.

Momo had said he was dead, not just gone - and while people could come back here at Landel's, that wasn't such a comforting thought right now.

"Me too," he responded after a while, trying not to think about how his voice was shaking. Renji wouldn't have wanted him to cry. He would have wanted him to be strong, to keep moving and to keep working at getting out of this place. "Yeah, he was probably protecting friends of his," he agreed quietly.

Sora closed his eyes for a moment. Maybe Renji was with Rukia now. There was no way to be sure of that, but it was a nice thought.

Hokuto reached out and cupped Sora's cheek for a moment, gently. It's okay. We're here.

She was just leaning against Momo slightly in a subtle gesture of comfort; as sad as she was, she'd never really met Renji. He would be missed, though, by a lot of people.

Renji would want them to continue fighting, to tear down the institute and Landel with their bare hands. That's what he would want. To never forget who they were, their goal or their duty. Momo wouldn't forget - she wouldn't - but Sora's own small attempt at comfort, even with his voice wavering as it was, finally pushed the shinigami's emotions past the small barrier she'd been trying to hold them behind.

Her hands slipped from the boy to find purchase upon the ground as the tears slipped down her cheeks. Momo bowed her head and closed her eyes while the tears silently fell. Renji was gone and Momo cried.

Hokuto's hand made Sora startle slightly, eyes opening again as he looked over at her. He knew she was doing what she could to be supportive, and having her hand there made him that much more determined not to cry.

It looked like Momo was losing her composure, though Sora could definitely understand that. It was probably good to let it out, and he ended up forgetting about any awkwardness as he reached out and set his hand on the back of her head.

He thought that maybe he should say something, but words weren't going to do much at this point. They all just needed a moment to process what had happened, to somehow deal with it so that they could stand up again and keep going.

Giving up wasn't the right way to respond to it, but Sora was pretty sure that a moment of weakness was allowable. They needed to grieve for their friend, even if he was still fighting to hold back the tears.

Hokuto just put her arm around Momo again, gently; there wasn't anything to say. She could guess that Renji would have wanted them to keep going, but would he really have been able to, himself, if it was a close friend of his who'd been killed?

She had tears in her eyes too by then; how many people had died or disappeared even in the time she'd been here? How many more before they took this place down? Tonight, she had no answers.

Momo went stiff when Hokuto put her arm around the shinigami. She was too emotionally unstable at the moment to deal with the embrace. Yes, she had gotten past her instinctive fear-like reaction to hugs since that night in the MU Hallway with the spider when she remembered who she'd been before Aizen, but that didn't mean she still had to remind herself from time to time that the one offering the embrace wasn't going to stab her when her guard was down.

"No, Hokuto, please... let go," she whispered very quickly. "Just... give me a moment and then we can continue with our... mission."

Sora wasn't sure why Momo had tensed all of a sudden, but it seemed pretty obvious that she didn't want to be touched. Even though she had been addressing Hokuto, Sora also made sure to pull his hand away. With a heaving sigh, he gathered his composure and started to get to his feet.

It was never going to be the same without Renji, that was for sure - but there was a chance he would be back, in one way or another. That didn't make it any easier, really, but Sora tried to tell himself that it did.

He realized that his knees were stinging from the scrapes, and the slight pain was a good distraction. Letting out a breath, he remained standing and waited for the others. He wasn't okay by any means, but they did have a job to do.

Hokuto quickly withdrew; she would really rather not get thrown again. "Sorry," she whispered.

Did it even make sense to pray for a shinigami to rest in peace? She didn't know, but they really did need to go on. Letting out a quiet sigh, she stood up. The night would be over soon, anyway.

"It's okay," Momo whispered in response to Hokuto's apology. With the contact removed, though she was a little disappointed that Sora had also taken his hand away. It'd felt nice and not constrictive like Hokuto's embrace had.

Visible relaxing, the shinigami stayed kneeling for half a minute longer before she located her sword. Once it was found, she slowly rose to her feet and drew in a deep breath. She climbed up onto the nearby boulder so she could get a better look at the building in the distance, they cursed place where Renji had died.

I'll never forget, Renji. I'll work hard. I'll work hard enough for both of us.

"Alright," Momo said, wiping the tears off her face. Her words were stronger and duty propelled her. "Let's move," she said with one last look to the south before dropping down from the boulder and nodding.

She wouldn't forget.

While Sora wasn't quite sure where Momo was looking, she could probably somehow tell where Renji had been before he--

Well, he probably shouldn't be dwelling too much on that. It looked like everyone was more or less ready to keep going, battered and drained as they were. Sora tightened his grip on his flashlight, remembering what he had seen before the news had come.

"I'm pretty sure I saw a way down over here," he spoke up, his tone still weak and quite not as set on their assignment as he had been before. He turned in the direction he and Hokuto had been heading previously, slowly making his way back there.

Right now, he just had to do his best not to think too hard about it.

"Do you think those ladders are usable?" Hokuto asked quietly, catching up with Sora. They didn't look like it to her, but technically they didn't have to worry about getting back up, since they'd wake up in their beds when morning came regardless.

I want to go home... Tears stung her eyes again. There was no going home for her, and while knowing that made things easier for her--she still hated it.

"Let's be sure before we descend," Momo replied, joining the two teenagers. "I can maybe heal one injury tonight, so we must be careful."

"Don't worry too much about that," Sora quickly said in response to Momo's mention of healing. She was already hurt (now emotionally as well as physically), so he really didn't want her pushing herself too hard. He figured the best way to make sure she didn't have to do anything like that would be by not getting injured, though.

Easier said than done.

Moving over to the ladder (but keeping his fair distance from the edge), he directed his flashlight at it. It really didn't look very secure, but it had to be the safest way down.

"I don't know, do we want to risk it?" It seemed silly to come all this way and then not do anything, but at the same time one of them could get seriously injured if the ladder didn't hold.

Nightshift 36: Outside the Institute: North

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