damned_institute | Nightshift 36: Outside the Institute: North

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Nightshift 36: Outside the Institute: North

[[From here.]]

Hokuto looked around, trying to take it all in at a glance to minimize the chances of being taken by surprise. The ground sloped upwards from here on out, and was rockier than she'd expected. She was really not an outdoors type of girl, and didn't know what to expect in this kind of terrain.

Then again, knowing I don't know what to expect is better than thinking I do. This was the worst place to get overconfident; she had to remember, no matter what, that the odds were never in their favor here.

It was a horribly depressing way to live, but it was the best way she could think of to survive.

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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.

"I don't know if we should..." Hokuto thought maybe she could try it, but it wouldn't help anyone's mental state if she got hurt. They could always come back.

Looking around, a truck caught her eye; exploring that might be a better idea. "Hold on." She made her way over and tried the door; it was kind of a struggle, but she got it open. She hopped into the driver's seat and looked around; no keys in the ignition. Dammit. She tried turning it anyway; some cars DID start without them in certain weird cases. Not at all to her surprise, it didn't work.

She tried the glove compartment and winced at the smell; if anything had died in there, she was going to puke. She tried to dig through, but the first trace of long-rotted leftover food had her recoiling. Okay, I'm sorry, NO!

She sat back for a moment and thought; was there anything in your standard truck that would help them?

Momo thought long and hard as she watched Hokuto move to investigate the vehicle. She wanted some success to report given the night's events, but... Momo sighed. The safety of the members of a team were one of a commander's duties. In this instance, should she wish to investigate further, given those assigned to her, testing the ladder out should fall to her.

But she knew she couldn't physically do so given her injuries. And she couldn't bring herself to order either of the teenagers to investigate. Damnit.

"Arts & Crafts has suffered enough losses for tonight. We will investigate the area surrounding the pit, but we will not descend. Not tonight," she stated. "I will recommend to Hitsugaya-taichou that a team be sent here another night, one better prepared now that we know this is here."

Sora watched curiously as Hokuto moved over to the truck. He felt like he should follow her, but searching it was a one-person job. Besides, he knew very little about cars like that. His mode of transportation was a gummi ship, and even then he only knew the basics. He certainly had no clue how the ship actually worked beyond the small bits of knowledge he had picked up from Cid. A truck like that seemed even more complicated.

Glancing to Momo when she eventually spoke up, Sora frowned. So they came all this way for nothing? Then again, they had done a preliminary search of the area, so maybe that would be worth something. He was pretty surprised that they had made it through without getting attacked, though he got the feeling there were all sorts of monsters waiting down in that quarry.

Maybe it was better that they held off for now, even though the adventurous side of him was urging him to keep going. That was all outweighed by how drained he felt after hearing the news of Renji's death.

"All right," he agreed after a long pause, before looking back to Hokuto. "So, anything there?"

"Little bits of things I really don't want on my hands." Hokuto was trying not to be too squeamish about it, but right now she was totally justified.

She tried digging under the seats, too, but while that managed not to be gross, it didn't reveal anything either. She grumbled to herself and got out to check the engine; maybe a wire was lose or something.

After prying the lid open, she discovered that... yeah, she had no idea what a truck's engine was supposed to look like. Well. Anybody want to take out their grief and anger by smashing this thing to pieces?

Momo walked over to the vehicle when Hokuto opened its hood. She had even less of an idea than the girl did as to what was what inside it.

"And what were you hoping to find in here?"

Once Momo wandered over, Sora couldn't help but join the crowd. Even though he couldn't provide any helpful input, he was still curious to look over the truck's insides. He couldn't wrap his head around how a person could make a machine like that...

Then again, some people probably didn't understand how he could move from world to world fighting creatures of darkness. Everyone had their talent, right?

"I guess we could try and take whatever looks important?" He didn't know who would be able to make use of any of the car parts, but there were a lot of talented patients around...

[Backthreading or did we want to end this?]

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Nightshift 36: Outside the Institute: North

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