damned_institute | Nightshift 38: F1-F10 Hallway

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Nightshift 38: F1-F10 Hallway

Though experimenting with playing cards wasn't exactly the hardest of bodily training, Ophelia did feel that the rigorous testing of her speed, accuracy and throwing power had sharpened her mind for the coming night, and she went out into the night confident that she would be able to handle herself much more gracefully than she had previously. It still irked her greatly that she was no longer able to face any challenge that came her way head on, but she realized now that if she was going to make any progress in attempting to get her power back and shove Martin Landel's balls up his own esophagus, she was going to have to turn down a few fun opportunities here and there.

Ophelia left her room with Kio's maps and a handful of pens in her pockets. She felt more than a little naked without anything else in hand, and she was reminded instantly that she missed not having her full night vision, but no matter. She had to get to the Sun Room quickly. There was no way she was going to get tied up again and miss the opportunity to get further into the basement. The fact that Landel had mentioned something about "down there" specifically in his intercom announcement only made Ophelia more eager.

The Claymore hurried down the hall as fast as she could while making sure she didn't bump into anything in the dark.

[To here]

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"Coming!" Shiki called out in a bright voice as she went to answer the door. "Hi, Ururu-chan," she began, and then smiled at each of the others in turn.

Sure, the one was blue, and a little fuzzy, and it was a little hard for Shiki not to stare, but she knew better than to be rude or anything. She certainly knew what it was to need to get used to looking different than you usually did, and how awkward that could be. There wasn't any need to make him feel worse about it.

"You guys must be Ururu-chan's friends. I'm Shiki. It's nice to meet you," she said, bowing a little.

Orihime was right behind Shiki. She peered over the girl's shoulder, surprised to see Yue there with Ururu, though she smiled at them both in greeting. Obviously, the other boy was Kurt. She couldn't help but stare at him for a moment. He was blue and fuzzy and not like anything she'd ever seen before. He was just...so cool. Wasn't blue the colour of cool or something? She hoped he didn't think they were boring in comparison.

Orihime smiled at him, despite the blush she felt creeping up into her cheeks, and bowed slightly after Shiki. "I'm Inoue Orihime. It's nice to meet you, Kurt-san." She'd already introduced herself to Yue after all. She stepped aside, leaving room for them to get in, and addressed her question to everyone now that introductions were mostly over. "Do you want to come inside? We can figure out what to do tonight... or just hang out for a while, if no one minds."

"Oh. You hadn't met Yue-san yet?" Ururu was a bit surprised, but then she remembered that Yue hadn't come to the meeting that one time. Maybe that was why he didn't know about the rules. Ururu would have to be sure to tell him.

But Orihime moved first, and Ururu again took the hand of each of her friends, this time to pull them into the room. She didn't let go right away this time, instead making sure that she introduced them both to Shiki.

"This is Yue-san. He's definitely Yue-san right now, but sometimes he's Yukito-san." Ururu raised Yue's hand when she introduced him, then did the same for Kurt. "And this is Kurt-san. I think Kurt-san is only Kurt-san, but he looks different during the day."

Now the little girl let the two men go, and turned to Orihime. "I'm okay with whatever anyone else wants to do. But Kurt-san should tell you about his roommate! Superboy-san said he was going to fight the Head Doctor, but he had to find him first."

Although Yue didn't protest being manhandled and dragged around by Ururu, the expression on his face clearly said that he didn't appreciate it. When she once again tried to explain his situation his frown only deepened, and he glanced away as though pretending that she was speaking about someone else entirely.

Once the girl let go again he sidled away a little and started to fold his arms across his chest in his customary posture. This time, though, it reminded him of his injuries, and he mostly hid the slight flinch before he pretended he really just wanted to leave his hands at his sides.

He made no effort to join in the conversation, though, only watching with a vaguely distant air, pretending complete disinterest in the proceedings.

Kurt winced when he heard the door open. The moments when Shiki and Orihime were staring at him seemed to last forever and a day. He felt so vulnerable, just standing there waiting for them to react in some way. He couldn't take this--he had to run before they attacked him. He had to--

Be dragged into the room by Ururu?

He'd been so flustered that he hadn't exactly registered that Shiki or Orihime had said anything until way after the fact. He stood awkwardly in the room, hunched over a little and wondering if he should sit or something.

"What?" Kurt looked down at Ururu when she mentioned him. "Oh, euh... yeah. I'm uh, Kurt... Wagner."

Kurt might sound friendlier, Kon's voice replayed in his head. But Nightcrawler is a way cool name.

He cleared his throat. "But when I look like this, I'm also called, uh... Nightcrawler." He sounded so lame. Everyone was going to think he was insane, not scary, at this rate. "It's uh, nice to meet you Shiki, Orihime."

"It's nice to meet you, too, Kurt-kun." Shiki flashed another bright smile his way, trying to do her best to cheer him up. "What'd you prefer I call you?" She had to admit, the other name sounded cool - like a superhero's secret identity or something! But at the same time, she didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable.

"Nice to meet you as well, Yue-san." The redhead bowed to the older man, noting that he seemed injured. She thought about asking whether he was feeling well, but she sensed that even if he was hurt, he wouldn't admit to that.

"Please, all of you, make yourselves at home," she added. "We can figure out where to go from here."

Orihime remained quiet through the round of introductions. She would like to know which name Kurt preferred too, but like Shiki she didn't want to make him uncomfortable just because it was a cool name.

She'd forgotten that Yue wasn't there for the meeting and, for some reason, she'd expected everyone in the club to know each other already. She herself had no idea that Yue was sometimes someone else and she made a note of the name so she could remember to meet him sometime too. She wondered if Yue had come all this way with Ururu and Kurt because he was protecting them. That was just like him, though he didn't look very interested in the conversation.

"Yes, please sit anywhere you like." Orihime added and, after a moment's hesitation, she sat in one of the desk chairs. The bed was the better option and she didn't want them to feel uncomfortable about sitting there.

Now, where to start? Hadn't Ururu mentioned something about Kurt's roommate? "Ururu-chan, were you saying something else earlier? I think I zoned out a bit, I'm sorry."

Ururu thought Yue had moved a little oddly, but maybe she was just seeing things. Like the older girls, she wanted to know which name Kurt liked better; she didn't want to call him the wrong thing. She could only wait until he answered though, since Shiki had already asked.

Well, that, and she could take a seat on the floor. Kneeling down that way was perfectly comfortable for the little girl, except she'd rather have a skirt than the pants she wore.

Ururu nodded when Orihime asked her about earlier. "Kurt-san's roommate is Superboy-san, and he says he's sexy and great and he's going to try and fight the Head Doctor." Ururu was still a little worried about the last part. "He said he's invincible, but I don't know. I'm pretty sure he had bandages on. I tried to get him to come here, but he didn't want to. I think it would've been better though, since we can fight, and Orihime-san can heal."

"Oh!" Ururu turned to Yue then, suddenly remembering something. "Yue-san, you weren't there, but we have club rules now. Even if Kurogane-san still doesn't like to listen. The most important one is to be honest, like when you're hurt." She then looked to Kurt, hoping he'd agree. "Kurt-san works on a team in his world, and he likes it. I thought maybe he could help us be a better team."

That was a good thing, wasn't it?

So Shiki was the one Yukito had been talking to on the bulletin board, then; Yue inclined his head slightly toward her in response to her greeting, but was again about as talkative and friendly as usual. (Which was to say, not at all.)

He remained standing despite the invitation to sit, glancing down toward Ururu with one brow slightly upraised at the narrative. How exactly this "Superboy" planned to find the Head Doctor was what he wanted to know, but decided that since this person seemed to believe himself invulnerable, it was just bragging of some kind.

As the girl turned to speak to him, though, his frown deepened slightly for a moment in annoyance. "I didn't agree to be in any clubs," he replied, sounding mildly huffy. He wasn't part of any clubs and wasn't about to be bound by any rules, nor did he want to be on someone's "team." He glanced away again, staring at some indeterminate point on the far wall as though his declaration had ended the discussion.

He laughed nervously, "J-just Kurt is fine. That was just my codename, whenever I had to fight back home while I looked like this. I'd prefer it if you just called me Kurt. Y-yeah..."

This wasn't awkward at all. He was so clumsy whenever he met new people--especially people who knew his secret now. But they didn't seem too upset about it. He rigidly crossed the room and sat down on the dresser. Sit on a girl's bed?! No way!

He looked a little awkward sitting with his legs straight out in front of him. Normally he would perch himself comfortably on all fours, or on the ceiling, but that might be too much for them right now.

Speaking of too much, Kurt's roommate had come up in the conversation. Mentally, Kurt slapped a hand to his head. Oi God, did she have to mention that part? Kids repeated stuff like that! Didn't Kon get it?!

"Uh, he means well!" Kurt interjected, hoping he could spin the situation to a point where they all didn't think Kon was some sort of sex fiend. ...well, maybe he was, but that didn't mean that he was a fiend of the normal variety. "He's apparently like... Superman's successor, so he feels like he has to save us all. I don't think he realizes that he'll need a team to do that..."

Shiki nodded. "No problem, Kurt. And don't worry. We're all friendly here." She smiled a friendly smile - the poor guy looked so uncomfortable, and she hoped that she wasn't making all that worse.

"I know all about folks wanting to go out on their own by themselves. First Neku, now Kurogane...people can be stubborn. I think your roommate will probably learn that in time."

She turned to Yue again. "Ah, right. You'd wanted to head out? In that case, we should get going before too many monsters come out."

Shiki bowed to everyone in turn. "It was good to meet you, and take care," she said, before getting her things and heading for the door.

[skipping down to a new thread]

Orihime nodded too. She didn't know if she could say to help, but maybe Kurt would feel more comfortable if they talked about other things. "In the meantime, he should really be careful. Nobody is as strong as they were back home and he could get badly hurt."

Of course, if he was anything like Kurogane or Yue, that would probably happen before he understood. She really hoped it wouldn't be too bad or, at most, not so bad that she couldn't look after it.

"You can both join our team, if you want. We're not really like any of the other clubs but maybe we can help eachother, like Ururu-chan said."

It looked like Shiki and Yue would be going now. She vaguely remembered something about that on the board, but the past few days had been such a blur... She had to get back into things again. Orihime smiled and waved at them, "Take care of eachother and good luck."

Yue and Shiki had left, but they were together, so Ururu wasn't worried so much. She hadn't gotten the chance to ask Shiki about Mr. Mew though, so the girl could only hope that her friend had had time to make it. Now she was alone with Kurt and Orihime, but Ururu thought that was a pretty good team.

Orihime was saying the same things she'd said to Superboy, and the girl nodded silently. Hopefully Superboy would be okay, but there was nothing they could do about it unless they were with him. "If you know where he went, we could find him, Kurt-san. Then we could help him if he needs it."

Other than that, Ururu wasn't sure what to do. She looked to the other two, hoping one of them would be able to think of something. Ururu didn't like just staying in the room all night when they could be out helping, or looking for their friends.

Kurt smiled and waved to Shiki as she left. Yue seemed a little stiff, but he knew plenty of people like that. Professor Logan, for one. Yue didn't look like he could get scary when angry, though.

His fur went a little pink when Orihime made the offer for him to join their group. Well, and Superboy, but he didn't exactly know if Kon would join any group. He really did believe that he could just waltz up and free everyone. But these things weren't always so simple.

"I'd like that, I think. I should talk to one of my professors first, though. I've been here two days and I haven't managed to find him yet." Logan would be able to advise him better on what sorts of tasks he should be accomplishing while here. At present time, Kurt hadn't been at the institute long enough to know where to go and what to do.

"But, in the meantime, I should go with you both. Pairs are good, but having three people is better in case, you know, something attacks." He thought for a moment, "We could try to find him, but I don't know where he went. He just told me he was going after the head doctor--I don't know where that is."

Orihime nodded, pleased that Kurt would at least like to join them sometime. "What's his name? And what does he look like, if you don't mind me asking? If either of us see him, we can tell him you're looking."

She glanced at Ururu to make sure that it was ok to include her, though she didn't think the little girl would have any objections to helping out a friend it was only polite.

As for the three of them searching together... "Thank you, Kurt-san. It's just..." Orihime smiled a little sheepishly. "I don't know where that could be either. I don't think anyone does." She looked up suddenly and pushed her chair back so she could rummage in her drawer. "I have maps though! Maybe we can find somewhere that looks the most likely and go there. They might have done the same thing."

She brushed the pictures aside without looking at them and fished the copied maps out of her journal so she could lay them on the table for the other two.

Ururu nodded when Orihime looked at her; looking for people's friend was what they did. And it would be very good if they found one, since Ururu though that it might make everyone feel better. It was like winning a game, except this wasn't a game, and it was really important.

Ururu moved over to the desk when Orihime put her maps there, and pulled herself up so she could see. Instead of sitting on the surface, though, she just hung where she was by her hands. The girl was a little nervous, though. Reading wasn't the thing she was best at, and she didn't want to mess up. It would be hard though, especially since she didn't understand what a lot of the labels said.

"Um, excuse me?" Balancing herself on one hand, Ururu pointed to a box labeled 'Staff Recreational/Exercise Area.' "Do sticks need to exercise here?"

"Honestly I don't think he knows where that is either," Kurt said, laughing and nervously rubbing the back of his neck a little. "But maybe if we looked at a map, we could figure it out."

Although Kurt was pretty sure Kon wasn't going to win any intelligence tests, it was worth a try...

He looked over the map with Ururu, tilting his head lightly at the box she was pointing at.

"Sticks...?" Kurt said, frowning and not exactly getting what Ururu was trying to ask.

Well, that was actually a good thing, because it meant they only had to look in the obvious areas for Superboy - not that any of them really knew what an obvious area was.

Orihime looked down at the box Ururu had indicated. "I don't think I see any sticks there..." Though she supposed they had to exercise somewhere to get so thin.

"But that's what it says." Ururu didn't sound very confident, however. She knew that she was probably doing something wrong, since it looked like no one understood. She pointed to the box again, to the word in question. "A 'staff' is a stick, isn't it? Like what Kisuke-san keeps Benihime-san in. Or a magic wand."

Orihime-san would know what she meant, since she'd seen Kisuke-san's staff. She looked back and forth between the two, hoping that they understood this time.

"Oh!" Kurt laughed, understanding what Ururu meant. "No Ururu. 'Staff' also refers to the people who work here, not just a stick. This must be where the nurses and orderlies exercise," he explained.

He looked at the box in relation to where he thought they were. "Is there something there we should look for?"

It took her a moment puzzle over why Urahara was keeping someone in a stick. It wouldn't be very kind, but it wasn't that unusual for him to do something like tha-- oh. Right.

Orihime nodded at Kurt's explanation, returning to the present. "It might be a good place to look. Otherwise, I don't know." Her friends would usually shout for a while then go charging off somewhere and somehow find their way, but Orihime wasn't any good at that. Unless... "Kurt-san, do you know if Superboy-san saw a map at all? Do you think he would just go searching until he found the head doctor?"

"Oh." Ururu looked down, feeling kind of stupid once Kurt explained it to her. She didn't say anything else right away, instead letting Orihime and Kurt talk. She'd already messed up once, and she didn't want to do it again. Besides, Ururu was okay with going wherever they went. She was best at fighting, not at planning or picking directions.

Kurt put his hand on Ururu's head in a comforting motion, smiling. "It's okay. It's a tough word, especially if you know it in a different sense."

He thought for a moment, looking at the map. "No... I don't know if he saw one. I think he's been here one day longer than I have, so... maybe?" Kurt's face twisted down in thought and he placed one of his fingers on his chin. He could usually think so much better when he was upside-down, but he didn't want to freak Ururu and Orihime out too much tonight.

"Why don't we head to this exercise room and see what we find, hm?" he smiled down at Ururu. "Who knows? He may have gone to, uh... prepare for the big fight or something."

Unlikely, given Kon's extreme self-confidence, but who really knew?

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Nightshift 38: F1-F10 Hallway

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