Day 39: Sun Room [Fourth Shift]

[winged_moon]

Yue was all too pleased to leave the cafeteria by the time lunch was over, even if he still wasn't satisfied that Fai was properly taking care of himself. It was clear that Touya hadn't accepted the answers he'd been given and intended to find out just what the guardian wasn't telling him, and being watched so closely was beginning to get uncomfortable.

It was clear that the truth would have to come out at some point, especially if they were going to be spending any amount of time together. Avoiding him was entirely out of the question, but at the same time Yue stubbornly refused to consider the idea of just outright telling him about what had happened in the last week. It was a dilemma indeed, and only served to make him even more irritable than ever.

How could he admit any of it? That he was weak and crippled, betrayed and altered by his creator? That he'd almost broken the promise he'd given in exchange for Touya's power? The latter he couldn't help but be reminded of every time he saw this Touya, who had only just gone through it, and would remember it even more clearly.

Fortunately Yukito was staying silent for the moment, although he could feel his other self's disappointment at being unable to speak to Touya so far, and it didn't make him feel any better.

In the midst of all this Yue was rather dismayed to realize that the nurse wanted to lead him to the music room, of all places: that was the room where he'd met the Sakura-who-wasn't-his-Sakura the week before, and needed neither the reminder nor the inevitable noise in that room. He abruptly halted in his tracks and refused to continue on. The nurse seemed initially disappointed, but finally agreed to let him stay in the Sun Room instead; the guardian found a corner in which to stand, arms folded across his chest and lost in his own brooding thoughts.

[for Sokka]

Comments

[givemeoblivion.livejournal.com]

Callisto loved the look of interest he gave, and she smiled back at him in a not-at-all-friendly manner before sitting up completely and leaning in herself. Her voice was lowered only slightly, not nearly enough to actually keep any secrets from anyone who passed by the two of them.

One finger was pointed towards the floor. "Directly beneath this room," she said, "there's a much larger one with four sets of doors. Those to the south," she pointed now towards the exit leading out into the main hall, "can only be opened if you've solved a series of puzzles from those on the east and west. If you get through those south doors, he'll eventually show for you."

She shrugged then, leaning back in her seat. "He keeps himself well protected, though. The coward."

[superdynamic.livejournal.com]

For someone who wasn't very nice, she was very forthcoming. Finally, Suzaku was really getting somewhere. He listened intently, trying to commit the directions to memory so he could tell Lelouch later.

"So we can't attack him?" he asked. He had seen something similar on the board, after all. "If you just wanted to talk to him, would you be able to?" He didn't necessarily want to try to kill Landel or something, just confront him. He couldn't stand going into this blind, without knowing anything about whom he was fighting or why.

[givemeoblivion.livejournal.com]

In response to that Callisto just shrugged. "You can try. I know physical attacks won't get through whatever barrier he has up. He didn't seem open to much discussion, either. Then again, most of the people I was with just wanted to yell at him a bit."

Oh, Callisto wanted others to reach the Coliseum. She wanted to know if the experience was the same for everyone, and if Sanzo wouldn't be the only one to come back from the dead after losing. If that meant that more could then enter the northern doors this was fine with her. If she needed traveling companions she wouldn't be stuck with the same monks as before.

[superdynamic.livejournal.com]

This was definitely an item on Suzaku's to-do list. He was sure Lelouch would say that they needed to learn more and be better prepared before trying to confront Landel, which was perfectly true, so Suzaku would try to curb his instinct to head down to the basement right away. Still, this was a valuable thing to learn so early on. And even if Landel couldn't be attacked, if they could figure out how he was protecting himself they might be able to think of a way around it, later.

"I can see why they would want to yell at him, but yeah, maybe he would be more willing to talk if we used a more reasonable approach. Thank you for telling me all of this, by the way. Oh, one more thing -- how do you get down to that part of the basement? Just any of the stairs?"

[givemeoblivion.livejournal.com]

"It's my pleasure," Callisto grinned. Then she blinked at Suzaku as if she would have forgotten to mention the way down if he hadn't asked. "Oh, that's right. Well. The only way I know down is through the kitchen and into the cold storage. There's an off-color tile there that opens up to reveal a staircase."

She shook her head. "It's hidden, but not amazingly so. Obviously he meant for some of us to make our way down there eventually."

[superdynamic.livejournal.com]

Suzaku nodded, committing all this to memory as well. There was still the possibility she was lying, as she had given the information away so freely -- and he had finally learned to be wary of lies -- but it was still worth looking into.

"Thank you, again. I would never have found that otherwise. But, you know. . . I wonder what he hopes to gain by setting up these challenges for us down there?"

None of this made any sense. The only way to get answers would be to see for himself.

[givemeoblivion.livejournal.com]

The woman shrugged. Both arms were flung over the back of the sofa as she lounged, trying to make herself as comfortable as possible. "Who knows? Like I said - he likes to play games. He probably enjoys making us think we actually stand a chance of getting somewhere, yet we can't help but follow the paths he sets for us anyway."

She doubted the door to the north would get her anywhere that would actually prove anything besides the fact that Landel was a twisted individual. That didn't mean she was going to quit trying to see what she'd earned.