damned_institute | Night 41: M51-60 Hallway

The second announcement over the intercom was sufficient to warn Rokuta that things most definitely were not as they seemed, only reinforcing what he'd been told and read earlier that day. That was certainly alarming enough, but it was what happened after the door's lock clicked that really disturbed him.

It was like...well, almost as though someone had abruptly flipped a switch. Suddenly where there had been nothing but the harsh scents of cleaners and dull indoor air was a metallic, nauseating tang, one that was entirely familiar and even more unpleasant.

Blood. Blood was heavy on the air, where there had been none of note before. It was like he'd abruptly stepped onto an old battlefield where he'd expected nothing, and Rokuta could feel himself going pale in reaction.

His hands closed into tight fists on his lap, eyes closing as he swallowed hard against a surge of nausea. It wasn't that bad, he told himself firmly. There was no scent of fresh blood; this was all old, distant enough that it wouldn't affect him. Not...too much, at least. But how could he not have smelled it before?

His heart froze in his chest as he heard the announcement, dictating that the night shift had finally come upon them. For a long time, Ciel found himself unable to move, a tension seizing him as he thought about what might be on the outside of his door.

The locks had been undone with a loud click that rung through out the room, beckoning him to take advantage while he could and explore. He willed his legs to move forward, unable to quell the foreboding sensation that something was already waiting for him. Perhaps it had been the stagnant stench that filled the air or the sudden chill that crawled down his spine, leaving goosebumps dotting his skin.

Stealing a deep breath, he pocketed the flash light and tried not let the anxiety creep into his features. The last thing he needed was to justify to his roommate that the boy had been right and that he wouldn't be capable of handling this himself when he perfectly was.

There was no reason left to hesitate. It was simply now or never.

"I'll be taking my leave now, if you don't mind."

He didn't know if he'd see the boy again in the morning or not and was hoping that if came to that -- it would be on the account of either one of them having found a way out of here. With that in mind, he turned the door knob and let himself out of the room and into the hall way.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/631733.html?thread=53336501#t53336501)]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/631733.html?view=53408949#t53408949)]

At last! Here it was, M57. Youko knocked on the door, hoping now that Enki hadn't left already. She didn't think he would--the kirin hadn't lived as long as he had by being foolish--but this place was wrong in all kinds of ways, so she didn't want to rule anything out.

The way the blood scent had increased when his roommate opened the door had been sufficient to warn Rokuta of the danger outside, and he had no intention of going out there alone. If Youko didn't arrive, he'd merely wait for morning and make better plans when he had more time the next day; best to be wise when dealing with an unknown situation, no matter how urgent it was that he leave.

He rose from his seat on the bed at the knock on the door, feeling reasonably certain that it would be her. After all, both he and his roommate had just arrived today, and if Christian hadn't even known his own room number it was unlikely he'd be getting a visitor here. A careful glance outside proved him correct, and Rokuta pulled the door the rest of the way open with an obvious grimace.

"This place reeks of blood," he observed by way of greeting. "Which it didn't until that last announcement. Something is a little strange here."

For a moment Youko was tempted to ask if Enki wasn't just smelling the usual blood-scent associated with Twelve Kingdoms Kings, but when he added that the smell started after the announcement, rather than when she arrived, that faint hope went out the window. Frowning worriedly, Youko asked, "Old or new?" If it was fresh blood, they might get some answers by investigating the source. It would be hard on Enki, but as long as he stayed back and didn't get any on him it would probably be worth it to learn more about the place.

"Old." Rokuta grimaced, lifting a hand to cover his nose as though that would help any. "Not immediately around here, not the worst of it. But enough has been spilled within these walls that...I don't know, I'm starting to think the warnings I was given understated the danger, if anything."

If it stayed like this, he would probably be all right. It wasn't comfortable, certainly, and he was queasy enough that he was glad he hadn't eaten all of his dinner. But at the same time Rokuta had the uncomfortable certainty that it would only get worse elsewhere.

And why he hadn't noticed this during the day - that part puzzled him more than anything. Was it even possible for him to feel the effects of the blood fever without being aware of it? It would explain why his shirei's presence was so muted, but it baffled him.

Old, and a lot of it. That certainly didn't bode well. Not that letting a bunch of potentially crazy people run around at will all night boded particularly well in the first place. "What kinds of warnings? Neither of the people I've met so far have really managed to tell me much." It was as frustrating as her early days as Queen had been--she knew so little about the situation, and yet was supposed to be the one taking care of things. Granted, here it was only herself having such expectations--no one else was telling her she had to take charge. But Enki, though he was the more experienced and knowledgeable, was also very vulnerable, so who else could do it?

"Should we try going outside while we talk? The open air might help?" And it would be good to see just how far they could go, too.

Outside? Fresh air would be rather welcome indeed, but the suggestion reminded him of something. Rokuta nodded once in agreement, but took a step back instead, moving to retrieve his journal where he'd left it sitting on his desk. "Almost forgot. Someone posted maps of the building on that board and I made some copies, if you wanted to make some of your own."

The two of them might not have much information between them, but as long as they shared it hopefully they'd be able to piece together enough to survive. He might have had more luck today, but she might have more later, and hopefully there wouldn't be enough tomorrows here to need to keep a tally.

"They wrote a kind of a 'guide' to the place, to go with the maps. It's all in here." Rokuta offered the book to her to look, with a small shrug. "Not much, but it's better than nothing. Seems this place is infested with youma at night. Some of the areas are supposedly worse than others, so we might want to avoid those."

Maps, a guide... Youko smiled ruefully to herself; it sure was obvious which one of them was better at information gathering, but of course Enki had 500 years of experience on her.

She skimmed the information as quickly as she could, making a face at the sheer number of youma that seemed to be native here, then looked at the map rather more carefully. "Looks like there are a few good places to go over the wall, if we want to make a try at that. Unarmed, though..." There being an infestation of youma changed things somewhat.

"And it's not just youma." Rokuta sighed, folding his arms across his chest as he glanced up toward the ceiling. He was liking this place less and less every minute. "The person I talked to said that some of the others trapped here can also be dangerous."

As if it needed more dangerous, now they had to deal with other people. Not terribly unusual in the outside world, but he'd think that their common peril would make them at least willing to cooperate in the interest of escaping.

"It says outside the walls is particularly dangerous, and I'm not surprised. There might be somewhere to find a weapon of some kind for you in here, but - I don't know." He hated to force her to protect him, to force her to fight at all, but that was kind of the unpleasant reality of the situation.

Now that was no surprise to Youko--at least some of the people here were probably genuinely insane, and if they were running around freely there was no doubt that they'd be trouble. Still, Youko was reasonably confident she could handle humans, if it came down to that, even unarmed. As long as Jyouyuu's silence didn't mean the hinman was entirely gone... that would be a problem.

Tapping a corner of the map with one forefinger, Youko said thoughtfully, "There's a shed with sports equipment here, it says. There might be useful items there." There seemed to be more places that might be useful on the second floor, but the sports field was the closest to their current location, and speed was probably of the essence--there had to be significant competition for resources here.

"Sports equipment? Huh." Enki sounded more than slightly dubious at that suggestion, though he did lean over to look at the indicated spot on the map himself. "You want to fight off youma with toys?" The only "sports equipment" he could think of off the top of his head was along the lines of balls to kick, nothing like the sword to which she'd be accustomed. But maybe she'd know; his recent visits to Japan hadn't exactly involved a lot of playing.

And still, it probably was the best course of action, at this point, when so much of the building was unknown to the two of them. "Those storage rooms up there, maybe try those too? Who knows what kind of stuff someone might want to store around here." He reached over toward the second-floor map, indicating the easternmost hallway. There were at least several rooms there to try, even if it was farther away.

"Gaij-- that is, Americans, really like baseball. It's a sport played with wooden or metal bats. I think golf clubs, which have heavy metal or wooden ends, would be too much to hope for, but I might be able to get a baseball bat." No, of course it wasn't ideal--a blunt object instead of a blade--but it would at least increase her reach and add some weight to her swings.

Youko nodded, though, as Enki pointed out the storage rooms she'd also seen. "Yes, and also some laboratory storage on the other side. I didn't particularly excel in chemistry, but there are some things even I would recognise, I think. But getting all the way upstairs without running into a youma is my worry, there."

Rokuta just shrugged and nodded - in the end it was pretty much her decision, after all. Unless he managed to get away from the blood smell that was weakening him, his shirei wouldn't be able to do much to protect him, so it would be up to her. Hopefully she could, though, without getting herself hurt.

"If you think that sounds like a good idea, sure, we can try it first. I'd like to see as much as possible tonight, so we can get more of an idea what's going on here." If people who'd been here for weeks didn't know that much it wasn't likely they'd just stumble on some secret way home, but...well, just about anything would be more than they knew now.

Youko nodded again, agreeing entirely with the idea of seeing as much as they could tonight. "Even if going over it is too dangerous for now, we might want to try getting to the top of the wall, just to look around and see what we can of the lay of the land."

And on the matter of visibility, Youko had an idea. She held the flashlight up where Enki could see it clearly and asked, "Do you think you can carry this, while we go? It's a light--I don't know if you ever used one while you were in Hourai more recently--and if you carry it, that will leave both my hands free." Gods forbid she needed to fight barehanded, but if it came to that it would be a lot easier if she didn't have to worry about the flashlight, too.

"Oh. Sure." Rokuta shrugged again and reached out to take the light agreeably enough. It wasn't as though he'd be any use whatsoever otherwise, especially if they did run into one of the youma in the building. He could definitely light the way while he...quickly ran away from danger.

Great. This was clearly going to be quite the expedition. But still, there was no choice: the two of them had to return. Going out and searching was the only thing they could do at this point. "Guess we should get started, huh?"

Youko decided against asking Enki to try to shine the light in the eyes of any youma she ended up fighting; even that much involvement in a living thing's possible death might be too much for the kirin's peaceful nature, and Youko didn't really want to get into an argument with Enki, especially not when they had no one but each other, here. "I wouldn't mind more time to study this guide, but the longer we put off heading out the more likely it is that anything I might be able to use would already be taken by someone else."

Reluctantly, Youko handed the journal back to Enki and headed back out the way she'd come. She was pretty sure she'd gotten the gist of the guide, and she'd memorised as much of the map as she thought they were likely to need tonight--everything else could probably wait until tomorrow, if they were still here. Youko had the sinking feeling that they would be.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/631733.html?thread=53408949#t53408949)]

Night 41: M51-60 Hallway

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