damned_institute | NIGHTSHIFT 42: BLACK ROCK HOTEL

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NIGHTSHIFT 42: BLACK ROCK HOTEL

Snake jerked his head away from Fox's hand and shot to his feet, disorientated slightly by the sudden shift. The grout in the tiles was black with what looked like old blood, and the stench of rot heaved in his throat. Something was badly wrong. He sensed threats - left, faint shapes in the dark outside the large windows - Fox - something creaking in the ceiling - a long groaning voice off to the right, past the walls - and something moving in the back of the room -

It staggered towards him, and before he fully knew what he was doing he ripped the match from the book and struck it with his left hand alone, popped the cap off the hairspray, and blasted a tongue of flame at the aggressor, aiming for its face. He saw, in the flickering light, long hair and long nails and the skin on its rotten face peeling and cracking and bubbling in the heat. It gave a long, screaming cry, and toppled to the floor. Its arms and legs writhed and kicked furiously, an automatic, animal gesture, before it finally lay still.

"Here?" he snapped at Fox, wrapping his fingers around the can of hairspray. "This place gets better and better. It's like a theme park." His voice quaked with anger. The place now stunk of something far worse than rotten meat, and for a fraction of a second he thought he could hear Big Boss's voice saying something he couldn't make out before he realised that it had come from inside his own head.

"At least I don't have to be the only thing here back from the dead," he growled. The woman zombie was leaking something he didn't want to think about. He guessed that the decomposition must have trapped methane and other flammable gasses inside the body, hence why it went up like a candle.

That said, he didn't really think he could burn anything else again. For a while.

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Nodding an acknowledgment into Yukari's shirt, Sheena was reluctant to let go of the youkai. At that moment, staying right there against the warmth that was Yukari sounded much more appealing than getting up and dealing with the zombies all around them. The youkai was warm and, as far as she knew, had no intention of trying to eat her. It would be so easy, so tempting, to just close her eyes and go to sleep in the youkai's arms...

Get up, Mizuho. On your feet, Sheena. You can rest when it's over, came the ninja's own thoughts, words she'd used many times over the years to keep pushing herself farther and farther. Don't give up now. They didn't give up. Now up!

"I trust you," the ninja replied quietly. She was very scared, very much in pain, but she trusted Yukari. Shifting so she could sit up better, pulling herself from the youkai, Sheena blinked and her eyes cleared some. Wiping away the remnants of her tears, she used to the youkai to get to her feet. It took her a moment to force her body to respond, but with gritted teeth, she managed it.

Testing the arm on the side where the bite was, she drew in a sharp breath, holding back another whimper, at the pain. She held her other hand out for Yukari to use if she needed it. Sure, Sheena looked like she'd topple over at any given moment, but she wasn't really thinking.

Yukari smiled wanly at Sheena's words. Trusting her was a foolish thing to do, but this was neither the time nor place to point that out. Right now, she needed Sheena to trust her if she wanted to get the ninja out of this alive. She held still as the girl used her to stand, then got to her feet on her own, taking the ninja's hand more to steady Sheena than herself, seeing how unsteady she looked.

"Walk with me," she said, pulling the ninja's uninjured arm over her shoulder and wrapping her arm just under the ninja's, avoiding her injured side and the makeshift bandages. The dead yet still dying horse made going back the way they came mildly hazardous, but as Sheena had noticed before, there was a door further down the other way. Slowly, they made their way there. They just had to get to the door, and get inside. not that anything was ever that easy.

"Locked," muttered Yukari under her breath as she tried the handle. She positioned herself purposefully in front of the door so the ninja wouldn't try to break it down as she had the one in the barn. The door was old and rotten, but even if that meant Sheena could kick it in, didn't mean she should. Of course, the question was, could Yukari do any better? She'd gladly take a sore shoulder to get them inside, but she didn't want to jostle Sheena when she did.

Then she remembered what had happened before with the window. Throwing a gap up against the glass panes on the door, she concentrated and just pushed. With no sound at all, it slid through the glass and to the other side, leaving no trace except the beginnings of a headache. But there would be time to worry about that later. Opening the other end of the gap on this side of the door, Yukari reached in with her arm, her hand appearing inside the building. Reaching down, she fumbled with the door handle, leaning close to the glass to get a better look at what she was doing. It wasn't long before there was an audible click.

"Okay, let's get inside," said the youkai, bringing back her hand and opening the door with it. Pulling the ninja close again, she stepped inside and into the darkness.

Sheena was a foolish ninja. Asked the right way, and she might even admit it, in a roundabout fashion.

Oddly complacent, Sheena let the youkai guide her toward the door, her eyes lingering on the horse for a moment before making herself focus on where she was being moved to. She didn't even move to break down the door, staying true to her statement that she trusted Yukari. Granted, the ninja wasn't completely there and she had to shake her head a few times when she felt her consciousness start to wander. Where it had been wandering to was something Sheena didn't really want to know.

Once inside the darkness, the sharp scent of detergent invaded the ninja's senses. It was a perfectly normal smell, though it was a little aged. No scent of rotting flesh, no scent of blood (though that was quickly starting to vie for supremacy thanks to Sheena's shoulder continuing to bleed); it was like the oasis in Triet to her, as she shifted her weight, leaning into the youkai, so she could close the door with her foot without breaking what might be the only barrier between them and the zombies.

"Can you see? I don't hear any zombies," Sheena asked. Her foot kicked something large and metal, putting the ninja precariously offbalance. Steadying herself on the youkai, accidentally grabbing something she shouldn't have, she mumbled, "Sorry," and coughed a little in embarrassment. At least there was one mildly good thing about being as injured as she was; she'd lost too much blood for her body to blush.

"We should block the door if it's safe in here."

Yukari peered in the gloom with a frown; once again, she was disturbingly bereft of night-vision and now she had no flashlight to correct this problem. She felt along the wall beside the door until she found a light switch but, not surprisingly, she supposed, flicking it up and down did absolutely nothing.

"We seem to be okay for now," said Yukari. Hopefully no one had been buried beneath the hotel and it would stay that way. As they moved inside and Sheena stumbled, she hardly did much more than glance the ninja's way at her apology. Which was not to say she didn't notice what had happened, quite the opposite. That particular slip was being filed away for later.

"Sure. Just... sit tight," said Yukari, depositing the ninja by one of the washing machines as she looked for something to blockade the doorway with. The washers and dryers all looked a bit big for Yukari to move by herself, and she wasn't about to get Sheena to help move heavy objects. There was, however, a decent sized table off to one side. Grabbing a hold of it, Yukari dragged it over before circling around and pushing it up against the door. It wasn't much, but it could probably keep a zombie or two out.

"Now, let's do something about that shoulder." The youkai grabbed an old bed sheet off a shelf, similar to the one she'd used before, as she walked back over to where she'd left the ninja. Like the previous one, it ripped fairly easily. "Though we're going to have to look around if we want alcohol to sterilize it." Technically speaking, any number of other bottles in this room would also destroy any infection. And Sheena's shoulder.

"You can see? I can't, but that might be because of all the black spots," Sheena mumbled as the youkai left to go block off the door.

With a little bit of a banging noise and some indications of how much pain she was in (which she hoped the sound of the moving table covered), Sheena managed to push herself up to sit on one of the washing machines. She leaned forward, her breathing labored, and rest her forearms on her legs while Yukari said something about her shoulder. She put a hand to her forehead, her mind drifting, when she jerked back to reality at the sound of ripping cloth.

"...yeah. Don't know if there's anything here to use. Water though... nice," the ninja said, using the pads of her fingers to examine the deepness of the claw-like wound on her forearm. Okay, that one wasn't anything to worry about; it wasn't even bleeding anymore. "Kinda thirsty," she mumbled.

Had Yukari heard the ninja's comment about "black spots", she wouldn't have bothered blocking the door and headed straight back to the ninja. As it was though, she had been more engaged in moving the table and hadn't heard her as she moved about the room.

Standing before the now-seated ninja, Yukari started dabbing at her shoulder with a folded bit of cloth, wiping away the blood so she could get a better look at the injury. The bite wound was really a mess and the skin around it was starting to discolor nastily. Was that because of blood loss or something else?

"Press these to it for now; I'll see if I can find water," she said, handing Sheena a wad of the torn sheet strips she'd made so far. Carefully searching about in the darkness, she found what she was looking for: a service sink. She turned the knob and was rewarded with some rusty colored liquid. Yukari was about to turn it off when it started to clear up; apparently it mostly had been built up sludge and there was water. Cupping her hands, she tasted it tentatively. It was metallic and stale, but at least it didn't taste brackish or rotten. Pulling a dusty measuring cup off the shelf, she washed it out and filled it up feeling her way back along the row of machines to the ninja.

"Here," she said, handing out the cup. "It's not too pure, but it's better than nothing." Another problem she could have solved had she her powers. "How are you feeling?"

Hopefully the ninja would complain only about the physical wounds. Other symptoms might indicate serious blood loss, or perhaps fever, or worse, which were not things Yukari wanted to have to deal with in this situation. Mostly because she didn't have any way to effectively do so.

As gentle as the youkai had been when blotting up blood from her shoulder, it wasn't gentle enough. Still, Sheena endured it without too many pathetic sounds. Now that there weren't any actual zombies around, some of the fear was leaving her, allowing her a tiny bit more control over her emotions than before.

Obediently, the ninja held the cloth to her shoulder as the youkai searched the room. The sound of running water again brought about the mental comparison to Triet's oasis. It was a wonderful body of water in the midst of the scorching Sylvarant desert. Tracking the Chosen through that hadn't been easy, but thankfully Colette was clumsier than Sheena and left a few calling cards. It'd been hot and the water of the oasis so refreshing. They sold some pretty rare ingredients there, too, which allowed Sheena to make some new variations of her favorite dishes. The water she was hearing in the room was going to be refreshing too. It was hot. She just needed some water...

It wasn't until Yukari was holding the cup out that Sheena realized the youkai had returned, the ninja's head having fallen forward, eyes half-glazed over, to stare unseeing at a spot on the floor before her. That spot was currently being occupied by the youkai.

"Huh?" Sheena blinked her eyes, lifting her head to look at the cup for a moment before taking it. Her hand shook, something the ninja didn't notice, and she took a tentative drink then another. When she was a little over halfway finished with the water, she poured the rest into her hand and applied it to her face.

Oh, Yukari had asked her a question.

"Uh... shoulder feels like it's on fire and breathing hurts. Focusing is hard and I... too hot." She paused and tilted her head at the youkai. "Can't see you well. Stupid spots. Come closer," she said, reaching a hand out.

This didn't look good. It didn't seem like either wound - the bandages around her side seemed to be okay for now - was severe enough to cause bad enough blood loss to result in this kind of reaction, so that meant it was something just beyond that. Still, it wasn't as if she was an expert on human illnesses and ailments. Maybe if she were that Lunarian, or even Ran would be more helpful in this case than her own experience.

"Sounds like a fever," said Yukari, stepping closer and taking the ninja's hand. Except for the bit about spots. That worried her. Most of the conditions she'd heard of that involved seeing spots were not small things. They needed someone with real medical experience. "You wouldn't happen to know where your friend from the clinic might be, would you?"

Sheena grasped the youkai's hand tightly, using the contact as a focal point to help keep her conscious. Now that Yukari was closer, the ninja leaned her head forward to rest it against the youkai since it was taking so much energy to keep it up.

"My frie-- Who?" A pause as Sheena navigated the cobwebs of her mind. "You mean Raine? Probably over by the bookstore helping people with Re..." She did not finish the name, but the shudder that went through her body was unmistakable. It could have been from her injuries, or it could have been something else. If Yukari only could smell fear, then she'd have a better idea what had just happened. "..inforce."

Wrapping an arm around Sheena, Yukari frowned. That sudden shaking wasn't good no matter what it meant. For now, she assumed it was whatever was causing all her other symptoms.

"That's not too far from here..." the youkai trailed off. It wasn't very far normally, but when one factored in the zombies and Sheena's condition, could they make it? And it wasn't like Yukari could just leave the girl here alone and try to go looking for someone that might not even be there. So for now they would wait. Hopefully, they weren't in as bad condition and would come looking for Sheena.

"So... I saw Raine before, but who's Reinforce? Another friend from the clinic?" asked Yukari, trying to make conversation. As long as she could keep the ninja talking, she could keep the girl from completely collapsing. Staying awake might be hard for the ninja, but she didn't know what she'd do if the girl were to pass out entirely.

The ninja's grip tightened. "You are not going out there. I got you safe. Don't undo what I've managed," she said, managing to make her words very clear and unyielding. And then the subject of Reinforce was pressed.

"No," Sheena said, a little too quickly, a little too forcefully.

Swallowing, the ninja squeezed her eyes shut and moved her free hand to rub her chest, feeling the phantom sensation of that woman's hand in her chest even though it had been two nights ago. "Uh... I mean, she's Raine's friend, but not mine. I guess she was here a while back and disappeared right before I showed up then she showed up again the day after you stalked me," Sheena muttered. I meet friends in the weirdest ways and most of them didn't start out being friends.

"Wish she wasn't here, though," the ninja continued to mutter, her condition making her not as keen on monitoring her words. "Makes Raine happy, but I..." Another shudder, another rub across her chest. "Nevermind. Tell me about Gensokyo. Does everyone there know you, or at least know about you, or you just annoy that shrine maiden? You're really good at the annoying thing, you know?" Contrary to the words, her tone gave no indication that she disliked that characteristic of the youkai's.

"I'm not going anywhere," the youkai assured her with a smile and a wince. The ninja's grip was still quite strong despite her condition.

Normally Yukari might have passed the movement of Sheena's hand to her chest as something to do with her previous symptoms, but with how the girl was talking, she suspected it was something to do with less current injuries. Still, the topic obviously made Sheena uneasy, which had not been the youkai's intention this time, so she let the subject drop. She made a note to ask about it some other time however, when Sheena wasn't on the verge of passing out.

"Oh, my name's certainly known by anyone who's anyone, but not necessarily everyone," she replied glibly, the words sliding from her lips without any real thought behind them. "Though that historian did write a piece on me." She stroked the girl's hair absently. "I annoy many more people than just Reimu. Otherwise it would just be boring."

Sheena's grip relaxed once she got confirmation that Yukari wasn't going to be leaving safety to go do something stupid. Apparently, that was the ninja's job, though she was of the opinion leaving the hotel room to find the youkai was not a stupid act considering what would have happened had she not found Yukari being dragged around by that horse. Which made her wonder how she ended up getting dragged around anyways. Had she been asleep?

The idle stroking of her hair only served to further relax the ninja, her eyes falling shut. "Mm. Good to know you're an equal opportunity annoyer," she mumbled. "D'you have some kind of title or like fancy name you're known by?"

She drifted off then, her hand releasing the youkai's only to have it hit the washer she was sitting on, jolting her back awake in a combination of pain and surprise. Blinking her eyes, she wrapped that arm around the youkai's waist. Drawing in a shuddering breath, Sheena quietly said, "Gods, I wish I didn't like you right now. C'fix it then."

Sheena really was cute when she was drowsy. It was too bad the effect was somewhat mitigated by the situation they were in.

"Nothing official, but I've gotten a few," she replied with a thoughtful look on her face. "'Youkai of Boundaries', 'The Youkai that Lurks Within the Boundary', 'Border of Phantasm', 'Border of Fantasy', 'That Damn Youkai'... well, my favorite has to be 'The Mastermind Behind the Spiriting Away'. Really, just 'Yukari' is best though."

The youkai stifled a laugh that was only partly tinged with worry when Sheena woke herself back up, patting her head, a little comfortingly, a little mockingly, when the ninja wrapped up against her again. Poor girl.

"Oh, fix what now?" asked Yukari curiously. The ninja's words weren't exactly making sense, and she wasn't sure if this was because she was missing something or the ninja just wasn't being coherent thanks to whatever she was coming down with.

Had Sheena been completely coherent, she would have been irritated at the pat on her head. As it was, the contact was welcomed as it helped keep her grounded in the moment and not wherever her mind wanted to wander off to.

"Fix me," the ninja answered, dropping the thoroughly blood-soaked cloth she'd had pressed to her shoulder wound. "Fix this. Won't though." Raising her head up, she stared at the blood on her hand for a very long moment, shivering a bit, before she grabbed another wad off cloth to return pressure to the wound.

Resting her head back against the youkai, she asked, "So, if you were to, umm, make some kind of dramatic entrance and make people ooo and aah over the impressiveness of you, how would you introduce yourself?"

Yukari just frowned at the girl's answer. She vaguely recalled Sheena mentioning some kind of life seal or something that she had used while brainwashed to heal herself by draining the victim's - Yukari's - life. That was probably what she meant. That explained why it was a problem that Sheena happened to like the youkai at the moment. Yukari was in a lot better condition than the ninja though, so a magical blood-transfusion might not be a bad thing... especially since that shoulder wound didn't appear to be letting up any time soon. She didn't want to force the matter yet though. Maybe if things got worse... but then, would that make Sheena more compliant or resistant when in that kind of state? And would she still be able to complete the technique? Yukari let her hand slide from the ninja's head down to her neck, covertly bringing a finger around to check the ninja's pulse. It wasn't great, but she didn't seem to be in much danger yet. If it got much slower though...

"A dramatic entrance, huh? I prefer subtlety," she replied. "To step out from behind someone as if I were always there... Or stand behind them and see how long before they notice. Or to just slip into existence before their very eyes, so smoothly that they couldn't tell you at what point I started being there, blurring the borders of their perceptions. It leaves them surprised, confused and awed, but with much less explosions and all that over-the-top drama. Why, what sort of entrance do you make?"

"..."

Why was the youkai touching her neck? This was not the time for... That thought wandered off on its own without any help from the ninja, knowing she was not far enough gone to be wondering about that.

"Yukari. You know what kind of entrance I make," Sheena stated. Even though she'd been drugged at the time, the youkai should remember at least that much of her time in the courtyard with the evilified ninja. Granted, this was also when Sheena hadn't been trying to make an impression or she probably would've fallen on her face or something. Not that she was going to point that out...

"What if someone was introducing you to a bunch of people. What would be the best thing to say to make that impression?" Okay, she was fishing, but Sheena wasn't even aware that's what she was doing. A pause. "Rub the back of my neck? Muscles there hurt."

"Do I?" murmured the youkai. She couldn't think of any time the ninja had been really dramatic in appearing. Usually it was Yukari who snuck up on her. The only time when it was the other way around was...

"Oh, you mean that? Somehow, that didn't really seem like you though," Yukari said with a frown. That kind of stealthy entrance, while the exact sort of impact Yukari liked to make... well, it just didn't seem the same as the easily-flustered tries-too-hard ninja she normally knew. "I kind of imagine you saying some kind of justice-y type line, like, 'In the name of the moon!' or something like that. With colored explosions too."

She obligingly started massaging the ninja's neck, bringing up her other hand to help as she thought over the next question.

"'Yukarin, 17 years old~'" said the youkai in a disturbingly bright and bubbly voice. She paused for a moment with the unnaturally happy smile on her face before her expression deadpanned. "Just kidding." She sighed and relaxed again, going back to rubbing Sheena's neck. "Something mysterious and wise-sounding, I suppose? I'm really most impressive behind the scenes, which isn't something you make grand introductions for." Another pause. "Why, am I getting introduced to someone?"

"Depends on whether I'm serious or not," Sheena muttered. "And if I know who my target is. If I have to confirm before, it's kind of direct and not very ninja-y. Like with Colette. Wasn't sure if she was the Chosen or not, so I had to get everyone's attention and ask. Then I said she was going to die and attacked." Then fell down a hole.

The ninja shuddered at the thought, but quickly felt her eyes slipping shut at the youkai's touch, an unconscious purr coming from the back of her throat. "Actually, it was like the third time I fought them that I finally told them my name."

Yukari's bubbly voice startled Sheena and she peered up at the youkai with unfocused eyes. "Don't do that again. That was really creepy. And you are so not seventeen. That make you younger than me. I'm nineteen." Information Yukari probably already knew, but the ninja didn't think about that. Her eyes fell shut again, her voice losing a bit of strength before the ninja coughed and shivered again. "Something like that, but not now. Just curious," she mumbled in answer to Yukari's question.

"Wouldn't confirming the target stealthily be the most ninja-like part?" wondered Yukari aloud. Well, somehow she got the feeling Sheena wasn't a ninja in the strictly historical sense. All that summoning and those flashy spells... like someone's fantasized dream of ninjas.

"Well, you've said you don't want to know my real age, so why not seventeen?" said the youkai with a shrug. "If I still had my abilities, I could be any age I wanted."

The playful look on her face faded at the ninja's sudden fit. Pausing in her massage, she checked Sheena's pulse again. It wasn't much worse, but it wasn't stable, meaning that as time wore on, things would only get more dangerous.

"Look, Sheena, about fixing this mess..." she started, not wanting to force the issue too much at first. The ninja was sure to resist, so it would be best to ease into the issue rather than fire it up into a full-scale debate from the start.

"Kinda hard to do when the target moves around a lot and is as... unpredictable as Colette." Meaning the girl was so clumsy, her mistakes often ended up in her favor.

"And I say no seventeen because I like you being older than me. Dunno why, really. Just do," Sheena responded to the issue of ages. She also couldn't picture Yukari as younger than her, preferring the way the youkai looked now. It seemed to suit her.

Weakly, Sheena tried to pull the youkai closer in an attempt to soak up her body heat as the ninja was finding herself oddly cold considering how hot she'd been not too long ago. The things going on with her body were making no sense. It was very confusing and it scared Sheena. She just wasn't sure exactly how much it scared her. As it was, it took a few long moments to respond to Yukari's prompting.

"If I had my real cards, this wouldn't be an issue, even with my mana restricted. Mizuho fashion most of their spell cards to be extra effective on undead since we have so many of them nearby. That'd fix this mess." Whether Sheena was purposefully dodging the issue or simply misinterpreting the youkai's intent was anyone's guess.

Anti-zombie weaponry would certainly be handy. More and more, Mizuho were starting to sound part-Shinto. It would make sense if they were the only pseudo-Japanese culture in their world. Still, that was besides the point.

"I meant what you were referring to earlier," Yukari clarified, voice firm. "Your condition's not getting better. Much worse and, well..." She frowned. She wasn't really sure what she'd do should the ninja fall unconscious on her. Probably go looking for help and hope nothing found the ninja to eat while she was away? It sounded stupid, but the other options mostly involved sitting around hoping to be saved. Like they were now.

"We have to do something about your injury. Now," said the youkai in a tone that wasn't about to be argued with.

"What I said earlier..." Sheena's brow furrowed as she searched her memory. Oh. The Life Seal. Yukari's commanding tone meant she wasn't about to back down from the issue and that any intelligent person wouldn't even try. Of course, Sheena was going to argue.

"No," the ninja replied. "I will not. I put way too much into making sure you're safe, that I'm not going to hurt you myself."

Not surprisingly, the ninja was going to be stubborn about this.

"Your life is in danger and mine is clearly not," said Yukari, pulling back from Sheena so she could look her in the eye. "I'm not asking to trade places with you, just help even things out between us and hopefully that'll be enough to pull you above the critical line. And if we're attacked again, I want you to be able to stand on your own. So unless it's going to do some kind of permanent damage to me, I don't think you have much of an argument to stand on. Because I can assure you, if you cross the border of death, or better yet, we both get eaten and cross it together, that will be very permanent."

The idea that Yukari might die permanently didn't often occur to her now and she really didn't think she would either; she was sure that death would pose no boundary to her. But as for the ninja, she meant every word of what she said.

"So are you going to do what I say, or do I have to start being mean to you?" she asked. Her mouth was set in not-quite-a-frown, so it was hard to tell just how irritated she was at this point. As if that would even deter the ninja.

Sheena opened her mouth, ready to snap at the youkai, but then she paused. Yukari had a point and the ninja knew it. Still, if she was to be truthful, she was scared, but she wasn't desperate. Her fear was centered on the uncertainty of the situation.

"I..." Sheena dropped her eyes. "I don't know if it will do anything permanent to you," she replied quietly, removing her arm from around the youkai to steady herself on the washer. "Normally, I have very precise control with that seal and take no more than the barest amount needed. I don't like the vampiric nature of the seal. But here..."

Her voice grew even quieter. "With my mana as reduced as it is and feeling all weird since--" She cut herself off, though her hand strayed to her chest again. "The only time I used it here was when I was evil and beating the snot out of you. I..."

She completely turned her head away from the youkai. "I'm scared. OK? I'm afraid of..." Her voice trailed off as she busied herself with the examination of the claw-like cuts in her forearm.

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