damned_institute | 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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Noting that the ninja's wounds weren't sealed, Raine checked Sheena's temperature and frowned. "You're still losing too much blood. To be safe, I think you should be healed again." She glanced back at Reinforce.

This won't go over well... The fact that Rein didn't actually have to get anywhere near Sheena wasn't as important as the fact that she would be casting a spell on her. Still, Sheena's condition was bad enough that Raine was willing to go against her wishes if she had to. It was for her own good--and at this point, Sheena owed her.

"I am not going to use my Life Se--"

Sheena was in mid-protest, reaching out to take a sheet from Yukari, when she realized that Raine didn't mean for the ninja to heal herself, but for Reinforce to do so. The ninja froze, her hand clamping like a vice down on the youkai's in the process of grabbing the sheet. Her eyes darted from Raine to Reinforce to the door and then to the card still in her off hand, like a caged animal, as she contemplated the merits of bolting and taking her chances with the zombies than have that woman cast magic on her. It wasn't often that Sheena displayed any signs of fear in regards to another person and she was far too injured and exhausted to even try to cover it up. In fact, the youkai could feel her trembling.

"No," the ninja replied sharply to Raine, never taking her eyes off of Reinforce.

In all likelihood, Rein could simply cast the spell from here and be done with it before Sheena could stop her... which would be better for Sheena physically, of course, but it'd probably get that card thrown at her and...

And, Sheena didn't want it. After all that had led her to this point, forcing her power upon others even for their own supposed benefit was something she had almost as great an aversion to as Sheena had for her.

At the very least, talking came first.

"It's only an imitation of Raine's magic," Reinforce explained carefully, conspicuously still... though, for her, that was normal enough. "There is nothing of me in it. It won't be like the last time."

Yukari winced as Sheena's hand clamped down on hers like she was holding on for dear life. From the way the ninja was acting, it seemed like she believed she was.

As it stood though, the it was clear the the exact opposite was true; the ninja's fear was keeping her from being saved. Reinforce was clearly someone Raine trusted and seemed fairly benign or at least neutral on her own, so Yukari didn't doubt the woman's intent... Still, she was curious as to what caused the ninja to act so irrationally.

"What was 'last time'?" the youkai asked carefully. She didn't remove her hand from Sheena's grip, though she did wiggle her fingers a little, hoping the girl might loosen her death grip.

"It's just First Aid again," Raine assured, making note of Sheena's panicked glance at the door; if she tried to run, Raine wouldn't give her more than the chance to get up. "Reinforce copied my spells, so it's exactly the same as what you're used to. Nothing special or new."

This was for Sheena's own good, so Raine was not going to back down without damned good reason. Still, to start with, she would be gentle with her injured friend.

Instinctively, Sheena's grip lessened on the youkai's hand when she felt her fingers wiggle. She still didn't let go nor did the grip's intensity reduce much.

She was very scared, Raine's explanation doing nothing to assuage the ninja's fears. Intellectually, she understood that the spell would be very similar with just a slightly different feel to the magic as a copy was never as good as the original, but Sheena was not a purely intellectual being. She was a volatile, emotional young woman that was trapped in a room with someone she was very afraid of being told she needed to rely on that person while undead kept her penned in. Sheena didn't like being afraid and the easiest way to deal with fear, when it wasn't crippling, was to channel it into anger. Any ability to control what came out of her mouth disappeared with the acute loss of blood she was suffering from.

"It's NOT exactly the same! Nothing her, Raine. You were there. You know what she did to me," the ninja spat back at her friend.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously at Reinforce. "And YOU! You think I'm going to let you come anywhere near me when I can barely defend myself? You can't just do that to me and then think you can walk up and have everything be okay between us." The ninja's words were edged, but the tone was wavering as she was losing the control to keep channeling the fear into anger. "You can't just stick your hand inside me and mess with my mana, without my consent like that! You used it as a weapon and made me feel like my entire mana well was being ripped out." Her voice suddenly turned raw. "You violated me!"

She shook her head sharply, eye twitching. "So if you think I'm going to let you-- To hell with your-- You ever touch me aga--" Her ability to string complete sentences was fading rapidly and her breathing had sped up to an alarming rate, blood sliding down her back at a faster pace. "I'd rather di--"

The ninja paused and blinked, her vision swimming as the consequences of getting that emotionally worked up with her injuries caught up to it. The ninja paled and muttered something in Mizuho, something that might have been a prayer, before she succumbed to the blood loss and fell unconscious.

[And the ninja is out for the night. Play nice.]

NIGHTSHIFT 42: BLACK ROCK HOTEL

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