damned_institute | Nightshift 50: M91-M100 Hallway

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Nightshift 50: M91-M100 Hallway

[In M93]

Heiji hid under the covers until his roommate left, dinner untouched, hands clamped over his ears. He had been pretending to sleep all throughout dinner, but in reality he'd just been listening to the wet footprints run the length of the room. It was looking for him, it had to be. But why could he hear it through his hands?

He couldn't go out like this, he was going to kill Himura, he knew it. Someone was going to get hurt, at the very least. Honestly, he didn't know if he could stand both survivor's guilt and hurting someone else against his will.

Though the idea was that no one would have to be hurt. Himura might be able to keep him in check. He might be worrying over nothing.

He might snap Himura's neck from behind.

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“Thank you.” Kenshin gave Heiji a wan smile, deciding it was probably best to leave it there. He’d said far too much already, revealed much more than he usually did. Perhaps this place was wearing on him more than he thought. He was tired.

So tired.

The silence hung in the air for a moment, awkward and sad. Kenshin thought of Kaoru, picturing the way she moved and smiled. She was beautiful and intelligent and kind and giving, even if she was slightly terrifying when she got angry. Painting her in his mind’s eye strengthened the rurouni’s resolve to get her back, and everyone else. Sano and Yahiko and all of the others.

He straightened. “Well, this is thoroughly depressing,” he said bravely, putting on another smile. “Let’s talk about something less gloomy, shall we? Has Osaka changed much in the last century, besides the obvious? The last time this one was there, there wasn’t much time to take in the sights.”

If there was one thing Heiji could go on and on about, it was Osaka. And so much had changed in the last century, there was no doubt that he'd have plenty to fill that awkward, sad silence with. Heiji missed his own share of people, of course, but perhaps this was something that could distract both him and Himura for a while. At least until the night was out, he hoped.

"Oh yeah," Heiji said, keeping his excitement in check. It didn't seem fair to sound so happy to talk about his hometown when Kenshin had lost someone important to him. "It's become really colorful--ev'n moreso th'n a cent'ry ago, I'd say. Like there's th'electric wall, 'n--"

Splash.

Heiji froze mid-sentence when he heard it. Like a body being thrown into a river or lake or bathtub... But there wasn't any water in the room, how could he be hearing water in the room when there was no--

He couldn't breathe.

It felt like there was something cold and wet on his face and hands, like there was water in his mouth. He coughed, air came out but he couldn't breathe in. How was he drowning in air?

Kenshin knew instantly that something was wrong. The rurouni had asked about Osaka in order to turn the conversation in a slightly more positive direction, and it looked like he’d succeeded. Heiji was obviously very fond of his hometown, and he’d obviously given this speech a few times before. He’d been on a roll, launching into a description of the city as it was now…and then he just stopped.

“Heiji!”

What a lot of people didn’t seem to realize was that a person who is choking generally doesn’t make a sound. Coughing is a sign of air actually getting to the lungs. And Heiji wasn’t making a sound. He wasn’t coughing. He just stood there, gasping like a fish out of water. The automatic reaction was to stand there right with him, asking what was wrong (which was like asking a drowning person how the water got into his lungs), but Kenshin resisted. He had too many years of training to lose his head in a situation like this.

“Heiji! Heiji. Look at this one. You need to calm down.” At this rate, he was going to spend the rest of the oxygen he had left being frightened and choke even faster. Sword wounds, he could deal with. This was something that needed a doctor, like Megumi.

But she wasn’t here, and he was. “Nod for this one if you can. Did you swallow anything?”

Calm, right, calm down. He would expend more oxygen if he struggled, and that would give him less time to figure out what was happening before he blacked out and suffocated. But there was nothing, nothing that should have caused this. He'd just been sitting on a bed, and now he felt wet, as though submerged in water. How could he remove himself from water when he couldn't even see it?

Heiji looked up at Kenshin, mouth closed as though holding his breath. Did he swallow something? Heiji shook his head and reached for Kenshin's hand. He traced a kanji in the swordsman's hand:

Water.

Anything else was too complex to write. He couldn't take the time to spell out 'I'm drowning' after all, the kanji was too complicated and Kenshin would lose track of the strokes, maybe.

Water.

Kenshin’s eyes widened. Heiji was drowning? It wasn’t possible; the only water in the room was what was left over from dinner, and that wasn’t nearly enough to drown in even if Kenshin hadn’t been watching him like a hawk for the past several minutes. Was this what he was supposed to protect the boy from? Drowning in air?

“Open your mouth,” Kenshin said, trying to keep Heiji calm. “There’s no water, Heiji. Open your mouth and try to breathe.”

Open his mouth? Was Himura crazy? Heiji could see perfectly well that there wasn't any water, but he could feel it pushing against his nose and mouth, clinging around his neck and cheeks. Yes it made no sense. Yes Heiji couldn't figure out what was going on, but he wasn't willing to potentially fill his lungs with phantom-water on a wild guess.

The detective shook his head violently, gripping Himura's wrist tighter. There was water, he could feel it!

Heiji was getting paler and more panicked as the seconds ticked by, and Kenshin was beginning to feel more and more helpless. He could protect Heiji from physical opponents with ease, but how could he go about protecting him from drowning in water that wasn't even there?

"Listen to this one. You must try to breathe. The water isn't there; it's just in your mind. Trust this one."

It didn't sound very convincing, even to the rurouni. He had no idea whether or not the water really was just a mind-trick or not. In this place, there was no way to be certain either way.

He knew the water wasn't there, goddammit, but it was!

...okay, that sounded crazier than usual. Heiji knew what Himura was getting at, but it was nearly impossible to believe when the water was clammy against his face and neck. But his vision was caving in, he had to do something before he drowned.

Screwing up his courage and counting down in his head, he opened his mouth and made to breathe. Water filled his lungs.

That was it, he was done. No final words, no message, not even a clue as to how he was killed. He was going to die. His vision blurred and blacking out, he gripped his throat and clenched his jaw. Waiting for the inevitable.

Suddenly, he felt as though he was being yanked back by his shirt collar out of the water. Heiji spluttered and bent over and away from Himura, coughing. He spat water onto the floor.

Kenshin had made a terrible mistake.

By suggesting that Heiji open his mouth and try to breathe, believing his affliction to be as much of the mind as the body, he had very nearly killed the boy. Heiji had actually been drowning. Somehow, impossibly, when whatever it was that had stopped his lungs relinquished its hold, there was water.

Even after all this time in a place where the impossible happened on a fairly regular basis, it was hard to believe. And yet, the rurouni had seen it with his own two eyes. The superstitious part of his brain was quick to supply A curse? as the possible culprit, but why would anyone have cursed Heiji in such a round-about way? It didn't make sense. Nothing did.

In an instant, Kenshin was crouched next to Heiji, trying to help. He could solve the mysteries of this place later; for now there was someone who needed his protection.

If he could even provide it.

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Nightshift 50: M91-M100 Hallway

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