damned_institute | Nighshift 23: Entry Room

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Nighshift 23: Entry Room

[ from here ]

While her commander opened the door into unchartered territory for her, she listened for his reaction, knowing he would see whatever was inside first. In the meantime, her attention swept the wide hall behind them, not wanting to give up her guard prematurely.

He wasn't wasting any time, it seemed (though caution was never wasted time to her), and she followed him in, almost back-to-back with him. Trusting his reaction in place of her own, she didn't turn around until the door was shut in their wake.

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When the three entered the room, Tsuzuki's gaze was instantly drawn to the other two in the room. They looked...panicked, confused. Was something going on? He couldn't really tell, but Hisoka seemed to be motioning for them to keep moving. Except that just didn't sit right with Tsuzuki.

"Hisoka...Something's wrong," Tsuzuki whispered, setting his hand lightly on his partner's shoulder to make sure he had his attention. "We can't just leave them. We have to help them... Please, Hisoka?"

Dias didn't need Kurosaki to draw his attention to the fact that something was definitely not right up ahead of them; even bringing up the rear, his senses were already warning him that something was deeply wrong and that they were walking straight towards it.

Kurosaki and Tsuzuki seemed content to stand in the doorway while they debated what to do, providing perfect silhouettes for anything hostile within the room. Dias, however, moved quickly to the side of the doorway, grip tightening on the hilt of his sword.

He didn't like what his senses were telling him. Part of him agreed with Tsuzuki; there were people in trouble inside, and as an experienced and armed fighter he had very little excuse not to at least make an attempt to drive off their attacker. But his senses were on high alert, screaming at him; it was the kind of feeling he recognized from Expel, when a particularly vicious and powerful monster was moving through the area.

It was the feeling that taking on an opponent this dangerous, alone, bordered on the suicidal, and he'd be better off heading in the opposite direction as quietly and quickly as he could. Possibly, if there were someone else armed in the vicinity...but neither Kurosaki nor Tsuzuki had weapons that he could see, and the people being attacked didn't apparently have any weapons that were doing them any good.

"We should get away from here," he hissed to the other two. "I've got a bad feeling about this. I'm not sure we'd fare any better than them." He jerked his head in the direction of the room. "You can go ahead if you want, but I don't think the files are worth fighting this opponent."

This was true mercenary behavior, and Dias didn't exactly feel great about exhibiting it. But he wasn't going to walk into significant danger - already injured - simply because these two might choose to. Not for a battle he wasn't confident of his chances in; not when Ashton was out there somewhere, possibly in trouble because Dias had gone off on this wild goose chase (they never had found Edgeworth, the only real reason Dias had been interested in going to the file room at all) rather than going with him. The thought of Ashton and his insane plans for the night had been skulking in the back of his mind all night; he'd already resolved that if he hadn't found Edgeworth by the time they made it to the file room, he'd give it up as a bad job and go find his friend instead to make sure he was all right. With a highly risky but avoidable fight facing him, now seemed like a good time.

He'd prefer if he could talk Kurosaki and Tsuzuki out of doing anything stupid, but ultimately it was their decision. If they chose to take the risk, it wasn't his responsibility anymore.

Hisoka glanced from the two arguing to the room itself, anxious and uneasy with the atmosphere that permeated the room. They were so close, damn it! But Dias was right, Hisoka didn't expect they'd do any damage to whatever could cause this with only a metal bar, a sword and perhaps a few pens.

That didn't quench Hisoka's want of getting a hold of his file though, he wanted to know what was going on and the folder-- or whatever it was in-- would help. The boy was torn.

"And exactly what do you plan to do?!" Hisoka hissed at Tsuzuki, following Dias' example by moving out of the doorframe and dragging Tsuzuki with him to prevent them from being noticed. If possible.

Tsuzuki recoiled a bit from both the hissing and being dragged. "I don't know..." he admitted, but there was a bit of desperation in his voice. He wanted to help...He just didn't know how, and that was always a frustrating feeling.

He glanced over at the two strangers once again. Well, they seemed to be ok. Whatever had been wrong earlier, they looked like they were just talking now... Maybe they were ok?

"Sorry..." Tsuzuki knew Hisoka wanted to find those files. It was important for some reason, and here he was sidetracking already. He looked at the little rooms on either side of the room they were in. "Are those the file rooms?"

Dias noted the change of atmosphere in the room as well and relaxed somewhat; apparently whatever had been attacking the people within was gone, which absolved him of any responsibility he might have to step in. He didn't allow himself to get too comfortable, however; after all, whatever their attacker had been, they didn't know where he'd gone.

In all honesty, Dias didn't need much reason to give up on the file room. Between his being convinced that the files wouldn't do them much good and his increasingly-difficult-to-deny concern for Ashton, he was aware that he was practically looking for an excuse to disengage from this mess before it got any worse. He could only hope that wherever Edgeworth was, the man was all right and his inability to find him hadn't cost Edgeworth anything.

It was actually a little unsettling how concerned Dias was about Ashton; granted, Ashton was the only other person from Expel in the institute - his one link back to a past ~~and to his sanity~~ that he'd actually been beginning to question - and he'd known the man was walking into a potentially dangerous situation. But Ashton was a good enough fighter to defend himself, and people who knew the danger and went in anyway...he'd left such fighters to their own devices before without a second thought. And how quickly he'd become attached to, and concerned for, someone he'd barely known the name of a few days ago...

He wasn't sure whether it was because Ashton was almost as innocent and gentle as Rena - while simultaneously being as tough and determined as Claude - or because Ashton's being the only other Expellian elevated the empathy between them. Whatever the case, he was getting more and more uneasy worrying about him and, in his opinion, checking on him would be far more productive than staying here.

"I'm not interested in the files," he murmured to the other two men, keeping his voice low in case the enemy they'd heard was still lurking nearby. "And since the man I was supposed to meet isn't here, I'm going to get out of here. Be careful; whatever that thing was, it could still be around."

And with that, Dias pulled away from the wall and, after a cautious look around, loped off down the hallway back the way they'd came.

[Off to here (http://community.livejournal.com/landels_damned/105623.html?view=6300311#t6300311).]

Hisoka merely nodded in return to Dias' departure, letting the other man go without a word of protest in the least. It wasn't as if the other man had been obligated to join them... He had only joined them for the sake of protecting a man who didn't even show, so what reason would the other man have to stay?

The boy shook his head and shifted his attention back to the entry room, not blind to Tsuzuki's disposition. But what could he do? He only made things worse whenever he involved himself in the idiots business...

"I believe so."

Tsuzuki frowned a bit at Dias's departure, but called after him quietly nonetheless. "You be careful, too." This wasn't the only dangerous room in the building...Tsuzuki was quite sure of that.

Looking back to Hisoka, Tsuzuki pulled his focus back to the task at hand. The files that Hisoka wanted. He could tell that Hisoka wasn't going to stop, and the other two seemed a little better than 'fine' right now, so Tsuzuki was much less worried. Not that he would have deserted Hisoka, either way.

"So, which one is it?"

Hisoka narrowed his eyes, glancing from one room to the other as if he could decide from sight alone. Ultimately, Hisoka just shook his head, he had no idea which one to choose from... He hadn't even known there was more than one of them!

He held back a sigh and shrugged. "Pick one."

Was Hisoka telling him to pick? "Umm..." Tsuzuki paused, not quite sure which one he should go with. It wasn't as if he had any better idea than Hisoka would.

In the end, he shrugged as well and pointed to the one to his right. "That one, I guess."

The boy nodded, fixing his eyes on the room as he silently measured the distance it would take to get there. Regardless of the other two's sudden calm, Hisoka still felt the skin-prickling uneasiness that permeated the room as strong as ever and he didn't like it.

The quicker they were out of the line of fire-- regardless of whatever the hell was shooting-- the better.

Gathering his courage ~~and ignoring the idea of following Dias' advice and forgetting about the files. Not happening.~~ Hisoka tightened his grip on the metal bar and slipped inside the room before breaking into a steady run for his destination.

Something still seemed to have Hisoka on edge, but Tsuzuki wasn't sure what it was. He couldn't feel anything, but that didn't mean there wasn't something there that was bothering his partner.

When Hisoka took off, Tsuzuki was hot on his heels. His biggest fear was that his partner was going to get himself into some kind of trouble, so even if he had wanted to leave, he couldn't exactly do that.

He owed it to Hisoka, after all.

Hisoka reached the door to the file room with little trouble at all. Whatever was still in the room was distracted by the other two occupants which suited the shinigami just fine. With a small glance to make sure Tsuzuki was still there, the boy reached out to turn the door knob.

It didn't budge.

Hisoka scowled, glancing around in the vain hopes of finding a key. And perhaps a map to the Head Doctor's secret location while he was at it ~~ah, the sarcasm~~.

Apparently, the door seemed to be locked, or at least that's what Tsuzuki gathered from the scowl on his partner's face. That was usually a look that Hisoka reserved for when he'd done something stupid, but this time, the door was on the receiving end and not him.

"Here, let me," Tsuzuki whispered, trying to keep it down so they wouldn't be noticed. Not that the silence was going to last for long... It really couldn't be helped, though.

Taking the door handle from Hisoka and motioning for him to step away, Tsuzuki positioned himself in front of the door, grasping the knob tightly. Putting his shoulder to the surface, he turned the knob and rammed the door in an attempt to break the lock.

Tsuzuki winced a bit from the collision, the pain running down through his arm, but he'd felt the door budge just a bit. It wasn't as sturdy as it appeared. Pulling back, he rammed it once, twice again in quick succession. This time, the door gave way on the second shove, and he stumbled through into the room.

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Nighshift 23: Entry Room

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