damned_institute | Nightshift 23: Second floor; east wing, near railed area

_{[from over here]}

Coming up to the railing, he draped his arms along it and stared at the ensuing struggle like someone idly watching a street performance. The woman with the hot poker? Nice. This place had some eccentric attractions.

But he wasn't there to interfere in that. Aidou had his own kink to stomp out before he could move on with the rest of his night.

((From: here (http://community.livejournal.com/landels_damned/98560.html)))

Aidou had to know he was there, with how he broke off from the other two. ~~He would expect no less~~ He had hoped to catch him by surprise, but hey. The smell of a living corpse wasn't exactly hard to miss, to someone with enhanced senses. "So, you've decided to stop running."

He stood up, using his inhuman height to its fullest advantage.

"I'm going to kill you now. Any last words?"

"Running? What a stupid thing to say."

Aidou didn't acknowledge anymore of Alucard's words, however. He absently tapped his forefinger against the banister.

"Let's make one thing clear: by rights, I'm obliged to kill you. But I'm already engaged tonight, and you are a waste of my time." With a hand cupping his chin, Aidou rewarded Alucard with a flat glance. "So I'm granting you a reprieve. It's as simple as that."

"So be it."

He had no qualms on attacking defenseless prey, and if Aidou wanted to discard his own life as carelessly as he was, Alucard did not care the slightest. WIthout any further hesitation, he moved to knock the boy over with a kick to the shins, wanting to have him pinned to the floor.

His hands would be the first to go.

He was trying to go for an image of Kaname-sama in his moment of reluctant mercy; he'd never understood the how or why of it, only that Kaname-sama had made it a point not to devalue himself by indulging the other in a fight. Aidou found it hard to do the same. Especially getting attacked from behind, that was just weak.

Swinging himself up, he avoided Alucard entirely by straightening into a handstand, and leaping away, coming to a stop further along the railing, balanced neatly on his feet.

"Are you stupid? I said take your pathetic existence away, and enjoy what time you have left."

Kicking Alucard in the face would probably defeat the purpose, wouldn't it?

"Then try it, go on. You keep boasting about how you could so easily, end my unlife at a whim. Let's see if you're actually capable of causing me grevious injury, shall we?"

Alucard struck once more, charging foward and aiming to again, throw him off balance. It would be in his favour if Aidou toppled over into the room below. It was also good if Alucard managed to tear into his ankles to prevent him from fleeing the scene.

Had Alucard just tried to bait him so obviously? Had he really just heard the words "then try it"? Had Aidou really gotten so upset that he was willing to sacrifice his impeccable self-image by locking horns with this guy?

Okay, he was beginning to see it now. Yeah, he'd been slapped, but it'd come out of the blue - after all, one couldn't anticipate the actions of insane people. Struggling to land a blow like a raging animal, Alucard was just sinking to lower and lower levels. Not even the most degraded ex-humans would keep going in such circumstances; granted, they knew better than to attack a noble in the first place, but that only proved Aidou's point.

Insane and retarded. Not a winning combination. It was sort of pitiable.

He had to kick off with some force to gain the necessary air, but the rail was soldered to the floor and metal at that; Aidou easily made the jump across the small angle, landing on the adjacent banister.

"Of course I can. You're an ex-human - strictly speaking in a biological sense, you're a pest. But I'm not such a fool as to waste my energy. I told you, I'm busy. If this is all you've come to accomplish, I suggest we part ways."

Ugh. This had gone on long enough. At least Aidou was fast enough to avoid most of his blows. But then again, Alucard wasn't trying. He had simply underestimated the boy is all. So he was more than just hot, misinformed, air, which was a good thing. He would be worth the kill.

Of course, Alucard was stubborn too. He lunged toward said banister, balancing perfectly on both legs. "I'm sorry, but if you had simply kept your mouth shut, I wouldn't be so inclined to attack you," he shot back, a leg lashing out in a split second. This time aiming for a very vulnerable, very private area.

Alucard wasn't above cheap shots. Hell, nothing was fair and unfair in war. And this was war.

It was right on par with wrestling with Tsukiko when she was five. That had been her favorite move, up until the point he learned to see it coming, and sent her bawling to their mother in reparation.

To see Alucard doing it was ridiculous. So very ridiculous.

He caught Alucard's leg mid-shot, clamped his own claws deep, and wrenched to the side and down, keeping the knee locked and in prime position to snap. His eyes flared cold, tone becoming soft and disdainful.

"Did you really find my words so insulting? There is a reason Dracula is considered such an impressive myth to us, you know. To become what he was, he did an incredible feat. Against all odds, he gained power, more power than should have been possible. He was not brought into our world, but forged a path all on his own. He didn't reach the same heights as us, but respect is due all the same. Do you understand?"

Aidou shoved away, moving out of reach at the same time he pushed Alucard away. "He did something great, and you - who holds to his name - acts like a kid throwing a tantrum. That's why you can't possibly be that man."

He paused, not even blinking when his leg was held in a very unnatural position. To use such a disgraceful maneuver indeed, something like that should've been far below him. Integral would've shot him in the head for that. For once, he fell silent to listen to one, he considered lesser than him. Maybe, just maybe Aidou wasn't an empty-headed brat after all.

"...Do you know why he did it in the first place? Do you know why I did it? Why I grew so furious when you slandered her?"

It was simply harmless fun up till this morning, harmless being a relative term to Alucard of course.

"Before that, I wasn't so dead set on wiping you off the face of the earth."

Aidou scratched his head, unwilling to pursue the topic. "Listen, I don't know who you are, where you came from, or who your master is - I no longer consider it my concern."

The thought that this one could somehow, in some way, be tied to the myths he knew was a distasteful thought. Aidou didn't like this change in demeanour. He'd prefer not having anything to do with Alucard at all, but some wishes just couldn't be granted. Not yet, anyway.

He was still going to kill Alucard, definitely. A risk now, but later he would, when things were angled in his favour, like Kaname-sama. But he had also done so out of different motivations. Hio Shizuka was another distasteful thought; the memory of Kaname-sama delivering the killing blow from behind...

"We both have been grievously insulted, and we both want to kill each other. As long as you leave your marks alive, there's no need for further association, as we have nothing in common aside from that. Let's leave it there."

So Aidou was just dropping the matter. Now that his rather immature bout of rage had passed, Alucard could think better, and he did not like just how clearly his childish stupidity, had sang through just now. He was already going out of control, and as much as he hated to admit it, sank to such low standards.

He slunk off the banister. That was..not very climatic, but the vampire didn't mind.

"Yes. That sounds like a rather reasonable alternative," he replied, nodding. All that talk about E-classes, feeding in daylight and death threats put behind him. "Let us not indulge in such petty squabbles again."

That meant 'I'm sorry, I won't do it again, if you don't.'

Alucard just did not like apologizing to someone out loud.

Okay.

That was weird. In the same league as bipolar disorder, what with the unbridled mania, the hysterics, and the depression.

Definitely. Weird.

Hopping down himself, Aidou was eager to get back to earlier concerns. His hunger was starting to inch up his to-do list the more he hung around this area.

"Sure, whatever," Aidou said, not really caring. If it meant getting his way, he'd offer an agreement, however false. He'd done a fair job being diplomatic, but it still grated on his nerves. It was like panhandling for peace. With a rodent. With a rodent that had struck him. He really didn't know how the others put up with this stuff! It was so degrading!

Aidou made to walk off.

So they settled on a truce, for now. Though the vampire was very sure Aidou would not forget about the attempted blow to the crotch. But unlike the latter, Alucard did not seem to mind just how fast his mood switched randomly like an out-of-control pendulum.

As long as Aidou wasn't a threat, yes? Master wasn't even here to command him to eliminate any threats, and his attempt at being independent, was failing.

He simply did not know what to do.

So, the best option was to follow Aidou instead. He didn't mind running into killer bats.

In regards to that night, Aidou could overlook the crotch shot. It'd happened before, and he'd been the one giving it more than once, too. He could overlook the mood swings, the elongated fangs, and the perpetually crimson eyes.

What pissed him off was the sensation of Alucard's footsteps, soundless though they were, synchronizing with his. Aidou stopped. Glanced back. The lack of an offensive stance only irked him further, and didn't relieve him at all as it would for most others who'd gotten on Alucard's bad side. Oh no he wasn't...

But Aidou's instincts didn't lie. And they were telling him Alucard was akin to a retarded puppy. A big retarded puppy.

He was being followed!

Aidou had only one word for it: "What?"

He stopped as soon as Aidou stopped walking, harbouring no intention whatsoever, to start another fight. They kept staring at each other for about almost a minute, before Aidou blurted out a 'what?'

"Since I don't have anything else to do at the moment, I will follow you and your friends, perhaps to have a bit of fun with those giant bats."

The translation, being 'I really don't know what to do with myself, so I'm indulging in random violence.'

"Like hell you're - "

But then a thought struck him, and Aidou bit off the beginnings of a new tirade. Why in the hell should he go through the trouble of destroying monsters if someone - even that - was volunteering to do it for him?

Why, it was almost like the proper noble-to-slave system.

This time, Aidou shot Alucard a bland look and raised two fingers. "First: they're not my friends. Second: don't follow so close to me, don't talk to me, and don't talk about me. Okay? Good."

There was more than one reason behind choosing to take the annoyingly scenic route of the moral high ground. For one, he was hard put to place his finger on a single quick method to kill someone that was already dead. That subject wasn't exactly part of his school curriculum. He'd have to think of something.

Well. That went better than he expected, Alucard assumed their current truce would degrade into another melee fistfight. ~~Even if he didn't mind the slighest.~~ He didn't like being so lost and entirely clueless as to what to do next, but the killing of monsters would keep him nicely occupied for the time being.

Where was Integral when he needed her? He didn't want to follow the brat around forever.

"I wouldn't know. You seemed to be on a friendly basis with them, and the other three...I can comply with ease."

So long as Aidou did not provoke him first. It wasn't like the latter was armed with a stake and holy items either, so if things should come to a head with them again, he would kill without hesitation.

Sakura had been keeping to herself and the shadows this Nightshift. With a decent memory to back her, she'd been slowly expanding her knowledge of the layout and the rooms that were and weren't accessible. Of course, it had been kind of lonely, but she was ninja. She was used to this kind of thing.

Not to mention, she hadn't seen Naruto since they'd met up briefly in the Chapel... It was hard not to think that something might've happened to him, but Sakura knew that fretting over what could have happened wouldn't get her anywhere. If he had gotten himself in trouble, then she'd just have to figure out a way to get him out of it.

It was hard to ignore the commotion coming from the other end of the wing, but Sakura forced herself to turn her eye, keeping close to the wall and creeping along gracefully, her footsteps silent as the flashlight remained off, tucked into the waistband of her pants. She had to cover more ground, ignore the monsters.

Naruto had been right, she thought grimly. Sasuke too.

Of course, taking her time to pick her way silently down the hall, the pink-haired girl happened to pick up the sound of a conversation that was, if nothing else, somewhat startling. Two figures, a younger one and an older one, discussing issues of killing each other and being human...

Sakura paused, careful to keep herself hidden as she found herself apparently heading in the same direction as the two beings. If they weren't human... But Landels wouldn't let its own creatures masquerade around as patients. If their conversation could be believed, then they were at least monsters that happened to be on their side.

Not knowing what sort of skills they might possess, the kunoichi lingered back a few steps behind so as not to be noticed.

Hopefully.

"Good," Aidou said, in response to Alucard. He stuck his nose up. Inwardly, he especially liked how the other humans were creeping around without a care that two of their own kind were getting assaulted by a woman-ish thing that definitely wasn't human. But the guy from the showers was also discounted because of the ugly and unnatural glow to his eyes.

... On the other hand, humans were notoriously deaf, dumb, and blind in the night. Even with flashlights, they probably couldn't distinguish between an enemy and one another.

Just as he was thinking it, Aidou felt the whisper in the back of his mind. It wasn't anything Sakura had done, really. But she crept a few scant inches too close, and Aidou just knew. And he hated being spied on. Rewinding the meeting in his head, he knew he was too smart to have dropped any vital information, and whoever it was may have matched a hunter's methods footfall for footfall, but he knew it couldn't be.

Aidou jabbed a finger at Sakura. "Oi, you! Don't eavesdrop!"

He had his eye on the prize, damn it. Who knew what else he could score if he could find the area where these idiots were keeping everyone's stuff. He wasn't going to get held up, whether that meant dangling someone over the balcony by their ankles, or... taking care of the problem altogether.

"So we've come to an understanding."

Hmf. The only reason why Alucard wasn't tearing the other into half, was because the boy was about the only thing close enough to anything remotely related to his home. Hey, birds of a feather flocked together, right? Though he had yet to see Aidou live up to his claims of being a vampire.

He decided not to push the matter for now, after all...he caught a stranger's scent wafting down the halls. Shortly after which, Aidou barked at the girl to stop eavesdropping.

Hmm.

Food.

All has seemed to be going well until the younger of the two... whatever-they-weres turned to stare directly at her and insist that she not eavesdrop. Having been praised as one of the most talented in her class, it was natural that being spotted surprised her, and it showed, if only for a brief second as she blinked twice.

Sakura had always been quick to recover, however, and instantly jumped on the defensive, crossing her arms over her chest, obviously making no, further attempt to hide herself and glaring back at the younger figure.

"It's not my fault you two were being so loud!" she snapped back. "I'm trying to keep a low profile, and you two happened to be going in the same direction I was. I wasn't eavesdropping on purpose!" And it wasn't entirely untrue. She hadn't meant to sneak up on a private conversation.

Green eyes shifted to the taller of the two. Sakura cringed inwardly, wondering what exactly it was about the guy that seemed to creep her out. He hadn't spoken two words to her, and yet...

The kunoichi took a deep breath and forced her expression to soften. Yelling wouldn't get her anywhere, especially not with two apparently non-humans. Not to mention it might attract unwanted attention.

"Look, I'm sorry," she forced, having grown accustomed to apologizing over the years. "I guess I'm just a little on edge. I didn't mean to hear anything I wasn't supposed to." Not that she intended to reveal exactly what she'd heard, but they didn't have to know that.

Aidou, having taken on an equally obstinate stance as Sakura, flicked a dark glance at Alucard. They did not have an understanding. He didn't come to understandings with weak-willed fools. "Birds of a feather" was not quite what was going through Aidou's mind. If put to a turn of phrase, it would be more like: "I have to clean sludge off my shoe and there is no stick handy." The only companions he wished to spend his time with were not here, and that was a good thing, all in all.

And it didn't take a genius of his caliber to know what was going through Alucard's head.

For a long while, he just stared at the girl, deliberating. He recognized her, of course. This close, it was easy to see which girl out of the previous gaggle in the Sun Room had the name 'Sakura'; somebody's parents had obviously gotten lazy.

Eventually he went to her, once again putting his back to Alucard and blocking her from view. "You must be Uchiha Sasuke's acquaintance," he spoke the term lightly, "Sakura the genjutsu-type. Am I right? I'm beginning to see what 'genjutsu' entails, but I'm curious: what does 'ninjutsu' stand for?" Aidou, a normally cheerful person, didn't have a problem acting like he was making a new best friend. Then he lowered his voice until only she could possibly hear it, giving her an amusedly conspiratorial look. "You should thank me, I'm saving your life. Come walk with me, or that one's going to kill you." 'Eat you' was more appropriate, but she'd get the gist. If she was smart.

Anything to screw up Alucard's dinner plans.

"If we're going the same way," he continued, at a normal volume, "you should come with me. I'm mapping out that far hallway with two others. What do you say? It'll be fun."

If he had a choice, he would've stuck with following Adelheid instead. Less talk and more action, for one thing...this was the first time ever he was forced to mingle with a lesser vampire, and he was sure Aidou was thinking the same. Ah well, Alucard had made a promise not to beat and eat him, for now.

So this was the Sakura that Sasuke was talking about then? Alucard only recognized the girl from a few glimpses he had gotten here and there, he had no business with her thus far, so the vampire fell silent, only listening quietly.

Then, he heard what Aidou had whispered over to her. Now he couldn't ask politely for a meal.

"Excuse me," he finally spoke in a sharp, crisp tone, "but I couldn't help but overhear what you've just said." He smiled thinly, glowing crimson eyes narrowing, as he added, "and I can assure you that I don't exactly go around killing all the other patients. If so, there would be a veritable mob coming after me now, would it?"

Sakura was careful not to let her expression flicker in the slightest bit when the other one mentioned Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke's acquaintance. She bitterly supposed that was accurate. Funny, she hadn't heard of him before, but, then again, Sasuke sightings had been pretty infrequent the past couple of days.

"Eh, not strictly genjutsu anymore," she admitted vaguely, a bit weirded out that this guy seemed to know so much about ninja from her world. Had Sasuke opened up to him that much? Maybe he was part of a rival village? No, he didn't even know what ninjustsu was. Unless he was clueless, there was no way... "It's... nice to know Sasuke-kun is making friends, though." She wanted to ask if Sasuke had really mentioned her but refrained from doing so at the risk of sounding like she was still some love-struck child. Things were different now. She couldn't care less what Sasuke had said about her.

But he was nice enough, and Sakura couldn't let go of a chance to explain something to someone. Perhaps it was the teacher's pet in her. Still, if he really wanted to move on, it would probably have to wait.

She was careful not to let her expression change when he leaned closer, whispering to her that the other man traveling with them would kill her if they stayed any longer. She couldn't imagine that someone like that would have an easy time making friends, but still. It would be best to heed his warning for now, no matter how much the other one protested.

Truth be told, she didn't trust either of them completely and would have to keep her guard up. Still, Sakura mustered up a smile and nodded.

"I've been doing a little mapping of my own," she admitted, not acknowledging the comment about their companion being a cold-blooded killer. They could fight that one out on their own. "I don't think I'd mind tagging along. I can explain ninjustsu to you on the way." Her green eyes twinkled as she spoke, turning on the charm.

Nightshift 23: Second floor; east wing, near railed area

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