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

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

[[From here]]

This space. All around him, emptiness. Even his hushed, near-silent footsteps boomed with echo in the emptiness of the corridor; he stopped dead and listened hard.

There was something. Something moving along the corridor, slowly, regular. A scrape, like a wounded man dragging an injured leg. And he could feel something too - feel it, the heat in this cold space...

He gripped his pipe tightly, and ran as quietly as he could towards the nearest wall, bracing his body against it.

Was it coming closer?

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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.

So she referred to him as 'Sasuke-kun', and the alleged Sasuke in question spoke about her as though in regards to a past life, if his clam impression was anything to go by. Not that Aidou cared about the intricacies of their relationship, but it was an observation he noted. There were potential buttons to be pushed.

"Yeah, Uchiha's a funny guy. So serious." He made a face, mocking the way Sasuke had glowered at him only the previous night. "But enough about him, we haven't been properly introduced," Aidou said, pulling a graceful bow. It wasn't so much that Aidou was bolstered under the attention of the opposite sex, more like it drew out his finest colors. Being flattered made up a good part of his natural life, after all. Unlike Sakura, he wasn't worried about finding her untrustworthy. That she probably didn't know what to make of him was more amusing than worrying. "I'm Aidou Hanabusa. And you are?"

Aidou wasn't concerned with winning her over - more mindful individuals like this one wouldn't be any fun if they were taken in by a pretty face so soon - but it didn't change the fact that she was a young girl. And young girls were... young girls. And if she was anything like Uchiha Sasuke, then she had some skill. More so than just being able to creep around; better it be used with him, and not against him. Like he needed any more irritations.

While his unwanted shadow lurked in the gloom, Aidou turned the line of his body towards Sakura, boxing him out of the equation. "Well, anyway, I want to hear about it," said Aidou, smiling. He began to lead her forward. "Have you found anything interesting?"

Alucard did not want to spend the night talking away, or listen to two others babble his ears off. So as soon as the conversation between the both of them, drifted to self-introductions and other irrelevant subjects, Alucard slunk away. It didn't matter if he ran into any giant bats, the worst thing that could happen was a tactical retreat, ~~and maybe, the bats would go attack Aidou and his new friend instead~~

Besides, the boy was deliberately ignoring him. The vampire scoffed, overtaking the pair in a few strides, with his unnaturally long legs. It would be best if he ignored them both in kind, it'd help him focus better instead of simmering like spoilt child.

Quite pleased with her new clothes, Yuffie hurried back in the direction that she'd left Aidou, only to almost run into Alucard of all people. Well, it wasn't her fault if she couldn't seen in the dark! She quickly skirted around him, giving the taller man a long look before glancing ahead again.

Only to see Aidou chatting up some pink-haired girl. Well, that explained where he'd been.

Try as she might, Yuffie couldn't help but feel a little indignant. She'd been worried about this guy, and here he was picking up other girls. She had a good mind to just turn around and walk away, but the thought of wandering about on her own again was even less pleasant.

"Did you get lost?" Yuffie tried to sound casually flippant as she stopped and crossed her arms over her chest, but it seemed a little forced. She wasn't very good at hiding emotions.

"You can say that again," Sakura muttered grimly, probably sounding a little more bitter than she intended. Thankfully, the subject was quickly changed from Sasuke to proper introductions, even though he already seemed to know her. Or at least of her. The bow was unexpected, leaving her more confused and perhaps a little flustered; she wasn't used to this kind of treatment. She wondered if she should curtsy in response but decided that the gesture would've been entirely too awkward and out of character. Instead, she grinned and offered a hand to shake. "Haruno Sakura. But I guess you already knew that."

During their exchange, Aidou's questionable companion stalked off without further explanation, possibly insulted by the visibly younger man's insinuations. It was probably for the best, as she hadn't been eager to find out whether or not her companion had been lying. He passed them as they began to walk, and Sakura was all too willing to pace herself so that they didn't catch up. Not that observing him wouldn't be necessary at a later date if he were as dangerous as Aidou claimed.

"Ninjustsu pretty much involves any use of chakra to physically effect your environment," she began as prompted. It was a simple explanation and not harmful, really, to tell an outsider. Most everyone back home, even civillians, knew what ninjustsu was even if they didn't always recognize it. "It's pretty broad, really. If my chakra flow wasn't so messed up, I'd probably have been able to do a lot more in the way of getting out of here." Or leveling the place in order to get out. "I guess I should consider myself lucky because I haven't run into anything 'interesting' myself."

As they were talking, another, dark-haired girl approached, seeming a little cross with Aidou. When she actually stepped into the light, Sakura noted that she was wearing fairly average clothing that most assuredly wasn't the typical, Landels uniform. They were halted again momentarily, and Sakura frowned, hoping the girl wasn't going to get difficult with her because Aidou had decided to stop her and delay his meeting.

"Is this one of the friends you were going to meet?" she asked simply, not sounding overly irritated or indignant just yet. She'd wait to see how the other girl reacted to her. If she were anything like Ino...

Granted, Aidou wasn't all that easy to recognize as an aristocrat - what with the monstrosity he was wearing~~, and that he was having a hard time keeping his bratty side under control~~ - but when given a hand to shake, he obviously didn't know what to do with it. At least not automatically. If someone were bold enough to extend their hand to one of the Night Class, it'd probably get torn off by the crowd.

He stared down the proffered hand before finally taking it, slowly closing his fingers around her smaller one. "Sakura-chan, then." He pumped her hand, albeit in an over the top fashion (but then Aidou always had to do things a little over the top, anyway). He couldn't help his handsome face breaking out into a delighted grin. It was so charming! So charming and pedestrian, the way commoners did things. He was going to have to test this with Yuki.

When she answered his inquiry, of course, it was not so common place. 'Ninjutsu' and 'chakra' were just two different ways of defining what vampires did everyday - but in this case, it was being applied to humans. Hm. That their frail bodies were capable of more than just the creation of anti-vampire things sounded fishy. Well, at least in this girl's... world they were. (How crazy did that sound?) That this place was suppressing her strength didn't surprise him, though. "But you and Uchiha... you can still access some of your energy, can't you?"

Naturally, Aidou heard and saw Yuffie coming long before she came to a stop - he made an effort not to fidget. It seemed like when one trouble crawled off, another ran up. Not so ironic that they were in the form of people. He just wanted to get going!

"Yes," he said to Sakura, and, "No," to Yuffie, who was obviously upset. Aidou might've considered feeding off her and keeping her close, but it was precisely because of that that he didn't. She was too easy to read. He reached out, seemingly absently, and lightly brushed the chocolate smudge from the corner of her mouth. She must've been in the 'mail' room if her clothing was any indication. "Don't be mad with me," he said to her, smiling with his usual brilliance. "I wanted to come back much earlier, but Alucard's a cretin." He gestured at Sakura. "This is a friend of a friend, who you could say... just snuck up on me," he said, glancing at the pink-haired girl from under his lashes. "Now we can all be good pals. You should really bring him along with you one night, we could have a morbid double date." Aidou didn't say who, and he especially didn't say he'd already seen Sasuke creeping around with an unknown blade in tow.

((Went to: here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/98086.html?view=6370342#t6370342)))

All things aside, Yuffie figured she was being fairly level-headed about this. Normally, she would have just yelled and stamped her feet and stormed off, but she was being mature this time! ~~And her decision to not run off had nothing at all to do with that thing she ran into the other night. Absolutely nothing!~~

Yuffie made a slight face when Aidou rubbed the chocolate off her mouth, scrunching her nose up a bit. Not really because she was mad at him, but because it was weird having someone's hand that close to her face. But as far as his explanation went, well... She couldn't really do anything but take his word for it, right? If this pink-haired girl snuck up on him, then it wasn't his fault he got delayed. And he had been heading in her direction.

She still wasn't happy, but her indignation had lessened to a grudging acceptance somewhat masked by her constant urge to be upbeat.

"I'm Yuffie," she offered with her usual grin, though she was too put off to offer the rest of her amazing title. "Nice to meet ya."

Sakura-chan? It was strange that she couldn't find it within herself to protest; he seemed so very genuine and enthusiastic that it might've felt like stepping on a puppy. Instead, she only blinked and nodded, focus shifting to the question. She remembered the surprise that had come when she'd revealed that she was able to access some of her chakra. If Sasuke couldn't use his, it wouldn't be smart to reveal it to someone she'd just met. Charming or not, that conversation he'd been having with Alucard had been weird enough to put her on edge.

"I can use a little of mine," she admitted, not that she'd really had the opportunity to test out just how much yet. Sakura opened her mouth to elaborate when the subject of a "double date" was brought up, and she was stumbling over herself to find the right reaction.

"I-I don't know about that," she stammered, trying to sound annoyed by the idea rather than embarrassed. "Sasuke-k- Sasuke isn't really the type to do anything if you'd call it a date, and-" Sakura stopped in mid-sentence, forcing a vibrant blush down with all of her willpower. Aidou hadn't even said who he was talking about, and there she'd gone.

Turning on her heel to face Yuffie instead, she managed to salvage a grin of her own as the subject was forcibly changed.

"Sakura. Nice to meet you too!" came the possibly over-ehtusiastic introduction.

There was no reason to bring up his (nonexistent) affiliation with Alucard - as Sakura had walked in on a most unsightly reprieve which he never wanted to discuss ever again. She had apparently chosen to keep it to herself, assumedly to come to her own conclusions. All the incorrect ones, of course, but Aidou was pretty used to human ignorance, so whatever. It worked out well for him, as her misgivings were bleeding into her demeanor.

When she said "I can use a little of mine", he heard: "Sasuke-kun is having some problems, which is why he has to overcompensate with a big sword."

Perhaps there were different levels of power suppression. It was a workable theory. Those without any strength whatsoever, the average human, would probably be unaffected, which explained why weak people like Miku and Edgeworth and Larsa had no complaints. On the other hand, Aidou expected any being - human or not - with advanced abilities or special talents would be feeling the strain. If not, there wouldn't be any cooperation, and three times the brawling.

Then Sakura broke into a babble over his suggestion of a "double date", an even better reaction then he'd expected. Even better than Rukia-chan, and that had been ~~vengeance served~~ pretty good. It appeared that even with a piss poor, robotic personality, a gloomy kid could win the undying affection of a female.

There was hope for Kiryu yet!

"Well, I presume it's just the three of us now," Aidou commented. If he hadn't tried to impregnate Yuffie or something equally debauched, Jack had probably taken off. The list of immediate annoyances was dwindling with the disappearance of Alucard and Jack's fashion sense. "Shall we keep going? Night is almost over."

Unfortunately.

_{[stepping over here]}

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

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