((From here.))

The greenhouse looked much the same as it had the last time he'd been in here. Kira paused not far inside to fetch his flashlight and turn it on, having depended on the lights of others up until this point. He scanned the area before he went too far inside, but there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary lurking behind the trees and plants.

Yet.

"I can show you what to look for," he said as he turned to Meche and shifted the empty pillowcase on his arm. It would probably be another semi-successful night, but the plants in here just didn't seem to be quite what they were looking for. Hopefully, they would still be enough for Hinamori to use.

[from here]

Itachi made it out to the yard without being accosted by any vengeance-obsessed brothers, so he could probably continue with his plans without further disruption. Additionally, there didn't seem to be any monsters or other obstacles in this area, either. With the exception of that minor occurrence, the night was proceeding entirely too smoothly. He had been correct in assuming he could get much further on his own.

And yet, something he could not admit to made him hesitate halfway across the yard. He turned, glancing back to the doorway. He could not deny that some part of him almost wished Sasuke would follow him, because he still wanted to see exactly what the boy could do when not drugged. That was unacceptable, however; he could not afford a fight that would waste his time, and he could definitely not afford a fight that exceeded his expectations. Not here, not until they destroyed the Institute and regained their abilities, not until whatever had been done to Sasuke's eyes could be reversed. There was no reason for him to be waiting here, in the eerie stillness of the night, staring at that door. This was not how he wanted to see his brother, and in the unlikely event that Sasuke was significantly stronger than he believed, this was not how he wanted to lose his life. Every logical consideration pointed to the fact that he should be leaving, now.

. . . So why was he still standing here?

[from here]

Itachi walked down the hall at his usual pace, it not occurring to him to hurry, even though Sasuke might be following him. He kept his eyes front, scanning for any potential enemies, but his ears were finely attuned to the potential of footsteps behind him.

The greenhouse yard was just ahead, and then he could safely get over the wall. He had no thought in mind of running from a fight, but he did not want to fight Sasuke now, not least because he had goals he wanted to accomplish tonight. Time was of the essence in the Institute, and he could not afford to be distracted by a brother who would in all likelihood fail again.

[to here]

[from here]

He became more cautious upon entering this hallway, aware that he was more likely to encounter some kind of opponent here. Scanning the area ahead carefully, Itachi focused his every sense on detecting other presences before they attacked. The hallway he needed to go down was just to the left, but it would be wise to scan the entire hallway before exposing his back.

[from here]

Itachi proceeded past the center of the main hallway, heading toward the east wing. He had not been over here much, except for that notable night when he had not been acting of his own will. The memory still smarted, a reminder of why he should take his mission here seriously, why he had to defeat Landel and leave this place. With luck he would uncover something useful tonight, and then he could turn his attention to subverting Landel through the very means by which he had taken advantage of Itachi's abilities.

[to here]

It had mainly been another waste of a day, but Itachi had learned some information about the outside area. He had been meaning to give it at least a cursory examination at some point, because while he needed to work on regaining his abilities before attempting anything else, he was not going to rely only on others for that sort of information. He had decided it would be worth at least one night's exploration before he could turn his attention to other matters.

The man he had spoken to earlier -- he should have gotten the name -- had described the area to the southeast, so Itachi decided to explore the more northern area himself for the night. He had heard there were usually enemies in the recreational field and courtyard, and while he would normally not care, he did not want to be slowed down before he even made it over the wall. Therefore, he would go over the wall of the greenhouse yard, which was not too tall and was a direct route to the area he wished to cover.

Map and utility knife in his left pocket, kunai in his right, and flashlight at hand, Itachi set off in the direction of the greenhouse.

[to here]

[from here]

Beatrix wasn't sure how well she'd be able to defend herself well enough should Ophelia take the time to actually hunt her down, to exact revenge, before HK-47 arrived. She had her katana with her and had taken more oxycodone before leaving her new room, so she should be able to at least hold the bitch at bay if she must.

F33. It was empty. Where had they put Maki? What happened to the woman? Did the Bride even care? A little. Maki had been something of a friend. Speaking of friends, Beatrix needed to see what Donna was up to. It'd been a while since she'd seen the batty Brit.

Looking down the hall, she willed HK-47 to get his chassis in gear.

[from here]

There! Now all Junpei needed to do was wait for Yukari to finish her prima donna primping a la Third Circle of Hell Version 1.3 or something.

Leaning against the wall not too far from the wall opposite the door that lead into the women's block, Junpei waited. Man, he hoped no one took him as some kind of creepy guy lurking outside the women's block hoping to find a nubile victim to molest. Seriously, he didn't even have a white van. Weren't those prerequisites to being a creepy molester? With candy? he didn't have any of that, either.

Some people were really messed up in the head. Yukari better not take that whole damn hour of typical girly lateness. Was that in the girl handbook somewhere, under Ten Ways to Annoy the Fuck Out of a Man Waiting for You?

[Yuka-tan, I'm kinda dumb and can't remember where we're going. Help?]

[from here]

This was boring. They needed to install like teleporters or warp points or something all sci-fi-like if they were going to be doing creepy experiments and shit. And then they'd make weird ass keys to make the transport things work and then they'd just have to hide them all over the fucking place because, clearly, the people running this place were never game testers, just game developers that actually remembered to disable the cheats.

On second thought, Junpei decided he'd rather walk.

[to here]

[from here]

Junpei glanced to the left, just in case there was a three-headed inside-out zombie waiting there to do something really horrible to him when he was fresh out of a lawnmower to mow them down with like in that one horror flick, he was relieved to see said potential thing to run away from wasn't anywhere in sight. Oh good. Maybe he wasn't going to chased around this night by something that belong in a video game.

With a whistle - if he could whistle, that is - Junpei headed toward the other half of the patient blocks.

[to here]

Kio's breakfast ended on a much happier note than it had started. However, for once the announcement truly surprised him. He blinked as his nurse came to pick him up. Recreational Field? But.. but if they had a greenhouse, he wanted to go there. The prospect of gardening was a truly liberating one, an island of joy in this hellhole. He thought about going to the Sun Room and lying down, but it occurred to him that he hadn't had proper fresh air since being here. With a cheery goodbye wave to Honey, he followed his torturer outside.

It was much better than he had expected. The sun wasn't too hot (what time of the year were they in, anyway?), so he walked slowly along the walls, fascinated by the size of the field. He wondered if Sou-chan was alright. He hadn't even checked the board. Well, if Soubi wanted to apologize, Kio would be willing to listen. The place was so crisp and clean. He had to think if anyone had ever gone over the walls. What was out there? Freedom? Or a different sort of monster?

Leaning against one of the walls, Kio took as much advantage of the sun as he could. He desperately wanted a lollipop. One was quietly nestled in his pocket, but he would need to wait until the nurses were busy with other patients before he tried anything. Soubi had gone to some trouble to get them, the least he could do was make sure they didn't get confiscated. So with bated breath, Kio waited for a shift in the mood. He was, for once, content. Not happy, but not going crazy either.

[Sou-chan! Team Loveless deploy!]

((From here.))

The pharmacy was fairly small, but that didn't mean it was devoid of enemies. Kira shrugged his shoulders once to try and get rid of the phantom weight that still lingered there as he moved inside. When nothing jumped out at him immediately, he stood aside for Hanatarou.

"What do you need?" he asked, already scanning the nearby shelves for anything useful. It was hard to read the boxes and labels in the dark, but whatever was needed couldn't be that hard to find.

[from here]

Out of all the rooms Lockdown had been in so far, this was the second-tiniest. The tiniest was this cell.

Lockdown was not afraid of the dark, but he did wish, not for the first time, that he still had a night-vision setting for his optics. At the very least, it would make looking around easier, instead of having to rely on a beam of light.

He began looking around the small room for what he needed. The whole room was lined with plastic and cardboard boxes and cabinets, and Lockdown guessed that they might hold what he was looking for. He took one box, opened it and looked inside. Just some thin, plastic gloves. Moving the box aside, he moved on to the next.

The next box contained something more promising. Inside were several small, square things with numerous pores. Lockdown picked one up, finding it soft and squishy. Perhaps they could be used for padding. He threw three into his pillowcase.

He checked a cardboard one, finding several rolls of white tape. Lockdown guessed this was the "medical tape" Starscream spoke of. He threw several rolls into his bag, with the soft squares. Now all he needed was the splint.

Lockdown searched several boxes, but could find no wood or anything hard that was the length of a foot. So, Lockdown went over to one of the boxes he had searched previously, and tore off several strips of cardboard. He threw them in with the rest of his supplies.

The bounty hunter looked into his bag, making sure he had everything he needed. Padding, medical tape, and a splint. That looked good enough. Throwing the bag over his shoulder, Lockdown exited the supplies room.

[from here]

Lockdown checked the map again with his flashlight. He was almost where he needed to go. Hopefully Starscream was still holding out. Lockdown knew that he could always find another employer if something happened to Starscream, but that did not mean he would not try to hold onto the one he had now.

He went over Starscream's instructions again, whispering "Medical tape, wood or cardboard the size of his foot, and padding." 

He swept his flashlight around a few times, seeing no flesh creatures and no monsters. It never hurt to be careful. General Storage was up ahead, so Lockdown did not waste any time in going into the next hallway.

((From here.))

It was still dark, and unnaturally quiet, when they slipped out of the stairwell. Kira checked the grip on his sword and slipped the map from his pocket, the flashlight making it all very awkward. The pharmacy ... it was to the east of where they were, provided this place didn't shift unnaturally when people needed to go somewhere. He glanced to the east and saw only darkness and silence leading away.

"Are you ready?" he asked. Everything seemed too still for there not to be something lying in wait, but then again, he'd expected something on the stairwell, too. Carefully putting the map back in his pocket, Kira aimed the flashlight down the hall they needed to go through and glanced at Hanatarou.

[from here]

Although he'd been to the second floor on previous nights, Hanatarou had stayed on the west end of the building both times, and never gone very far into that either. Not that he really wanted to think too much about the last time he'd been up there, of course.

So here he was, in an area unfamiliar to him, trying to find a room he'd never visited before. At least Kira had his maps with them if they managed to get lost, so they wouldn't have to rely on the healer's own memory, but that wasn't too much reassurance. Hanatarou glanced around a little nervously, noting what had to be the area above the Sun Room below - their destination would be over that direction, then.

He made certain to stay close to Kira, though, just in case something decided to jump out at them from the shadows. There were an awful lot of them tonight, with the hallways so empty.

[from here]

The stairwell was echoingly empty when the pair entered it, leaving Hanatarou even more nervous than he had been before. What if there was something waiting in the shadows for them, that hadn't already been flushed out by someone previously moving through the area? And if they were the first ones here they might also be the first ones upstairs, as well, which didn't reassure him at all.

He cleared his throat quietly, giving a sidelong glance toward his companion. "Hinamori-fukutaichou suggested the...the pharmacy or the storage room. Have you been up there before?" Maybe he'd be lucky. Maybe Kira had already been there and would exactly where they were going and what to look for once there.

As soon as the doors unlocked and night fell, Kira was up out of his bed and feeling around underneath it to take hold of his sword. When he stood, he paused and looked at the pillow; he recalled the night before when he'd failed to bring the pillowcase, and as such had caused difficulty for himself. He set down the blade and removed the pillowcase, then grabbed the necessities for the night and headed out.

He hadn't checked the bulletin board right before he'd gone back to the room, but he assumed it wouldn't be too difficult to find Hanatarou. Quietly, glancing both ways down the hall before actually leaving the room, Kira slipped into the darkness and made his way toward the exit.

((To here.))

[From here]

This hallways seemed familiar. But then, they all looked the same.

Keeping an ear out for creepy-crawlies, Yukari passed the Nurse's station and came to the door to the men's block.

It was this one, right? Why did there have to be so many male rooms? Her mind wandered from the gender-imbalance to poor architectural design to a lack of signs to what room was she trying to go to again? Yawning again, Yukari considered calling the whole matter off and going back to sleep.

No, this was important. Making nice with the rescue team could come in handy later. This in mind, Yukari mentally confirmed her directions and destination then headed onwards.

Besides, if she got there early enough, maybe she could catch a few moments of shut-eye before they headed out.

[From here]

Belatedly, Yukari yawned in response to the doctor's own repose. She'd been awake for more than half the day; it was no surprise she was tired. Youkai were nocturnal, after all. But there were so many things to do, so many people to see, so many new and interesting phenomena.

Maybe she'd catch up on her sleep in a few weeks. Just sleep a month straight. Yeah, that sounded good.

Yawning again, Yukari headed onwards.