What happened to this place? It is a MESS. The Communications Tower was always a gleaming masterwork of proficiency and cleanliness, now it is nothing more than a mess of ruins with broken consoles and shattered remnants of machinery. Sousuke enjoyed spending his time in this place, she remembered many fond afternoons spent listening to regale her with his latest theory or demonstrate his latest armor suit.
This was not the Communications Tower she remembered. She could feel her heart start pounding in her throat as her feet crunched with each step. Her foot kicked what sounded like a dismembered receiver across the floor. "S-Sousuke?" Shiori's voice stammering squeaked as she listened for something... anything in response. Her faint mouse-like statement bounced off the walls and reverberated against the hard jagged edges of busted control panels, broken walls and overturned apparatuses. "S-Sou-S-Sou?" she repeated louder, her voice shook and her body shuddered with dire trepidation. Her eyes started to burn and she could feel a thickness in her throat as a pair of salty rivers formed on both of her cheeks. She let out a mournful wail that rattled the debris.
She found herself on her knees as started to frantically sift through the waste without reason or path. Hunks of metal, tangles of broken frayed wires, chunks of cement and shards of glass met her hands and were tossed aside with haste. She let out a scream, immediately followed by another. A jarring image of the room assaulted her senses. Her screams were not in response to the cuts on her hands as they went unnoticed, in fact she was not even aware that she was screaming. She screamed again with each piece of battered equipment or trashed remnant of architecture. Her passage marked as she stained the wreckage with her bloody palm prints.
She knew that something was going on from the minute she left the hospital: the people were acting strange and making more noise than they should. She even heard the occasional word that seemed out of place, but she never listened further. Perhaps it was because it was considered rude to listen in on other people's conversations. BUT HOW COULD SHE BE SO STUPID as to not LISTEN to what they had to say even inadvertently. A REAL SHINOBI would have: she had no place among Sunan shinobis, her life from the earliest stages was a failure. She could not even recall her birth family, rescued in the deepest caverns by her 'father' as she could recall no other. Her attempts to be a 'real' ninja were met with repetitive failure, she was flawed from the beginning having no sight. What kind of ninja or medic for that matter cannot even see their target? Illiterate, she depends on others to tell her the news. She did not even know if she was pretty. Of course she was not pretty, how could a retarded ninja like her be pretty. She had been a joke from the beginning, her associations, friends, everything... how could she be something or someone of value when she has nothing to offer the world in return?
She was sobbing, her hands found what remained of the cracked floor and her palms rested there. Sousuke was not here... NO LIVING THING was here. She could not hear a heartbeat and she had not heard one aside her own since she had arrived but she was not deterred. She would find him, even if he was dead. She brushed back her loose brown tresses with her blood soaked hand, her hair remained slicked back and her hand was now clean. She let out a sniffle among her whimpering cries as her throat had grown hoarse. She tried to wipe away the tears that burned but more always came in their wake. Why did she have to be such a failure? If she was with him, he would have been OK. But no, she had to do something idiotic and get sick. IF he was alive, he would be leading Sunagakure out of this chaos. IF he was ill, he would have been in the Omni Prime Medical Complex just like she was but he was a lot stronger than she, with a proficient Medic he would have been on his feet in hours. Her hands fell limp at her sides with that revelation: HE would not be found ALIVE anywhere and it is because she FAILED him.
She would not fail him twice.
She needed to find his body.
This was not the Communications Tower she remembered. She could feel her heart start pounding in her throat as her feet crunched with each step. Her foot kicked what sounded like a dismembered receiver across the floor. "S-Sousuke?" Shiori's voice stammering squeaked as she listened for something... anything in response. Her faint mouse-like statement bounced off the walls and reverberated against the hard jagged edges of busted control panels, broken walls and overturned apparatuses. "S-Sou-S-Sou?" she repeated louder, her voice shook and her body shuddered with dire trepidation. Her eyes started to burn and she could feel a thickness in her throat as a pair of salty rivers formed on both of her cheeks. She let out a mournful wail that rattled the debris.
"Sousuke!"
She found herself on her knees as started to frantically sift through the waste without reason or path. Hunks of metal, tangles of broken frayed wires, chunks of cement and shards of glass met her hands and were tossed aside with haste. She let out a scream, immediately followed by another. A jarring image of the room assaulted her senses. Her screams were not in response to the cuts on her hands as they went unnoticed, in fact she was not even aware that she was screaming. She screamed again with each piece of battered equipment or trashed remnant of architecture. Her passage marked as she stained the wreckage with her bloody palm prints.
She knew that something was going on from the minute she left the hospital: the people were acting strange and making more noise than they should. She even heard the occasional word that seemed out of place, but she never listened further. Perhaps it was because it was considered rude to listen in on other people's conversations. BUT HOW COULD SHE BE SO STUPID as to not LISTEN to what they had to say even inadvertently. A REAL SHINOBI would have: she had no place among Sunan shinobis, her life from the earliest stages was a failure. She could not even recall her birth family, rescued in the deepest caverns by her 'father' as she could recall no other. Her attempts to be a 'real' ninja were met with repetitive failure, she was flawed from the beginning having no sight. What kind of ninja or medic for that matter cannot even see their target? Illiterate, she depends on others to tell her the news. She did not even know if she was pretty. Of course she was not pretty, how could a retarded ninja like her be pretty. She had been a joke from the beginning, her associations, friends, everything... how could she be something or someone of value when she has nothing to offer the world in return?
She was sobbing, her hands found what remained of the cracked floor and her palms rested there. Sousuke was not here... NO LIVING THING was here. She could not hear a heartbeat and she had not heard one aside her own since she had arrived but she was not deterred. She would find him, even if he was dead. She brushed back her loose brown tresses with her blood soaked hand, her hair remained slicked back and her hand was now clean. She let out a sniffle among her whimpering cries as her throat had grown hoarse. She tried to wipe away the tears that burned but more always came in their wake. Why did she have to be such a failure? If she was with him, he would have been OK. But no, she had to do something idiotic and get sick. IF he was alive, he would be leading Sunagakure out of this chaos. IF he was ill, he would have been in the Omni Prime Medical Complex just like she was but he was a lot stronger than she, with a proficient Medic he would have been on his feet in hours. Her hands fell limp at her sides with that revelation: HE would not be found ALIVE anywhere and it is because she FAILED him.
She would not fail him twice.
She needed to find his body.
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