That Wasn't Supposed To Happen

Explorans et fugitans

It was now the day after the trial had ended, the day after he talked with Kyoko.

Even though the trial ended early in the day, Byakuya was quite sure that nobody had actually gone up to the fourth floor yet. Nobody really had the energy for it yesterday.

Nobody really left their rooms that day and it was only at dinner that he actually saw some of his classmates, with the exception of Kyoko, again. None of them had gone up to the fourth floor yet, but not everybody was there.

They would probably go today in groups, something that Byakuya wasn't too fond of. He would just try to avoid them while exploring. He did do that the last few times after all, it wouldn't be too hard this time.

After putting on new bandages for his arm and making himself look presentable, unfortunately still without his jacket, he walked towards the dining hall.

The morning announcement had rung around twenty minutes ago, but not many people were there yet. Only Kyoko, Hifumi, Sakura and Hina were there when he entered. While most of them weren't surprising the fact that Kyoko was there and Taka wasn't was quite weird.

Byakuya decided not to focus on it for now. Instead, he made some coffee before walking towards one of the smaller tables and sitting down.

Eventually, Hiro Came in and it only took a few more minutes until Chihiro and Taka, who trailed after the smaller boy. Chihiro looked the same as always with the only difference being that one piece of his hair now stuck up, a lot like Makoto's. Taka, however, looked like a complete wreck; his hair sticked up in different places and his uniform was crumpled at some parts. It was truly a pathetic sight.

The two of them sat down at the big table in the middle with the rest of his classmates. After some while when it was clear that the hall monitor wouldn't speak up, Kyoko took the lead.

"Now that everybody is here, we should start exploring the fourth floor."

At her words almost everybody started standing up to go to the fourth floor, only Chihiro, Taka and Byakuya remained.

Byakuya, because he was still drinking his coffee and was not doing anything before, he was done. Chihiro and Taka were still here because Taka had refused to move and Chihiro was, quite pathetically if Byakuya had to comment, trying everything to try to make him move.

After some time however, Chihiro seemed to have given up and was now walking towards him.

Great. Just exactly what he wanted to deal with in the morning.

"What is it, Chihiro?" Byakuya asked, annoyance clear in his voice.

"I-I was wondering if you maybe wanted to explore the new floor together," Chihiro responded, the sentence coming out more like a question.

"No. Can't you just go with Taka?" Byakuya asked as he took a sip of his coffee.

"He, uh, doesn't want to..." Chihiro answered meekly, sadness clear in his voice. Ugh.

"Well, as you can see, I'm busy, so I unfortunately have to decline your offer," Byakuya responded, sarcasm clear in his voice.

If Chihiro noted the sarcasm, to didn't bother him.

"I can wait until your ready!" Chihiro said with a smile on his face.

"...You're not going away, are you?" Byakuya asked again after a few seconds of silence.

"I just want to talk about a few things with you... "Chihiro responded softly.

It better be something worth his time.