VIII (Aoi Kurashiki x Reader)

X

Santa led the way out the door and down the hall in silence, turns out they were the first two to make it back to the infirmary. Doors opening without much resistance, the duo stepped into the sterile smelling room. "Welp, guess we're the first back."

Santa sighed. Meanwhile, something had caught (Y/N)'s eyes. The electronic flash by door three pulled her to it. Now, this was beyond odd. The REDs that'd been previously missing a key piece to function-

Were all fixed.

"Santa!" Voice she shouted a little too loudly. He hurried over.

"Jesus, what? Ya' don't gotta-" He stopped, gaping at the blinking word on the face of the RED.

That was when the door swung open, five familiar faces joining them. "What's going on?" Junpei was fast to pick up on the tense atmosphere.

"Jumpy," June jogged across the room, her finger outstretched at the RED. "Look!"

Indeed, the RED displayed the word Vacant. Junpei sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "Come on, you two." He looked between (Y/N) and Santa. "You were supposed to yell if you found it." Santa and (Y/N) shared a glance. Junpei furrowed his brows. "Well..."

Santa worked his bottom lip between his teeth. "It was already like this when we got back. Obviously Vi and I were the first ones here, so unless one of us snuck in earlier..."

"And the other two?" A peek at the other two REDs confirmed it, all three missing pieces had returned. The question was, who'd returned them? "And no one has any idea how this happened?" Junpei flicked his eyes across the other's faces.

Ace and June shook their heads, Santa shrugged and Seven raised a hand as if to say 'Wasn't me.' Clover was the only one who didn't answer, her eyes fixated on the concrete floor. "Wait a minute." That was when (Y/N) noticed. "Where's Snake?"

Sweeping her eyes around the room a second time in search of his face, she came up with a blank. "Was he the one who found them?" Junpei offered.

"I've no idea. There's nothing to suggest it, but nothing to suggest he didn't either." Ace replied, voice strung with anxiety.

"We won't know until we ask him."

"Well, whatever he did or didn't do, he's pretty damn late. What the hell is he up to?" Seven looked over at the set of double doors, willing the man in question to appear.

"Maybe he's lost." June guessed.

Santa snickered. "Yeah, well, that seems likely. Dude can't see. I don't know how he gets around in the first place."

Clover snapped her head up from the ground. She hadn't spoken the entire time, but now she was shouting. "Yeah, my brother's blind, but he's got great hearing! He can get around as well as anyone who can see! So...he...he couldn't get lost! That's impossible!" The frail girl had started to shake, clutching her hands so tight her knuckles had turned white. She spun around, but before she did, (Y/N) noticed tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm gonna go look for him!" She sprinted out the doors.

"Clover, wait!" Junpei shouted after her. Slowly, Junpei turned back to the rest of them. "What do we do now?"

Ace looked back at the three doors. "Well, the REDs are working..."

June cut him off, furiously disagreeing. "No! We're not leaving two people behind! We should go look for them."

"Aw man, this ain't good." Seven mumbled, he was right, something bad was coming, she could feel it in her bones.

Santa forced a smile, lacing his finger under his chin. "Oh, yes, what an excellent idea! We just wasted a bunch of time looking for some piece of electronic junk, now let's waste some more by looking for a couple of idiots!" He dropped his fake grin at the end of his spiel, his face becoming more of a scowl.