Notes: For the gx_100. Set during season one, prior to the Seven Stars.
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"He's in the abandoned dorm, I know that he is!"
"And how do you know that?"
"Because that was where he disappeared."
"Everyone knows that Ryo! My brother was not the only student to go missing at that dorm. But it doesn't mean he's still there."
He is… Ryo knows that he is. He just doesn't know how he knows that, or how to put it into words.
It was rare for him and Asuka to argue on such a point. They were both looking for Fubuki, so they both helped each other. But recently she was starting to think he was spending too much time at that dorm looking for him.
This didn't stop Ryo from going back there though. The dorm was the only solid lead that they had in regards to Fubuki's whereabouts.
He walked through the corridors that echoed loudly under his footsteps. Again. He searched in the former rooms of each other the students, lifting up the dusty sheets that covered what couldn't be removed. Again. He climbed over fallen planks of wood to get to those hard to access places. Again.
Though for all he'd looked in those places so many times nothing about them changed. He knew this was his own fault. That he could look through these places, as many times as he wanted, but because he was probably missing out somewhere vital that he'd not checked before he would not find him.
But Fubuki was in here. He just needed to find that secret entrance, then he would find Fubuki.
And Fubuki would be alive. There was no doubt about that. With each passing day his resolve on that point grew stronger, not weaker.
If only… there could be a sign. He was independent in the way that he searched but it would help if there were someone who could say you're looking in the wrong place.
"You're looking in the wrong place."
Literally, it seemed.
Ryo took to his feet and darted his eyes around the room.
"Who's there?"
For a moment he'd thought the voice had belonged to Fubuki himself, but it didn't sound quite right.
"You're wasting your time dwelling here. You won't find him again in this place."
The voice still had no apparent owner.
"You've spent too much time at the source of the problem, he won't come back here for a long time. Though you won't get him back either way."
"I will get him back!" shouted Ryo, causing an echo throughout the hall.
The voice did not reply. The presence seemed to have left. And somehow, the room didn't quite feel as black as it had been before.
It was the next day before Ryo met with Asuka again. He didn't talk to her about what he'd seen but he felt it was right to apologise to her for his stubbornness earlier.
"Asuka… I'm sorry for talking out of place," he said, as he reached where she was standing, still loyally waiting at the lighthouse despite the other day, "I know you are just as worried about him as I am, I just tend to forget that he means a lot to more than just me. And… I think you were right about the dorm he went missing from. Too much time has been wasted there."
She smiled at him, surprised that he'd come to terms with his issues so quickly. Most guys didn't ever stop to consider they were wrong.
"Apology accepted," she assured, "From now on we should probably just go there to pay our respects to him."
For a moment he frowned at this. Paying respects made it sound as though they were thinking he was dead. But no, it was possible to pay your respects to the living. So they would both pay their respects to Fubuki.