Four
The cell may have brought on a chill, but at the very least, it was alive with light. Sun poked through the barred window, and a lamp that sat on the floor, leaned against an empty table was turned on, though it flickered.
Samara looked at Hikari, who lay on the cot given to her by, most likely, Hachiro. She was awake, Samara realized, once she caught Hikari's eyes open and close. She was forcing her eyes to stay shut now that Samara had entered the room, and she was keeping the sounds of her body to a minimum. She grew aware of the sounds her breathing made, and slowed the noise to an end, only inhaling through her nose when she had to.
Just as Samara had expected, Hikari's eyes snapped open and she forced herself back against the stone wall that closed in on them both. The cell was narrow, the paint scratched ceiling low to the ground, and the door to the inside was a bar of swinging metal, only to be opened to those that knew how to work the handle. Hikari didn't have much space to run, and she was surely weakened after Hachiro's student had attacked her, (while they were in the field), so the wall was the only place to go.
Samara watched only for a moment as Hikari fumbled into some sort of crouch. "Oh relax. I'm not the one who brought you here anyway. Besides if I was put in charge of torture, it wouldn't be to hurt some stupid teenage brat who fell for such a basic trick. I'd like to pride myself above the morons."
Samara was pulled up against a desk, that as she eased herself into the stool before it, pressed itself against her chest. There wasn't very much breathing room between the furniture inside of the cell, so the option of stretching out while sitting down was sort of a no go, unless she decided to work away on the floor. That was also a no go, Samara wasn't a neat freak, but she certainly didn't want to sit down, read and write on the very hard floor that various people had been slaughtered on.
"For someone that," Hikari made air quotes with her fingers, "'prides themselves against the stupid,' you're sure quick to follow orders."
Samara rose up from her chair, alarmingly fast, in seconds she was standing before Hikari, pushing her against the wall, with her hands hard on her shoulders. The girl felt fragile beneath her palms, her breathing was heavy, her brown eyes wide and beaming with light from the sun. "I follow no one."
Hikari met her cooling gaze with one of simple curiosity. "So Hachiro isn't running the show?"
The cold feeling that had washed over Samara back in Hachiro's office washed over her once more. It was this painful, invisible force that beat down on her and ceased to light up. She didn't break the facade of being strong, alert, and dangerous though. She kept the fire in her eyes and the bitter set to her lips, and voice. "Hachiro's bark and no bite."
Hikari let out a sigh of relief as Samara eased her grip. She did not stop talking though, in fact she used this as an opportunity to continue. "Is that why you became so angry? Because my assumptions about him were false? I have a feeling Hachiro's running things around here."
"I-"
"And you don't know what he wants, do you? You haven't a clue why I'm here, or what he intends to do with me. So you're scared. You're terrified because you have to follow orders which will lead to something you're not sure you want to see the outcome of."
Samara's eyes widened, "you thin you're real clever, girl. Well let me tell you something. You better watch the way you speak so freely. I may be following orders, but I'm okay straying away from them to ring your little neck if you keep up this attitude." She sat back down.
Hikari silenced herself, and stretched out on the cot. She held her head up by the weight of her joined hands, and stared up longingly towards the window. Her eyes studied each bar one by one, as if she were weighing the chances she had of breaking them. She glanced at Samara who was proceeding to unwrap a red ribbon off a scroll that looked about ready to tear apart.
"What's with all the scrolls?"
"I thought I told you to keep quiet!"
Hikari sighed, and blew a piece of hair that fell over her eyes, back up into the air with a short breath. "You're the boss. Boss."