Tsubasa let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding when Aito touched his shoulder. He didn't know the other boy, not really. His name and face and maybe a few words had been spoken between the two of them in the past, but then again that was how Tsubasa knew everyone, friendly but never too personal. Maybe it was the physical contact, the reminder that even though they were in whatever circle of hell this happened to be that they weren't alone, that made some of the tension leave his body. "Right, yeah. Of course they aren't real." [i]You just have to calm down and think rationally, Tsubasa. Freaking out won't help at all. [/i] Telling himself that was all but useless. It wasn't going to make those horrible screams go away. Even if they weren't his brothers and sisters, they were still heart breaking. 

At the suggestion of leaving and finding somewhere safer, Tsubasa remembered the set of keys in his pocket. They were all but useless now, unless you wanted to stab someone with them. If the layout of this place could change on a whim like it did yesterday, they'd probably never get anywhere close to the club room ever again.

All thoughts of being safe just because they were in a closed room went out the window when he looked over at the thing in the corner. It was heart breaking yet absolutely terrifying at the same time. He wanted to clean it up and tell it everything was going to be okay but at the same time wanted to smash it's head in with a baseball bat. It was those eyes, those black,
seemingly soulless eyes. They sent shivers down his spine. 

From there, everything happened almost too. One second Shizune was doubling over in pain and the next she was out the door, horrify child right behind her. Tsubasa felt entirely helpless. What was she doing, going off on her own? Part of him wanted to run after her, tell her how stupid she was being, that strength in numbers was a very real thing, but the voices from the other hall kept him in place. 

“Wait,” he called out as Shiori left. No, splitting up like this was most certainly not the safe thing to do. No, they were like a team here and teams didn’t function when members left or closed themselves off from others. It just didn’t work. She wasn’t even armed. Neither of them were. Maybe he was a worrywart, his siblings would certainly accuse him of being one, but letting those two go off alone was as good as letting them die in his mind. Maybe he was crying just a little bit too, but that wasn’t important right now. He had to talk to the others before anything happened. 

“Listen,” Tsubasa said, turning back to the rest of the group. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to let anyone go anywhere alone. Hell, I don’t even think it was a good idea to let those two go off on their own, but we can’t change that now. But I also think that if we want to get both of them back, we’re going to have to split up.” [i]Deep breaths[/i] “But you’ve all seen how this place changes. I’m afraid if we split up now, we’ll never get back to each other. For all we know, we could have already been permanently split off from the other two.” [i]Put on a brave face Tsubasa. Like it’s a game and the other players don’t think they can win. The stakes are just a little bit higher.[/i] “But I don’t want to give up on them either. I just...I’m sorry. I don’t really know what to do, but I want everyone to stay alive.” 

It was moments like those that Tsubasa wished he was more intelligent. A more intelligent person would have come up with a plan, not just offer a shitty motivational speech. Tsubasa could be the heart, proud, motivational, supporting, but he couldn’t be a brain. A brain was what they needed right now. A brain would keep them alive.