As his fellow captives began to file themselves out of the Mess Hall, Shirou waited for a short while, letting those that did leave to make distance from the building. When a couple minutes had passed, he too pushed himself up off from the table, pulling the bat along with him, before he limped away to the door, swung it open a short distance, just enough to allow him passage, and stepped out into the cool morning air. With a couple of steps, he was out of the way of the entrance, off to the side, facing on towards the forest.
He took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and then exhaled gently, and leant his shoulder against the wall, placing the bat beside him. Things were going poorly. Though it wasn't his main concern, the wound from yesterday was a lingering issue, and though it wasn't the same searing pain he attempted to block out prior, it had been gradually growing into a dull ache that, now multiple hours since awakening, he was struggling to ignore. But more importantly, the groups cohesion was breaking down, if the incident just moments ago wasn't enough of an indication. It didn't matter what people thought of him; his own, personal feelings didn't come into the matter. Inevitably, he would retroactively scour that scene to find a better outcome, and no doubt he would come out disappointed: there were so few ways to deal with it, an immediate breakup of the argument was the most efficient solution to ensure it didn't escalate further.
And yet there was an underlying sense of disappointment in the outcome. Those situations where all options are bad options - where someone always gets hurt, no matter the selected route - Shirou hated them. It was a heroes job to ensure the best possibly outcome for any given task, and when presented with choices, regardless of how good they were, that ended in a person getting hurt, or demeaned, or anything in between, the lingering sense of failure was always there. That he'd be remiss to call himself a "Hero" after such a mistake, even if those circumstances were outside of his own control.
But regardless of what did happen, there were things he needed to do
now - things that couldn't wait. There were more issues that needed to be taken care of, and there was more information to be gleaned. Multiple issues could be solved at once, but the first, and perhaps one of the more pressing, of said issues, was the reconciliation of Snow. Momoe was of similar importance, but unlike Snow, he could tell that, like him, she had thick enough skin as to where something like that would only be a temporary irritant. Snow, on the other hand, he wasn't confident in. She had stormed off, and he hadn't where she went, but by her demeanor, there were very few places she could go. One of those was her room, which sat by the major traffic area of the camp. And the other was the firepit.
Against his legs protest, he pushed himself off the wall, placing the bat between him and the ground, before he started his walk past the mess hall, across the grass, and through the forest. All told, it took him near enough fifteen minutes with his pace, and the terrain of the forest, but as he passed the trees, the forest opened up into a clearing, furnished with seating areas, and a long dead firepit. And, to his intuitions favour, sat atop one of the many logs, was the object of his excursion.
"Bit early for marshmallows, don't you think?" he said simply as he stepped out of the trees, and breaking into the clearing,
"Bit early to be alone and depressed, too." with a few limping steps, he gingerly dropped himself down onto a different log to Snow, before breathing a small sigh, and smiling towards her,
"Maybe marshmallows would be the perfect thing then, huh? The internal monologue look isn't a good fit for you."“Shut up…” Was the only thing snow defeatedly uttered. Besides those words, she didn’t seem to react to Shirou at all, instead opting to peer towards her feet in silence for a good few seconds.
Marshmallows…Depressed marshmallows. Why did the
Hero come here to confront her? what could a person like him possibly want from her? manipulation obviously. All he had done till now was trying to control people, and there was no reason he wouldn’t try to control Snow right now...But, it was so stupid to admit, but Shirou hit the nail on the coffin with his words, and Snow didn’t like it one bit; especially after the meeting.
“What do you want?” She said as she finally raised her head, glaring at Shirou as if judging him.
With a mostly neutral expression save his smile, Shirou watched her casually, evidently unphased by her abrasive attitude.
”Well… Momoe didn’t give give us any points of investigation to go on.” he said, turning away to look into the forest, reclining back on the log a short ways,
”I’d like to check out the office, and you’ve already been there. Seems like a good way to kill two birds, huh?”Woosh. With a sudden movement, Snow suddenly snapped up to look at Shirou with an expression that edged on sheer and utter surprise and happiness; only to quickly revert back to her prior state. For whatever reason, she really seemed in turmoil.
“This is your attempt at an apology? Pathetic…” She was looking down for a while now, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that she was hiding her frustrated expression.
”Hey now, I haven’t gotten to that part yet. Gimme some slack before you hang me.” Shirou responded, with a small laugh on his end, before he spun around on the log, angling himself directly towards her,
”You want to be helpful, right? So do I. I like to think I’m doing an okay job, this morning notwithstanding, but…” he sighed, pushed himself up on the bat, and took a limping step towards Snow,
”Well, we’re no closer to escaping, now are we?”With a couple more steps he closed the distance between them, leaving a few feet between their positions.
”What I said earlier probably didn’t do much more than de-escalate the situation. Even though that was what I wanted, it’d be a shame to make enemies so early on, right?” with his piece said, he turned his back and limped to the fire pit, and picked up a piece of charred, mostly destroyed wood,
”Anyway, since you’ve been there, you wouldn’t mind showing me to the office, right?”“What?”Snow looked up.
“I thought nobody heard-” She caught her words, wondering if this was another attempt at Shirou playing the hero...but…
“Yes! Finally a peasant who knows how to follow orders!” With a sudden movement, Snow hopped on her feet with an honestly smug grin; she totally let the situation get to her, and it was not like her at all to be so broody. It was true, she did want to help. Even if it was just for herself, and the sake of her own sanity, she would let Shirou play the hero a little while longer.
“Follow me, and we’ll be there shortly.” She brashly stated as she began marching along the only path leading out of the woods.
From behind, Shirou gave a small laugh, and pulled himself up from the ground with the bat, pocketing the wood.
”Mind slowing down at all? These old bones aren’t what they used to be.” he called out from back along the track, as he watched Snow quickly disappear off into the distance,
”I’ve got something I’d like to check as well, if you don’t mind.”“It’s your own fault for being shot.” She shouted at him from a distance before reluctantly waiting for Shirou to catch up.
“Honestly, if you and the triggerhappy lady didn’t get everyone scared yesterday, there wouldn’t be so much drama now.””I didn’t really have a choice.” he said, coming out of the forest and onto the main, circular path where Snow had been waiting,
”Monokuma might have killed her otherwise. And I thought I told everyone?” Shirou continued as he walked past her, and onto the grassy area that led up to the electric fence,
”I have no intention of letting any of you die.”“Hmph…be careful, next time it could be you who needs saving.” Snow dismissively quipped before pointing towards the road leading to the gate
“The office is this way.”At her words, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the piece of wood - waving it in the air as an indication for her to join him.
”Maybe. There’s nothing wrong with that.” he called back, in case she didn’t come up beside him,
”But confidence and optimism are contagious.”Abruptly, he stopped, a couple dozen feet from the fence.
”You said the fence was lethal, right? Did you test it at all?”“uhh.” She totally didn’t test it, but Snow had the competence of a mastermind, so it wouldn’t be any problem to just answer anyway.
“Y-yeah, it gives you a quite a shock! But there’s no way it’s lethal, because our captors don’t want us dying for nothing, right?” Nailed it.
Shirou gave a cautionary look towards Snow as she spoke, letting her finish her piece before doing anything. She was obviously lying, but his expression gave nothing away, remaining calm, and neutral, throughout.
”Is that so…” he said, trailing off as he took another single step forward. With the bat in his left hand, keeping him steady, and the wood in his right, he quickly positioned himself to throw, and immediately loosed the projectile towards the fence.
It flew effortlessly, and connected, before detonating in a splash of sparks and fire.
”Looks like you were right.” he said, turning on an axis and walking off at an angle towards the theatre, and the direction Snow had motioned towards,
”Definitely not something I’d want to touch.”The resulting display of violence caused a squeaky scream followed by dazed words.
“What did you do!?” But the man was already walking away as if dropping a mic, how rude…
“Give a warning before you start trashing stuff, it’s barbaric.” She said as she caught up to Shirou, which was noticeably easy to do as she hardly did more than walk.
”Sorry.” Shirou said simply as she came up beside him,
”I just needed to check it myself. Anyway, the office is up here you said, right? Do you want to take a detour along the grass, or keep taking the path?”“What? why would I walk through that muddy decrepit grass if there’s a perfectly fine path? Are you, like, an actual barbarian?" She looked down as she spoke those last words, peering down at her heels, clearly afraid to dirty them or trip over something.
Following her gaze, Shirou also looked at her heels, before promptly continuing walking.
”I can think of at least one of us that would appreciate the shortcut, but the scenic route works fine.” he said, slightly quickening his pace, much to the ire of his wound, in the hopes of reaching their destination faster,
”I can check in on Lilly’s lab on the way and see if she’s finished her sketches yet, anyway.””Whatever.” she retorted, walking a few paces ahead to helm the walk as the crested the crossroads of the path,
”It’s that one down there” she gestured as Shirou came up beside her, looking down the path of Research Labs to the somewhat larger building, backed by the forest.
As quickly as he approached, he made his way down the path, barely waiting to see if Snow would continue on with him. They passed a couple of the Labs as they went, for other Ultimates that, presently, neither were interested in. Then around the third one down, Shirou shifted his course and approached the door, before drumming his knuckles against the entrance. The dull thuds reverberated around the area, but the door didn’t open.
”She’s still out finishing the map, huh…” he trailed off after waiting for half a minute, and continued walking,
”Did you say that you and Aurel found this yesterday? Did you notice anything of interest?” he said behind him, as the two approached the Office building. It bore the same, design as the others around the camp, hardly differing at all, but Shirou still noted some oddities at his first glance. The door seemed to be fitted with numerous different locks - from traditional keys to pincodes - while the obvious profile windows had all been boarded up, from the inside.
“It got dark before we investigated it, so we didn’t really see much. But the windows are boarded up anyway, so…” Snow looked a bit sad, perhaps disappointed at their discoveries. Soon after she turned her attention to the door, walking over with her hands already outstretched to start mashing buttons.
While Snow occupied herself with attempting the locks, Shirou took a step around the building, evaluating the different windows - only to find all of them boarded up in a similar manner. After nary a minute, he came around the other side.
”They’re all boarded up, and there are cameras at different angles guarding every wall.” his said, as his eyes flicked to the door,
”Somebody is very keen on stopping us from seeing inside here… Could there be-” quickly he cut himself off, and tapped Snow on the shoulder,
”I’m heading back to some of the others now. Thank you for this, really.”Snow stopped herself from flinching as Shirou touched her, and though he got her attention, she chose to look at a charming tree instead of the hero as he thanked her. Maybe there was a blush, maybe there wasn’t; Snow didn’t give shirou any chance to think about as it was her turn to speak. She raised her chin, puffed up and took a step forward.
“Don’t let it go to your head.” And with a surprisingly nimble pirouette, she left the scene.
Snow and Shirou grew a little closer today!
