Kakashi turned another page.

"Any good?" Ryouma asked him.

That got Kakashi's attention, at least. He looked up, blinking. "You don't know this one?"

"I don't read much," Ryouma said. "Is there a movie?"

Enthusiasm kindled like a flame in Kakashi's eye. He slid a finger between pages and flipped the book shut, cradling it against his side. "They're talking about it. There's an actress interested in one of the main roles."

"You'll have to let me know when it comes out. Assuming we're both alive." Ryouma kicked up a heel against the wall. "So...was Akiyama working for the snake?"

Kakashi's jaw shifted sideways under the mask. His eye shuttered again. But whatever evasion he meant to slither away with died on his tongue as another door at the head of the room opened, and the owl-masked vice commander stood framed against a blaze of lamplight within.

"Norita," he said.

Across the room, Norita Takeshi stiffened, exchanged glances with Ayane, and then struck off stolidly for the door. Ryouma flashed him a discreet thumbs-up as he passed. Takeshi's eyes flickered, but his face didn't twitch. The door closed behind him.

He left silence behind. Blue-haired Abe, who hadn't killed Ryouma yesterday, was pacing near the window. Ayane folded her arms and leaned against the wall, but her manicured fingernails beat a steady tattoo on her biceps. Kakashi opened his book again. Ryouma tipped his head back against the wall and tried not to think about the steady ache building in his wrist. Maybe, if they were going one at a time, he could snatch a few minutes' sleep before they called his name...

"Himura," the vice-commander said.

Ryouma twitched. His eyes felt crusted again, though the black sky outside the windows was no lighter. Takeshi hadn't come back, and Himura Tadao was heading stone-faced for the door.

The wait stretched out. A red-haired woman Ryouma didn't know pulled out a pack of cards and struck up a game with the brown-haired man who'd used the butterfly jutsu in the first trial. Two or three of the remaining candidates trickled over to watch. Ayane wasn't one of them. Ryouma thought about wandering over to talk to her, and shook the idea off again.

Minutes dragged by.

The door opened. "Hatake."