| [Jan. 1st, 2011|06:15 pm] |
Ginta shut the door. There was no easy way to give this kind of bad news, so he just took a steadying breath and put it to Kakashi straight. "Ryouma's missing. He left on a mission on April thirteenth, and he hasn't come back. There've already been three search teams that have come back empty handed."
Kakashi went absolutely, completely still. A full clamp-down of control so tight that his breath stopped and his skin paled. After a second, he let his held breath go, but that was all. Then, after another second of deadly calm, he spoke, voice distant and soft. "Shiori at the mission desk is probably a sociopath." He turned his stark, masked face to Ginta. "She told me he's been on three missions already this month, and I just kept missing him."
"She's probably on orders," Ginta said. "Arakaki. He's a bastard. I finally pieced it all together today, and went to see him about it. He shut me out. I figured you needed to know."
Kakashi was rock steady, planted like he was rooted in place, but the rise and fall of his chest was too fast, and his skin above the mask was too pale. "Shiroi never smelled like she was lying," he said quietly, as if he hadn't heard what Ginta'd just said.
"Maybe she wasn't. Maybe that's what they're telling the mission desk, too." Ginta touched Kakashi's elbow, half-expecting a blow. What he got was a reflexive grab. Kakashi's hand clamped around Ginta's wrist hard enough to grind bone against bone. His gaze had gone distant and fierce.
Ginta set his jaw, tensed his torso, and fought the urge to wrench his hand free. "Let go, sit down, and I'll show you what I've got, okay? I managed to get the mission report from one of the search teams. I think I've got a good idea where to start looking." |
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