That was because this one had a set of stairs leading down underground, which he knew wasn't quite right.
To have this sort of set up was rather fishy, and he knew that he didn't have to be Nabiki or the old ghoul to figure that much out. As far as he could tell, there was no real explanation for its presence, and he was left to wonder just why it was there. However, standing around had never been his specialty.
So, he slowly moved down the steps, looking around for any sign that something was up. He didn't know what he could find, but it was clear that someone had wanted to hide it, which made it entirely possible that said person would attack him to keep it secret. Years of training in the Art made it easier to do, and he kept his approach silent until he reached a rather heavy metal door.
This one looked like it was slightly ajar as well, and so he decided that he'd try to see if he could get past it. It was rather solid though, and it was a pain to try to open. Whether it was stuck, or it was locked, he didn't know, but he wasn't about to stop until he was certain that it wouldn't budge. Bracing himself against a wall, he put one hand on a flat panel, and grabbed the door with his other one. Then, with a combination of pushing and pulling, he managed to move the metal slab enough so that it swung open easily.
Having it suddenly move had been a surprise for him, but he wasn't about to let himself stop and admire the work. Instead, he headed inside, looking around, and finding himself amazed as he saw a metal floor beneath him, which was of the sort that one would see in a movie, instead of real life. Noises echoed every time he stepped, but that wasn't enough to bother him. What he was seeing was his only clue as to what had happened, and was a major mystery in and of itself.
Yet, as he walked down a short series of steps to another section, the oddness of the whole situation went way up.
Right there before him were tubes that were a couple of feet in diameter, and were at least seven feet tall. They had tapered metal bits at the tops and bottoms, which were connected to machines of some kind. And there were too many of them to count.
It was what was in those tubes that were the real shocks. Hanging limply in them were people, some whom he had known, and others who he had never met, but all who were human beings. As far as he could tell, they were all senseless, since he could tell that they were totally out of it. In one was a girl from the Golden Pair's school, and in another was a woman that Kasumi brought groceries from, but they were merely representative of the many who he was seeing, and they were all naked.
Seeing them made him almost dizzy with shock, and he barely stumbled from one tube to the next, looking at friends, neighbors, acquaintances, and strangers. Each one made it clearer that this was not simply some accidental thing. Nothing could have made him ready for it, and he was too put out to really think coherently.
When he got to the one in which Ukyo was, he stared up at her, before hanging his head, wondering what he could do for them. This wasn't exactly in his realm of experience, and he was a bit lost as to what was going on.
Fortunately, as he looked down, he saw a screen of some sort. It showed all sorts of information that he didn't understand, but he did have one thing that was on it that grabbed onto his attention and yanked. He wasn't quite certain how he could explain what he was seeing, as it was a bit too astonishing for him to take in. As far as he could tell, that what it said about her was the same for everyone else, which gave him at least some basis as to what had happened.
On that screen, it said that the long haired brunette in the tube was:
(Posted Fri, 16 Sep 2005 03:02)
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