Welcome to Gaia! ::

The further down Blade went the worse the lighting was. The smell of blood was rather intense among the smell of damp and mildew. The sub-level basement was almost like a cave, a slight chill in the air from time to time.

In the distance there was a distinctive tapping noise, like claws against stone. It was hard to say exactly where it had come from since the sound had no doubt bounced from one wall to the other but it seemed to be leading down one hallway in particular. Like a gentle calling, the noise persisted tap tap tap against the stone...but what was it exactly?

The first few rooms seemed to hold nothing much outside of a few tables, chairs, and a cabinet here and there. A little further and there was a room full of medical equipment, computers, and what seemed to be the source of the smell of blood; at least some of it. The walls were nicely coated in sprays of the crimson liquid not all over it dry. The computers looked like they were on but the monitors bore nothing but a black screen being in sleep mode as of current.

As the monitor blinked into life a series of numbers began to run down the screen in a random pattern of zeros and ones. As fast as it was unloading the information even if one knew binary it was hard to make hide nor hair of what was being displayed. After a short time the screen minimized to a smaller window and another series of windows opened displaying profiles, pictures, the one on the top being Mitsu's. There seemed to be a folder of notes. Lots and lots of notes but the short hand was hard to decipher.

Suddenly the door gave a soft creek but there wasn't anyone there, but there was a draft. A cold bone chilling draft that crept along the floor and moved into the room, devouring what little heat there had been. And then there was a shadow standing in the doorway...or was there two?

"You really outdid yourself this time," Came a oddly calm and familiar voice. "Make sure he doesn't escape."

The second shadow broke off, the cold air now pouring into the room and from this one person. As they stepped a little further in it was easy to see that it was the hooded figure from before. The one who had attacked Blade during Christmas and who had attacked Shun, Mitsu and Desmond not long ago.

Raising his hands from his sides, ice began to form along the walls of the small room, tendrils of the same frozen liquid creeping along his arm to his hands to create claws.

Ginji heard the chair wheels rolling quickly across the stone floor in his direction and threw out a kick sending the chair flying back in Blade's direction. As far as the fire was concerned he really didn't have time to dodge but he brought up his ice covered hands in time to take the blunt of the blow, steam emitting into the room from the contact of hot and cold.

Wasting no time to retaliate, Ginji threw his hand forward a spike of ice forming from his palm and propelling itself toward Blade. Immediately after he began to move not willing to stay in one spot and incur more damage.

As the fire came toward him, Ginji suddenly melted into the shadows, almost sinking into the floor like a hole had opened up to swallow him. In result the fire hit the wall that had been directly behind him, the flames bursting out and scorching the stone.

When he re-emerged he came up from the floor a couple of steps behind Blade. The intense shadows in the room made it easy to move about, especially with the monitor being on making such a sharp contrast of light and dark. Stepping forward Ginji aimed a punch to Blade's back close to his neck, his fist covered in a thick icy shell to add to the impact.

Ginji stopped when he heard the thud as Blade hit the ground. He listened intently for any sound of movement, posed and ready to throw another attack but there was nothing. Relaxing out of his stance he turned his attention to Suto.

"What do you want me to do with him?"

"Bind him, Suto explained. "Nothing flammable. I have something in mind for our nosy little thief." Oh, he knew that Blade stole, but it was never really important to reveal. It didn't benefit him in any way. "I have some other business to attend to, I will return shortly." Then, Suto thought of something and turned to a cabinet in the room opening up the doors and rummaging around. After a second he produced a vial with a strange black liquid in it that seemed to almost be alive. It thrashed inside the vial reaching out with random splays of black ooze as if trying to find a route of escape. "Give him this while I'm gone. Be sure not to touch it." Handing Ginji the vial Suto headed to the door. "Stay with him until I return. Do nothing more."

With a nod Ginji got to work dragging Blade over to the metal table and replacing the leather straps with shackles and chains, securing them around the base of the bolted down table to hinder movement. While Ginji was busy with that Suto headed upstairs. He had a bit of an unexpected appointment, though it promised to be interesting.

Making his way to his office, Suto started to speculate what this meeting was going to entail. The man hadn't given a lot of information but simply asked to meet with him but not even saying why. It was mysterious, uninformative, and extremely interesting.

Once at his office door Suto looked in rather casually seeing the man seated at his desk. He didn't except someone so heavily dressed but to each their own. He wore a thick lab coat the majority of the time, who was he to judge. Though Suto's golden orbs quickly settled on the man's red eyes. How interesting.

"Thank you for your patience." He said, stepping passed the threshold of the door and heading toward his desk to have a seat. "I hope you didn't wait long." Politeness was something he was good at pretending, though he did not offer to shake hands. Suto didn't much care for that custom greeting and instead took a seat in his chair. "I'm curious to why you wanted to meet with me, Mr..." He trailed off to let the man supply his own name. For the time being Suto's face was rather neutral or even bordering on being hollow. It didn't seem to give way to much of his personality.

---

Down below Ginji was quick to finish up securing Blade to the table, double checking the chains to make sure they wouldn't give way under a lot of thrashing. Once he was done with that he pulled the vial Suto had given him back out of his pocket. With his free hand he located Blade's jaw to pry his mouth open, uncorking the vial by grasping the top with his teeth.

Trying to be quick he poured whatever contents were inside the vial toward Blade's mouth trying to be careful not to touch the liquid like he had been told. He couldn't see anything but the liquid sounded thick, making an almost sticky noise as it escaped the container toward Blade.

"Very well, Alistair," Though Suto's expression became a little curious when the man turned the conversation in a direction Suto didn't expect to go. It was then that Mr. Adolphus started to take in more of the man's appearance, his eyes wandering shortly to the fingers tapping against his desk and back to those bright red eyes. Familiar eyes.

While Alistair looked to be a man of patience Suto could guess he didn't like to dance around the subject. Unfortunately Suto had a nasty habit of liking to toy with people but thankfully his curiosity pushed him forward. Instead of answering the man's question he pushed his glasses back up his nose doing his best not to smile. There were far too many skeletons for a single closet to hold.

"I am curious as to what business has brought you to my office, Alistair. You look to be a very capable man on your own, I can see it in your eyes." Suto's expression was still rather neutral, not a flinch of emotion to be seen. He had spent years learning how to put up a front for the public eye and he had all but mastered a poker face. "Would it have something to do with a student that shares those same red eyes?"

It was hard to miss the magazines that had been floating around school, Suto had confiscated a few during class time. This man looked a lot like Riyo's father and Suto was well versed in genetics to notice the dominant traits that had been passed down. It wasn't just a coincidence they looked alike but this man was a bit older. Possibly a grandfather. "But what had brought this man into existence all of a sudden?"

---

The task done Ginji corked the vial and set it aside on a counter top. He wasn't sure what he had given Blade but it was of no real concern to him.

Moving to the side of the room he did what he was instructed to do and took up a position just standing off to the side in the shadows, sticking around until Suto got back.