2022-09-16 20:04![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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the_zone
spaceninja144 in the_zoneWho: Kirihara and Hiyoshi
When: First mining shift
Where: At the base, the elevator
What: Bad decisions
Hiyoshi was finally done work for the day, and he was looking forward to some peaceful time alone in the library, looking through what Izanagi had to offer. There was just one thing left to do before he could change clothes and head over– dropping off a few incident files for medbay to sign off on. Files in hand, he pressed the elevator call button, waiting for it to reach the top floor.
Kirihara tried not to roll his eyes at Yanagi's reminder that he was supposed to report directly to Dr. Yagyuu in the medbay. Like Kirihara could forget that today was mind doctor day. So with a bored yawn, he left the command office and headed towards the elevator that would take him down to the medbay. It wasn't until he went to press the call button that he realized there was someone else standing there, also waiting for the elevator. "Oh, it's you," Kirihara said, surprised to see Hiyoshi. He'd almost forgotten this guy even existed.
Maybe he’d see him more often if Yanagi ever let him out of command, but oh well. Hiyoshi raised his eyebrows at Kirihara’s surprise disinterestedly. “Yes. It’s me.” Another person waiting for the elevator. Not something uncommon enough to warrant surprise. Figuring that would be the end of the conversation, Hiyoshi watched the numbers on the sign come up until the elevator finally reached their floor and opened, and Hiyoshi stepped in, far enough to the side that he wouldn’t have to stand right next to Kirihara.
Stepping into the elevator half a step behind Hiyoshi (so annoying that the guy had gotten in first), Kirihara reached over and smacked the button panel. He'd mostly aimed for the floor with the medbay and engineering but he'd also tried to hit the one that closed the doors too. "Where you going, Piyoshi?" Because Kirihara could be helpful and hit the button for wherever Hiyoshi was headed too. Dr. Yagyuu would be so proud to hear he was voluntarily helping someone.
What did Kirihara just call him? Hiyoshi sizes Kirihara up, trying to decide if it was an intentional jab or not, before deciding no, he probably was just that dumb. No sense starting a fight now, not when he just got off shift and it would cut into his free time. Instead, Hiyoshi gave Kirihara the most straight to the point answer he could: “B2.” Not that it mattered, since Kirihara had already hit that one.
"Already hit that one," Kirihara said after a quick glance towards the button panel. "You going to medical or engineering?" He asked, bored already. The elevator always moved so slow. It was hard to stay still too but he was trying to be polite. Normally he had the elevator to himself and felt free to move around a little.
“Medical.” Hiyoshi of course, stood perfectly still with perfect posture. Which was fully intentional, because he’d heard enough to know what this guy was like. “I’m dropping these off and then I’m done my shift.” The elevator was going slow today… slower than usual, actually. There were only four floors, so speed hadn’t been as much of a consideration in building it as stability in all situations was, but–
KACHUNK.
…That wasn’t good. “Did we stop moving?”
So Hiyoshi did know more words. That was good to see. Kirihara was going to ask about the whole 'going to medical too' thing but then the elevator seemed to slow down even more than normal until it came to a complete stop.
"We did," Kirihara confirmed. He started pressing all the buttons on the panel in an attempt to see if any of them would do something. Nothing happened.
Hiyoshi watched Kirihara hitting every button on the panel, and couldn’t even bring himself to tell him to stop because part of him on the inside wanted to do the exact same thing. Still, it wasn’t the end of the world, the elevator had safety features for this exact occasion. Pushing Kirihara out of the way, he pressed the ‘help’ button and waited for an answer.
It took a minute for the call to be answered, but soon enough there was a voice on the other end: “Hello? We got an alert, is something up with the elevator?”
"Yeah, the stupid thing is stuck," Kirihara called out, even though Hiyoshi had been the one to start the call. He looked above the door at the floor indicator and frowned. Looking over at Hiyoshi, he pointed to it. "Think this is right and we got the floor with all the rooms on the other side?"
Because if that was the case, then Kirihara was almost positive he could pry the doors open and they could just jump out. And hey, at least it was clear that he hadn't broken the elevator. He even had Hiyoshi as a witness.
“Stay calm, stay where you are. We’re sending the message to Engineering now. I repeat, stay calm–”
The person on the other end started listing off basic safety precautions, and Hiyoshi tuned out. They knew they were there now, that was the important part. Hiyoshi looked at the floor number and considered Kirihara’s plan. “Maybe, I don’t know. They said they’re sending someone out, we should just wait for them. It wont take long.” After all, without Kintarou in the building to destroy things, Engineering must have a ton of free time.
Kirihara had almost immediately tuned out the person on the other end. "You say that now, Piyoshi," Kirihara replied. He didn't have the same confidence that engineering would arrive so quickly. It'd be his luck that they'd be stuck here for hours if they just waited around for that crew to show up. "Five minutes. I'll give them five minutes to get here and if they're not here by then, I'm gonna try to bust the door open."
Mostly because Kirihara really didn't like this whole being stuck somewhere he could leave thing. He'd already had more than enough of that to last a lifetime.
“It’s Hiyoshi.” If they were going to be stuck in an elevator together, Hiyoshi wanted Kirihara to get that straight. Even if it was only for five minutes. He leaned against the wall, shrugging. “Do what you want. But if you break the doors, it’s on you.”
"That's what I said. Piyoshi." Kirihara's attention was almost wholly on the door as he tried to figure out how to best yank the thing open. "And it's not like I can do any worse than Tooyama and the medbay." If anything broke, it'd just be a couple of doors and there were multiple elevators in this place. Things would be fine.
“HI-yoshi. Hi. With the character for sun.” Why was he even bothering? Kirihara wasn’t listening, he was too busy messing with the door. Hiyoshi sighed, the rescue couldn’t come soon enough. “Tooyama is the lowest bar in the base. Try to aim higher than him.”
Kirihara paused his investigation of the door and looked over at Hiyoshi. A serious expression was on his face. It wasn't an aggressive look though, just serious. "I've been aiming higher than him ever since they had me join years and years ago." Hiyoshi was military and he knew Tooyama. So it was probably okay to mention stuff like that. The UEA owned both of them after all.
Years and years… Kirihara was the same age as Hiyoshi was, wasn't he? Hiyoshi supposed Kirihara could have signed up at 18 and that's what he meant, but after what happened with Kintarou, Hiyoshi had an inkling that wasn't the case.
"His skills and his self-control are two different things." As much as Hiyoshi considered Kintarou a human disaster, no one could deny his strength and tenacity. Pushing off the wall, Hiyoshi joined Kirihara at the elevator door. "Try to get your fingers in the crack." Hiyoshi would take one side of the doors, and Kirihara the other.
He was almost positive that it hadn't been 5 minutes yet but Kirihara wasn't going to complain. Instead he just nodded and tried to get his fingers in the crack between the doors. "He's never had any sort of self-control," Kirihara said. "I used to hear all kinds of things about him when we were growing up." Most of them had been complaints about Tooyama being too out of control and a safety hazard.
Kirihara's fingers were having trouble getting into the crack. He frowned and started going through his pockets, looking for something that'd be thin enough to wedge in and open the crack a little more.
Having the same problem himself, Hiyoshi knew exactly what Kirihara was looking for, and checked his own pockets. His search turned up a ring of a few old fashioned metal keys that security used on their less important files. Into the crack went one of the keys, Hiyoshi wedging it in such a way as to widen the crack, holding it there for Kirihara to get his fingers in.
It was like Hiyoshi had read his mind. Kirihara flashed a quick grin as he said, "thanks," before he slid his fingers into the small crack Hiyoshi had managed to open. The door was strong but so was Kirihara. He started pulling at the door, trying to get the crack a little wider so Hiyoshi could get the other door.
"You're kinda smart," Kirihara added, trying to be nice and give a compliment. He was pretty sure that was the correct thing to do if he wanted to be friends with someone and Hiyoshi was one of the cooler, not so old and boring people here.
“I know.” Hiyoshi could use to take a lesson from Kirihara on making friends, but it was what it was. Putting the keys back in his pocket now that they had something to work with, he grabbed the other door and pulled together with Kirihara. Slowly the doors slid open, only to reveal a bleak cement wall. Great. “I guess that means we’re waiting.”
Seeing the wall there made everything a lot worse. Kirihara didn't like small enclosed spaces. It was fine for a short ride. And even up until now, he'd been okay. Because there had been an opening on the other side of the doors. But now that that hope had been squashed...an uneasy panic was trying to fill him and Kirihara was trying to push it down as far as he could.
"I'm not waiting," Kirihara told Hiyoshi, trying to sound cool and not like he was freaking out internally. He scanned the walls, looking for any sort of escape hatch. There had to be something.
“Yes you are. Sit down.” Hiyoshi would be sitting himself, but Kirihara looked like he was about to do something really dumb. “They’ve sent someone out and we’ll be rescued soon. We just have to wait.” Which was annoying for Hiyoshi, but not much more than that.
"They said they were going to talk to Engineering," Kirihara replied. "Not that they were sending anyone." His internal panic was slipping out with every word. "It could be hours before they get someone over here." Probably not days at least. Dr. Yagyuu was expecting him and and would alert Yanagi when he didn't show up for his regularly scheduled appointment.
Spotting a little panel in the ceiling that looked like it could open, Kirihara felt a little hope. When he tried to touch it, his fingers fell just short of being able to touch it. "Give me a boost," he said, gesturing towards the panel.
“It’s the same thing.” One implied the other, didn’t it? At least to Hiyoshi, who was looking at things calmly. It was becoming increasingly obvious that Kirihara was anything but calm right now. He looked at the ceiling panel that Kirihara was trying to reach, and… really? Hiyoshi gave him a tired look and stayed exactly where he was. “You want to climb out through the roof.” Really? Really??
Kirihara shook his head. "I don't want to climb out of the roof. I am going to climb out the roof." Having Hiyoshi help him would just make it easier. But since Hiyoshi didn't seem willing to help him, Kirihara started looking at the small distance in the elevator. Maybe if he jumped in just the right way, he could reach it…
Interesting. Hiyoshi had almost decided what he wanted to do, he just needed one more answer. "So to be clear, you're going to do it whether I help you or not."
Kirihara's eyes were focused on the panel as he tried to work it all out in his head first. "If you help, then I'll be able to reach it for sure and you won't get hurt." And if Hiyoshi didn't help, well, then Kirihara figured it would probably take a few tries to reach it and get it open. The elevator wasn't huge and the chances of falling into Hiyoshi were basically 100%.
"That's not an answer." But in Kirihara's own way, it probably was. He was too focused to let the idea go. Whatever. Hiyoshi was getting a bit sick of waiting around too, so with a glance at the panel to make sure he was properly below it, he got down on one knee and braced his stance with his arms. "Use my shoulders."
"Got it," Kirihara answered, shuffling over to give Hiyoshi a little room. He was more surprised that Hiyoshi had actually agreed to this after all. Yep, the guy was definitely cooler than a lot of others here.
It wasn't hard to climb onto Hiyoshi's shoulders. The guy wasn't exactly a mountain or anything. And with the extra height, the panel was now within reach. Kirihara started punching at it, trying to knock it loose. Maybe there was an easier way to this but right now, he was just focused on getting it out of the way quickly.
What was he doing up there? “Look for a latch.” There had to be a latch, right? There was no way these things could be built to be punched, but Hiyoshi couldn’t see anything from where he was and could only just kneel there and try to keep them both stable.
Kirihara paused, fist mid-punch and took a moment to actually look at the panel. And huh, wouldn't you know it, there was a little latch. And a bunch of dents now. This thing wasn't exactly built to withstand a bunch of punches. "How did you know there was a latch?" Kirihara asked, confused and a little in awe of Hiyoshi's apparently psychic abilities. He quickly undid the latch and pushed at the panel, which didn't didn't want to move at first but then did.
The dark elevator shaft was all that greeted him.
“Because I used my head.” Judging by the noise and the falling of dust, Kirihara had found the latch and got the panel off. Good, that was one thing out of the way. “Hold on to the edge for balance, I’m going to stand up.” Hopefully Kirihara was listening, because Hiyoshi only waited a moment before doing exactly what he said, and standing to give Kirihara a further boost for climbing.
Considering Kirihara already had a grip on the edges, it wasn't hard to follow Hiyoshi's instruction. And it was even simpler to keep pulling himself up and through the hole in the ceiling. Being in the elevator shaft was kind of spooky. Very dark and a feeling of 'you shouldn't be here' that settled on his shoulders.
"You want up too or you going to wait?" Kirihara asked as he looked down at Hiyoshi. "I don't care either way but this place is kind of weird and spooky."
“The roof is already open, I may as well come.” Despite his willingness to be patient earlier, Hiyoshi didn’t REALLY want to be waiting around in an elevator any longer than he had to. Plus, this was kind of cool. “Can you pull me up, or do I need to jump?” Hiyoshi was fully willing to do the elevator wall-parkour that Kirihara had been considering earlier.
"I should be able to pull you up," Kirihara said, shifting so that he was laying on the top of the elevator and could reach in. He was stronger than he looked. The only issue was more of just actually being able to reach Hiyoshi and then having the right sort of leverage to pull the guy up. Laying down wasn't exactly the best position for that part of it but it wasn't like there were a lot of choices. Arms dangling into the elevator, he told Hiyoshi, "I'm ready when you are."
Hiyoshi rubbed his hands on his pants to make sure they were fully dry, took one last look at the hole and everything around him for reference, and jumped the few inches to grab hold of Kirihara’s wrists. Even as long as Kirihara could get him as high as the end of the hole so he could grab on, that should be enough.
Twisting his own hands slightly to get a grip on Hiyoshi's wrists as well, Kirihara started pulling. The angle wasn't exactly great for this sort of thing but he was still strong. He pulled up as much as he could, getting Hiyoshi up high enough to at least grab the edges of the hole. "Can you grab that?" He asked, nodding towards the sides. "I need to get a better grip to get you up here."
“Yeah.” Hiyoshi nodded, letting go of Kirihara long enough to grab the edge of the hole. “I can do it myself from here.” That’s what pull-ups were for, right? The size of the hole and the shape of the ledge made things a bit difficult, but Hiyoshi wasn’t a gym rat for nothing, and he had soon lifted himself up and out and was digging his security-issued flashlight out of his pocket. It wasn’t a ton of light but it was something, and after a quick look around Hiyoshi finally settled it on a spot on the wall, a bit above them. “There, that’s it.” The door, and their way out.
The flashlight was a smart idea. Kirihara gave in an approving nod. He should start carrying one around. It could really come in handy at times. "Good idea," he said, nodding towards the light. Then Kirihara turned his attention towards the spot Hiyoshi had indicated. "Any ideas on how to get there?" He didn't see anything to climb and the lack of bright light didn't help at all.
The dark definitely made things harder. “I could boost you again. It’s that or climb.” Hiyoshi was inspecting the walls with his flashlight– there wasn’t a lot to work with, but there were a couple ledges and pipes they could use as handholds if they truly wanted to go the industrial rock-climber route. “Boosting is better. I don’t know if the door will be hard to open like the last one.”
Kirihara kind of thought that trying to climb up could be fun. But at the same time, if Hiyoshi was offering to boost him up, well, he wasn't going to argue it. "If that's what you want to do," Kirihara said. Honestly, now that he was out of the elevator box, he was feeling a lot better. Especially since this was a new and interesting place that just made him curious. He made a mental note to himself to figure out a way to get his little drone in here to explore it more when he had more time.
“What does that mean, if that’s what I want to do?” How did Kirihara manage to make choosing the sane option sound lame? And…was it just a trick of the light, or was Kirihara having fun now? Though admittedly, Hiyoshi was enjoying himself too. Was climbing in an elevator shaft a smart thing to do? Absolutely not. But shit, around here you had to enjoy yourself where you could.
Hiyoshi clipped his flashlight to his uniform so he wouldn’t drop it, went to the wall, and started testing out hand-holds. “If it’s what you want to do, you can stay here. But I’m getting out.” And without waiting for an answer, he started climbing.
Oh snap, Hiyoshi was moving and taking the light with him. Kirihara scrambled over to the wall to follow. Because as neat as this was, staying here was also less than great. Part of this adventure was, well, the adventure of figuring out how to get out. "I'm right behind you," Kirihara grumbled as he climbed after Hiyoshi, following the hand-holds the other guy seemed to have found first.
That’s right Kirihara, follow Hiyoshi’s lead. Because Hiyoshi was the red ranger in this situation, the hero to Kirihara’s sidekick, etc etc. Luckily there was a recessed ledge below the door to make a good hand-hold, so Hiyoshi took a break there and assessed the door. “...I’m going to try to pry it open.” Yes, the thing. He was going to do it. The thing. That he was now announcing.
Well on the bright side, if anything fell or broke, it'd hit Hiyoshi first. Really, it was just plain accidentally smart on his part. "Let me know if you need help," Kirihara offered, more than happy to let Hiyoshi do the work. Though if Hiyoshi really needed help, Kirihara was almost positive he could figure out how to get over there to help. But if Hiyoshi could do it on his own, then Kirihara wasn't going to stop the guy.
More risk more glory. Hiyoshi dug out his keys again, following the same tactic as last time and starting a gap for his fingers. Immediately, light started pouring in. This encouraged Hiyoshi onward, and soon he’d got his fingers wedged between the doors, opening them inch by inch until his arms were spread wide and the door was fully open. Success.
Except now, the only thing keeping Hiyoshi up and against the wall was his fingers, hooked into the wide open doors, which he was going to have to let go of to do anything else. His two options were let go and try to grab onto the smooth, gripless floor in front of him, or let go and jump back down to the top of the elevator, backwards. Neither option was very appealing.
"What's taking so long?" Kirihara asked, seeing the light from the now open door. He couldn't tell why Hiyoshi was just waiting there. He started moving to the side, trying to figure out his own path up. The added light didn't actually help as much as he thought it would. Too many shadows making the various make-shift handholds hard to pick out. It took a little longer than he thought it would but after what felt like a very long time (but was likely only a couple of minutes), he was up by the now open door as well.
Well this was embarrassing. Hiyoshi remained forcibly t-posed as Kirihara came up behind him, and try as he might, he couldn’t think of a good excuse. He had to confess. “I’m stuck.”
It was hard not to laugh at that. Self-preservation and the sheer instinct to hold on so he didn't fall were the only things keeping Kirihara from laughing. "Sucks to be you," was what he said instead as he quickly scrambled the rest of the way up before Hiyoshi did something petty like let the doors close. Once he'd pulled himself up, he took pity on Hiyoshi though and leaned against one of the doors, holding it open with his body weight.
Hiyoshi held on tight even with Kirihara clambering over him. It wasn’t like he had a choice, unless he wanted to knock both of them down. Once Kirihara is up Hiyoshi glared at him like a cat stuck up a tree, though he was more annoyed at himself than anything else. The one good thing about Kirihara being free though was now Hiyoshi had a fail-safe. “If I slip backwards, catch me.” It was too embarrassing to phrase it as a question, so it was a statement instead.
Ready to be out of there already, Hiyoshi went for it. SMACK went his palms on the floor in front of him, and for a terrifying second he slid back about an inch before coming to a stop. Safe. Now just to climb out with as much dignity as he had left.
Kirihara thought about saying no to Hiyoshi's demand. But the part of him that was impressed by Hiyoshi, that wanted to be the guy's friend, said to not. So Kirihara held his tongue. And just watched instead, an amused grin on his face as Hiyoshi tried to climb out of the shaft himself.
Excuse you Kirihara, this was a perfectly dignified exit from an elevator shaft, thank you very much. Hiyoshi pretended he doesn’t see Kirihara’s dumb grin, and when he is finally back on his feel he brushed himself off, eyes closed in a self-soothing attempt to regain some dignity. “There. Status?” That was his “””dignified””” way of checking they were both okay and in one piece.
"Out of the elevator," Kirihara said, his tone clearly conveying just how obvious that felt. He glanced down the hallway, not immediately recognizing it. Which really shouldn't be a surprise. He had a tendency to still get lost around this place. There were only a few places he could go to without running into issues with getting lost.
Sigh. Hiyoshi gave Kirihara an unimpressed stare. “Any injury?”
Just your pride. It took everything in Kirihara to not actually say those words. So instead, he just replied, "of course not." He wasn't going to get injured from any of this. It was too much fun to get injured from.
“Good.” Hiyoshi was playing the part of leader, so he had to check, you see. The question was what to do now– they could just go on about their day, right? Hiyoshi had left the files in the elevator, so he had no reason to go to medbay anymore, but Kirihara should probably still check in.
And then there was still the open elevator tunnel of doom behind them… maybe they should do something about that. “You can go on to medbay. I’ll get the door closed.”
Kirihara looked at the open elevator doors and thought about it for a moment. Someone was likely going to get in trouble for this. And if Hiyoshi was offering to stay at the scene of the crime so to speak, well, Kirihara wasn't going to stop him. "Have fun with that," Kirihara said, not arguing with Hiyoshi. Besides, he really should get to the medbay soon before Dr. Yagyuu decided he was skipping and got him in trouble. And without even saying goodbye, Kirihara started walking off, completely clueless about where he was going but not letting that stop him.
When: First mining shift
Where: At the base, the elevator
What: Bad decisions
Hiyoshi was finally done work for the day, and he was looking forward to some peaceful time alone in the library, looking through what Izanagi had to offer. There was just one thing left to do before he could change clothes and head over– dropping off a few incident files for medbay to sign off on. Files in hand, he pressed the elevator call button, waiting for it to reach the top floor.
Kirihara tried not to roll his eyes at Yanagi's reminder that he was supposed to report directly to Dr. Yagyuu in the medbay. Like Kirihara could forget that today was mind doctor day. So with a bored yawn, he left the command office and headed towards the elevator that would take him down to the medbay. It wasn't until he went to press the call button that he realized there was someone else standing there, also waiting for the elevator. "Oh, it's you," Kirihara said, surprised to see Hiyoshi. He'd almost forgotten this guy even existed.
Maybe he’d see him more often if Yanagi ever let him out of command, but oh well. Hiyoshi raised his eyebrows at Kirihara’s surprise disinterestedly. “Yes. It’s me.” Another person waiting for the elevator. Not something uncommon enough to warrant surprise. Figuring that would be the end of the conversation, Hiyoshi watched the numbers on the sign come up until the elevator finally reached their floor and opened, and Hiyoshi stepped in, far enough to the side that he wouldn’t have to stand right next to Kirihara.
Stepping into the elevator half a step behind Hiyoshi (so annoying that the guy had gotten in first), Kirihara reached over and smacked the button panel. He'd mostly aimed for the floor with the medbay and engineering but he'd also tried to hit the one that closed the doors too. "Where you going, Piyoshi?" Because Kirihara could be helpful and hit the button for wherever Hiyoshi was headed too. Dr. Yagyuu would be so proud to hear he was voluntarily helping someone.
What did Kirihara just call him? Hiyoshi sizes Kirihara up, trying to decide if it was an intentional jab or not, before deciding no, he probably was just that dumb. No sense starting a fight now, not when he just got off shift and it would cut into his free time. Instead, Hiyoshi gave Kirihara the most straight to the point answer he could: “B2.” Not that it mattered, since Kirihara had already hit that one.
"Already hit that one," Kirihara said after a quick glance towards the button panel. "You going to medical or engineering?" He asked, bored already. The elevator always moved so slow. It was hard to stay still too but he was trying to be polite. Normally he had the elevator to himself and felt free to move around a little.
“Medical.” Hiyoshi of course, stood perfectly still with perfect posture. Which was fully intentional, because he’d heard enough to know what this guy was like. “I’m dropping these off and then I’m done my shift.” The elevator was going slow today… slower than usual, actually. There were only four floors, so speed hadn’t been as much of a consideration in building it as stability in all situations was, but–
KACHUNK.
…That wasn’t good. “Did we stop moving?”
So Hiyoshi did know more words. That was good to see. Kirihara was going to ask about the whole 'going to medical too' thing but then the elevator seemed to slow down even more than normal until it came to a complete stop.
"We did," Kirihara confirmed. He started pressing all the buttons on the panel in an attempt to see if any of them would do something. Nothing happened.
Hiyoshi watched Kirihara hitting every button on the panel, and couldn’t even bring himself to tell him to stop because part of him on the inside wanted to do the exact same thing. Still, it wasn’t the end of the world, the elevator had safety features for this exact occasion. Pushing Kirihara out of the way, he pressed the ‘help’ button and waited for an answer.
It took a minute for the call to be answered, but soon enough there was a voice on the other end: “Hello? We got an alert, is something up with the elevator?”
"Yeah, the stupid thing is stuck," Kirihara called out, even though Hiyoshi had been the one to start the call. He looked above the door at the floor indicator and frowned. Looking over at Hiyoshi, he pointed to it. "Think this is right and we got the floor with all the rooms on the other side?"
Because if that was the case, then Kirihara was almost positive he could pry the doors open and they could just jump out. And hey, at least it was clear that he hadn't broken the elevator. He even had Hiyoshi as a witness.
“Stay calm, stay where you are. We’re sending the message to Engineering now. I repeat, stay calm–”
The person on the other end started listing off basic safety precautions, and Hiyoshi tuned out. They knew they were there now, that was the important part. Hiyoshi looked at the floor number and considered Kirihara’s plan. “Maybe, I don’t know. They said they’re sending someone out, we should just wait for them. It wont take long.” After all, without Kintarou in the building to destroy things, Engineering must have a ton of free time.
Kirihara had almost immediately tuned out the person on the other end. "You say that now, Piyoshi," Kirihara replied. He didn't have the same confidence that engineering would arrive so quickly. It'd be his luck that they'd be stuck here for hours if they just waited around for that crew to show up. "Five minutes. I'll give them five minutes to get here and if they're not here by then, I'm gonna try to bust the door open."
Mostly because Kirihara really didn't like this whole being stuck somewhere he could leave thing. He'd already had more than enough of that to last a lifetime.
“It’s Hiyoshi.” If they were going to be stuck in an elevator together, Hiyoshi wanted Kirihara to get that straight. Even if it was only for five minutes. He leaned against the wall, shrugging. “Do what you want. But if you break the doors, it’s on you.”
"That's what I said. Piyoshi." Kirihara's attention was almost wholly on the door as he tried to figure out how to best yank the thing open. "And it's not like I can do any worse than Tooyama and the medbay." If anything broke, it'd just be a couple of doors and there were multiple elevators in this place. Things would be fine.
“HI-yoshi. Hi. With the character for sun.” Why was he even bothering? Kirihara wasn’t listening, he was too busy messing with the door. Hiyoshi sighed, the rescue couldn’t come soon enough. “Tooyama is the lowest bar in the base. Try to aim higher than him.”
Kirihara paused his investigation of the door and looked over at Hiyoshi. A serious expression was on his face. It wasn't an aggressive look though, just serious. "I've been aiming higher than him ever since they had me join years and years ago." Hiyoshi was military and he knew Tooyama. So it was probably okay to mention stuff like that. The UEA owned both of them after all.
Years and years… Kirihara was the same age as Hiyoshi was, wasn't he? Hiyoshi supposed Kirihara could have signed up at 18 and that's what he meant, but after what happened with Kintarou, Hiyoshi had an inkling that wasn't the case.
"His skills and his self-control are two different things." As much as Hiyoshi considered Kintarou a human disaster, no one could deny his strength and tenacity. Pushing off the wall, Hiyoshi joined Kirihara at the elevator door. "Try to get your fingers in the crack." Hiyoshi would take one side of the doors, and Kirihara the other.
He was almost positive that it hadn't been 5 minutes yet but Kirihara wasn't going to complain. Instead he just nodded and tried to get his fingers in the crack between the doors. "He's never had any sort of self-control," Kirihara said. "I used to hear all kinds of things about him when we were growing up." Most of them had been complaints about Tooyama being too out of control and a safety hazard.
Kirihara's fingers were having trouble getting into the crack. He frowned and started going through his pockets, looking for something that'd be thin enough to wedge in and open the crack a little more.
Having the same problem himself, Hiyoshi knew exactly what Kirihara was looking for, and checked his own pockets. His search turned up a ring of a few old fashioned metal keys that security used on their less important files. Into the crack went one of the keys, Hiyoshi wedging it in such a way as to widen the crack, holding it there for Kirihara to get his fingers in.
It was like Hiyoshi had read his mind. Kirihara flashed a quick grin as he said, "thanks," before he slid his fingers into the small crack Hiyoshi had managed to open. The door was strong but so was Kirihara. He started pulling at the door, trying to get the crack a little wider so Hiyoshi could get the other door.
"You're kinda smart," Kirihara added, trying to be nice and give a compliment. He was pretty sure that was the correct thing to do if he wanted to be friends with someone and Hiyoshi was one of the cooler, not so old and boring people here.
“I know.” Hiyoshi could use to take a lesson from Kirihara on making friends, but it was what it was. Putting the keys back in his pocket now that they had something to work with, he grabbed the other door and pulled together with Kirihara. Slowly the doors slid open, only to reveal a bleak cement wall. Great. “I guess that means we’re waiting.”
Seeing the wall there made everything a lot worse. Kirihara didn't like small enclosed spaces. It was fine for a short ride. And even up until now, he'd been okay. Because there had been an opening on the other side of the doors. But now that that hope had been squashed...an uneasy panic was trying to fill him and Kirihara was trying to push it down as far as he could.
"I'm not waiting," Kirihara told Hiyoshi, trying to sound cool and not like he was freaking out internally. He scanned the walls, looking for any sort of escape hatch. There had to be something.
“Yes you are. Sit down.” Hiyoshi would be sitting himself, but Kirihara looked like he was about to do something really dumb. “They’ve sent someone out and we’ll be rescued soon. We just have to wait.” Which was annoying for Hiyoshi, but not much more than that.
"They said they were going to talk to Engineering," Kirihara replied. "Not that they were sending anyone." His internal panic was slipping out with every word. "It could be hours before they get someone over here." Probably not days at least. Dr. Yagyuu was expecting him and and would alert Yanagi when he didn't show up for his regularly scheduled appointment.
Spotting a little panel in the ceiling that looked like it could open, Kirihara felt a little hope. When he tried to touch it, his fingers fell just short of being able to touch it. "Give me a boost," he said, gesturing towards the panel.
“It’s the same thing.” One implied the other, didn’t it? At least to Hiyoshi, who was looking at things calmly. It was becoming increasingly obvious that Kirihara was anything but calm right now. He looked at the ceiling panel that Kirihara was trying to reach, and… really? Hiyoshi gave him a tired look and stayed exactly where he was. “You want to climb out through the roof.” Really? Really??
Kirihara shook his head. "I don't want to climb out of the roof. I am going to climb out the roof." Having Hiyoshi help him would just make it easier. But since Hiyoshi didn't seem willing to help him, Kirihara started looking at the small distance in the elevator. Maybe if he jumped in just the right way, he could reach it…
Interesting. Hiyoshi had almost decided what he wanted to do, he just needed one more answer. "So to be clear, you're going to do it whether I help you or not."
Kirihara's eyes were focused on the panel as he tried to work it all out in his head first. "If you help, then I'll be able to reach it for sure and you won't get hurt." And if Hiyoshi didn't help, well, then Kirihara figured it would probably take a few tries to reach it and get it open. The elevator wasn't huge and the chances of falling into Hiyoshi were basically 100%.
"That's not an answer." But in Kirihara's own way, it probably was. He was too focused to let the idea go. Whatever. Hiyoshi was getting a bit sick of waiting around too, so with a glance at the panel to make sure he was properly below it, he got down on one knee and braced his stance with his arms. "Use my shoulders."
"Got it," Kirihara answered, shuffling over to give Hiyoshi a little room. He was more surprised that Hiyoshi had actually agreed to this after all. Yep, the guy was definitely cooler than a lot of others here.
It wasn't hard to climb onto Hiyoshi's shoulders. The guy wasn't exactly a mountain or anything. And with the extra height, the panel was now within reach. Kirihara started punching at it, trying to knock it loose. Maybe there was an easier way to this but right now, he was just focused on getting it out of the way quickly.
What was he doing up there? “Look for a latch.” There had to be a latch, right? There was no way these things could be built to be punched, but Hiyoshi couldn’t see anything from where he was and could only just kneel there and try to keep them both stable.
Kirihara paused, fist mid-punch and took a moment to actually look at the panel. And huh, wouldn't you know it, there was a little latch. And a bunch of dents now. This thing wasn't exactly built to withstand a bunch of punches. "How did you know there was a latch?" Kirihara asked, confused and a little in awe of Hiyoshi's apparently psychic abilities. He quickly undid the latch and pushed at the panel, which didn't didn't want to move at first but then did.
The dark elevator shaft was all that greeted him.
“Because I used my head.” Judging by the noise and the falling of dust, Kirihara had found the latch and got the panel off. Good, that was one thing out of the way. “Hold on to the edge for balance, I’m going to stand up.” Hopefully Kirihara was listening, because Hiyoshi only waited a moment before doing exactly what he said, and standing to give Kirihara a further boost for climbing.
Considering Kirihara already had a grip on the edges, it wasn't hard to follow Hiyoshi's instruction. And it was even simpler to keep pulling himself up and through the hole in the ceiling. Being in the elevator shaft was kind of spooky. Very dark and a feeling of 'you shouldn't be here' that settled on his shoulders.
"You want up too or you going to wait?" Kirihara asked as he looked down at Hiyoshi. "I don't care either way but this place is kind of weird and spooky."
“The roof is already open, I may as well come.” Despite his willingness to be patient earlier, Hiyoshi didn’t REALLY want to be waiting around in an elevator any longer than he had to. Plus, this was kind of cool. “Can you pull me up, or do I need to jump?” Hiyoshi was fully willing to do the elevator wall-parkour that Kirihara had been considering earlier.
"I should be able to pull you up," Kirihara said, shifting so that he was laying on the top of the elevator and could reach in. He was stronger than he looked. The only issue was more of just actually being able to reach Hiyoshi and then having the right sort of leverage to pull the guy up. Laying down wasn't exactly the best position for that part of it but it wasn't like there were a lot of choices. Arms dangling into the elevator, he told Hiyoshi, "I'm ready when you are."
Hiyoshi rubbed his hands on his pants to make sure they were fully dry, took one last look at the hole and everything around him for reference, and jumped the few inches to grab hold of Kirihara’s wrists. Even as long as Kirihara could get him as high as the end of the hole so he could grab on, that should be enough.
Twisting his own hands slightly to get a grip on Hiyoshi's wrists as well, Kirihara started pulling. The angle wasn't exactly great for this sort of thing but he was still strong. He pulled up as much as he could, getting Hiyoshi up high enough to at least grab the edges of the hole. "Can you grab that?" He asked, nodding towards the sides. "I need to get a better grip to get you up here."
“Yeah.” Hiyoshi nodded, letting go of Kirihara long enough to grab the edge of the hole. “I can do it myself from here.” That’s what pull-ups were for, right? The size of the hole and the shape of the ledge made things a bit difficult, but Hiyoshi wasn’t a gym rat for nothing, and he had soon lifted himself up and out and was digging his security-issued flashlight out of his pocket. It wasn’t a ton of light but it was something, and after a quick look around Hiyoshi finally settled it on a spot on the wall, a bit above them. “There, that’s it.” The door, and their way out.
The flashlight was a smart idea. Kirihara gave in an approving nod. He should start carrying one around. It could really come in handy at times. "Good idea," he said, nodding towards the light. Then Kirihara turned his attention towards the spot Hiyoshi had indicated. "Any ideas on how to get there?" He didn't see anything to climb and the lack of bright light didn't help at all.
The dark definitely made things harder. “I could boost you again. It’s that or climb.” Hiyoshi was inspecting the walls with his flashlight– there wasn’t a lot to work with, but there were a couple ledges and pipes they could use as handholds if they truly wanted to go the industrial rock-climber route. “Boosting is better. I don’t know if the door will be hard to open like the last one.”
Kirihara kind of thought that trying to climb up could be fun. But at the same time, if Hiyoshi was offering to boost him up, well, he wasn't going to argue it. "If that's what you want to do," Kirihara said. Honestly, now that he was out of the elevator box, he was feeling a lot better. Especially since this was a new and interesting place that just made him curious. He made a mental note to himself to figure out a way to get his little drone in here to explore it more when he had more time.
“What does that mean, if that’s what I want to do?” How did Kirihara manage to make choosing the sane option sound lame? And…was it just a trick of the light, or was Kirihara having fun now? Though admittedly, Hiyoshi was enjoying himself too. Was climbing in an elevator shaft a smart thing to do? Absolutely not. But shit, around here you had to enjoy yourself where you could.
Hiyoshi clipped his flashlight to his uniform so he wouldn’t drop it, went to the wall, and started testing out hand-holds. “If it’s what you want to do, you can stay here. But I’m getting out.” And without waiting for an answer, he started climbing.
Oh snap, Hiyoshi was moving and taking the light with him. Kirihara scrambled over to the wall to follow. Because as neat as this was, staying here was also less than great. Part of this adventure was, well, the adventure of figuring out how to get out. "I'm right behind you," Kirihara grumbled as he climbed after Hiyoshi, following the hand-holds the other guy seemed to have found first.
That’s right Kirihara, follow Hiyoshi’s lead. Because Hiyoshi was the red ranger in this situation, the hero to Kirihara’s sidekick, etc etc. Luckily there was a recessed ledge below the door to make a good hand-hold, so Hiyoshi took a break there and assessed the door. “...I’m going to try to pry it open.” Yes, the thing. He was going to do it. The thing. That he was now announcing.
Well on the bright side, if anything fell or broke, it'd hit Hiyoshi first. Really, it was just plain accidentally smart on his part. "Let me know if you need help," Kirihara offered, more than happy to let Hiyoshi do the work. Though if Hiyoshi really needed help, Kirihara was almost positive he could figure out how to get over there to help. But if Hiyoshi could do it on his own, then Kirihara wasn't going to stop the guy.
More risk more glory. Hiyoshi dug out his keys again, following the same tactic as last time and starting a gap for his fingers. Immediately, light started pouring in. This encouraged Hiyoshi onward, and soon he’d got his fingers wedged between the doors, opening them inch by inch until his arms were spread wide and the door was fully open. Success.
Except now, the only thing keeping Hiyoshi up and against the wall was his fingers, hooked into the wide open doors, which he was going to have to let go of to do anything else. His two options were let go and try to grab onto the smooth, gripless floor in front of him, or let go and jump back down to the top of the elevator, backwards. Neither option was very appealing.
"What's taking so long?" Kirihara asked, seeing the light from the now open door. He couldn't tell why Hiyoshi was just waiting there. He started moving to the side, trying to figure out his own path up. The added light didn't actually help as much as he thought it would. Too many shadows making the various make-shift handholds hard to pick out. It took a little longer than he thought it would but after what felt like a very long time (but was likely only a couple of minutes), he was up by the now open door as well.
Well this was embarrassing. Hiyoshi remained forcibly t-posed as Kirihara came up behind him, and try as he might, he couldn’t think of a good excuse. He had to confess. “I’m stuck.”
It was hard not to laugh at that. Self-preservation and the sheer instinct to hold on so he didn't fall were the only things keeping Kirihara from laughing. "Sucks to be you," was what he said instead as he quickly scrambled the rest of the way up before Hiyoshi did something petty like let the doors close. Once he'd pulled himself up, he took pity on Hiyoshi though and leaned against one of the doors, holding it open with his body weight.
Hiyoshi held on tight even with Kirihara clambering over him. It wasn’t like he had a choice, unless he wanted to knock both of them down. Once Kirihara is up Hiyoshi glared at him like a cat stuck up a tree, though he was more annoyed at himself than anything else. The one good thing about Kirihara being free though was now Hiyoshi had a fail-safe. “If I slip backwards, catch me.” It was too embarrassing to phrase it as a question, so it was a statement instead.
Ready to be out of there already, Hiyoshi went for it. SMACK went his palms on the floor in front of him, and for a terrifying second he slid back about an inch before coming to a stop. Safe. Now just to climb out with as much dignity as he had left.
Kirihara thought about saying no to Hiyoshi's demand. But the part of him that was impressed by Hiyoshi, that wanted to be the guy's friend, said to not. So Kirihara held his tongue. And just watched instead, an amused grin on his face as Hiyoshi tried to climb out of the shaft himself.
Excuse you Kirihara, this was a perfectly dignified exit from an elevator shaft, thank you very much. Hiyoshi pretended he doesn’t see Kirihara’s dumb grin, and when he is finally back on his feel he brushed himself off, eyes closed in a self-soothing attempt to regain some dignity. “There. Status?” That was his “””dignified””” way of checking they were both okay and in one piece.
"Out of the elevator," Kirihara said, his tone clearly conveying just how obvious that felt. He glanced down the hallway, not immediately recognizing it. Which really shouldn't be a surprise. He had a tendency to still get lost around this place. There were only a few places he could go to without running into issues with getting lost.
Sigh. Hiyoshi gave Kirihara an unimpressed stare. “Any injury?”
Just your pride. It took everything in Kirihara to not actually say those words. So instead, he just replied, "of course not." He wasn't going to get injured from any of this. It was too much fun to get injured from.
“Good.” Hiyoshi was playing the part of leader, so he had to check, you see. The question was what to do now– they could just go on about their day, right? Hiyoshi had left the files in the elevator, so he had no reason to go to medbay anymore, but Kirihara should probably still check in.
And then there was still the open elevator tunnel of doom behind them… maybe they should do something about that. “You can go on to medbay. I’ll get the door closed.”
Kirihara looked at the open elevator doors and thought about it for a moment. Someone was likely going to get in trouble for this. And if Hiyoshi was offering to stay at the scene of the crime so to speak, well, Kirihara wasn't going to stop him. "Have fun with that," Kirihara said, not arguing with Hiyoshi. Besides, he really should get to the medbay soon before Dr. Yagyuu decided he was skipping and got him in trouble. And without even saying goodbye, Kirihara started walking off, completely clueless about where he was going but not letting that stop him.
