Azdeha left Chusei standing outside the house she had just emerged from, looking worried yet determined. She stopped by the open doorway of the next house and leaned one arm against the stone frame, breathing ragged and shallow.
She had feared the men being found hurt, but hearing Chusei echo those fears, in a statement rather than a speculation, made it all the more real and she began to seriously worry. Soi Fon had found no evidence of a struggle, or even a battle. So someone had covered up what happened here. If it had even happened in this place. She frowned. What if this place was just a cover; something to keep the shinigami busy while Renji and Byakuya were being tortured miles away from where they were searching. She felt bile rise in her throat at the thought but pushed it down.
"Get yourself together you moron. You're stronger than this and you damn well know it. So the men have gone missing. Big deal. It just means you get to kick their asses when you do find them for dragging your ass out here to the middle of nowhere."
The thought of berating the two of them when they eventually turned up lightened her mood a little and she ducked under the doorway into the house.
It was a simple structure, flimsy even, with a single room and a raised hearth in the middle. It looked mostly undisturbed by anything except local wildlife, and there was nothing to indicate that anything other than wildlife had ever lived here. As if on cue, out of the corner of her eye she spotted movement and spun around to see a mouse scuttling across the floor and out of the door. She turned her attention back to the hearth. Chusei had said she suspected the men might be being held underground. Well everything around her seemed to be solid rock aside from the centrepiece so she might as well start there.
Strolling over to the structure, she leaned down and studied it closer. It was just a standard hearth made of stone, raised out of the ground to provide heat for the whole floor. She swiped at the dirt inside it. Cold, smooth, flat stone. No cracks or hinges to be found anywhere. She sighed and stood up again, wiping her hands on her hakama and started stamping on the floor. There didn't seem to be anything hollow in this room at all. Wherever they were, it wasn't anywhere near this building.
Shading her eyes she stepped back out into the sunlight and headed towards the next building.
