[ After Josh passes out, Luther also winds up hunkered down on his heels beside him, fingers splayed against the other man's throat, checking that there's still a pulse, that he hasn't just up and died in front of them. There's a thread of panic in his own chest, and so many words he wants to blurt out, shocked: He's been missing. I didn't know. I didn't even think—
But he presses it all down, letting himself slip back into the practicalities of the battlefield, of an emergency, and so there's a businesslike cast to his voice when he speaks again. ]
Hopefully. There's people better qualified back on the island, we should be able to get him medical attention...
[ But then he looks up, eyes narrowing slightly. He's been sent here to help, to extract Kaneki, and they really need to get moving as soon as possible — but he just has to ask first. He's still far more suspicious than Jane was. She hadn't had the personal experience with him that Luther did. ]
What do you care, anyway? You're not usually concerned about collateral damage.
[ They had worked together, back in the White Tower. Luther had been ruthless himself, but Kaneki had been worse. Number One was steel-nerved, had grown up with a brother whose tentacled monsters tore people apart, but the things he'd seen from Kaneki had been unnerving even for him. It's difficult — almost impossible — to reconcile that history with the figure in front of him, who's shaking like a leaf. ]
no subject
But he presses it all down, letting himself slip back into the practicalities of the battlefield, of an emergency, and so there's a businesslike cast to his voice when he speaks again. ]
Hopefully. There's people better qualified back on the island, we should be able to get him medical attention...
[ But then he looks up, eyes narrowing slightly. He's been sent here to help, to extract Kaneki, and they really need to get moving as soon as possible — but he just has to ask first. He's still far more suspicious than Jane was. She hadn't had the personal experience with him that Luther did. ]
What do you care, anyway? You're not usually concerned about collateral damage.
[ They had worked together, back in the White Tower. Luther had been ruthless himself, but Kaneki had been worse. Number One was steel-nerved, had grown up with a brother whose tentacled monsters tore people apart, but the things he'd seen from Kaneki had been unnerving even for him. It's difficult — almost impossible — to reconcile that history with the figure in front of him, who's shaking like a leaf. ]