damned_institute | Day 57: Cafeteria

Edgar's charming company had raised Anise's spirits enough that not even the Head Doctor's voice could bring them back down. Besides, she was feeling pretty sure that Landel wasn't actually around. To begin with, it wouldn't make sense, and secondly, his announcements sounded suspiciously like ones she'd already heard before. While Anise wasn't very familiar with Earth technology, she'd seen the little devices in the Music Room that could play recordings of people's voices. This had to be something like that.

It wasn't long before Anise was escorted to the Cafeteria, and then to the section where edible food was being served. As she filled her plate with waffles, fruit, and sausages, she looked to the other side of the counter with a look of sympathy. It was hard to enjoy her own meals while knowing what the other patients had to suffer through.

She wasn't about to refuse her meals just out of guilt, though. Anise needed her strength for tonight. There was still a bit of a nervous twist in her stomach whenever she thought about what could happen down in the basement... but she wasn't going to back down. Not after promising her friends they'd go together.

With her tray in hand, Anise seated herself at an empty table in the middle of the room. She preferred to have company while eating, but it looked like she was one of the first patients there, so there was no one to sit with. Maybe if she minded her manners and tried to look her cutest, she'd attract someone handsome! Holding her utensils delicately, she began to cut her waffles into smaller pieces.

[For Battler.]

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His companion went quiet again and Japan began to eat, wondering if there really was something wrong or if this was just another instance of him misunderstanding foreign cultures. Englishmen were gentlemen after all. Perhaps they rarely spoke at meals. Or-- Oh no! What if England was offended that Japan had asked after him? What if Japan had said the wrong thing?!

The nation's stomach tightened and he tried to eat his food as if nothing were wrong. It was times like these that he was glad that he was so practiced at keeping a calm facade in the face of inner turmoil. Unless taken by surprise, he tended to be rather relax--

"Last night, I saw you out on the field."

Japan nearly dropped his spoon, freezing in place at those words.

He saw me. England saw me. He saw me like that. Prussia is one thing, but England?

This was bad. Very, very bad. Did he lie? Deflect? Pretend not to realize what England was talking about? Apologize? A million different options ran through his mind and the island nation couldn't get through them fast enough to find an appropriate response. There was a lag in the conversation; one too obvious to play the fool now.

"....I see," he said just as quietly, setting down his spoon. "That is...unfortunate."

The way that Japan froze told England enough. He remembered what had happened last night. It hadn't been something forced upon him that he couldn't remember in the light of day. Well, didn't this make things more complicated. He felt himself tensing up, fight or flight, old battle instincts awakening at the prospect of a potential fight. Still, there was a sick feeling in his stomach; he didn't want to fight Japan, not here, not now. He much preferred their modern relationship to the harsher times.

He took a spoonful of the gruel as Japan spoke, fingers tightening around the spoon as he did so. Japan's understatment didn't make this any easier.

"What is it to be, Japan?" he asked quietly, forcing himself not to show any kind of concern. "Last night... am I going to have to view you as an enemy again?" Was he going to have to continue that horrible war?

What is it to be? Japan kept his grip on the spoon just so that he could feel that this was real, that the time he felt was real, the history he remembered was real. It was history. It was so far in the past...

And yet it had been nice to have that power again. He couldn't deny that even if he wanted. Every fiber of his being, once again the weak mortal, wanted to scream that the thing on the field hadn't been him. It was a specter raised from the grave to haunt the living and nothing more. And yet... He'd been strong last night. He'd been able to feel his nation pulsing through him again and feel that connection that was once again missing. It was to an older time, yes, but a time when Japan had been strong, undefeated, fearsome.

But the past was the past for a reason and Japan sighed, lowering his hands into his lap. "I do not know how, but they managed to convince me the year was...then. That time. A time I do not wish to return to again."

Lies. But good ones. Ones that England would want to hear because it kept the world at peace.

"Be careful, England-san. They took me from my room last night and did something to me. It could happen to any of us..." Just as it was happening to Russia. Not that Japan knew where the monster had gone off to, but he wasn't about to ask after him either. "What you saw last night...it was...." Uncomfortable. "...A ghost and nothing more."

The answer was bland and predictable; exactly the answer that England had been hoping for and he didn't believe one word of it. Liar. Weren't they all? England would have said exactly the same had it been him, if they'd taken him back to the height of the Empire, his glorious conquests and domination of the globe. Oh, he would have opened his mouth and spewed platitudes and spoken about cooperation and peace and how Empire was long gone. And the entire time he would be thinking of how good it felt to be so powerful once more, how much he missed having the world play by his rules.

He smiled pleasantly and nodded. "Of course not. None of us wish to return to such times."

He took a sip from his glass of water, clearing his throat before replying. "That is worrying," he replied, more genuinely. The thought that they could revert one of them to such a state... ah, he didn't like this one bit. "They know more than they're letting on about us then. Sounds like they know more about us than we do at times."

Day 57: Cafeteria

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