damned_institute | Day 58: Lunch

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Day 58: Lunch

Although it had been good to see his mom again, Claude entered the cafeteria with a dark expression on his face. He was glad she felt comfortable enough with him to share her experiences from last night, but that didn't make him any less angry at the military for using her to do their dirty work. Why couldn't those bastards clean up their own messes? Surely they had the resources for it.

Were they really going to have to fight someone else's war now?

His head buzzed with those sorts of questions as he moved through the room. Even so, with the help of his escort, Claude assembled a tray with a rather large hamburger, the appropriate condiments, and a cup of water. The cafeteria was still relatively empty, save for the soldiers on duty, so he took very little time in the line. It was probably just as well. He'd been so engrossed in his conversation with Rita during breakfast that he hadn't eaten much.

After finding an empty seat, Claude gingerly placed his tray and journal onto the table and sat down. As he lifted up his burger with his good hand, Claude couldn't help but think of Ashton for a moment. Where was he? He'd disappeared so long ago, and yet part of him worried the military had used him for something too.

Eyebrows furrowed, he took a bite and tried to focus on getting a decent meal in his stomach.

[For Guy!]

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This wasn't going to be pleasant for him. That much was obvious the moment Asuka sat down. He hadn't expected her to be serious or get right down to business, but expecting something and actually being faced with it were two completely different things. And he just. Wasn't in the mood.

"Afternoon." If his voice was more gruff and sounded even less patient than normal, he thought he could be forgiven. Granted, it wasn't the girl's fault he was in such a poor state, but he wasn't feeling terribly forgiving, either. "What's this 'toy' you mentioned."

He wasn't going to waste time with pleasantries.

Hmph, at least he started off with an "Afternoon" before rolling right into it. Some people just had no sense of pacing, or perhaps the good ol' "Shinsengumi" had no use for it. Such a pity.

"Right, well--" she began, tossing her back over her shoulder so she could eat without pulling in a mouthful of red hair. "--after that talk about those rings, I happened to do a little investigating of my own. One shakedown later, we now have a teleporting ring!" Her grin was ever so self-satisying, but she didn't care if it showed. The eva pilot had brought the History Club something worthy of enduring her grating attitude.

"Of course, I don't know where it leads, obviously. I wasn't exactly armed to the teeth and ready to go diving through a worm hole only to be surrounded by a bunch of monsters or those damn soldiers. But... Maybe if a group of us wanted to do a little adventuring one night... Well, we now have a means."

If he looked a little dazed at that onslaught of information, it was because he only understood a fraction of what Asuka had just said. Worm hole? What the hell was that?

Whatever it was, it was clear the ring was an asset, if an untested one. The mention of getting a group together made him wince a little internally--he wasn't sure how many people they even had left. Souji was the main connection to all of that, and there were people he'd met at the meeting he hadn't seen since. "We'll have to make sure we're properly prepared before we try it," he responded finally, wondering how he'd be able to make the best use of this new development under the circumstances.

Hmmm, his reaction to her was rather subdued. You know, she thought, Okita would have certainly brightened up at this information. What was the point of having information if she couldn't bask in the instant gratification of praise? Well, whatever. There would be other opportunities, surely. For now, she just needed this information to get back to the leader and then go from there. It wasn't like they could do this without her, so she would get her spotlight when the time was right.

"Yes, my thoughts exactly," she remarked amiably. She fixed a pleasant smile on her face as she stirred the contents of her bowl once, twice, and opened her mouth again. "So I'm surprised to see you without Okita. I was pretty sure you two were attached at the hip..."

They both knew she was going to dig. It was inevitable and so Asuka didn't put too much effort into the segue. She had specifically requested Okita and the redhead would be damned if she didn't find out why he couldn't meet her personally. Since the two shinsengumi were practically attached to each other, it would seem unlikely that the man was in the dark. Perhaps he was being treated or tested by staff. It was possible, so was solitary confinement. Maybe it was a matter of pride...

It wasn't her fault. He didn't want Asuka to know what had really happened, so he couldn't blame her for inadvertently ripping that wound wide open again. All he could really do was grit his teeth and try to keep that emotion off of his face by replacing it with a look of irritation.

"I did say he was busy," he snapped. "If he were available, he would be here." Making a lot less of a mess of this whole 'social interaction' thing than he was.

But he wasn't there, wouldn't ever be again, which meant he had to do this on his own, no matter how much it frustrated him and irritated him. Regardless of how much being reminded of his absence hurt, deep down in a part he didn't think could feel anymore. "If you have a message for him, I'll pass it on."

Her shit-eating grin spread at the man's curt words. This, she could use. If Hijikata had remained aloof, or bored as it usually happened, it would have gotten Asuka nowhere. She would have been the one tart and ruffled then, and that was not a position the redhead liked.

"You did," Asuka replied."I guess I just can't imagine what would keep Okita so occupied in a place that has no real responsibilities." Her plan, while exceedingly childish, was to poke until he became annoyed and said something he shouldn't. Or he just got pissed and slapped her. That was an unfortunate possibility too. Either way, if he, or Okita most likely, wasn't going to trust the other members of the History Club with his goings on, the eva pilot was going to take out her frustration on him. "Maybe it's just my age, you adults must have more to do than I thought.

"And yes, would you--I mean, when he's not so busy, of course. You can just let him know I got that ring for him and if he ever needs any other odd jobs done... Well, I'd be happy to oblige..."

He shouldn't lose his temper over this. He knew that was exactly what Asuka was looking for--needling him until he couldn't put up with it any more and gave her the kind of reaction she wanted. He knew that tactic. Unfortunately, he'd been fighting off the memory of the last man who'd tried ruthlessly to provoke him all day, despite the strange compunction that had him remembering that death as well Okita's, and he couldn't do it. He couldn't hold the anger in.

He slapped one hand down on the table--hard enough that it stung the palm of his hand, and leaned in until he was only inches away from the girl. "That's enough," he growled, keeping his voice low enough that he words would hopefully not be over heard. "He's not here because he's dead. Are you happy now?"

He hadn't been planning on sharing that with anyone. Not today, when he still felt so god-awfully vulnerable and unable to cope. He pulled away from Asuka again, clenching his jaw and swallowing back the taste of bile in his throat. Knowing Souji was gone was bad enough. Admitting it out loud made him feel positively ill.

Even after assuming this could lead to violence, the sudden and rather loud slap to the cafeteria table shocked Asuka stiff. She flinched, but stood her ground when the man invaded her personal space. The redhead had asked for this, it wouldn't do to back down when she had gotten exactly what she wanted. It wasn't, however, the answer she had expected.

Her thin brows knitted together in disbelief, and then heavy thought. Asuka almost asked if Hijikata was sure, but she held her tongue. Neither Okita nor Hijikata were fans of the dramatics. Whether they were truly shinsengumi or not, the two of them clearly had some kind of military background coupled with a soldier's mentality. The man wouldn't simply overreact. It just wasn't logical.

So Okita was dead. Asuka, staring down at her bowl of gruel, had no words, except, "That idiot."

What was the point of anything they tried to accomplish in the History Club now? What about her efforts? What about getting out of this place? It wasn't exactly something you could accomplish in death!

"Stupid idiot," she complained through gritted teeth. After a long moment of silence, Asuka looked up at Hijikata. "What are they going to do with his body? Does this place even have a morgue?" Looking at the average age of the patients that were recruited here, it didn't seem like the staff should expect a lot of young adults to just keel over--Then again, this place unleashed monsters on the population at night. There were going to be casualties.

What Asuka knew of insane asylums came from documentaries and articles detailing macabre treatments and experimentation. This place was a pretty big candidate for a corrupted institute. So, would they experiment on his body? The last thing Asuka wanted to do was die here, to be defenseless and unable to defend her own body against invasion. It made her pale and squeasy just thinking about it.

He would have been inclined to agree with Asuka's assessment, and certainly had last night, before everything had gone to hell, but he understood Souji's motivation for doing what he had done. And he knew, if the younger man had had any idea just how high the price would be, that he would have weighed his options far more carefully.

The question, thankfully, was something he could answer, fact, not emotion. "It's upstairs." He'd been able to find that out without much hassle. "I'm going to go up there tonight." And then... well. He'd come up with a plan later. It wasn't something he could let himself think about, if he wanted to keep it together. He'd already buried too many people. How was he ever going to manage to do the same for Souji?

Asuka crossed her arms over her chest, ideas and conspiracies already flying around in her mind as she listened. There was ultimately only one conclusion for this mess.

"Well, you'll obviously need my help." Her pointed look dared Hijikata to say otherwise. After the events of last night, clearly the two pseudo samurai needed a woman's touch. She had known better than to go rooting around medicine that could be any number of poisons. They were given out by the enemy! What made anyone think they would actually hold up their end of the deal?

So stupid... Men thought they were mortals just because they walked around with a penis. Suddenly, a man could do everything once he hit puberty. It was absolutely ridiculous! If Asuka had been there, Okita wouldn't have died. It was as simple as that! Common sense was engrained into a woman from the womb.

"You can come if you can keep up," he replied. "Otherwise, don't bother." It was harsh, but he wasn't in a forgiving mood. He'd tried the softer approach, thought it was the right thing to do after the mess back home--

It's too much... ...too cruel...

He grimaced and shook off the all too real sound of Kondou's voice chastising... There was, apparently, no middle ground. He was too harsh, and people felt cornered. He was too soft, and things like this happened. He's rather people hate him, he decided, then let them die because he wanted to spare their feelings.

"I don't have time to waste protecting girls who can't keep their heads in a crisis." He wasn't going to let anything get in his way tonight.

"Of course I can keep up," she said, offended he even needed to ask that question. Asuka knew she hadn't been at her best during their last mission together, but Okita had said nothing about guns! Guns gave you very little hope of dodging or scraping by. They were lethal against everyone, period! She wasn't going to let that ill-planned mess be her fault. Anyone who doubted her, the eva pilot would show them!

"Don't worry about me." Her eyes met Hijikata's, willing him to take her seriously. She couldn't afford to be left behind. If Okita was gone, there would be changes in management. She needed all eyes on her! "I'm not some damsel in distress who needs rescuing. I can take care of myself!" The last of her words had come out more defensive than she had meant. Clearing her throat, she placed her blue eyes on her meal as she did her best to cool down.

"So, Mr. Leader, where should we meet--" Then another thought occurred to her and her cooling demeanor hit boiling point once more. "You better not just leave me, or so help me, I will hunt you down. I will!"

He'd been telling him he'd ignore the posturing--she was young, and he couldn't exactly blame her for being driven, as he'd been much the same way as a younger man, but the threat at the end had him arching an eyebrow skeptically.

"Will you. You can certainly try, but so long as you expend all your energy on empty posturing, you'll never get anywhere. Shouting and threats won't anyone respect you. You have to prove you're worthy of it."

No one was going to let themselves be bullied into going along with the whims of a teenage girl, no matter how big she talked. "My room is M64. Get there if you don't want to be left behind."

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Day 58: Lunch

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