damned_institute | Day 70: Bus 3

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Day 70: Bus 3

.... Day already. Kyousuke stared up at the ceiling, and in the absence of any people, he was unable to suppress a sigh. Night somehow seemed shorter than usual, with more time spent lingering in the hallways than accomplishing anything. But at least he had a bit more to go on, so he supposed it hadn't been a total waste. Between the Head Doctor's mention of the third floor, and something about a "surprise" at the end of the night, he had a good idea of where he should be looking, even if it was pretty obvious they were being baited.

It wasn't long before one of the institute's male nurses entered with a bright, "Rise and shine!" before shoving a little cardboard box of clothes into hands. "We're going into town today, so you don't have to put up with your uniform today. They're not anything anything special—just some donated items—but I bet you're pretty glad for a spot o' color, right?"

"...Not really," Kyousuke muttered. His real thought was whether or not they were worried anyone would try to make a break for it once they were outside the walls, until he bitterly remembered that they could pull them to and from worlds as they pleased, so a neighboring town was hardly any security threat. At least the clothes were decent; a purple jacket, ill-fitting black pants, and a pair of white boots. The jacket especially was something he might have worn normally. But then he discovered the shirt he was supposed to be wearing, which sported some kind of mascot and the words HUG ME in bold white lettering.

He turned back to the nurse. ".... You must be joking."

"Sorry, I'm not the one the one who picks," the nurse responded sympathetically. "I'll bet one of those old hens thought you could use some cheering up. Don't know how to deal with boys, the lot of them. It's just for one day, so try and bear with it, yeah?"

.... Great. At least the jacket seemed to cover it mostly, although the word HUG was still pretty clearly visible. He guessed as long as nobody took it as an invitation, it was fine for now, though knowing this place, he might not get so lucky. After the that, he was provided with a few items, which he shoved into pockets, and was herded onto a bus with a small breakfast. It looked like he was the first here, so he claimed himself a window seat and waited for the bus to fill up more.

[Lloyd!]

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"I need the metal plate. The stone, too, if you see it, but the plate's more important for me." He wanted his Exsphere back, of course. Hated the thought of his mother's Exsphere in the hands of the doctors here. But the Key Crest was what he needed to make sure his mana didn't go completely out of control. "There might be two of them. My..." His tongue tripped and stuck on the word 'father,' but he floundered on how else to fill it in. "I... Someone I... I'm not the only one they did this to. Kratos..." He shook his head. That name probably wouldn't mean anything to Tsurugi, either. "They did it to another man from my world, so his Key Crest is missing, too."

The thought of what they'd done to Kratos made Lloyd's stomach turn. They hadn't even given him a false Key Crest to temper his Exsphere's power. If Lloyd was a bomb that could go off at any moment, what did that make him?

"I have no idea where they're keeping them, though."

Where did he even start to look?

So if Kyousuke could find that plate, he'd be able to save Lloyd. Of course, that wouldn't be a simple task, but that was more than he'd been expecting. There was a clear answer this time, no deciphering riddles about butterflies and beheaded saints for a cure that had been right there all along. That was encouraging.

...Until the rest of what Lloyd was saying made it even worse. "Kratos?" Kyousuke repeated, dumbstruck. That Kratos? .... It had to be. That didn't seem like the type of name you'd see people sharing. "He had one too?" Kyousuke normally had a sharp eye, but in this case, he honestly couldn't remember. The times they met during the night, Kratos had been wearing gloves, and the one time they'd spoke during the day, too much had happened, and he hadn't been able to bear looking at him.

So not just one, but two friends were falling victim to this. Maybe that wasn't quite the right word in Kratos' case, but leaving it 'acquaintance' seemed like a disservice, at this point. Hadn't Sora been enough? Him, and how many others died because of that monster sickness they'd concocted? And now this... He was so pissed off he was beginning to feel sick.

"...If we don't know where it is, we'll just have to check everywhere," he said firmly. It wasn't the best plan. In fact, it was a total fool's errand. He knew that. But still... "We can't do anything if we give up before we try."

Lloyd blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected a reaction to Kratos's name. "You know Kratos?" It didn't even cross his mind that there might be two Kratoses. Kratos was Kratos. Who else would have that name?

He shook his head. Tsurugi was right, of course. It wasn't going to be easy, but... But he was right. Lloyd couldn't give up. Not that he'd considered doing that, but having someone else voice the same thought, with the same grim determination, made it feel somehow more possible. More important, Tsurugi's words made him feel not so alone in this. We. We don't know. We'll have to check. We. Him and Tsurugi - and Kratos.

It still unsettled him to think about Kratos too much, still made something inside him curl at the thought of who Kratos really was, but thinking about Kratos as an ally was familiar and easier to deal with.

"We can do anything if we try," he murmured, more to himself than anything he'd meant to voice out loud. It gave him something solid to latch onto, to pull his thoughts back into focus and into the present again. "Damn, I wish I'd been able to see when I got out of the room they had me in. I have no idea where I was, except I think it was on the second floor." There'd been stairs next to him when Kratos had found him, providing some light to see by. "It might not be there, either, if the doctor's keeping it somewhere else, but... it's a place to start?"

"Yeah, we met here," Kyousuke affirmed. And then more quietly, "... He saved my life." He didn't know why he said it—that wasn't a conversation he wanted to be having. It was almost too much just think about. ... But maybe that was exactly why. Some things just had a way resurfacing themselves whether you liked it or not. He shifted his gaze to the window as it he said it, trying to keep his thoughts contained the scenery that was beginning to roll past, but his expression was distant, like he was looking at something else entirely.

The rest of the conversation drew him back. 'We can do anything if we try,' huh... He knew Lloyd was just turning his own words back on him, but that ridiculously optimistic way of phrasing it made him snort. There was something almost irresponsible about it, but maybe it just reminded him so much of Tenma he was imagining it. Either way, that thin little thread of hope was all they had, so they had to take care of it.

"It's something," he agreed. "I can ask around and see if we can't narrow it down. I won't let anyone know about what happened or why I'm looking, so you don't have to worry." He was hardly about to tell anyone about something he'd been told in confidence, and it was probably better that way anyway.

Saved his life. Some part of Lloyd felt uncomfortable at those words, caught somewhere between indebted and frustrated, because how many times could he say that Kratos had done the same for him? Probably more times than he wanted to admit, but the man had never said anything, never hinted at their relationship, never gave the real reason why he did the things he did. Had he bothered giving Tsurugi any reasons either? How true were they?

Somehow, he couldn't bring himself to ask. Tsurugi didn't need to hear Lloyd's bitterness and doubts.

"Thanks," he said quietly, focusing on the other boy's offer to help. And he was grateful, he really was. The other boy had listened patiently to Lloyd's disjointed explanation, and despite the danger he was still willing to do everything he could. The offer to keep a lid on it, though... Was that really the best thing to do? "Shouldn't you be warning other people, though? I mean, at any minute, Kratos or I could turn into a monster. We could hurt someone."

Should they tell everyone...? That was about the last thing Kyousuke expected to hear. He wouldn't expect anyone to think about others in this kind of situation. He could feel a budding sort of respect for that, but even so...

He shook his head. "Even if we told them, if we don't know when it's going to happen, we still can't protect them. ... All it would do is make people scared." Fear and avoidance with no real benefit to it, serving as a constant reminder of what might happen. ... That sounded too cruel, if you asked him.

Isolation. Avoidance. That was what he had been proposing, and the idea of it had made him want to shrink back down, his spirit sinking even lower. But the idea of sitting next to someone and possibly endangering them was even more horrifying. He didn't want to cut himself off, but what other choice was there?

"But wouldn't it protect them if they didn't get close?" Except for cases like the bus they were on, where there wasn't anywhere else people could go to avoid being close to him. Maybe a few seats away, but that wouldn't do much if he turned into an Exbelua.

Didn't get close how? "We're usually all crammed into the same little building. Avoiding you isn't going to make them any safer." It was a small building, with a small number of people, and limited places they could actually go. None of that was going to make a difference. Of course, Kyousuke didn't want anyone to get hurt, but going about it like this wasn't going to accomplish anything.

But that wasn't the full of picture of what bothered him about it. How could he explain it...? "... You're not the one who did this," he said carefully, looking the other boy in the eye. Maybe he'd catch on to what he was trying to say. Maybe he wouldn't. Either way, Kyousuke had no intention of elaborating, so he turned away for now. ... Some things were best discovered on your own.

That was true, wasn't it. Even outside this bus, they were all usually inside a building where there wasn't any place to go. No place to run, no way to protect everyone...

...but no reason to cut himself off. It was a more pessimistic way of looking on the bright side than Lloyd was used to, but oddly, it... helped. Lloyd leaned back, feeling... maybe not better, but at least not quite as discouraged as before.

"Even if it's not my fault, I still have to deal with it. I'd feel better knowing that someone knew that something might happen, someone who could go and get help." Technically, Tsurugi already knew.

But did he want that responsibility?

Fair enough, he supposed. This place may have been the ones to do this Lloyd, but now he was left to inherit the mess that got left behind. ... Lucky them, getting play to god unscathed, while everyone else suffered. Kyousuke scowled at the thought, starting to get angry all over again.

"...If it's someone to keep an eye on you, you don't even have to ask. Kratos, too." It was something he already would have done from a distance anyway—someone had to make sure everything was okay. To watch over them, not just for signs of shifting into something else. That was probably one of the best things he could offer: the sort of quiet support people never quite realized was there. The kind of favors they never even knew about. That was just how he did things.

The knot inside Lloyd's gut loosened a little more, enough he thought he might be able to eat now. Maybe. He wasn't really feeling hungry yet, which was odd for him, but maybe not surprising if his body was still in shock from last night. He decided to leave the muffin and the... whatever the small, wrapped package was, in the pocket of his jacket. He could eat them when they got off.

"Thanks," he said solemnly, meaning every bit of it.

With that deal with as much as it could be, his eyes drifted to the passing scenery. "So, this place we're going. Have you ever been to it?"

Edited 2013-04-15 15:29 (UTC)

"Sure," Kyousuke responded, though he ended up shrugging off the thank dismissively. Not that he didn't think it mattered—quite the opposite—but they could save all that for if... when he actually accomplished something.

He glanced back to the window, at the trees and the mountain terrain. "Not yet," he responded. "I wasn't expecting them to let us out." But then, by the looks of things, they didn't have much of anywhere to run. "I guess they're not too worried about it."

Even though the terrain looked inhospitable even in the light of day, that didn't keep Lloyd's thoughts from drifting to the possibility of making an escape. He'd traveled through what he was sure was worse territory, even adding in the monster he, Flora, and Lee had run into the night they'd tried to break out. The only reason he'd had better luck in Gaoracchia Forest, he felt, was the fact that he'd been in a larger group and they'd all been fairly well armed.

"If they're not worried about it, maybe this would be our best chance." The biggest problem with that plan, though, was the fact that he'd be abandoning both his Exsphere and his Key Crest, and who knew if he'd find anything that he could replace them with? He bit his lip, indecisive. "Maybe we can get someone in the town to help."

That wasn't quite what Kyousuke meant when he said they probably worried. It was less that they weren't concerned about the risks, and more that there were no risks for them to begin with.

"They can pull us to and from worlds as they please," he pointed out bitterly, still sore from getting so close to home, only to find his way back here. What was wandering around in the middle of nowhere, only miles away and with no sense of direction, compared to that? "And even if we talk to someone, they'll just think we're insane."

That was reality, and they didn't have a way to fight off those problems. Of course, that didn't mean he was resigning himself to it. There wasn't a chance he was giving into this place. "... I heard there's some kind of device on the third floor that limits our abilities. If we break that, we might be strong enough to fix the rest." Either way, running away didn't seem like much of a solution.

"Even if they can do something like that, nobody's perfect. We have to at least try things, even if they might not work. There's always the chance that they will." Conviction filled his words, but it felt more rote than firmly rooted. It was hard to feel strongly about even his own plan when he was already doubting if he shouldn't plan something else. Still, the point needed to be made. They couldn't give up just because it didn't seem like it would work, no matter what it was they did.

But this talk of a device that was limiting their powers... Lloyd's interest stirred, and he quickly glanced around to make sure none of the nurses were listening before leaning closer to Tsurugi. "I'm pretty good at busting things up. Did you hear anything about where on the third floor it is? Or anything about what it looks like?" Maybe they could just break anything that looked like... well, like a machine.

...that could be an awful lot of things.

Well, he couldn't argue with that. It wasn't the most logical way of doing things, but sometimes persistence and relentless were the only things that could find a way through. Kyousuke had been down that particular road more times than he could count. He made noise bordering between a snort and a laugh, and just left things at that.

As for the device... "Sorry, I don't know anything. Apparently, the entrance to that floor is hidden, too." That wasn't the biggest problem in the world; someone had to know something. Even if it wasn't complete, they might be able to fit the rest together. "If we can find our way there, a lot of the rooms around the institute are labeled, but if not—" he smirked "—I'm pretty good at busting things up too. We could always go redecorating." What did they have to lose, really? Even if it didn't work, it'd relieve stress, if nothing else.

"Damn." Lloyd muttered the expletive, but the feeling behind it was halfhearted at best. He couldn't say he was surprised that Tsurugi didn't know much. If people knew where that device was, they probably would have already busted it up.

He couldn't help but offer Tsurugi a crooked smile, though, a shared moment of camaraderie between two teenage boys. "If it comes to that, what do you say? Wanna team up to go break some things?"

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Day 70: Bus 3

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