damned_institute | Day 27: Breakfast

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Day 27: Breakfast

Day came too soon.

Sora hadn't been able to find Rena, had instead been forced to crumple onto the grass of the recreational field and bleed all over himself, and hadn't even accomplished what he'd been sent out to do. What he'd been entrusted to do. He didn't know how he was going to be able to face Renji and the others, but he also knew he wasn't going to hide from them, either. That would just be low, after all, and he was ready to face up to the consequences.

He didn't try to make excuses for himself. Even though there had been a Special Counseling patient, they had managed to take her down by sheer numbers. The fact that he hadn't seen any sign of Rena was what had him the most worried. He hoped he could find her today.

The boy laid in his bed for a good while that morning before his nurse finally came in to collect him. She clucked over the bandages wrapped tightly around his chest and leg, and asked him if he was okay to walk.

Once Sora assured her he was fine (he didn't really want to use crutches, as that would just attract attention to himself, and he didn't need others worrying over him), they made their way to the cafeteria. Sora yawned and winced against the bright light of morning - it seemed even earlier than usual, and he realized why when they entered the cafeteria and found it empty.

The boy shuffled over to grab a chocolate chip pancake, a bowl of cereal, and a glass of milk (good for the bones, or so his mom had always told him) before settling at a table. He kept an eye on the door, hoping he would see Rena walking in soon.

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Schuldig chuckled. "No need to be too wary, Hitsugaya. Actually, both of these favors benefit Renji, and there can't be too much wrong with that, can there?" He paused briefly to take a bite of his pancakes, which were almost swimming in a pool of syrup. Sugar was important. "In fact, the first is something you might've been inclined to do anyway, whether I asked or not. When Renji goes back to meet with Muraki, I want their session interrupted. I was trying to think of some way to manage it myself, but I expect it'd be easier with help - and you've got connections to any number of people who'd like to help Renji, don't you? I'm sure with all of us working on the problem we can figure out some way to manage it.

"As to the second..." Schuldig took another bite of pancake. "Your investigation into Muraki? Drop it. If you already know he's dangerous and you're going to warn people away from him, then you don't need to know any more than that anyway, really. So just leave it alone."

[skipping with permission]

Hitsugaya pondered Schuldig's words. Was he the man who had made the cryptic conversation with Renji on the boards yesterday, the conversation which the vice captain had torn down moments later? Being a telepath, he likely knew what was going on with Renji.

Hitsugaya didn't like giving up a case, not when there was clear evidence of foul play, and especially not when he didn't know how deep the problem went, or if there was anything he could use in the situation that might help them tear down the facilities.

"Then you know what the problem is. You're a telepath, and I'm guessing you know what's going on. I'll agree to your requests on the following conditions."

He paused briefly. "First, you assure me me that this incident will no longer affect my vice captain's ability to do his duty, or if there are any obstacles, you inform me in private of what those might be. And second, if anything comes up in this situation with Muraki or the other doctors that might directly affect myself or anyone under me, you let me know immediately so that I can address it."

He didn't like compromise, but Schuldig wasn't one of his soldiers. Sometimes agreements had to be made. Farfarello had indicated they were mercenaries. Likely Schuldig could be trusted so long as he was getting something out of the deal.

Which begged the question: What was Schuldig getting out of this?

"I can't promise anything about Renji's actions." Schuldig shrugged. "How can I be held accountable for what he does, or how he reacts? All I can do is tell you what he's thinking, should the mood strike me. But I don't mind keeping you more or less informed about the doctors...but it's all going to be secondhand. The minds of the doctors are blocked off to me, somehow, as with all the staff. I won't know anything about what they're up to that a patient whose mind is accessible doesn't."

[skip skip skipping again!]

"But if something comes up in his thoughts that might impede his work, or put the life of those under him in danger, I want to know," Hitsugaya clarified. " Otherwise, we have a deal."

It was ultimately the reason why he wanted to continue the investigation. If Schuldig could tell Hitsugaya if and when there was an issue relating to this mysterious incident, then he could drop the case.

"I'll tell you what I can. Some things are off-limits even to me." This was part truth, part lie; yes, there were thoughts Schuldig couldn't reach, or that were too well-defended to be worth the effort of reaching. However, what had happened to Renji - which was the crux of the current matter - didn't fall in that category; the telepath simply was choosing not to divulge it to anyone of his own volition. Of course, there was no reason he had to tell anyone that...

"Deal." That had gone remarkably well, as dealings with Schuldig went. Of course, that he'd actually had someone's best interests - or at least their best interests as he perceived them - in mind for a change probably helped. Still, there were some matters even Schuldig found too grave to toy with - remarkably few, but they did exist.

Some part of Homura was disappointed by how easily the agreement had been reached, but that was often the nature of such things. Once the two seemed satisfied, he spoke up, looking curiously at the telepath who joined them.

"And just what is your benefit in all of this?" If Hitsugaya wouldn't ask it, Homura certainly would. "From what I've seen, you don't strike me as one of those who would just do someone a good deed."

Hitsugaya had wondered that himself, but didn't feel it worth mentioning. The telepath had known the thought came into his mind. He was starting to recognize that if he wanted to answer something the captain was wondering, he would have.

Besides, this meant there were now other things he could focus on, like River's investigation into the man she could only assume was Ichimaru. Why did Renji ask her to do that? It wasn't that he was angry with the vice captain for his decision, so much as simply perplexed. Ichimaru had betrayed them all, had stood idly by while Renji's closest friend was scheduled for execution over a crime she did not commit when he knew fully well that she was innocent.

And then there was Momo. Glancing back over to the table where she sat, some pretty-faced man with a definite noble air about him had sat down to talk to her. What does he want? he absently wondered, then shook off the thought and turned his attention back to the conversation at his own table.

"Given how often people wish for me to be less of a bastard, I see no reason I should have to justify any good deeds I feel like doing," Schuldig replied, casually and deliberately avoiding answering the question. "Whether or not I get anything out of it, I don't think I have to explain myself to anyone, especially when my terms have already been agreed to. In fact, I might counter with the question as to why my motivations interest you."

"Motivations always tend to interest me." Homura glanced at Hitsugaya, thinking of the way the boy hadn't cared about Gin's reasons earlier. The choice was rather stupid in Homura's mind. "The best of deeds could be nothing more than a knife in the back, part of a greater scheme. I think it was rather foolish of the Taicho to agree to your terms without finding out the whys behind them."

Nothing less than honest. Homura smirked, and relaxed back in his chair. "But the young do tend to be rather rash, don't they?"

Perhaps Hitsugaya simply hadn't learned from the betrayal he spoke so passionately about. Homura knew that lesson so very well, had been shown by Heaven time and time again the darker side to each blessing and each reward. It was why he didn't trust so easily; every gift had it's price.

Hitsugaya would learn.

Hitsugaya glanced back at Homura, masking his distaste for the other man as best he could. A simple agreement over what had ultimately become a trivial matter was neither rash nor foolish. Giving up the minutiae of an investigation in favor of making sure his Vice Captain could still do his job and get them out of this damn place? It was practical.

Choosing to ignore Homura's insults for the time, he glanced back at Schuldig. "Renji's next doctor's visit isn't for a few days at least," he said calmly. "We have time to plan. Did you have anything in mind?"

"Even if I answered, I could always lie. I don't see how pursuing the matter could assure him of my intentions anyway." Schuldig took another bite of pancake; Homura was going to be a problem, he could see that right now. An interesting problem, granted...but this was one subject where even he didn't want to examine his motivations too closely.

In response to Hitsugaya's question, he shrugged. "Nothing beyond the painfully basic, such as making a request of a nurse to see Muraki personally so that their session is interrupted. But that could easily not work if the request is refused, and I can't say that even if it did work I'd be eager to take personal responsibility for interfering; Muraki is unscrupulous enough that if I deliberately caused problems for him, he might make a point of giving me enough problems of my own to deal with that I wouldn't have the time or inclination to bother him again. And for it to be truly effective, the nurse or doctor who interrupted Muraki would have to catch him in the act of doing something clearly outside acceptable therapy methods." He chuckled. "Which does mean risking Renji to some degree for the chance to get rid of Muraki, although it's a situation he's going to be forced into regardless. But this admittedly lackluster plan was made based on the assumption that I'd be working alone." The telepath glanced up at Hitsugaya. "But you've got connections with any number of people who trust you and who'd happily come to Renji's assistance. Probably we can come up with something better with more people at our disposal."

Homura only shook his head in reply; Schuldig's continued evasion should has sparked Hitsugaya's interest, should have made him realize that the man before them didn't want to reveal his intentions. But Hitsugaya was a child, and stubborn children only learned their lessons in a single way.

Through experience.

Which is why he let the matter of motivations drop, and took a calm sip of his water before adding in his own two cents. "Create an emergency. Set the building on fire." No, the demi-god didn't really care about Renji (though all this talk was making him curious as to just what had happened), but he did have to keep the Arts and Crafts group guessing about him. "If it's large enough and close to the doctor's offices, they'll have to evacuate them, correct? Which means they would enter without knocking or without warning."

Schuldig's evasion hadn't gone entirely unnoticed by the young captain, but the fact of the matter was that Hitsugaya wanted to keep Renji from meeting Muraki as well. It was a difficult thing to say no to an offer where the payment was just as desired as the payoff. Keeping order in his army was his primary goal, and if this could keep it, then it was all for the better.

"Another option would be to start a commotion when the nurses come to pick up Abarai-fukutaicho," he added. "In the resulting confusion, he could escape. The only two issues I can see is first finding people willing to risk sedation, and second convincing him to do it. Neither he nor I have any particular love of stealth or trickery. On another point, we can keep your idea as a backup plan if our primary plan fails, because it does have some merit."

He paused, thinking further on this. "I'm meeting with Abarai-fukutaicho next shift. He may have other ideas as well." Besides, Renji's complicity in this case would increase the likelihood of success. If he didn't know it was coming, he wouldn't be able to take advantage of an opportunity to escape should one arise.

The big question then remained: how to approach his Vice Captain on the matter?

"I don't know how escape will help," Schuldig replied dubiously. "Unless you mean escape the institute entirely, which would be all but impossible to pull off during the day. If he ran away, he could just as easily be dragged back, and probably sedated for his trouble - assuming he was willing to run away at all. He's rather stubborn and prideful, and it's all the more important to him that he holds onto that in the face of Muraki. Anyway, escape would only be a temporary solution at best - he'd still be at risk the next time his therapy session came up, and the therapy session he missed might even be rescheduled rather than simply skipped over so it might not even buy him more than a few hours' respite. Either we need to get Renji transferred to another doctor somehow - not much of a solution, as it'd save Renji but leave the rest of Muraki's patients open to whatever he might choose to do to them, would probably just encourage him to turn his attention to someone else - or we find a way to get rid of Muraki for good. The one good aspect of my plan is that, assuming it worked exactly as meant, it could get Muraki fired...the problem is that it's not a reliable plan as it is."

Apparently, neither of the men gave a damn about what Homura had said, which did not please the war god. Outside of Heaven, he wasn't used to being ignored, and it irritated him.

Especially when he was trying to help.

Obviously, these two were going to go about whatever they willed without regard for anything Homura might have to input. His expression darkened, and the demi-god found himself tempted to leave entirely.

He hated wasting his time.

Hitsugaya was about to answer Schuldig when he noticed Homura's face darkening. What the hell was he getting grumpy about? Maybe he was upset that Schuldig batted down both of their ideas. Maybe he just wanted to be the center of attention.

"Is there a problem?" he asked.

Schuldig turned to Homura and grinned. "I wasn't ignoring you," he informed the god, going so far as to pat him on the shoulder. He'd never been good with religion; probably Farfarello's fault. "But Renji ducking his therapy during a fire alarm is no less temporary than his running away. And if it were a matter of trying to get to Muraki himself during the commotion..." He bit his bottom lip speculatively. "I'm not even sure that would work. For one thing, if this place has a sprinkler system, a fire alarm wouldn't even last very long; for another, I don't know how good our chances would be against him. Martin Landel actually had some sort of barrier around him; there's no way of knowing whether the other doctors in this place are extended the same sort of protection. Add to that he's probably still got his powers while we've all been weakened and the unknown quantity that would be the consequences to us assuming we succeeded, and I think we'd be better off with a more subtle plan."

Homura controlled the urge to brush the hand away as Schuldig patted him, almost like an older man to a child. It wasn't a matter of being the center of attention as Hitsugaya might have thought. It was a matter of being respected, something Homura didn't necessarily realize was such an issue, but likely would if he had thought about it. He'd long hated the treatment of the heresies by Heaven, and he was far too proud to be treated the same way here.

Even if they had no such intention.

"Sprinkler system?" Such a thing wasn't heard of in Homura's world. "I hadn't heard of the shielding. I only meant it as a distraction so the staff might be able to discover just what he's doing to his patients."

Shaking his head, he looked to Hitsugaya. "Regardless, I didn't make this appointment to discuss Abarai's situation. You said yourself that you're meeting with him this coming shift. We were talking about Ichimaru Gin beforehand."

And not getting anywhere, but hopefully that would change.

Hitsugaya nodded. Fair was fair. While he didn't like Homura, the man had tried to help. Even that deserved some modicum of respect.

Besides, his true grouchiness was reserved for those he liked.

"Understood," Hitsugaya said, glancing back to Schuldig. "We have some time. I will work with some of my team and see what we can come up with. You do the same, and let me know if something comes up."

Again Homura brought up Ichimaru. He really didn't want to talk about the ex-captain. He didn't like the ex-captain, and there were definitely other things to consider. Like the bastard who was making Momo uncomfortable in the table not far off. It didn't take a mind-reader to realize that whatever her friend had said was making her uncomfortable. For the moment, he resisted his urge to get up and yell at the man.

Hopefully he'd get smart and leave on his own.

In any case, Homura had brought up a query. "Sorry," he muttered regarding his brief distraction. "What more did you want to ask about?"

Gin Ichimaru... (Schuldig never had gotten into the more Japanese habit of ordering the names backwards. Too much time in Germany, and around Crawford and Farfarello. That, and he didn't give a damn about doing things properly, particularly if he could annoy people.) The telepath had been interested in the man for quite awhile, if only because he'd long suspected their personalities were highly compatible - or at least highly similar, as similarity didn't necessarily mean they'd get along at all. Quite possibly they were so much alike they wouldn't be able to tolerate each other, but Schuldig was more than intrigued enough to want to at least give it a try.

In any case, it looked like it was his turn to take a back seat in the conversation. Normally he would have gotten bored within a matter of instants being part of a conversation where he wasn't a focal point of the proceedings, but as the subject was something he was personally interested in, he was willing to tolerate it for the moment. And, in the downtime, he could always keep a mental eye on Farfarello.

Any day where Farfarello made a sex joke involving unicorns was a red letter day to say the very least.

Back on topic. Homura considered everything that had been discussed between himself and Ichimaru at lunch the day before, along with what little he had gotten from Hitsugaya. A traitor, though Homura wouldn't hold that against the man, and someone who inspired a great deal of rage in the tiny Captain.

The question the demi-god faced, of course, was how useful the man could be to him.

"Would you be willing to tell me more about his betrayal?" Homura didn't bother keeping what he knew a secret from Schuldig. The man was a telepath, and that meant he already knew. "You said you don't care about his reasons, but certainly you're familiar with his actions. What happened?"

Hopefully Hitsugaya would be more willing to talk. Homura didn't want to have to waste a question by asking Gin for details, or offer a favor to Schuldig for a peek into Hitsugaya's thoughts.

His betrayal. Because that was a topic he wanted to go into detail over. Still, if he didn't get the details from the captain, he'd get them elsewhere...possibly from Gin.

"Ichimaru wasn't the leader," Hitsugaya admitted. "He worked with another Captain...Captain Aizen, who I believe I mentioned. Ichimaru Gin worked with Aizen to murder the central government of my organization. Aizen then faked his death, tried to have me blamed, and meanwhile arranged for the execution of an innocent soldier. In the end she was rescued, but Aizen managed to procure a weapon that had been hidden inside her and escaped thanks to the aid of our greatest enemy, a race of spirits known as hollows. Ichimaru and several others escaped with him."

He didn't mention that Ichimaru attacked Momo, which was one of the major points of his own hate, but that didn't seem like a point that would interest Homura.

"Ichimaru is loyal to Aizen. Aizen almost killed..." he paused for a moment to catch the lump in his throat. "He almost killed his own vice captain because she wasn't of any more use to him. I wouldn't put it past Ichimaru to do the same."

Maybe that would be enough to get Homura off his case about Ichimaru. "Anything else?"

[Skipping with permission]

Homura listened with a great deal of interest, the scenario sounding quite similar to his own efforts indeed. Though not the same, as the demi-god never tried to throw the suspicion onto anyone else; doing that would have raised suspicion in his own case. And he had never considered killing someone simply because their usefulness ended.

But to remove a weapon from an innocent, that Homura had done. Twice in fact, though Sanzo had no memory of it. Nor did Goku, the power of the Earth in flesh.

Not even a week ago.

It made Homura all the more curious about Gin's reasons, and those of this Aizen, but Hitsugaya had already made it clear he didn't care. Likely for whatever reason made him pause as he spoke of the vice captain who had nearly died as well. Something very personal, given the hesitation where the Captain was normally very stubborn.

"One thing." Homura looked towards Gin, then back to Hitsugaya with a smirk. "What would you do if he asked to join your group here?"

Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow. If nothing else, Homura's comment confirmed his suspicions. "I think he's going to have to have a damn good reason why I should listen to him," he answered. Really, there was nothing else to say. His gut reaction was to outright deny Gin the chance to betray them again, but when both Renji and Matsumoto wanted the young captain to consider it, and when they sent someone whom he could only guess had some measure of telepathic skill like Schuldig who then reported he could be trusted, they deserved a chance to make their case known.

Still, he didn't like it.

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Day 27: Breakfast

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