damned_institute | Day 27: Lunch

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Day 27: Lunch

Renji wasn't so certain what this grilled cheese thing was all about, but he liked the sound of some soup. Even if it was strange western soup, well... there wasn't anything bad people could do to soup, in his experience. His good mood was starting to fray at the edges, a little, from the strain of dealing with the Ichimaru issue, and even more from what had been on the bulletin board earlier.

He'd never had difficulty simply writing something before. But...

He shook his head as he entered the line. He didn't want to think about it. He wanted to hold on to the tenuous equilibrium he'd managed to find.

Renji got himself a large bowl of soup, water, and even one of those sandwiches, just to try it. Old habit, recently awakened, had him over to one side of the cafeteria, where the fewest people possible would have the chance to pass behind him. He sat there with his back toward the wall and started eating.

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"Not a supposed to thing. I'm just kinda surprised he didn't," Renji said. "I mean... not like we go announcin' it since some people get kinda weird, but..." He shrugged. "Shinigami means... uh... dunno. I guess the closest is death god. We were human at one point. We died. We became shinigami. Go into the living world and find souls that've lost their way, stuff like that." He glanced at Rukia. He could explain things, but she was normally better at it than him, anyway.

He was curious, so he propped one elbow on the table and closed his eyes. He felt sluggish, since he'd tried to heal Valyn at breakfast (fat lot of good that had done, anyway) but it came, eventually. He opened his eyes; they looked a little unfocused because he was trying so hard to look at something that wasn't really tangible.

Keman's spirit thread was green and metallic; sparks ran up and down it. He'd never seen anything quite like that before.

He blinked the sight away, then pinched his nose shut with his fingers. "Definitely not human," he said. "Haven't seen anything like that before."

"But not everyone becomes a shinigami," Rukia said, adding to Renji's explanation, "Only those of us with more, um... spiritual power can become shinigami. Like Renji said, we go to the living world to bring lost souls to Soul Society - the afterlife - or to condemn the worst, most unredeemable souls to Hell. We also fight Hollows, which are human spirits that have lost their humanity, and try to destroy the living and the dead around them. We free them, sending them to Soul Society." Rukia considered drawing something to explain, but lined notebook paper was such a poor canvas...

Rukia's eyes went wide when Keman revealed his oddly shaped ears and declared that he was, of all things, a dragon. "Really!?" she blurted. She had come to realize that anything was possible here, but... a dragon?? Glancing at Renji, she realized what he was doing; would a dragon's spirit thread look different from that of a human?

Apparently it did, and if Renji hadn't seen anything like it before... Rukia concentrated for a moment, taking a look for herself. "Wow," she murmured, wincing a little at the throbbing in her temples. She quickly let go of the image, and the normal cafeteria came into view again. Renji's nose was clearly bleeding again. Rukia sniffled, feeling a slight trickle, and held a napkin to her nose just in case.

"A dragon, huh?" she said, voice a bit nasally. "Too bad you're stuck in a human body here."

"Wow," Keman said, delighted. Whatever sort of explanation he'd been expecting, it certainly hadn't been something like that! "That's amazing!" Of course, he took everything they said at face value. Why wouldn't he? They had no reason to lie to him, and he had no reason to believe that they would.

Then, the shinigami did...something. He couldn't quite explain it, but when Renji opened his eyes again, he felt...off. Somehow...exposed. The feeling vanished as soon as Renji broke the contact to take care of his bloody nose, but reappeared, briefly, when Rukia followed suit.

"Wh-what did you just...Are you all right?" Keman leaned over the table, concerned. "You're bleeding!"

He blushed a little. "And...ah...no. I'm used to being in two-legger form. People don't usually take kindly to large, blue dragons wandering around in polite society, so I shift into this form when I'm around them. I've been in two-legger form almost constantly for nearly a year. I don't mind it." He smiled. "In fact, I rather enjoy it."

"It's a living," Renji said, but he couldn't hide the pride in his voice. He was good at his job, and he'd gone far. "There are several other shinigami here," he said. "Hitsugaya-taichou's one of them."

He waved off Keman's concern. "Did you notice?" he asked. "Sorry. Was just lookin' at your spirit thread. Looks kinda cool." He grinned, still pinching his nose shut. "Trying to use any kind of power here does this to us. It's fuckin' annoying."

"For a year?" she asked, still holding a napkin to her nose. "But why? Isn't it more... fun to be a dragon?" Thinking about it, it seemed like a childish question, but Rukia was sure that if she could have wings and sharp teeth as a dragon, she would prefer that to a human form.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but how do you and Valyn know each other?" It wasn't any of her business, but Keman seemed friendly, and would no doubt be more forthcoming than Valyn.

Her nose stopped bleeding quickly, so she balled up the napkin and set it on her tray. With one hand she started eating again, while she let the other slip beneath the table to rest tentatively on Renji's leg. It just felt like the thing to do.

Keman blinked. "Spirit thread? What's that? And what's it look like?" He felt strange for asking all these questions...but...

Well, he supposed he'd just have to answer their questions too.

The dragon smiled. "I suppose," he said, with a little laugh. "But...in our world, dragons aren't supposed to exist. We live in hiding, away from the two-leggers, and we only go out among them when we're shifted. It's too dangerous, otherwise. As for how Valyn and I know each other..." Keman trailed off and frowned. "It's a long story."

He took a deep breath and began.

"I don't know how much you know about my world, but...in it, all the humans are slaves, and the elves rule over them. However, humans and elves are cross-fertile. And halfbloods are more powerful than both races. So the elves, fearing that the halfblood would try to wrest power from them (as they nearly did in the Wizard War, before they were defeated), forbade that any be conceived. But...they still were. A pleasure slave could be accidentally fertile, or a field hand raped...you get the idea." Best to leave the unplesantries out, even if this was sounding rather like what he had told Max at breakfast. "Most of these halfblood children (and their mothers) are killed at birth or soon after. But...some escape. My sister was one of them.

"Her mother was a concubine who fled to the desert rather than face death for bearing a halfblood. My mother, a Shaman for our Lair, was out doing meditations and found this woman. She died in childbirth, but Shana survived, and Mother brought her back to raise her.

"Most of the other dragons in the Lair didn't like having a two-legger around, and as Shana grew, she got more powerful. One day, a little over a year ago now, I was being beaten by a bully, and Shana...lost control, and hurt him. Not nearly as badly as he had hurt me, of course, but it was enough. Shana was banished.

"I ran away to go after her, but it took months and months to find her. By the time I did, she had joined the other surviving halfbloods living in the forest. We met Valyn soon after.

"Valyn..." Keman frowned. "Valyn is unlike any other elven lord I've ever met. He is against slavery, and actually recognizes humans as people and not livestock. This was probably due, in part, to Shadow. Shadow is Valyn's cousin, and a halfblood. Valyn managed to use his influence to hide Shadow for as long as he could, but right as they were about to be discovered, they fled, and then they found us in the forest. One...one thing lead to another, and the four of us (Valyn, Shadow, Shana, and myself) sort of...inadvertently started a war...?"

Renji listened to Keman's story; it was pretty much what Valyn had told him days ago, though with some new details filled in. He let go of his nose and sniffed experimentally; it seemed okay.

"A spirit thread's... kind of a way to look at your soul," he said. He decided not to mention the fact that it allowed him to track people as well. That, they were keeping mostly quiet. He grinned. "So I guess that's what a dragon soul looks like. Because it sure didn't look like a human's thread."

He'd already been resting one arm along the edge of the table, the one he hadn't been pinching his nose with. After a moment or two, he slipped it under the table so he could twine his fingers with Rukia's.

"Most people in our world don't know Shinigami exist. Because they can't see us." He shrugged. "They've trapped us in bodies here. Among other things."

Renji went back to picking at his lunch, one-handed. "Valyn's a really good kid," he said. "While I'm sorry that you and your friend are here, I'm glad he's got some people he knows, now." Maybe they'd be more of a comfort to him than Renji had managed. Valyn was hard to read.

"Normal human spirit threads look like white ribbons," she explained, "Yours is sort of shiny, and green, and I caught a glimpse of what looked like sparks coming off of it. Like Renji said, never seen anything like it."

Rukia listened to Keman's story, fascinated. It was like something out of a Western fairy tale - dragons and elves and a war against the evil tyrants - but a good deal more grim. She wondered what it had been like for Shana to grow up among the dragons, and was abruptly reminded of her own life, as a commoner in a noble family. Rukia decided that she would have to meet Shana.

"That's... amazing," she said finally, finishing her sandwich and moving on to the remainder of the soup. "And did you win the war?"

Rukia glanced sideways at Renji, giving his hand a light squeeze. Suddenly she felt like a kid again, and Renji's hand over hers made her blush, just a little.

"A way...to look at my...soul...?" Keman's eyes went wide. Was that even possible? And it was green?

"Well..." he said with a crooked smile. "At least it's unique!" He liked being unique. All of the two-leggers looked so similar! It was nice to know that there was something that set him apart.

"I know how you feel, about being stuck in a body," the dragon said, frowning. "I don't know how this place is doing it, but it's completely sealed off my ability to shift back to my natural form. So...I'm stuck too."

He watched Rukia react to his story with a funny little smile on his face. It surprised (and amused, just a little) him that people were so fascinated with it. He hadn't had time, while everything was happening, to reflect on it, but now that he was so far removed from the events...

"I guess," he shrugged. "That's just how it happened."

As for winning the war? Keman sighed. "I've been wondering that myself. I think we did, but I was taken before it all really sank in. Valyn died, and then--"

He froze. "Oh know. I've said something I shouldn't have again. P-please, disregard that last bit." If Valyn found out that he'd been spreading rumors about his apparent demise, he'd probably get upset.

The dragon smiled at Renji, still rather pink from his slip-up. "He's very kind. And...for what it's worth, it isn't just me anymore." He pointed to a red-haired girl sitting a few tables away, holding a rather one-sided conversation with Valyn. His poor hand. "My sister arrived during the last shift."

Renji nodded. "We're used to being able to walk through walls. And flash step. And..." ...pretty much destroy anything they wanted with minimal effort. He shook his head. "It's... weird."

He was unperturbed by Keman's slip, such as it was. As far as he was concerned, Valyn was quite obviously alive, and that was what counted. "Did he actually die? I mean, do you know for certain?" He shrugged. "Not that it matters. He is obviously alive here. His soul is strongly connected to his body. Don't worry."

Renji looked at the girl Keman pointed at, making a mental note of her face. "I see," he said. "I am sorry." It seemed the best thing, any more, to offer condolences when someone's friends showed up.

Under the table, he squeezed Rukia's hand, moving his thumb lightly against hers.

"Have you decided what you will do tonight?" he asked Keman.

She smiled at Keman. "Yes, very unique. Unless the spirit threads of all dragons look like that!"

Frowning in concern, Rukia hoped that Renji was right, and Valyn hadn't died back in his own world. "Yeah," she said, "Maybe it was just a close call." She looked up at Renji, adding, "We've had plenty of those."

Rukia looked at the girl Keman pointed out. For some reason, she had taken it for granted that Keman's sister (obviously not by blood, but no matter) would be here. Perhaps it had been the way he talked about her, or perhaps Rukia was simply getting used to more and more people coming here. It was not a heartening thought.

Reaching for her glass of juice, Rukia edged a little closer to Renji. Despite all their worries, his presence was reassuring. She kept her attention focused on Keman, though; hopefully he would stay with friends during the night.

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Day 27: Lunch

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