damned_institute | Day 27: Sun Room (4th Shift)

Momo's mind was turning over all the possibilities surrounding this "field trip" to the surrounding town when she settled down in the corner of the Sun Room away from the Arts & Crafts room. She curled her legs underneath her as she waited for Shouko-san to find her. The shinigami had no idea what she looked like, so she kept an eye on all those entering the room.

It was still very cold, or at least she was cold, and the momentary thought of getting her coat from her own room passed through her mind amidst the field trip thoughts. She pushed it away and decided to deal with it being as cold as it was since she'd already been late to one meeting today and didn't want to start making it a habit.

As she waited, she pondered the next day's possibilities. Maybe, just maybe, once away from the institute the shinigami will have access to their full reiatsu. And if not, maybe they'll have a better idea of how they are being limited so much. Maybe Aizen would be able to find her then. He'd save her... right? Right?

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As Elena sat up, Reno only slouched further against the back of the couch.

"Well, we are, but I dunno how the hell you wanna do this, 'cause things usually get kinda bloody in the training room back home. Unless you wanna convince the nurses that this is therapeutic for us."

There was really no formal training for the Turks. Yeah, Tseng had dragged him out to make him shoot a gun, but that was about it. Most of the time, so-called training meant taking on a senior Turk and quickly figuring out what you did wrong along the way in an attempt to not get your ass kicked so much. It was why all of them walked away with different combat styles.

He drummed his fingers for a moment. "How far did they go with you in the Academy?"

"Yeah," Elena nodded. "I haven't been sedated yet, and I don't intend to ruin my perfect record..." They'd have to figure out how to get around that, if they could. Especially because it didn't look like Reno was going to go easy on her.

Well, that was good. She'd learn faster if he wasn't coddling her.

"The basics," she said with a shrug. "It wasn't really my specialty, so I only did the bare minimum." Elena laughed humorlessly. "I didn't think I'd ever need it."

Surprisingly enough, Reno's record was pretty much just as perfect. He wasn't looking to change that, either, this close to the night time coming.

"Think we'd be better off leaving it till nightfall," he said. He'd had that in mind, anyway, when he'd made the suggestion. "I can't really offer you anything until I have you beat me up first to see how you fight. Although I did just find out that you can punch pretty damn hard."

He'd sparred with Elena before - especially these last couple of years since there was nothing to do anymore - but that was the older version of her.

He cocked his head, eyeing her for a moment. "You were always closer to my speed than Rude. He broke my nose a lot, but you were shorter, so you ended up splitting my lip more. I dunno. They ever get around to teaching you how to use your elbow? 'Cause given your size, I'd say that's the best that'll work for you."

"Sounds like a plan," Elena agreed. She didn't like the looks the nurses were giving them. "My nurse is already on my case about spending time with you and the President. She kept lecturing me about what bad influences you two are on me." And Elena had been too sick to tell her to shut the hell up. She laughed. "I think she thinks I'm still sweet and naive, or something."

Innocent? Maybe. Naive? Certainly not.

"Well..." she grinned wickedly. "They never taught us. That'd just be fighting dirty. But I picked up a few tricks of my own."

Reno snickered. If only they knew. "Oh, c'mon, we're totally upstanding citizens."

Hey, it wasn't like any of them had provoked any violence around here. Yet. Then again, he had no idea what the "file" here said about him. He still needed to get his hands on that.

"Lies. There's no such thing as fighting dirty." Too lazy to keep standing, Reno sat down on the armrest of the couch. "Dare I ask what kinda 'tricks,' exactly?"

Elena giggled. "I believe 'terrorist' is a better term," she replied blithely, "but the same could be applied to AVALANCHE. What's this I'm reading on the board about a joint meeting in the President's room tonight? I thought Shin-Ra didn't negotiate with terrorists." Once again, she was reminded of just how much things had changed in the time she was missing.

So AVALANCHE had saved the world, huh? It made sense. In its own, retarded way, it made sense.

"Punch women in the chest, men get a kick between the legs. Pressure point to the back of the neck makes 'em really sleepy. It's pretty basic, but you'd be surprised how few people guard against them."

"Hey, we're way more tactful than terrorists. We only ever destroyed civilian property once on purpose, technically." Reno shrugged at the question. "Dunno. Saw the boss talking with Barret just at lunch, so I guess this is what they were discussing. Besides, we've kinda gone beyond negotiating. We're allying with them now."

Which he honestly didn't mind. They weren't bad people and all in all, they were pretty damn easy to predict. And not that hard to deal with.

He raised an eyebrow. "Then I think you're all set. This what you Academy girls, do? Use pressure points when one of you thinks the other stole your boyfriend or something?"

"Allying?" Elena raised an eyebrow. "Oh my. It's worse than I thought. Well, just as long as they don't put me in with Highwind, I should be fine." Otherwise...well, there was no way to tell. That Lust woman had been talking about how easy it was to castrate a man on the board earlier. If she was forced to work with that bastard, Elena might just be tempted to give it a try.

She shrugged. "I guess. I never really thought about it."

"They're a hell of a lot easier to handle than those Schwarz sonsofbitches. And I can actually stand Strife and his merry band for more than two seconds."

Mostly. He'd gotten used to them, anyway. But it was easy to forget that Elena had never really even met this version of AVALANCHE, technically. She was probably more familiar with the original group.

"Anyway." Reno flicked a stray lock of hair out of his eyes with an absent finger. "I dunno how it's gonna go down, but I'm sure we can afford to separate you from Highwind."

As long as he stayed with Rufus, he didn't give a damn about much else.

Day 27: Sun Room (4th Shift)

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