damned_institute | Day 27: Library

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Day 27: Library

Libraries, he'd found, were rarely as dull as people made them out to be. Though he felt no magic in these tomes, they were still full of useful information. Maybe some of them could tell him a little bit more about this world he'd landed himself in.

For that matter, why hadn't he run into any of the others yet? They'd all been fairly close together when they'd left Rekord, but he hadn't seen a trace of any of them. He was able to communicate easily with the people here though, which led him to believe Mokona was within a mile or so. Unless the ones running this little game had some other way to let all these other-worldly people communicate amongst themselves. In which case, the others could be very far away indeed.

The library had that wonderful smell of old books, and Fai traced his fingers along the shelves, skimming titles and pulling books that struck his fancy. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The War of the Worlds, and with a smile, he found Bram Stoker's Dracula as well. Raven had been telling the truth then, in spite of his own lies. Ought to be a good start. He sat leisurely at one of the tables and began flipping through his selections.

[waiting for Tamaki~]

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The nurse deposited Byakuya in the library, insisting that a good book would settle his mind. Rather than enter into a petty argument on whether or not said mind needed settling, he allowed himself to be led; after all, information needed to be gathered. The initial shock of the woman's claim had worn off, leaving him with a feeling that she had not told him the whole truth... or, perhaps, any of it.

A familiar sight greeted him, though, such that he was almost grateful to the irritating woman: Renji. His lieutenant was here, as well; not good news, in the grand scheme, but he would at least be able to pump the younger shinigami for information.

Wasting no time, he strode over to where the tattooed man was seated, and said, simply, "Renji."

Spending a night in bed would be nice, but Sora knew that he usually couldn't afford to do that. There was always something that had to be done, and he would feel too guilty if he stayed safe while everyone else was out risking their lives. It was good to know that Renji was better, though, even if he didn't ever get to find out what had been wrong in the first place. It stung a little that he couldn't be trusted with the information, but he wasn't going to get hung up on it.

"You weren't--" But Sora couldn't echo back what Renji had said. His mother had taught him not to say things like that. "It's okay," he assured the man.

Before he could start more of a conversation, though, someone had come over to join them, and he seemed to want to talk with Renji. That was normal, though - from what Sora had gathered, Renji was pretty popular. For the moment, he would wait and see what came of this.

Kairi went rigid in Renji’s lap when he spoke about not only Rukia, but the fact that he had spent the rest of the night sleeping. Hadn’t he said he was tired before? Turning her head as far as it could so it was out of Renji’s line of vision, Kairi lifted her hand to cover her face as if she were scratching at her nose.

Suddenly, another man entered the room and made his way towards the little group. Kairi blinked in surprise when the man called Renji’s name, and all at once hopped off of her friend’s lap, as if she expected him to get up and go and talk to this newcomer.

Moving to sit back in her new seat, Kairi couldn’t help but feel as if a weird air had settled into the room. Something was up with this man, and she just couldn’t put it. Perhaps it was the fact he seemed so … regal even without speaking?

Renji opened his mouth to continue speaking to Sora - he wanted to make sure he felt up to helping out if Hitsugaya decided to let him have Sora - when a man walked up. For a moment, even after he spoke, Renji stared at him uncomprehendingly. He looked familiar, and sounded familiar, and, well, if Byakuya had a twin on some other world, that would be it, but no it wasn't possible, Byakuya couldn't possibly be so undignified as to have his hair down and be wearing a uniform with a stupid smiling face on it and life simply wasn't that cruel, considering Renji had slept with his sister the night before and...

oh

fuck

One instant Renji was sitting, the next he was on his feet as if there had been no movement between the two. "Sir!" It came out too loud, and his voice actually cracked when he said it. Without even thinking about it, he bowed, lower than he'd bowed to anyone in his life, then straightened. "Sir, I didn't--" WHAT THE HELL AM I SAYING? "Sir!"

Hm. He'd expected surprise, of course; it would be a lie to say Byakuya, himself, wasn't surprised at his displacement. However... such a violent reaction? There was something else going on. Guilt, likely as not... however, for the moment, determining the source of that guilt would have to be put on the back burner. There was the more important matter of information to be discussed first; Byakuya despised being left in the dark.

"Renji," he repeated, "I must conclude your mission ended before it began, given your presence here. Have you, at least, been able to reconnoiter this supposed hospital?"

Through all this, he paid no heed to the two onlooking children; however, the fact that one of them had just previously been on his lap did not escape the captain's notice. Hardly appropriate, given the fact that the girl was obviously not his child, and clearly too young to be any sort of partner... however, that too was less important than his question.

... What had just happened?

Renji had gone from sitting to standing faster than Sora had thought possible, and now he was acting in a way he had never seen him act before. It was obvious that this stranger was somehow above him in rank or something like that, but Renji almost seemed scared of him! That just didn't seem to compute in Sora's head.

He watched the two for a moment before shuffling over to where Kairi had moved. He knew better than to get involved in this until he knew what was happening, so he would confer with his friend for now.

"What do you think this is all about?" he whispered, attempting to steal discreet glances back at Renji and the other man.

“I don’t know …” Kairi whispered to Sora once her friend moved towards her, her eyes straying to look from Renji to the new man that had moved towards them. Renji looked like something was wrong; the way he was moving and speaking made her worried. What was wrong? And who was this frightening man?

In an attempt to give the two men more privacy, Kairi reached out and grabbed onto Sora’s arm and proceeded to drag him a few feet away from Renji and his supposed friend as so they could have some space.

After they were a few feet away, Kairi turned and snuck a quick peek at Renji once again before turning back to look at Sora with curious eyes. “Isn’t he kind of frightening?”

What are you doing? Come on, say something. NO NOT THAT. Something else!

"I didn't--" he said again, then cleared his throat. "I didn't expect to see you here." Yeah, that's what I meant. Really. He frowned, doing his best to just concentrate on Byakuya's words, and the immediate problem, and not think about Rukia, especially not naked and oh fuck-- "Mission?"

He glanced at Sora and Kairi. They'd backed away, and he certainly didn't blame them. He wished that he could back away. "I've been here for over a week. We have learned some useful things and I would be happy to report. Hitsugaya-taichou, Matsumoto-fukotaichou, Hinamori-fukotaichou, and Ru-- your sister are here. As are Kurosaki and Urahara Kisuke. And Ichimaru Gin."

[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/212694.html?thread=15144150).]

Rukia approached hesitantly; she had no idea what to say or do, but her feet were carrying her in the direction of Renji and her brother all the same. She glanced at Kairi and Sora a few feet away, but her expression was blank with shock. It just didn't seem possible that Kuchiki Byakuya could be here. That seemed to be the most coherent thought she was capable of for the time being.

She stopped a respectful distance from the Captain of the Sixth Division and his Vice Captain. Old habits were hard to shake, it seemed. Aside from the whisper of her feet on the floor as she had approached, she was silent.

Before she had come to Landels, Rukia's relationship with her brother had changed somewhat. She had no idea 'when' he was from, though, and he still inspired a sense of apprehension mixed with adoration in her. So as always, she would wait until he recognized her presence before speaking.

A look of irritation crossed his face; his lieutenant was not the brightest of men, but it was simply unthinkable that he had forgotten his mission already. "To Hueco Mundo. For the purpose of rescuing Inoue Orihime." Though it came out levelly, there was a nearly-imperceptible edge to his tone; he had not the time for nonsense.

A week? Impossible. He'd last seen Renji less than 24 hours ago. True, time dilation could occur when crossing realms... however, not when using a Senkaimon. There was no time spent in the world between, no time for your personal version of reality to be altered.

A familiar Reiatsu signature approached him from behind, then, just as Renji mentioned his sister; in a manner slightly less dignified than his norm, Byakuya whirled around, looking at the aforementioned sister in disbelief. "Rukia?!" he said, his voice low, but clearly surprised. Both of them?

While Sora couldn't quite pinpoint what it was, he definitely knew what Kairi was talking about. There was something about the man who was talking to Renji that made him feel a little on edge. It was obviously affecting Renji a lot more than it was them, but that was probably because he actually knew who the man was.

"Yeah, a little," he whispered back. After all, he didn't want to act like he was too scared. It was more confusion than anything else, really!

But then Rukia came up, and she seemed to surprise the stranger as much as the stranger had surprised Renji. It seemed like all of them were related in some way or another, but for the moment, he got the feeling that they should just keep watching.

When Rukia approached, Kairi’s gaze shifted from the new man, to Renji, to Rukia, then back to Renji and back to Rukia once more. All at once Kairi spun around so her back was facing them, and she paid total and complete attention to Sora. Though, the man knew who Rukia was? He sounded rather startled to see her in such a place, too. Who was he?

Quickly trying to think up something else to talk about, Kairi tilted her head to the side and looked up at Sora with curious eyes. “So … uh, how’re you?”

A part of her really wanted to know what was going on behind her, but the other part of her wanted to give the new group some privacy. It was only fair, right?

"It's more complicated than that," Renji said. He looked at Rukia, , one hand twitching slightly as he fought the urge to reach out to her.

Byakuya had mentioned Hueco Mundo; the only reason he wasn't completely lost by that was because Rukia had explained things to him. So that was in his future, and he understood that. To him, though, the last time he had seen Byakuya was... when his Captain had left him for dead, had gone to aid in Rukia's execution. Intellectually, he knew that things had changed, had been resolved. But it didn't feel like that.

The nervous color that had come to his face with his Captain's appearence slowly drained away, leaving him pale. His jaw set as he thought on those last few moments, on everything that he had felt about Byakuya and his entire fucking family. And suddenly, he really just wanted to break the man's nose, and worse.

"I," he repeated, his voice dropping to a quiet tone that signalled his temper was about to completely unravel, "Have been here over a week. Sir. None of this situation is as it appears. I'll be happy to report." Without noticing, he edged a step toward Rukia as he spoke, though he kept his posture relaxed.

Just back the hell away from her.

Rukia's eyes widened ever so slightly when Byakuya turned around to look at her. It was so strange seeing him without the kenseikan in his hair, or the scarf around his neck. She felt like she must be dreaming this.

She heard the sudden change in Renji's tone of voice like a warning siren. Without thinking, Rukia crossed the remaining distance to Byakuya, placing herself between him and his vice captain. Bowing low to her brother, she said, "I'm very sorry to see you here, brother. I had hoped you were safe in Soul Society..."

She paused then, looking up at him like he had just said something very strange. "To... to rescue Orihime?" she asked quietly. That couldn't be right. Her brother and Captain Zaraki had come to bring all the shinigami back to Soul Society, and they had all been forbade, by General Captain Yamamoto himself, to interfere. What had changed? "I... may I ask what the last thing you remember, before waking up here, was?"

Rukia could feel Renji behind her, and sense the anger bubbling up inside of him. She almost wished she had been more persistent in making him understand that Byakuya had tried to make amends.

Had they... had they all forgotten? He'd essentially broken an order, and sent both his lieutenant and his sister into an excessively dangerous situation, for the benefit of a former ryoka, a human he had never even met. Was this all so forgettable? Was it all so meaningless?

"Falling asleep in my chambers. The last thing of significance, though, was seeing the two of you off through the Senkaimon, to the dwelling of Urahara Kisuke..." Was it his fault, then? The mad scientist? Had he done some sort of... experimentation on them? Granted, that was a habit more common of his successor, but... definitely believable. He would have to have a chat with the former Captain of the 12th Division.

He heard Renji in the background, fumbling through things he'd already said. He'd hear the lieutenant's report in a moment, but, first... "You are unharmed?" he asked Rukia, the mask of aloofness slipping ever-so-slightly.

"Okay," Sora responded to Kairi, though his tone made it obvious that he was distracted, as his eyes were still on Renji, Rukia, and the stranger who apparently knew them both rather well. Though as he continued to try to follow the conversation, it became less and less clear. They were discussing things about their world, which meant that he wouldn't be able to keep up.

So he turned his attention back to Kairi, and suddenly got the feeling that this was all a little too awkward. They were intruding, weren't they? Even though they had been here first, the people Renji knew from before came first.

"Think we should move away?" he asked quietly.

Something was wrong.

Kairi had turned to sneak a peek at the three behind her, moving from Rukia, to the man, then to Renji. As her gaze fell upon the redhead, she all but remembered his stance too well, or the way he was speaking in such a quiet tone. It was like that moment when he had sprung across the table in a rage and punched out Rukia’s friend. And, sadly, Renji's currently target appeared to be the newcomer.

The newcomer that gave her the creeps, no less.

Kairi had a feeling if Renji did anything like he did to Ichigo, something much worse was going to happen.

She had to think fast.

She had to draw Renji’s attention away from the man before he did something completely uncalled for, like … oh, punch him out?

Turning to Sora quickly, Kairi frowned at her friend and whispered to him, lifting her hand up to shield her mouth. “Something’s wrong with Renji. It’s like the time he punched out that guy.”

Suddenly, an idea.

A grin crossed Kairi’s lips at that time, and her eyes grew bright. “I’m about to do something that you may find odd. Just go with it, okay? Don’t worry, I’ll be pretending.”

Kairi went quiet then, her eyes shutting. When she opened them, they were filled with tears, and in one quick moment, she moved to sit against the wall as a whimper broke out of her lips. (She had gotten good at pretending to cry, and it was finally paying off!) Drawing her knees closely to her chest, she wrapped her arms around her legs and proceeded to hide her face in her arms, a sob escaping her lips. If this didn’t get Renji’s attention, she didn’t know what would.

Renji remained silent as Byakuya completely ignored him. Oh yeah, I almost forgot... my own Captain thinks I'm worthless. Rather than depress him, the thought just made him angrier. At this point, he knew that he was a good leader, he knew that he could take care of people, and he had more fucking loyalty than Byakuya and his vaunted honor could ever possibly understand...

His right hand, concealed behind Rukia, clenched into a fist as his face lost the last of its expression.

...at which point he heard Kairi.

It was like running full force into a brick wall, a complete mental turn-around. With no real threat to anyone, his absolute desire to break his Captain's nose took the back seat to his concern. He spun on his heel to look at her, then crossed the short distance and dropped to his knees next to the girl. "Kairi? What's wrong?"

Rukia couldn't help the brief look of surprise that crossed her face when Byakuya asked about her health. Her only visible wound - her bandaged right hand - was thankfully tucked behind her back. "I... I am unharmed," she stuttered. distracted by the almost palpable anger coming off of Renji behind her.

And then she heard something. Kair's voice. She was crying? Rukia turned to see the girl curled up, looking for all the world like her heart was broken. "...Kairi...?" she said, confused. but why would she be crying?? Renji was at her side in a moment, and suddenly Rukia wanted to hug her roommate. The girl had to be a genius, distracting Renji like that!

Taking another couple of steps, just to keep herself between Renji and her brother, Rukia continued, "Did you just awaken here? I've been here for about six days, Ren- Vice Captain Abarai for about eight. The other shinigami, as well as Kurosaki Ichigo and two of his friends, arrived more recently." Rukia paused, then added, quietly, "This place is very strange and terrible. I'm so sorry you were brought here, brother."

A simple nod was his only response to Rukia's (false) report on her health; Byakuya was unused to showing concern, and found it difficult to do so overtly in large amounts. He was glad to hear it, though... she had survived thusfar, and now he would ensure that she continued to do so. One failure was far more than enough.

"How is that possible?" he asked, when she reported the length of her stay. She had been gone only a day, if that... how could she have been here nearly a week? Had their memories been altered?

Byakuya took a moment to look over Rukia's head, then, at the scene behind her; the child that Renji had been so friendly was clearly upset... hm. Well, he could have a moment. "Renji," he called out, "when you have finished attending to that child, I will hear your report."

Turning back to Rukia, he nodded in agreement. "It is unfortunate that any of us are here... particularly with the war brewing. An escape must be enacted, and soon." Deep down, he appreciated the sentiment... he just couldn't bring himself to show it.

Sora did remember when Renji had punched Ichigo at lunch rather clearly, and he got the feeling that it would be very, very bad if that became a repeat incident. He suddenly started to feel tense and worried for the redhead, since he knew how his temper could run away with him and--

It seemed that Kairi had things under control. He wasn't certain what she had in mind at first, but he trusted her. He would play along, if that would stop this situation from turning into a disaster.

So when she seated herself and started crying, he had to pause for a moment before realizing what was going on. She could do that on command? For a moment he had to wonder if he had been prey to the same trick, but he needed to focus on acting his part, as well.

He headed over to his friend at around the same time that Renji did, kneeling down to put a hand on her shoulder. "I don't know what happened," he told Renji, looking quite confused and upset himself, since that would probably help distract the man further. "Maybe it was something I said? But, she just started crying..." He even got his voice to crack a few times! While he felt kind of bad for stringing Renji along like this, it was kind of fun at the same time.

Oh, Sora! She was just so proud. Note to self, Kairi thought to herself when Renji and Sora moved to her side, Give Sora a huge hug.

Lifting her head to look at Renji, the once Princess sniffled and moved to wipe at her eyes, opening her mouth to speak. “I-I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. It’s just … I know you didn’t mean it Sora, but I … I …” At that moment, the mysterious man told Renji that he would need some kind of status report.

Well, that just wouldn’t do!

Thinking fast, Kairi launched herself at Renji, throwing her arms around him in a tight hug as she sobbed. Looking over her friend’s shoulder, she looked at Sora with an intense gaze, and then simply winked at him before she went back to crying. She only hoped Renji would understand what they were doing! And she hoped that Rukia could buy them more time so Renji’s temper would at least lessen to an extent where he didn’t want to destroy the world.

Kairi also hoped Renji wouldn't try and yell at Sora for his supposed wrong doing, but if he did that she'd just cry more and cling even harder.

Well, Renji thought, at least Byakuya wasn't demanding his immediate attention. That was... unexpected, and did a little to calm his temper back down to manageable levels. Especially since he was going nowhere until he made certain that both Kairi and Sora were alright. He was about to say something - probably something dumb, knowing him, when Kairi through her arms around him.

And while Renji loved children, there weren't many to be found in Seireitei - other than Yachiru, and she didn't count - so he was unprepared for how manipulative they could be. He fell for it without even a hint of suspicion.

"It's okay, it's okay," he murmured, wrapping his arms around Kairi and gently stroking her hair with one hand. "Don't worry about it, just take some deep breaths..."

He looked at Sora, though he continued stroking Kairi's hair. "What the hell did you say to her?" he asked. He sounded bewildered rather than angry.

If she hadn't been feeling so frazzled, Rukia might have laughed at how easily Renji fell for Kairi's (and Sora's!) trick. As it was, though, she was just grateful that the kids had had the presence of mind to distract Renji. She would have to thank both of them later. Maybe she could draw them some pictures...

Keeping most of her attention focused on Byakuya, Rukia attempted to answer his question. "It... does not make any logical sense," she said, "but there are people here from different places, different times, and even different... worlds, realities. I did not believe it at first, but having been here several days, I cannot deny it." She took a deep breath, continuing, "The last thing I remember in our world was going through the portal back to Soul Society with you, Captain Zaraki, and the others. For me, about six days have passed, while for you, it seems to have been fewer."

Rukia still couldn't believe that her brother was here. It just didn't seem... right. She caught herself looking up at him for longer than was proper, and quickly cast her eyes down again. Seeing an unoccupied table nearby, she gestured to it. "Would you like to take a seat?"

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/212694.html?thread=15573974#t15573974)]

Day 27: Library

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[Renji = PWNED]

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