damned_institute | Day 27: Library

Entry tags:

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~]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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)]

Man, Kairi was really getting into this! It seemed like something Aladdin would have done, putting on a whole act like this. Sora knew he had to be up to par if they were going to be convincing, but it was hard when he was the one who had supposedly done something wrong.

He really hoped he had never actually made Kairi cry like this.

When Renji turned to him with the question, he couldn't help but take it the wrong way. The curse made it seem more severe, even though he knew that Renji cursed pretty often. Sora's eyes widened, and it was actually pretty genuine.

"I... I don't know!" he sputtered. "We were just talking like normal and then suddenly, this happened!" Which was actually kind of true, now that he thought about it. Renji didn't know the true reasoning behind it, of course, but Sora was glad that he didn't completely have to twist his words around.

It looked like Rukia and the stranger were moving away, which meant they were getting closer and closer to safe territory again. That was good, since Sora didn't know how much longer he could keep this up!

This was going great. Kairi continued to sob into Renji’s shoulder, watching with careful eyes as Rukia and the mysterious man moved away. When she deemed them far enough, her watery eyes fell on Sora and she nodded once before pulling away from Renji far enough so she could look up at him with a pout. “Renji. Are you okay now?”

Releasing him with both of her arms, Kairi rubbed away her tears, looking up at the red haired man with still wet eyes. “Don’t be angry or annoyed with us …” A shuddered breath. “B-but … well, Renji, you looked like you were about to punch that man in the nose.”

Reaching out, Kairi placed her small hands on his shoulders and gave Renji her best serious face, her eyebrows furrowing as she tried to look as serious as Renji normally did.

"Just happened?" It was even more confusing. Renji knew that women were prone to randomly cry and shit, but this was a bit weird. Then again, he could rarely figure it out when he accidentally made women cry, either. "It's okay Sora, this stuff happens..."

...and then suddenly Kairi stopped crying, and talked. He let go of her like he'd been burned. "What? Wait a second."

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to decide if he wanted to go back to being angry or not. He looked from her to Sora and back. "I'll think about it." He said. Though in all honesty, he doubted that he could feel mad at them. He'd wanted to get away from Byakuya, anyway. "I-- now, wait a damn minute--" But they were right. He pretty much had wanted to punch Byakuya in the face. And he still did. And they'd been right to stop him.

He sighed, rubbing his forehead with one hand. "I don't know," he said, finally answering Kairi's first question. "I really don't."

It seemed that Kairi had chosen a good time to end it, and Sora's expression was able to return to something a little more normal, although he still looked a little concerned. Their stunt wasn't going to fix the original problem, after all--and it had probably only delayed the inevitable.

All in all, Renji seemed pretty confused about just about everything. Whether or not to be angry for what they had done, and if he was even okay. Sora could understand, though -- they had just pulled the wool over his eyes.

"Sorry we had to do that," he said with a small chuckle, pulling a hand to the back of his head. "But who is that guy?" he asked, sending a furtive glance over at the man who was now speaking quietly with Rukia. He had to be pretty important if he had inspired that kind of reaction!

Kairi’s face took on a concerned façade as Renji suddenly let her go, and she couldn’t help but feel at least a little, tiny bit bad. “Please don’t be mad at us. Or at least don’t be mad at Sora.”

Sitting there in silence in front of Renji and Sora, Kairi drew her knees close to herself once again, resting her chin on her knees as she looked in silence to Rukia and the mysterious man. That person had to be someone important, considering the air they carried around with them. Frowning to herself, the copper headed girl let out a sigh and allowed her eyes to travel back upwards to Renji.

“It’ll be okay, Renji. As long as you just … don’t get yourself hurt, hm?”

There was no reason not to explain, at least a little. If nothing else, Sora and Kairi should probably be warned to stay away from Byakuya; Renji wasn't certain how his Captain would react to any of his new friends, but he had little doubt it would be an unpleasant experience for them. The man had a way of trying to put people in the place he thought they deserved, and he didn't want to see that happening to any of his friends. No one really deserved to be made to feel like shit, like that.

He tried to think of a way to put this that wouldn't be improper. It was one of the few times he cared about propriety; it'd been ingrained in hims since he'd joined the Gotei 13.

"That's Kuchiki Byakuya," he said, "Captain of the Sixth Division. I've been following Hitsugaya-taichou here, because he's my superior, but he's from a different division. Kuchiki-taichou is my Captain." He paused there, trying to decide what else he should say. After a long moment, he added, "He's Rukia's brother. And... very important nobility." He gritted his teeth. "He--" then he realized that he probably shouldn't tell everyone about his fight with his Captain, about any of it. Thinking about it made him feel a little dizzy.

He liked to think that he wasn't scared of anyone, wasn't intimidated by anyone. But he was scared of his Captain. The fact that the last thing he remembered of him was Byakuya walking away as he bled into unconsciousness didn't help. He stared at the floor, desperately trying to keep his expression in some semblance of neutral. Again, that damn propriety, and he didn't want Kairi and Sora to know just how much fear even seeing Byakuya - especially now - put in him. He was supposed to be brave, after all, wasn't he?

If Renji was explaining, that probably meant he wasn't upset with them, right? That was what Sora was going to assume, anyway.

So that man was Renji's boss, basically? Renji had been such a leader here that it was weird to think that there was someone who ordered him around. But when he turned out to be Rukia's brother as well, Sora couldn't help but look shocked. So the three of them were all very closely related -- that explained the reaction they had had to a certain extent, at least.

Nobility... The easiest thing Sora could equate that to was the Princesses of Heart. He had always felt as if he had to behave a certain way around them, even though all of them had been pretty nice. From what he could tell, it didn't seem to be the same with Kuchiki.

"So if he's your Captain, why were you so angry at him?" That was the only thing that didn't make sense. Rukia seemed to be speaking with him calmly enough now--he had to wonder how she felt about having her sibling here. Sora was an only child, but he could imagine that seeing family in such a dangerous place wasn't easy to take.

Kuchiki Byakuya. Kairi knew it must have been Rukia’s brother even before Renji said anything about it, and when he finally did spill the info, her gaze turned towards her roommate and her aforementioned brother. They didn’t seem alike at all. “If Byakuya is so high in power … what about Rukia?”

Kairi couldn’t help but feel as if she was missing something. She’d have to ask Rukia at dinner.

Turning back to look at Renji, the once Princess couldn’t help but feel like something was also wrong with him as well. Concern filled her eyes, and she reached out to poke him gently in the knee, as if trying to draw his attention to whatever thoughts were currently plaguing his mind.

Renji wasn't sure how to answer Sora's question. Byakuya's presence made him keenly aware that as the man's vice-captain, he needed to protect his reputation. And the hell of it was, he didn't want to. But it was another duty he'd accepted.

But he also didn't want to lie to Sora. He'd already done that more than enough. He licked his lips and said, "Right before I got here, there was a... problem. We were on opposite sides of it." He wasn't sure what more he could, or even should say. "We fought. I lost." That was the barest of the facts, and didn't touch on the real reason. "But Rukia said that it's okay, later. She's from a later time than me." He shrugged. "Just... you guys might want to stay away from him. He..." There was no good way of saying it, that Byakuya was an asshole to people without a pedigree. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

It was all too complicated.

Kairi poked him in the knee and he looked up, trying to compose his expression. "I should go report," he said, quietly.

So they had gotten into a fight over something, and Renji had been the loser. Sora had to imagine that had stung, even if he didn't know the details. He had noticed how vague Renji had been, but he knew there had to be a reason of it, and he had at least gotten a basic idea of what had happened out of him.

They had been at odds, and yet Renji was still insisting that he had to report, which meant that they weren't true enemies. It was hard for Sora to wrap his head around, but he knew he didn't like to have enemies, either, even if he disagreed with someone on points.

It had to be hard to have someone like that as your superior, and Sora was glad he didn't have to deal with anything like that. The fact that Renji had outright ignored Kairi's question was odd, but probably meant that it was important.

Still, after that display and distraction, they couldn't really keep him any longer. "All right," he said with a nod. "Sorry again for... what we did."

Oh, so that was why Renji seemed to be so tense around Byakuya. Looking at the red haired man in silence, Kairi was at least glad that he looked okay … then again, wounds do heal over time.

Pulling her hand back and slowly getting to her feet, Kairi placed a hand on Renji’s shoulder once again before looking at Sora. She also noticed that he had avoided her question about Rukia’s status, but she spoke nothing about it. Whatever it was, Renji either didn’t feel it was his right to tell them or just didn’t want to tell them at all. That was okay, she thought to herself … maybe she would ask Rukia later.

“Yeah, sorry … just … sorry.” What could she say? She was at a total loss of what to do. Might as well let Renji go off and do as he pleased.

"It's okay," Renji said. He put his hands on Kairi and Sora's shoulders, giving them a light squeeze to let them know that he really meant that. "I owe you both." It didn't hurt to admit that, he thought. "He's my Captain and I have to do my duty to him, no matter..." He frowned, deciding he'd better not say more than that, not what he was thinking. No matter how much of an asshole he is, no matter how scared I am of him, no matter how much I want him to get the hell away from Rukia... "No matter what."

He stood, smoothing his shirt down with his hands. "I really mean it. Thanks." He gave them a crooked smile. "I'll see you tonight, Sora. And you tomorrow, Kairi." He squared his shoulders, set his face in his normal expression. The nice thing about being a grumpy bastard and looking the part, he guessed, was that most people couldn't tell when he was genuinely unhappy beneath it all.

He headed over to Byakuya and Rukia; the pathetic thing was, he couldn't help but feel it was the bravest thing he'd done all week.

[going here]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Day 27: Library

[Renji = PWNED]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject