damned_institute | 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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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]

Day 27: Library

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