damned_institute | Day 29: Cafeteria, Brunch

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Day 29: Cafeteria, Brunch

Hitsugaya left the chapel no less frustrated than before. The head doctor once again had chosen not to hide his face, yet promised he would be making an appearance at some time in the near future. He didn't like being patient, but there wasn't much choice. Either the head doctor would show his face, or he wouldn't. Renji had already seen him, and knew how to find him. That was enough.

The thought of eating made him slightly nauseous as usual, but he knew he needed to get his strength up. He could either be weak and try to force his way through brunch without eating anything, or he could be smart and actually give himself something to eat. And there was rice. Rice and fruit. He took a heaping pile of rice, and grabbed as much watermelon as he could fit on his plate, then proceeded to an empty table. He scanned the room, watching for Momo. He wasn't exactly looking forward to their conversation, knowing how she'd acted yesterday; however, he knew he had to speak to her, and there was a good chance that she would show more restraint now that the drugs were out of her system.

Thoughtfully he consumed his rice and waited.

[free at the moment, pester if you wish]

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Zoro's eyes were still closed so he missed the visual of Phibrizzo's innocent act.

"Best time to try, don't you think?" He asked, leaning back in his chair. The comment was just as blase as the last one.

Cracking open an eye, Zoro continued his questioning. "How long've you been here anyway, kid? You're kinda small. You should stick with people you know."

Not that he cared, but maybe the kid didn't know any better. Survival was better taught by experience but Zoro wasn't above shoving overly girly looking kids in the right direction.

He smiled brightly back. "Oh, I don't know, Mister! I don't know anything about Swordsmen, so I couldn't dream of holding a conversation with the great Zelgadis." His lips twisted slightly. "Although, if all swordsmen act like you, then I guess I've been missing out."

He drummed his fingers on the table and glanced about the cafeteria as he answered the pirate's next question. "I've been here a few days. And there's no one I know here, except Mr. Zelgadis." He cocked his head and plastered a big grin on it. "And I just explained to you that I don't talk to him."

Zoro's eye opened to focus on the smiling boy. He observed him piercingly and waited for Phibrizzo to stop talking before closing his eye again.

He smirked smugly, amused despite what he was going to say. The slight sarcasm in the Mazoku's words didn't go completely unnoticed but that kind of thing (from a kid no less) didn't usually bother Zoro. In fact, it just egged him on. Children were fun to tease sometimes. "Guess you're screwed then, kid. You don't look like much of a fighter."

Phibrizzo gritted his teeth but forced the grin to remain on his face. "Ha ha! I can't fight at all, mister!" He put a finger to his mouth and blushed slightly. "I'm always relying on stronger people to protect me. It's kinda embarassing to admit."

His grin returned, although sheepish looking this time. "Ah, but you should be used to relying on stronger people too!"

Did the kid just call him WEAK??? Zoro's eyes snapped open and he frowned at Phibrizzo. He frowned hard.

The only ones who ever questioned his abilities were either dead, beaten up, or Sanji. Obviously, Zoro was in a bit of a pickle. He couldn't harm the kid, whether the insult had been meant or not; at least, not after Nami had expressedly told them all to avoid making trouble.

Eye ticking in barely concealed annoyance, Zoro leaned forward, a sharp half-grin half-scowl forming on his face.

"And what did you mean by that kid?"

"Well, you're a swordsman," Phibrizzo said in a tone befitting the phrase "duh". "There's only so much one can do with a sword. Sure, you swordsmen are impressive so long as you're armed, but everyone knows that, so once they take your blades away, you can't do much, can you?" He continued to smile. "True power isn't from a piece of sharpened metal, though I know it helps you feel powerful."

He crossed his legs and linked his fingers behind his head. "You're in the same boat as me right now, aren't you, Mister? No swords and you gotta rely on someone stronger because your only strength was within those weapons."

And now his brow was twitching. Great.

"Don't think you know everything about swordfighting, kid." He grunted, clearly displeased by the boy's assumptions. "Good swordsmen don't only count on the caliber of their weapons, though a lot of the stupid ones do. You can't be the worlds greatest swordsman just because you have the worlds greatest sword." And he believed that with all his previous conviction. This was a code Zoro obviously lived by. His muscles proved as much.

"But don't count me in with you kid," Here his smirk turned nasty. It was his amused face, but to anyone who didn't know him well enough to distinguish the difference it was just about the same as his sadistic one. "I've fought without weapons before. I can win my fights without them." Though he was severely weakened here, Zoro figured that it didn't matter. Being just a tiny bit weaker was no excuse to break his vow to Luffy. "You'd better worry about yourself, you're kinda puny. It looks like a small wave could drown you if you aren't careful."

Zoro wasn't necessarily being insulting, he was just stating whatever honest opinion he'd formed of the boy in front of him. Of course, the fact that he wasn't pulling any punches meant that the kid had it coming. Usually Zoro would let it go, but this one... this one needed a good hit on the head.

Phibrizzo looked unimpressed and cracked his neck. "You can win your fights without swords? Then why are you still here?" He nodded towards the nurses. "If you're so great, why haven't waltzed past them?" He smirked. "Or maybe you need help, hmm?"

He shrugged and went back to his food. "Perhaps you like it here," he mused openly, "but I thought real pirates were a bit more...accomplished."

He perked up suddenly. "Oh, and don't worry about me drowning. I know how to swim. Maybe you should worry about yourself, mister. I know how hard it is to float without assistance if you never quite learned how to swim."

Would Zoro see through all the metaphors? Phibrizzo didn't care. Hey, this sausage was tasty. Maybe he'd go and get some more...

Oh, there went Zoro's temper! Wheeee, bye bye temper!

Raising one heavy fist in the air, Zoro brought it down on Phibrizzo's head, now entirely sure that the kid deserved to get smacked.

Skinny ass or no, the kid was purposely baiting him! The swordsman had known that there was something off about their conversation and that knowledge alone should have helped him keep his behavior in check but damnit! The kid was getting more annoying to talk to than Luffy. At least his captain was just being honest. This kid was pretty much trying to start a fight.

Phibrizzo had wanted to anger the swordsman, but it was ZORO he had wanted to get hurt, not himself! He didn't enjoy the sharp sting that now branched out throughout his skull. It hurt!

"You HIT me," he growled, indignant. "How DARE you hit me."

Zoro scowled, taking the Mazoku's anger head-on. "You deserved it you little brat! You were being annoying on purpose!"

Phibrizzo narrowed his eyes and looked straight at Zoro. "No, I wasn't! Is it my fault that swordsmen and small children fall into the same category?"

He folded his arms. "If you take offense, then you've no one to blame but yourself. I didn't tell you to become a swordsman."

"I what?? That doesn't make sense!" Zoro glared back, stubbornly staring Phibrizzo in the eye. Suddenly, his anger broke and a flat calm stole over his face.

A small, irritated smirk inched its way up his lips. "You're trying to piss me off..." He said, slowly. "Not as innocent a brat as you were trying to look, huh."

Not that kids like these were very foreign things to Zoro. Whiskey Peak had been a good example of never trusting things on sight, though the pirate had already known that even before the Grand Line. Little girls certainly didn't look like they could wield swords and yet Kunia...

No, he wasn't going to underestimate this kid now. But, then again, the boy didn't seem like a big enough threat to get worked up over. It was just too bad that he was already agitated; Zoro was a few words away from grabbing the kid by his fat head and shaking him for all he was worth.

Phibrizzo folded his arms. "What are you going to do about it? Hit me again? That's all you CAN do without your swords, isn't it?"

He snorted and began to laugh. "Go right ahead. I'm not scared of you."

He had nothing to prove to this kid, nothing at all. Zoro was secure in his strength, all recent weakening aside. Their fight with Sai only strengthened his need to improve himself. After all, he should’ve already reached the point where even a little loss of his strength wouldn’t affect his performance. Even after that big step back, Zoro would have to take leaps forward to catch up to Mihawk. He had to.

Not that that meant he was too good to smack some mouthy little kid on the head. Which he did. Hard.

"Maybe you need to re-think a few things, brat." Zoro growled, putting down one tightly clenched fist.

Hellmaster did not have words to counter Zoro. The sharp pain was so infuriating. It was true, he had baited the pirate, but now HE was the one hurting when it was supposed to be the other way around.

He'd fix this.

Putting his hands to his face, he began bawling loudly. "I'm sorry, Mister! Please stop hitting me, Mister! WAAAAAAAAH!"

Although the nurse had sworn she'd seen Jean hit Brandon, she'd only caught it out of the corner of her eye and had shaken it off because really, who would hit a little boy like that? But when the second hit became very, very clear, she was at their side almost immediately, her eyes icy in a way that most nurses only tended to master when they were much older.

"Mr. Hunter!" she scolded, her voice as sharp as her eyes. "That is absolutely not acceptable!" When she turned to Brandon, her expression softened significantly. A lot of fights certainly seemed to spring up around him. "Brandon, are you all right? Would you like an ice pack?"

Already another nurse was coming their way, having seen the same attack. The first woman nodded at her and turned her attention back to Jean.

"Unless you can give me a very good reason for why you would hit a young child, Mr. Hunter, I will have you removed from the cafeteria."

"What the hell?!" Zoro's eyes went wide. First the kid had been challenging him, baiting him, and now...! His teeth clenched and he leaned back in his seat, scowling darkly at one nurse and then at the other.

"I--! The kid started it." The pirate answered weakly, face still caught in an unpleasant grimace. In retrospect, smacking a little kid probably wasn't the best thing to do but damn it, the kid had started it!

What kind of boy cried when he got hit, anyway???

Phibrizzo clung to the first nurse and began sobbing into her. "H-He said he didn't like my face and that he was gonna crack my skull open and paint the floor with my brains 'n that he wanted to see me bleed 'n..." He sniffled. "DON'T LET HIM GET ME! He's CRAZY!"

...so he was lying a bit. But so what if the nurses thought Zoro was far more violent and dangerous than he actually was? He looked up at the nurse, eyes wide and full of tears. "And he says he's a swordsman! That's not true, is it? No swordsman can hurt me, can they?"

Maybe he could get the nurses to belittle Zoro as well. That would be a bit of fun too.

"Now, now, Brandon," said the first nurse, gently petting Brandon's hair, "It's all right. Don't cry. Here, have a tissue." She produced one from the pocket of her uniform and gently wiped away the tears on the boy's face.

The second nurse, meanwhile, kept a close eye on Jean.

"I don't care if he started it," she said, her voice stern instead of icy, "you are an adult, and he is a child. You are expected to show some level of restraint while you are here. If he's bothering you, the mature thing to do would simply be to move. If he keeps bothering you, inform one of us. We're here to help, you know."

Zoro's face turned dark red as if the pressure causing his eye to twitch was working its magic on his blood's circulation as well.

"That kid..." He said slowly, pointedly, dangerously. "Needs to stop talking crap." Zoro narrowed his eyes at Phibrizzo before turning away with a snort. He ignored the nurse's words pointedly and drummed thick fingers on the table in agitation.

Phibrizzo smiled weakly at his 'protector' and continued to cling to her. "Y-you'll keep him from hurting me anymore, won't you?" He glanced over at Zoro, an evil twinkle in his eye, if one looked for it. "He won't win against you, right? He can't defeat you, can he, Ma'am? He's not that strong, is he? You'll keep me safe, won't you?"

"Then move away from him," said the second nurse. "Come on, we'll relocate you to another table."

"That's a little mean, now, Brandon," said the first nurse as the boy clung to her, glancing over at Jean. "It doesn't matter how strong he is. Of course you'll be safe, you know that. Come on. Should we find you someone else to talk to?"

Glancing up sharply at Phibrizzo's words, Zoro caught something in the Mazoku's eyes. It was more of instinct that warned him about it but Zoro understood the feeling, nonetheless.

The kid wasn't just annoying anymore. Everything he said and did had a purpose, if only to cause... what? To piss him off? Highly likely.

Slapping his palms on the table sharply enough to send his fork clattering to the ground, Zoro rose from the table. Purposefully, he pointed a finger at "Brandon". "Fine. I'll move. But you'd better watch yourself next time, little demon brat."

Phibrizzo snorted. Fine, let him try. Maybe it wasn't so bad that Zoro had figured out the "demon" aspect of things (not that Hellmaster had hidden it particularly well); it meant he could torment the man without care. Besides, if he was always as wordy as he had been at the meal, Hellmaster suspected he wouldn't say much to anyone.

This would make things more interesting around this place.

He didn't respond to Zoro's comment, only clung to his nurse and continued to play the victim.

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Day 29: Cafeteria, Brunch

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