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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"That certainly sounds like him," Kenshin said with a smile. Homura never did anything if there wasn't anything in it for him. It was a selfish way to live, but it worked for some.

Kenshin also took the opportunity that the pause in conversation provided to eat. He still couldn't get used to the Western utensils in this place. They were so...unwieldy! "And," he pointed out after swallowing, "it's hardly the name that counts."

Hitsugaya nodded slightly. So Homura ~was~ still in it for himself. Not entirely surprising. He supposed someone like Homura would rather lead than follow, when really a good soldier needed to be able to do both when necessary.

He also took advantage in the break to take a few more bites of his watermelon. At least watermelon could never be mistaken for human flesh. "Agreed," he said. "It gets the job done, and keeps us slightly under the radar of the nurses so they won't take down what we post."

"About the nurses," Kenshin said softly. His face was suddenly very serious. "They're human, aren't they? Or they were. We saw that much last night. Does that mean that they're as trapped by this place as we are?"

Hitsugaya's face had been serious the entire conversation, so little seemed to change except his interest in the conversation. "It's hard to say," he admitted. "We try to make sense of things here as best we can with the understanding of our own universes, but much of what is here is unlike anything we've seen before. In my world humans did not transform into monsters in such a way. The closest I could think of would be the legendary vaizards, gods of death who carried a hollow inside them...it could be something similar." He shuddered involuntarily at the thought of it. To carry one of those monsters inside of you...it was entirely possible that the nurses suffered a similar plight.

"If they carry a monster inside of them, they could be unaware of it until the night, and then forget all about their experience. On the other hand, I haven't been able to sense the spirit threads of any of the nurses. It could be they're soulless automotons that only carry the guise of humanity."

'Vaizards?' 'Gods of death?' 'Hollow?'

Kenshin looked curious, but he didn't say anything. It seemed like Hitsugaya was talking about something that he had personal experience with...in his own 'universe.'

The rurouni was still having trouble wrapping his head around that fact, but considering what he had seen in the time he'd been here, he was willing to believe just about anything. There were people at Landel's who should not have existed in his world, people who could do things that were impossible. Not to mention the monsters and the fact that drinking blood from a strange, glowing being had cured two or three broken ribs and severe internal bleeding the night before. Not even Megumi-dono's medicine could do that.

But, finally, the curiosity was just too much. "Spirit threads?" he asked. "Unless it is proved otherwise, this one is operating under the assumption that they are--or were--human."

Hitsugaya nodded slightly. He was using a lot of odd terms and he was unsurprised that there was confusion. "Every patient in this institute that has a soul gives off spiritual threads. I don't sense anything from the nurses when I focus, but that could be a result of this place's effect on us. My abilities are...limited." So limited he couldn't even do things that had always come naturally.

He saw where the other man was going with this, or at least he thought he did. "We don't have a lot of choices. They are still our enemies, and at night a very lethal enemy."

Edited 2007-12-31 00:51 (UTC)

Kenshin nodded. "This one has heard that some abilities are muted in this place. Perhaps whatever is muting them is also masking the...spirit threads?" It seemed reasonable enough. If they could mute preternatural powers, why not hide spiritual energy as well?

"Yes, they are," he conceded. "But that doesn't mean we have to kill them. Incapacitate, yes. But not kill."

"It's possible," he admitted. "But what doesn't make sense is why they would allow us to sense the spirit threads of other patients. They don't allow us to detect reiatsu...spiritual pressure. I can't determine how strong you are spiritually, but I could have back where I come from quite easily. It's...odd."

Like he expected. Humans had strange ideas of morality and the barrier between life and death. "They hold the keys to the asylum, and most of us aren't trained to incapacitate. I'm not going to severely endanger my soldiers to protect something that might conceivably be human. If they have souls, we can deal with those souls once we're free and this institute has been torn down to the last stone."

"Does anything about this place make sense?" Kenshin countered, smiling. "It's already been proven that the bonds of death and time have no meaning here. That man over there, Okita Souji, died over ten years ago (in this one's time) but...there he is, perfectly healthy and seemingly from a time several years before his death. Homura claims to be some sort of god, and we've all been transported to this odd futuristic prison."

The rurouni shrugged, thoughtfully inspecting a bit of sausage that a nurse had demanded he take ("You need to have some protein!"). The people who ran this place must have been very wealthy indeed, to be able to serve this much beef.

"That is your choice," he said softly. "But please know that this one has forbidden himself all unnecessary death."

Kenshin had a point. The logic of this place seemed to escape him, but it comforted the young captain to think there was some purpose for this place. "Most of my people come from around the same period of time, maybe a year or two apart at the most, but there seems to be no reason to why they chose this out of the hundreds of years some here have lived."

The softness of the samurai's tone took Hitsugaya off guard. He was used to people being a lot more...vocal...about their opinions. You wouldn't hear a shinigami politely offering their opinion. He took a quick bite of watermelon and swallowed before replying. "I wouldn't think to stand in the way of your vows," he answered.

Hundreds of years? Kenshin raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that there are other gods here too?" he asked, a smile playing about his lips.

"Thank you. Others...have not been so considerate." Was that a hint of bitterness in his voice? He hoped not.

Hitsugaya nodded slightly. "I'm a shinigami," he answered. Based on his name, the captain could only assume he had some basic understanding of death gods. Japan always seemed to have a better concept of the 'grim reapers' than westerners. "I'm only about a hundred and thirty years old...it's difficult to know exactly when one was born when they died so early in life. Others are much older."

He leaned back in his chair. It was nice speaking with someone who was so polite. Usually the people he dealt with didn't know the first thing of proper etiquette. Even his complaints seemed mild. "Don't worry about it," he answered. "As long as you don't step in the way of my duties, then it would dishonor me to interfere with your own."

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Day 29: Cafeteria, Brunch

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