damned_institute | Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

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Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

Hitsugaya woke with a start.

His entire body ached, but the pain was nowhere near as bad as it had been the night before. His injuries had been tended two with clean gauze and bandages, and he found every movement wasn't agony. He wasn't in the best of shape, but thanks to the miracle of landel's strange time distortion, he had mostly recovered from the vile poison without having to waste anyone else's talents.

And in his hand, still...there was the key.

He dressed quickly, sliding the key onto the key ring from his desk drawer and stuck it into his pocket. Whether the key stood to gain them anything or not, it stood as a vital reminder that they could succeed in this place. There was hope, as insignificant as it often seemed. They could beat this place.

That small shred of hope made getting up worth it.

The nurse who escorted him to breakfast was cheerful, and commented idly about how wonderful it was to see young Tommy Winters up and about again after his unfortunate run-in with a bad case of food poisoning. He smirked slightly, knowing that any lies the institute forced into their heads were only that: lies. He wouldn't buy it for a second. And on top of that, the concept of muffins sounded almost appetizing. While he still preferred his authentic Japanese cuisine, the food here was slowly becoming more and more bearable. He would have preferred a warm bowl of sweet nattou over rice over the mufffins, but they would do. The plain yogurt and fruit, on the other hand, was excellent. He piled his plate high with fruit as usual, and got several small bowls of yogurt as well.

Finding the most convenient table to the end of the food line, he took a seat and scanned for the new arrivals. New arrivals meant people who would be lost and confused. Renji did a good job of making a bulliten post last time...he should recommend abarai-fukutaicho do the same again this time.

[Waiting for Angel]

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Usopp had been drawing a sketch of how he could improvise an 'Usopp Pound' with the materials at hand when Luffy sat down, but the arrival of his captain finally shook Usopp out of his daze enough that he looked up with a grin. "Hey!"

As Luffy's expression changed, Usopp felt his face turn more serious in response, frowning and nodding firmly. "Yup." Well, maybe serious, scheming pirates didn't say 'yup,' but... "I fixed my slingshot. It's really good now, made of metal and it has little claws too. And we got some more supplies to work with, and also some stuff I can shoot." You should have gotten more metal for Zoro to give to the alchemy people! he realized, then brushed the thought off. There was lots of metal everywhere, the chemicals were harder to get.

"And we fought a giant spider!" Actually, he had mixed feelings about that, since it wasn't really the spider's fault it had been turned giant and also evil. "Plus I met a blind ninja Sai knows, and finally, we all went back to my room. OH!" He couldn't stop himself from grinning as he sat up again. "And I have a sign that says 'Wet Floor'!" The fact that this was the most useless item he'd gotten last night didn't dim his thoughts of it at all. He took another bite of his muffin in satisfaction. "How did last night go? Did Nami find treasure in the basement yet?"

It sounded like Usopp had gotten a lot done! Awesome! A new slingshot, stuff to shoot with, and...

"Wait, metal?" He blinked, scratching his cheek. "Where'd you find it?" Slamming his hands on the table, he leaned forwardly excitedly. "Did you fight a demon!?" That was a pretty important thing to leave out! When he'd ask about anything cool, he'd wanted all the details!

...Although, a giant spider was pretty damn cool. Almost as cool as a demon. Or a giant shrimp-scorpion. Definitely cooler than a room of death slug, though. Definitely. "Did you guys kick its ass?!" he asked, eager to hear more.

As for the Wet Floor sign, Luffy thought that was pretty neat, too. It paled a little in comparison to demons and spiders and metal, but, really, he wouldn't have minded a Wet Floor sign of his own!

"We didn't find anything special yet, no," Luffy replied. He paused before his eyebrows raised. "I almost got to see a demon, though."

"Oh, the slingshot?" He hadn't mentioned the pipe, and now felt guilty for the omission, but answered honestly. "Sai had a gardening trowel... you know, those things that have the bent teeth? With the heat from the iron, we managed to make it soft enough to break off the center, and then attached some elastic to the sides. Does Zoro still need metal for alchemy? The janitor's closet upstairs has a bunch."

Usopp shook his head over the demon question, thinking, Wow, I'm glad I didn't see a demon. "I don't think so, it was just a really big spider. We kicked its ass. But I kind of felt bad for it... it sounded really sad when it died." Usopp shrugged a little, because it couldn't be helped, and they both knew that. He left out how he'd discovered embedding glass in an enemy might just result in an enemy attacking you with glass embedded in it. That had been... well, at least it wasn't a lot of glass...

"So, are you guys trying for the basement again tonight? Maybe there won't be demons this time." If he'd managed to side-step all demon encounters altogether, that would be pretty handy.

Luffy remembered those trowel things. How could he forget? Sai had used them in their fight against the death slugs on the night of their bathroom adventure. It'd been pretty cool, actually!

"Yeah, we still need to find metal," Luffy told him. "I promised him ages ago." But the janitor closet, huh? Didn't seem like a bad place to look, although it sounded like it was sadly lacking in the demon department. "Where can I find it?"

As for the giant spider, well, Luffy didn't think it could really be helped. "At least it didn't kick your ass." He stuffed a bite of food into his mouth, his eyes practically shining. "Maaaan, I wish I could have seen it!" Maybe if he went to the janitor's closet soon, there'd be another one!

"I dunno if we're going back or not," the pirate admitted. "You're the first person I've talked to today. The closet sounds really fun, though!"

Usopp hadn't been sure if Luffy would recognize the gardening term immediately, but it seemed he'd picked up on it fast enough.

Ages ago... during the weeks Luffy had been here before Usopp. Even after all this time, it was still a weird thought. "Did you tell Roy yet? Has Zoro got a place in line for the sword to get made? I know he takes turns doing one every night." That was a reasonable excuse for not offering up all the metal he could find right off the bat. Sort of.

Usopp shrugged over the poor dead spider. "It was pretty weird. I've never seen a spider that big before, the eyes looked really funny at that size. She wasn't a tarantula or anything, though, I don't know what kind of spider she was other than 'big'. I used to know a lot about spiders, but maybe spiders around here are different."

As long as there was potential treasure, he couldn't imagine Nami letting the basement go. Besides, someone had to have gone downstairs by now, maybe the meat grinder was stopped already. Still, "The closet was a lot of fun! We got a bunch of great stuff. Oh! There was a whole little tool set too!"

"Well, I asked him weeks ago," Luffy said with a frown. "You don't think he forgot, do you?" There hadn't been a line way back then, though. And Zoro had disappeared for awhile, and Luffy had assumed he'd be coming back to spring everyone, so it wasn't like he'd been thinking about swords a whole lot during that time. It hadn't even occurred to him to ask for a place in line!

"Oh man! I gotta find this sword line so I can get in!" he said suddenly, glancing around the cafeteria. "Where is it, and how long do I have to stand there?"

As for the spider, it sounded pretty interesting! "Well, maybe I'll be lucky enough to see one too!" he laughed. "Do you think there're Southbirds telling giant bugs to attack us?"

Judging from what Usopp said, the closet did sound like a pretty awesome place. "I'll definitely have to check it out!" he said with a grin.

"It's not like a line you stand in. I think he just has a list and then gives people things in order. Haven't you noticed Roy posting about how he's ready to make a weapon for somebody or another each night?" Right, that was a stupid question, of course Luffy hadn't noticed. "Er, well, you could ask on the bulletin board, anyway. Maybe Roy'll do it faster since he agreed so long ago before Zoro disappeared." It could happen.

The mention of the south bird made Usopp blink. "HEY! I wonder if the monsters here are so big for the same reason that everything in Skypiea was so big?! I don't feel like the atmosphere is different, but..." He took a few deep breaths to test. "Maybe we're secretly floating high in the sky and don't even know it."

Oh, no. That would mean that he really could fall off Landel's Institute, and therefore this place really was equally scary as Skypiea. "E-except that makes no sense! That's silly! There's no way that's true! I mean, we saw mountains and everything, sky islands don't have mountains!" He laughed nervously.

"Oh. A list," Luffy echoed gravely. That made quite a difference. At least he'd be able to sit down if he was on some list. Lines actually took awhile, and he didn't think people would like it if he cut ahead in front of everyone. Cafeteria lines came to mind. But at least he had the freedom to eat if he was one a list.

"I don't really spend a lot of time looking at the bulletin board, but I guess I gotta talk to him," he said, scratching his cheek some. "But if a bunch of people are on the list, it'll probably take ages for him to get to us."

As for whether this place was like Skypiea? Hey, it could happen! "Well, maybe we're just really used to the atmosphere or something!" Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he excitedly looked around. "Maybe we're in outer space. Wouldn't that be great?!"

The pirate captain folded his arms over his chest, and he stared at Usopp. "So, we saw mountains! That might not mean anything. I mean, have you been to outer space before? How do you know what it's supposed to look like?"

"We're not in outer space, Luffy!" Usopp answered back perhaps a bit too sharply, but at least it covered the shaking in his voice at the very thought. (Check: Alternate dimensions, not so bad, sky islands, bad, outer space, bad. Sometimes he didn't even understand why some things scared him and others didn't.) "We're on the planet, because we can see the moon at night! Remember? So we're on a perfectly nice solid piece of the ground that has mountains and is definitely not in the sky or in outer space!"

He paused to catch his breath. "Anyway, you ought to at least ask Roy, even if he won't bump Zoro ahead. It can't hurt." It could if someone were rude or pushy enough, but Luffy tended to somehow make people forgive him easily even when he was pushy.

"What, you don't think so?" Luffy asked, and he actually looked pretty disappointed at this revelation. "Other people here are from outer space, you know. And besides, you'd be able to see the moon even from outer space, wouldn't you? It wouldn't be magically gone or anything, right?" Oh man, it'd be crazy if the moon just up and disappeared one day. If Luffy were the moon, he wouldn't want to just hang around in one area all the time either!

"Yeah, I guess I should ask Roy," Luffy said after a moment. "I'll do it right now!" He was about to stand up and start hollering for the guy, but then a weird commotion caught his eye, and he stopped short. The pirate turned, only to see a fight breaking out between some patients and Cat Ladies. "Woah! Look, Usopp!"

Usopp was about to respond with fake authority that the moon wouldn't look the same from space--probably--when Luffy's second statement completely derailed his train of thought.

He turned to look, and gawked. "It's... it's a riot!" Well, that might be a large word, considering how many people were in the room compared to how many people were fighting still. But it was a lot bigger than any of the fights he'd seen thus far. He'd kind of learned to tune them out, barely even glancing over when he heard a couple of patients or a patient and nurse start wrestling. During the day, if people were polite, they didn't get sedated, and if they got in a fight, they did; that was simple enough.

This seemed more complicated than that. Other people were jumping up and calling for others to join. But there was no way this would work! Since this place could knock them all unconscious while they were wandering all over the Institute, even outside, no matter if every person in the cafeteria started running around and throwing things and tackling nurses, the bad guys (Dr. Landel or whoever) could still just knock them all out the same way. But not before a few nurses got bruises and a bunch of patients got sedated, it looked like. Usopp began sliding down in his chair, a slow retreat to the relative safety underneath the table.

Edited 2008-02-13 16:10 (UTC)

"A riot?! Woah!" He'd seen a lot of fights before, had even participated in a ton of them, but he'd never seen a full-blown riot like this before! He'd been talking about this kind of thing with Zoro the other day, and the first thing Luffy could think of was that it was a damn shame this hadn't happened out in the recreation field. They definitely needed more bats or something.

Blinking, he looked over at his friend as he slowly began sliding under the table. "Huh? What's wrong, Usopp? You don't feel good?" Man, he wouldn't be able to participate in the riot if he wasn't feeling up to it!

Usopp pouted faintly, because he knew that look in Luffy's face, and he knew what was going to happen, and he'd never been sedated before and maybe it hurt, and besides they didn't have any weapons except their food and trays and chairs... okay, so maybe they did have weapons, but...

"I... I think my 'I absolutely can't participate in this riot or I'll die' disease is starting to act up again." It was a half-hearted effort, however, because he knew some things were just inevitable.

Luffy only grinned, folding his arms over his chest as he gazed down at his sniper. There was a gleam in his eyes, but with the way he was just standing and talking, they may as well have been eating a normal breakfast. "But this is the perfect time to find the Head Doctor!" All the other times the Cat Ladies and their friends were keeping everyone on a leash, but now that they were all busy, it was great! "You wanna kick his ass, don't you?"

As fun as a riot was, and as much as Luffy loved a good fight, he wasn't about to start punching Cat Ladies just because. Granted, they were standing between a man and his dreams, and they needed to be prepared to face the consequences of that. If they got in his way, he would definitely fight back. But starting something just because they were there wasn't going to get anything done.

All this riot stuff was gonna go to waste if they didn't drag Martin Landel into it, right?

Usopp had sunk down enough to rest his chin on the table as he looked up forlornly at his captain's grin. Yes, that was the look, all right, everybody brace for impact, Hurricane Luffy on the way.

"Luffy, how'll we get past the nurses to him? There's nurses everywhere and we don't know where he is. He might not even be in the building." This was all extremely reasonable, in Usopp's opinion, but he wasn't sure that 'reasonable' had ever actually helped him convince Luffy of anything.

"What do you mean? We just gotta bust out the cafeteria and run up the stairs, right? Didn't he say something about going to the roof in the morning?" They just had to check it out! It was probably going to be their only chance for a long time! And at any rate, they knew he wasn't in the cafeteria, so obviously they weren't going to stay here.

"Even if he's not on the roof, we won't know until we look!" Luffy reminded him. "I say we make a break for it on the count of three." By now, he'd positioned himself to where he was crouched in his chair, as if he were ready to spring onto the table and make a mad dash at any moment. "One...two..."

When Luffy said it like that, it almost sort of made sense in a weird Luffy kind of way. 'Just' run or fight past all the nurses and orderlies, make it through the doors and up the stairs, then figure out how someone even got on the roof in the first place--he didn't remember seeing any extra stairs on his map. Usopp sighed haplessly and sat up, though when Luffy started counting his eyes snapped up and he gawked a bit.

"Wait wait wait don't count so fast! Luffy!" Usopp was crouching too, although he'd already started in a half-crouch thanks to fear. But he was holding his tray in his hands now, thinking the plastic chairs would be too heavy and wear him out if he had to swing one too long against any nurses or orderlies who tried to stop their escape. Despite his protests, and as he'd known all along, he was with Luffy.

Luffy wasn't sure how much slower a guy was supposed to count. Well, he could have gone oooooooonnne, twoooooooooo, threeeeeeeeee, but that wouldn't have been nearly as fun, and would have killed the sense of excitement and adventure he was trying to give the plan.

Since he'd already counted past two anyway, Luffy didn't see the point in doing it again. But Usopp had asked for a slower count, hadn't he? Grinning as soon as an idea hit him, he jumped onto the table and took in a huge, deep breath.

"THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

His shout was solid and high, to the point it almost made his throat hurt. But that didn't matter. It had been slow and exciting! If that wasn't a good compromise, Luffy didn't know what was.

And with that, he dashed across the long table, kicking trays and food out of the way as he ran.

"MARTIN LANDEL!" he yelled over to commotion. "I'M COMING FOR YOU!"

[Backthread, yeah?]

Now, see, if Luffy had just started his count like that Usopp could have braced himself a bit more, or figured out a better thing to use as a weapon, or maybe even talked Luffy out of...

As Luffy jumped up, Usopp followed suit, glad the tables weren't too high as it would be embarrassing to start his rioting career with bruised ankles. After Luffy's call, Usopp screamed as he followed in the path of food destruction Luffy had wrought, "A... annnnnnd SO AM I apparently...!"

Oh, man, there was an army of nurses and orderlies at the doors. And some of them were turning to look at them disapprovingly, scowling, ready with needles. There was no way...

You know, the fact that you're still running after him is probably a sign of something, he reflected with a faint sigh. "PREPARE TO FACE THE WRATH OF CAPTAIN USOPP! I HAVE OVER 8,000 MEN WHO HAVE SURROUNDED THIS COMPOUND AND..."

[Yeah, just for another round or two, I guess. xD]

"MARTIN LANDELLLLLLLLLLL!" the pirate captain screamed again, actually bothering to jump over a small group of trays instead of just kicking them out of the way. "WE'RE GONNA KICK YOUR AAAAAAAAAASS!"

Man, this was exhilarating! He could feel the way his blood was pounding in his ears, the way the riot's ruckus practically sung in his ears. Usopp's familiar calls were not far behind, the door was up ahead, and for a moment, Luffy felt like he could take on the whole damn world.

Of course, the staff had other ideas. His running and shouting hadn't gone unnoticed, and it didn't take long for one of the nurses to reach up and grab him by the shirt. That wasn't going to get Luffy down, though. He kept trying to run, flailing and calling out all the while, and the nurse struggled to pull him off the table.

"MARTIN LANDELLLLLL! MARTI--" He stopped and gave the nurse a sharp scowl. "Oi! Let me go, huh?! I'm trying to get to the roof here!"

"Timothy!" she said sharply. "Stop this nonsense right now--" But her words were cut off when Luffy actually kicked her in the face, sending her onto the floor. There might have been blood, but Luffy didn't feel bad. She had been standing in his way, and those were the consequences.

The pirate was about to turn back for the door when a couple of orderlies spotted him and immediately started heading his way.

Luffy kept running and as though they were tied together by some invisible rope, Usopp followed, for a moment so focused on keeping up with the screaming future Pirate King that he forgot to be terrified. The room was already loud with people screaming and shouting and singing, but when Luffy yelled it seemed to drown everything else out.

That stopped short when some woman managed to snag Luffy by the shirt. Usopp had to come to a stumbling halt to avoid crashing into Luffy, and winced when he saw the woman kicked back without a second thought. It probably wasn't her fault, but she was in the way, and when Luffy got like this the absolute worst place to be was in his way--

"Sorry!" Usopp called down, then realized more were arriving. They didn't look like nice nurses who were trying to deal with unruly kids playing pirate on top of the tables. They looked ready to do whatever was needed to keep him and Luffy from escaping or hurting anyone else, because Luffy was dangerous. And because Usopp was with him.

I'm dangerous! Something wavering between pride and bravado welled up. He took the tray he'd been holding and raised it as the orderlies approached. But by the time they were close enough to smack they'd already be within arm's reach of him, pulling him off the table, stopping Luffy...

"HISSATSU! TRAY STAR!!" In a moment of divinely stupid inspiration, he curled his arm and threw the thing like a boomerang. Even though it wasn't his specialty and a little more strength behind the throw would have helped, his aim was always perfect and the tray edge smacked into the nose of one of the orderlies. The man was slowed as he stopped to feel the nosebleed started from flying plastic meeting face. Then he looked significantly more annoyed, and both started stomping closer, and Usopp realized he'd thrown his weapon away.

"G-get back! I've killed a million men with just my bare hands! I've fought thousands of horrible sea monsters! I once wrestled the strongest man in the world to the ground and held him there five days until he said uncle! I..." Usopp held his hands up defensively as he backed closer towards Luffy.

Luffy watched in awe as the tray flew through the air and pegged one of the orderlies in the face. "That was awesome, Usopp!" he called excitedly. He only laughed as the orderlies looked even more annoyed and started making their way towards the duo. With his back pressed against the sniper's now, Luffy gazed around and, for the first time, it occurred to him that the fact they were outnumbered was actually pretty sucky.

Aw, man. Looked like the staff was going to spoil their fun after all.

That didn't mean he wasn't going to try and put up a decent fight, though. Luffy reached down to swipe a tray from the table, and, hoping to mimic Usopp's fantastic attack from earlier, he threw it at the two orderlies. Unfortunately, his aim wasn't nearly as true as his sniper's, and he only succeeded in grazing one of their broad shoulders.

Within a split moment, they'd grabbed for Luffy, and though the pirate struggled and squirmed into their hold, it didn't look like he was gonna make it out of this one.

"Sorry, Usopp," the pirate said through clenched teeth. "Guess we aren't making it to the roof after--"

He didn't get to finish his sentence, because as soon as he felt the needle go in, everything felt heavy, the room began to blur together, and he felt his body sink into a relaxed haze.

This was exactly what he had been talking about, and he tried to kick at one of the orderlies and just got his leg grabbed as he was pulled down with Luffy. This was exactly what he had been talking about and it was a darn good thing Luffy had that weird way of making you forgive him because Usopp had seen this coming as soon as Luffy started looking all sparkly-eyed in the first place.

"Luffy!" But Luffy apologizing like that felt wrong, a lot worse than charging into Certain Sedation, and Usopp found himself trying to pull Luffy free even after Usopp'd been yanked off his feet on the table and was sure to be the next sedated. "Luffy! Luffy!"

Luffy's eyes shut, and Usopp let out a noise that was half angry and half terrified but not quite a scream as the orderlies let Luffy sink to the floor for a moment while they grabbed Usopp. He tried struggling, but wasn't even looking at the orderlies, his eyes locked on Luffy's body helpless and drained of all the addictive energy that'd filled it moments before. His last dizzied thought was that the orderlies here were actually very professional, all things considered, because the bloody-nosed orderly pressed the needle into him so quickly and neatly it didn't even hurt. And nothing at all hurt after that.

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Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

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