Day 30: Cafeteria, Breakfast

[whiteychan.livejournal.com]

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]

Comments

[usoppsenchou.livejournal.com]

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.

[rubbermancan.livejournal.com]

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!"

[usoppsenchou.livejournal.com]

[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..."

[rubbermancan.livejournal.com]

[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.

[usoppsenchou.livejournal.com]

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.

[rubbermancan.livejournal.com]

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.

[usoppsenchou.livejournal.com]

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.