damned_institute | Day 31: Sun Room (Fourth Shift)

Social formalities were not really his thing, but he was trying his best since he'd started the conversation. He nodded out a slight bow as well. "I'm Kurogane. A little girl named Ururu said you know someone I travel with. His name's Fai."

Now that she got a better look at him, Rukia realized that this was the person - or rather, there was a creature disguised as him - she had encountered with Renji and Fai a few nights before. Renji had dealt with the mimic creature swiftly and efficiently, but Fai had been distraught at the thought that his friend was dead. He had harmed Renji and Rukia in the fit of magic that ensued... They must have been close friends.

Rukia tried to conjure up an image of Ururu talking with this man; it was amusing to say the least. Even though Rukia had only just met the man, he seemed like the opposite of Ururu in appearance and temperament.

She nodded. "Yes, I have met Fai, though I do not know him well..." She had to wonder where this was going.

Edited 2008-04-11 16:18 (UTC)

He went straight to the point. "He's been acting weird since I got here," Weirder than normal, in any case, "and I'm looking for someone who might know what happened to him. He won't answer me." That magician never said anything directly.

Maybe someone he'd been with in this world would be able to clear some things up where Fai remained silent. "He seems to think that you're upset with him, so you've at least been around him, right?" She didn't need to know him well, just to have worked with him.

Rukia looked down at her hands, hesitant. On one hand, she felt strange telling this man what had happened with Fai, but on the other, Kurogane could probably help his friend if he knew what was going on. After a moment, she looked back up, then gestured to the spot on the couch beside her. "Please, sit down," she said politely.

"I'm not upset with him," she clarified, "though I know my friend Renji is. Fai... accidentally injured both of us a few nights ago, when he saw a creature here that had taken on your appearance..." She didn't know how Kurogane would take that news.

She hesitated. By that, he knew that she at least had some knowledge concerning his traveling companion. He slumped onto the couch when she asked that he do so.

"I didn't think you were," he said before he realized he'd spoken, "or suspected. He has a habit of thinking things are his fault." Renji? Who was that? Kurogane did not recall Ururu mentioning the name during the conversation at breakfast. He could ask later, once she was through explaining.

Hearing that Fai had injured others caused Kurogane to grit his back teeth. Hearing that it had been an "accident" made him bite down harder. And then the part about a monster looking like him just finished it off. That idiot!

"Something that looked like me..." So that was it, what Fai had been screaming about that first night, how Kurogane shouldn't have been there and had been "killed". Had Fai been the one to kill this creature? Only if the thing had attacked. But that only made partial sense. Appearance alone would not have been enough to make Fai think it had really been him; it should have been easy to tell that something wasn't right if "Kurogane" had ever given Fai a reason to end up killing him.

"What was it?" he asked, curious. "And how'd he hurt you?" That was a little more important. While Fai was the type to defend, he wasn't exactly the type to attack and injure others.

"It seems that way," she agreed. Even when she had tried to reassure him, he'd been almost in a state of panic. Something awful must have happened to him before, to make him act like that. Rukia felt better about her decision already; Fai needed his friend to be there for him.

Rukia put her notebook aside and settled against the arm of the couch so that she could mostly face Kurogane. "There are creatures here - some people call them 'mimics' - that do just that. They take on the appearance, voice, and even the memories of people. I think they somehow take that information from the mind of whoever they're near, which is why the creature we faced looked like you."

Rukia took a moment to collect her thoughts, then continued. "The night in question, Fai was with Renji, who's sitting over there (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/326670.html?thread=26505230#t26505230)," she said, pointing to the red head. "and me. The three of us were to try and get to the basement, but that was the night that we were all trapped on the buses at first."

She stopped again, remembering that Kurogane probably hadn't arrived at the Institute yet. "Oh, sorry, I don't think you were here yet. Suffice to say, things got very confusing and mixed up, but we managed to find each other. Fai had been badly injured, and I healed him, but at first he wouldn't tell us how he'd been hurt. Renji... yelled at him, because we needed to know what we were up against, and eventually Fai gave in." She looked up at Kurogane, her eyes full of concern for the young man. "He'd been attacked - bitten on the neck - by someone that looked just like you. He'd managed to get away from it, which was when we found him. The night was growing old, so we at least wanted to reach the basement. The entrance is in the kitchen, but we didn't want to go through the sun room because one of the brainwashed patients was in there."

"So we headed outside to go over the wall, which was where Fai had seen the mimic. Renji and I assured him that it wasn't really you - we've fought these things before, and have ways of making sure that they really aren't the people they're pretending to be. But Fai was insistent that we not hurt 'you'. Perhaps we should have just listened to him, but we wanted to at least get something done that night... We went on out, Renji in the lead, and were about to climb the wall to get to the kitchen when the creature found us."

"Renji checked its spirit thread, saw that it had no soul, and killed it quickly." Rukia looked down. It was strange seeing the same man before her now, when the last time she had seen him, his head had been nearly cloven in two by Renji's katana. "Fai... he just wouldn't listen to us. He still thought it was you. He ran to the corpse and fell to his knees, and then..." She paused, frowning, as she tried to think of how to explain what happened next.

"It was like dozens of small explosions - blue and gold light - all around us. I think it was coming from Fai, but he didn't seem to realize it. Or maybe he couldn't control it. I don't know." She shrugged apologetically, looking up at Kurogane again. "Renji hit him with the flat of his katana to knock Fai out, and the explosions stopped. We took him back to Renji's room, and he woke up, but he really wouldn't tell me anything. Just kept apologizing and saying that he wouldn't bother us any more."

She sighed.

After the explanation, Kurogane could not help but sigh as well only much harder, and with one hand gripping the couch arm hard. Just hearing about it all was exhausting and infuriating, and he'd not been there to deal with it. At least now he had the story behind things and could figure out exactly why Fai had reacted in that way.

That first night, those words of defeat he'd spoken, that mark on his neck, even his reaction in the Kitchen... all of it because some creature that had looked like an ally had tried to kill him, eat him by the sound of the explanation, and had ended up being killed before the magician's eyes. Kurogane hated it. He hated that this place had used something so simple to break the magician in such a short amount of time. That it had used Kurogane for that purpose!

He could taste some blood in his mouth seeping out from his gums. He was biting down too hard now, but he couldn't think to let up. The anger was too strong. He was still mad at Fai - he probably always would be - but that now paled in comparison to his rage against this place. Now he was fine to say that he was involved in this world, and whoever was in charge here was going to pay.

"You shouldn't have had to deal with him," he said after a while, restraining his angry tone as best he could.

Fai still held blame for something in this; injuring two others with his magic like that was something that should not have happened, and Kurogane would be confronting him about it right along with his Robin Cross issues. He couldn't just ignore that the magician had nearly gotten himself killed, and had lost control over his magic because of a fake! Even if it did have his voice and his memories, the last thing Kurogane would have ever done was outright attack Fai for no reason!

Rukia watched Kurogane, aware of the anger and tension he was radiating. She shook her head at his assertion, though. "No, it's... All of us here need to work together to defeat those who hold us and would toy with us like they did with Fai. It wasn't a matter of 'dealing' with him; I just want to help."

Leaning forward almost imperceptibly, Rukia added, "I'm glad that you're trying to help him. We all need our friends in this place."

He looked down at her again, expression hard, "I'm not used to working as a team." He had only been forced into dealing with it because of Tomoyo, so while he had gotten better in fighting alongside others, it still was not something he was very accustomed to. And considering how Fai was, the prospect of others helping, or more getting hurt for trying to help was something he would be afraid of. "Neither is he," he added.

His eyes turned away when she mentioned friends. "'Friends' isn't the word. He just needs someone to watch him," he grumbled out in denial. How could he be considered a friend to an idiot like that?

Rukia wondered why they were working together, if neither of them was accustomed to working in a team. She could understand the sentiment to a degree, but she had been working alongside others since long before she was even a shingami; as kids she, Renji, and the other boys had always worked together to get food and find shelter.

Rukia smiled gently. "It looks like it's something you'll both have to learn, then." But she couldn't help raising an eyebrow at his next statement. Considering how upset Fai had been when he thought Kurogane was dead, and how concerned Kurogane obviously was for the blonde, Rukia didn't know why he was denying that they were friends. "Forgive me for being presumptuous," she said, "but it seems to me that 'friends' is the word, and they are the most precious thing you will ever have."

"Che," he snorted again. It felt like she was chiding him.

"I don't have friends," he said without batting an eye. Maybe he'd had them as a kid, but not now. He had the people he traveled with, the manjuu (which didn't count as a person), and his master. That was all.

Rukia just tilted her head, the eyebrow creeping further up. She didn't know this man well, and had no strong, personal reason to get involved, but she couldn't let him squander his friendship. She had done it before, and regretted it more than anything.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Ah?" he looked back at her a moment, then chose to start off at a far wall, "Just don't." It was that simple. Friendship wasn't a thing he'd ever needed as a Shinobi. He wasn't the most trusting of persons when it came down to it.

Rukia had to bite her lip to prevent the smile that was threatening. The way Kurogane was acting reminded Rukia of a petulant child, insisting he could get dressed all by himself, thank you very much, while tangled in a knot of kimono and obi.

"Have you ever thought of trying it?" she asked.

"What?" he looked down at her again. What was she getting at?

He was either not very smart - which didn't seem likely, because then he would probably be fooled by Fai's lies - or just stubborn.

Rukia rolled her eyes slightly, sighing. "Have you ever thought of admitting that you have friends? They're not so bad, you know. Sure, sometimes they make fun of your art work, or how short you are, but mostly they're good to have around."

Kurogane being stubborn was an more than just a little understatement.

He blinked, confusion showing on his face. Make fun of... what? "I already told you..." he began, but ended up heaving another sigh. This person did not seem to be the type to listen even if he did repeat himself.

"I know you already told me you don't have friends," she said, still smiling. "But you're obviously concerned for Fai; you wouldn't be so angry otherwise, am I right?"

She shrugged, holding up her hands. "But you don't have to listen to me. I just know what I see." A direct assault didn't seem to be the way to go with Kurogane, so she would drop the topic for now.

He growled and looked away from her again. He was just angry because that idiot had been messed with and had let himself get messed with. They didn't have to be friends for him to get angry. Things got under Kurogane's skin all the time. Just because it was Fai didn't mean he cared like a friend would care; he only cared because Fai didn't care. He'd told Fai enough himself.

"Someone has to keep him from getting himself killed," he muttered, but didn't sound all that convincing. He ignored her additional comments.

Rukia continued smiling at him. "That's a very noble undertaking."

This guy was unreal. Rukia thought it was silly enough when Renji said that Madarame Ikkaku was an 'okay guy', when he was clearly friends with the Third Seat, but Kurogane seemed to have perfected a whole new level of denial.

"Shut up!" he roared in an instant, head snapping back to look at her once again. What was with this girl?!

Rukia jumped, knocking her notebook onto the floor, when Kurogan yelled at her. She really couldn't find it in her to be mad, though; after recovering she just laughed quietly, shaking her head ever so slightly.

"Now, no need to yell." she said, gently. "I didn't mean to pry into such a sensitive topic." Which couldn't have been further from the truth.

"What the hell are you laughing for?!" For some reason, she was becoming just as bothersome as Fai. He felt like she was teasing him like that magician would have, only in a silent way. "Don't call it sensitive either!" That word wasn't one he should ever be associated with!

"I'm sorry," Rukia chuckled, really trying to stop laughing. "I just... have a lot of experience dealing with people as surly as you." Her gaze drifted over to Renji, where he was sitting with Sora not too far away. After all the screaming matches and knock-down-drag-out fights she and Renji had had over the years, Kurogane couldn't begin to intimidate her.

"Please don't take offense, but I'm a good actress, so I can usually tell when someone isn't telling the whole truth."

He growled at her words, not liking them at all. It still felt like he was being treated like a kind. Not a feeling he enjoyed considering how Fai managed about the same thing. And why was she comparing him with someone else?!

"You saying I'm lying?" he demanded to know, but didn't shout this time. Still, his tone remained harsh. Fai was the one that lied, not him.

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