damned_institute | Day 31: Sun Room (Fourth Shift)

Entry tags:

Day 31: Sun Room (Fourth Shift)

Though perhaps not entirely as successful as he wanted it to be, Homura walked away from lunch feeling satisfied with his efforts. Roland and Fai both had shown interest in the goal, and that was enough for the moment. Homura could be patient, had already been for five hundred years, and felt no harm in waiting another five hundred if he had to. He would have his goals realized, no matter what obstacles he faced, be they from the prison or those trapped within.

But now was time for business of a different sort, and the demi-god made his way to the Sun Room, near the common board. He made sure he could be seen from the entrance to the cafeteria, knowing that one stranger and one member of his own group both wanted to meet with him. It worked out well enough, especially given that the stated purpose of the History Club was simple.

Revenge and escape.

For now, Homura had no intention of revealing that it'd grown more complicated than that.

[Waiting for L and Junior]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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.

Rukia got her laughter under control, and reached down to pick up her notebook before answering him. "You might not be lying to me," she said softly.

"You're as bad as him," he huffed, not wanting to gave any real comment to her assumption.

"Oh, does Fai call your bluff a lot, too?" she asked, the picture of innocence.

"No, he just annoys me," he glared at her, "a lot."

Rukia grinned, relaxing against the couch again. This guy really seemed to enjoy hanging around with people who annoyed him. Maybe he secretly liked the attention.

She decided to let him make the next move, and remained silent.

She was too comfortable with bothering him. Just like someone else he knew. Just his luck.

Looking away again, he put his attention to the red-head pointed out earlier. That one would be easy to remember, looking as he did. Kurogane remembered what had been mentioned in Rukia's explanation and how Renji had needed to knock Fai out as well. If Rukia was Renji's friend, then he was probably used to dealing with the same things as Kurogane was.

"He's a Shinigami too, right?" he said, remembering that he'd intended to ask about Shinigami at some point. It was an odd way of bringing it up though.

Rukia blinked. How had he known...? Oh, Ururu must have said that they were shinigami. "M'hm," she confirmed, nodding.

She'd acknowledged and confirmed it. So Ururu hadn't just been making things up after all. Looking back at her yet again, he asked, "How old are you?"

Rukia crossed her arms, making a show of being offended. "Now, that's not an appropriate question to ask a lady!" she scolded.

A moment later, though, she chuckled, answering, "I'm not exactly sure. Somewhere around a hundred. I died when I was a baby, I think, and didn't really know to keep track of years for a long time." She wondered if he would be shocked by that information.

"Is it?" he asked, never having been scolded for something like that before. Well, his mother might have scolded him once for it a long time ago, but it hadn't come up since he'd been in Tomoyo's service.

And he really couldn't have cared less if he'd offended her as a result.

... "So you're dead?" A dead death God? There were such things?

"Normally, yes," she said. "At least, that's what some people say."

She nodded, explaining, "In my world, when people die they go to Soul Society. Some of us are strong enough to become shinigami. We fight to protect the living from Hollows, which are the monstrous souls of those who have died and refuse to move on to the next world." There, that was pretty concise. maybe the shortest version she'd been able to manage so far.

He'd heard as much about Hollows from listening to Ururu, though he hadn't pried into it much. It was sort of weird that he was knowingly speaking with someone who was dead (and had been for a while), but the Princess had done the same in Spirit. The difference here was that Kurogane did not have the power to actually see spirits like the Princess.

"Never thought a Shinigami would look human," he said plainly after a bit. He wasn't one to get riled over the inexplainable, not anymore at least. Sure, he'd stare at strange foods and any kind of talking animal here and there, but for the most part he'd gotten over his exploding fits from earlier in his travels.

Rukia shrugged. "Maybe they don't look human in your world," she offered. "There may not even be shinigami in your world."

"About which I must admit I'm curious," she said. "Fai said that you travel to many different worlds?"

Edited 2008-04-11 21:37 (UTC)

"There are," he said. None that he could see, but he knew the term well enough. And if Rukia was supposed to be dead, then she'd be a spirit or something. He wasn't usually able to see such things. Of course, in a place like this anything was possible.

He nodded. "Yeah, we do." Fai had said that much already? Normally he would have only mentioned passing through or some sort of similar excuse.

Genuinely curious, Rukia asked, "But how do you know that they exist if you haven't seen them?"

"That must be exciting, getting to see new places all the time," she said, though she expected Kurogane was less enthusiastic about it.

Answering that would mean... "My mother was a Miko," he said a little reluctantly. He didn't like having to talk about his past, so that was all he'd say concerning that. It should be enough.

He growled a little more at the word "exciting". Different, maybe, but far from exciting, and definitely annoying. He hadn't wanted to go on this stupid journey in the first place.

Rukia frowned, not familiar with the word. "What's a Miko?" she asked.

"A priestess."

He found it strange that she didn't know that. Shinigami were Japanese so far as he knew. The word was anyway. Or maybe she was saying something else and that was just what the translation the Manjuu was giving. He wasn't about to sit there and figure out how Mokona worked where Language was concerned. So long as he could communicate well enough, things were fine.

"Oh, so she was familiar with that sort of thing, then," she mused. There really wasn't such a thing as a priestess in Soul Society, but Rukia had met a few people in the Rukongai who had been priests or priestesses in life. From what she could tell, they sometimes spoke to spirits, and performed a lot of rituals at shrines.

"Ah..." As a kid, he'd asked a lot of questions of both his parents. He wasn't so carefree anymore.

"So why are you and Fai traveling together?" she asked after a few moments of silence. They did seem like a strange pair.

Back to that again. "It's not by choice," was the first thing out of his mouth. He still found the whole mess annoying and unwarranted for the most part. Tomoyo had overreacted.

Rukia tilted her head. That wasn't much of an explanation. "Some sort of assignment, then? Or if you'd rather not discuss it I understand."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject