damned_institute | Day 32: Sun Room (2nd shift)

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Day 32: Sun Room (2nd shift)

After the couple glasses of water Leon managed to gulp down during breakfast, the mage felt immensely better. He was still a bit tired, but that was nothing a little lounging on one of the sofas wouldn't cure. Stretching his arms above his head, he couldn't help but wish he'd had the chance to grab one of his new doctor's coats before leaving his room that morning. Maybe they would have let him get away with wearing it. Maybe.

He grabbed an empty sofa, pulling out the journal he tried to keep on him at all times. It was nearly complete now. Just a couple more pages to go. It might not improve his spellcasting that much, but any improvement was better than none. It was getting to where it might be too dangerous for him to use spells at all, if it left him so worn out without even finishing a monster off.

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For a while, Diva didn't say anything either, or even acknowledge someone had come near her. With her eyes closed, and a soft smile on her fact, Diva breathed in the life around her. So many different colors, different tastes. Some human, some not, some sort of human? It was what made the game interesting and bleed into minutes, rather than keeping her attention for a few scant seconds and sending her off on another search for entertainment soon after.

When Heat had come sat beside her, in much the same way, she hadn't really been in the mood to play. There was one obvious similarity between that and this, though: there was a hot taste.

"Ne, but you," started Diva, opening her eyes. Her fingers were daintily linked under her chin while she faced the room, and she was not quite interested enough to do more than look sideways at Hiei, the one in question. "You're not the same. Why?"

Hiei had been content enough to ignore and be ignored. He'd leaned back against his side of the couch, closing his eyes. Maybe if the woman had stayed quiet, the demon could've taken a nap. But no, she had to talk, some random words that made no sense out of whatever context her apparently warped mind had come up with.

"Not the same as what?" Hiei wasn't one to indulge stupidity, and his impatience showed in his voice. "And why is it any business of yours? I'm only here so that human nurse will leave me alone."

"Like the other one here that has blood that tastes burnt. Yours is more... hmmm. Thicker. Stronger." More pure, in a way that Heat’s wasn’t. Heat had said he wasn’t human, but in an intuitive way that Diva couldn’t (or wouldn’t) explain, she could tell the differences, and his blood was certainly more watered down by humanity in comparison.

Diva flicked her eyes at the translucent ceiling, considering. Great faith in herself didn’t make her in the least doubtful of her superiority--which wasn’t a shortcoming in her eyes--but all of these unexplained presences were starting to make bigger blips on her radar.

Impossible to ignore.

"Because you’re all so strange, not like me and not like the humans."

From the way she was talking, Hiei hardly thought this woman had room to call him strange. How blood tasted, that it was burnt? He'd known demons who feasted on flesh, souls, and whatever else they fancied. But he couldn't remember any of them saying that the blood was overcooked.

Out of all her ramblings, however, one thing did make sense. Whoever she was, insane or not, this woman could tell the difference between Hiei and a human. "I don't know what you are, but I'm a demon. And there's nothing strange about that."

So few people seemed to know what a Chiropteran was here. Maybe it was an extra batch of stupid humans, or like Amshel said, most wouldn’t recognize the word what with ‘monster’ used so fittingly.

"What’s that supposed to be?" Diva asked, because it certainly was strange.

She was sure she’d been called a demon hundreds of times before, herself. But he was using it like a title, no shame, and not an insult like Saya-neesama might.

Hiei sneered at what her words implied; that being a demon was somehow weird, perhaps even abnormal in some way. He knew about the different worlds, but Hiei had yet to encounter anyone who had no knowledge of what a demon even was. Or at least none that he remembered; he tried to forget idiotic encounters whenever he could. It made it easier to avoid headaches.

"A demon is a demon. A race of creatures, just as humans are, though thankfully not all of us are as pathetic." They were as common as humans in the Demon Realm, particularly those too moronic to exist. Those type, C class and lower as the Spirit Realm would label them, served little purpose other than serving as fodder for the higher ranks. The rest, B class and beyond, however, had power beyond imagination. Hiei himself had recently become an A class for the first time since he obtained the Jagan, and it was only a matter of time before his strength surpassed even Yusuke's.

The first step to that, of course, being to escape from here.

"And what are you supposed to be?" It was fairly obvious that this woman was neither demon nor human, just from her words. Which left few other possibilities, at least that Hiei knew of.

She turned to face him on the couch, smiling curiously, both amused and interesting. A demon is a demon. And all the rest of it… Diva liked the explanation, even if she didn’t really understand it. Who could? It wasn’t like there were more than four groups on the planet: plants, animals, humans, Chiroptera. That was all.

"I wouldn’t believe it at all if I couldn’t tell you were different," said the Queen. "I can taste it, sort of. You’re strong, aren’t you? My sister and I are the strongest Chiropterans there are--that‘s what I am."

Diva's delight got no reaction from Hiei; the demon glanced towards the nurse, ensuring she was satisfied enough with his interaction to leave him alone. He couldn't care less how delighted Diva got over the conversation. So long as the human left him alone, he was fine.

"I've never heard of Chiropterans." Nor was he impressed to hear of them now, if his voice was any indication. He looked at the woman from the corners of his vision, a slight smirk playing on his lips. At least she recognized his strength through this ability to taste, even restrained as it was in their prison. "I'm strong." It was with no small pride that Hiei said those words. He'd worked and suffered to earn his strength. Of course he was proud of it, even if he wasn't the strongest demon.

That was just a matter of time.

She smiled too, and it was sweet. "But not strong enough to keep away from the humans." Contrary to how it sounded, Diva didn’t consider that a blow to her own ability. After all, she’d been here before, where the humans tried to manipulate or kill her. And she’d gotten free, then. She’d do the same here.

"Amshel’s a scientist, he likes to talk about this stuff. Chiroptera are the strongest things alive--if they don’t obey him, then they’re close to death. You might like it." Although he wasn’t the most interesting toy she’d ever seen, he had funny hair, very odd. "You’d probably get killed, though."

She wasn’t sure if her Chevaliers would take well to him. Probably not.

In so many ways Diva's words were a low blow, a trap that Hiei had walked into. Now the demon turned to face the woman beside him, but only to scowl at her. "I'll escape this prison soon enough. It's only a matter of time before I leave this place in ashes."

His right arm ached to do so, the dragon on his skin still dark even if it didn't pulse with power as it once had. A matter of time.

But Diva was still prattling on, and...was she actually thinking of trying to turn Hiei into one of those Chiropertan things? Her out-loud ponderings were met with a scoff, Hiei not having to consider it at all. "I like being a demon. And I take orders from no one." At least not in any sense that counted. Going where the nurses directed him was all part of biding his time, and avoiding the sedation that was a bigger annoyance than anything else Hiei had experienced in this place.

"Besides," Hiei crossed his arms over his chest, once again turning away from the woman. "You didn't even know what demons were until a minute ago. Don't assume they couldn't easily destroy your precious Chiropterans."

Oh ho, hot tempers reminded her of little children that puffed their cheeks and got all huffy. Like Carl, before Solomon soothed his temper, like water on fire.

"So will I. But not before they‘re all dead," Diva added for Hiei‘s benefit. Silly boy. “I don’t take orders, either, but that’s because I’m a Queen. You don’t have an excuse--you’re mortal. Chiropterans can’t die, not unless me or Saya-neesama kills them. Can you be killed by anything, or only by your twin?" She then touched her chin, thinking again. "Wait, you're male too. That must make you weaker than a female, right?"

What Hiei had heard before, what Diva said after, none of it mattered after she mentioned two simple words.

Your twin.

Hiei had told no one there, not even Kurikara about his sister. The only one who could have known that had been there was Kurama, and the fox wouldn't tell random strangers that secret. So how could Diva possibly know about Yukina, that she not only existed, but that she and Hiei were twins?

The demon didn't know, but he would find out.

The scowl was little compared to the look Diva got as Hiei turned to her again. His jaw clenched tight, he leaned close, a dangerous fire lurking in his eyes. "How do you know about her? Who told you?" Whoever they were, Hiei would find them and rip them apart. This woman too, regardless of how immortal she thought she was, unless she answered quickly.

Sedation, nurses, none of it would stop Hiei when it came to the matter of protecting Yukina.

The Chiropteran shrugged, unaffected by the change. "The only powerful things are born as twins. So they balance." Of course, the only real case of that were the Chiropteran Queens, exactly two twin females born to every previous Queen that managed to become pregnant and deliver.

Hiei wasn’t as strong as that, and he was male, but his blood told her he was just strong enough that he hadn’t been turned by anything or anyone. Just born that way.

And to her, it was the only birthing that really made sense. Maybe she was wrong though, and he really was weak.

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Day 32: Sun Room (2nd shift)

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