damned_institute | Day 33: Doctor's Office 9 (Dr. Sohma) [4th Shift]

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hatori

Day 33: Doctor's Office 9 (Dr. Sohma) [4th Shift]

The shift before lunch had went reasonably well for Hatori, even though he didn't particularly like telling patients they were really delusional. But he'd seemed to take it relatively well, hadn't he? It went fine, and it left the doctor with enough time to speed back into town for a quick lunch. His breakfast sandwich had gotten cold and unappetizing, and some warm food hit the spot. (And eating in the staff lunchroom wasn't his idea of fun for today, for that matter. While that Dr. Muraki had seemed interesting, Dr. Washu seemed - well, a little bit too proactive for him.)

He arrived back in a little late, but not too late. There were no patients waiting for him just yet when he got back in the office, so the rest of his time was spent poring over the file for the next patient. A new one, hmm? Very interesting, and with some of the same reported problems as the rest of his patients. Perhaps he'd go back to trying art therapy, but it really depended on what he could get from the patient.

So he sat, and he waited, and he read. The patient who fashioned himself 'Hitsugaya' would show up any moment now.

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Hitsugaya was incredibly relieved to find that his doctor was no longer the same. The previous doctor was gone, hopefully for good, and instead he was confronted with an entirely different gentleman. Still, from what he knew of Doctor Lecter, and from what he discovered about Doctor Muraki, he knew one thing: he couldn't trust a word this man said.

As the nurse admitted him to Doctor Sohma's office, the young captain remained standing in the middle of the room. Arms crossed and face stern, he quietly regarded his new doctor. Don't give him an inch, Hitsugaya told himself.

[lsjdfsdlkf sorry, totally missed this]

Ah, the last patient before the long weekend. Hatori was looking forward to it. It looked like there had been previous recorded information about the patient; he hadn't had much time to study it, though he had had some. Most of the patients he saw were either new to the Institute or new to the rigors of doctor's visits, after all. He was slightly curious to how this boy's perceptions of him might have changed after seeing another one of the doctors here.

"Good afternoon," he said - not quite pleasantly, but not quite coldly, either. "Tommy Winters? I'm Dr. Hatori Sohma, and I'll be your doctor for the rest of your stay here at the Institute. Please, have a seat.."

For the rest of his stay? That was a laugh. As if he could expect anything to remain the same in this damned place. Something about the doctor's tone of voice reminded him of his own...perhaps the requisite politeness with the slightly detached air. It wasn't completely withdrawn, but it wasn't warm and welcoming. If the man weren't the enemy, he could respect that; however, Doctor Hatori Sohma was every bit his enemy as Hannibal Lecter had been. He made the mistake of letting his guard down once. It wouldn't happen again.

"Dr. Sohma..." he said thoughtfully, ignoring for the time being that the doctor referred to him by his fake name. He was used to it by now, as asinine as it was. "I believe I've met your cousin. She was trying to contact you yesterday. And if it's all the same to you, I'd rather stand."

...Oh. Had everyone met that woman - no, that girl - that was claiming to be his cousin? He sighed in slight exasperation. "Stand if you wish. The chair's comfortable," he began. It didn't really matter to him.. and it wasn't as if he had to look too far up to see the patient's face anyway.

Then he addressed that issue - that issue that kept coming up. "I'm not sure if you have. There are no cousins of mine here at the Institute - merely someone who claims a relation. I guarantee you that she is quite mistaken." The corners of his lips turned into what wasn't entirely a smile. More a smirk. "She broke into my office this morning, actually."

He eyed the books on his wall. "I'm afraid we're not here to talk about her, though. This is your visit. How are you feeling today?"

Hitsugaya actually smirked slightly to match Dr. Sohma's. "Funny," he said. "So a woman who is under constant watch from the nurses except when she's locked in her room for the night without any means of escape somehow managed to break into your office this morning. Yeah, like that's believable."

The smirk quickly vanished, however. "How do you think I feel, idiot?"

"I had not thought it to be believable either, but the nurses here are clearly either overworked or underpaid, and the girl interrupted my breakfast at shift change." The doctor seemed a little put off by it, actually, as if it were more a nuisance than anything.

At the sudden adolescent outburst, Hatori had to raise his only visible eyebrow, his voice growing cold. "Angry and frustrated - that's quite obvious enough. I am a medical doctor, though. It's my job to ask these questions."

It seemed odd, that she actually was able to interrupt him during the day, and it totally ruined his argument. He had assumed by 'morning' the doctor had meant early morning, before the prisoners were woken. Mentioning that she actually managed to break in during the day? He decided it prudent to drop the argument altogether.

Hitsugaya blinked, suddenly feeling very uneasy. Why had they assigned him to a doctor and not a psychiatrist? It's not like he was physically ill or injured. What exactly did this crack doctor plan on doing to him? "You're...a medical doctor? Not a psychiatrist or psychologist?"

Hatori was glad the patient seemed to have dropped that first line. For heaven's sakes, he'd had combative patients before, but none so utterly grumpy.

"Actually, psychiatrists are medical doctors too," he explained. "But I am not a psychiatrist. I went to school to be a general practicioner. Until recently, I operated a family practice in Japan." He glanced at the bookshelf on his wall, pausing for a moment. What could he do to make this child relax? He really wasn't sure. The files hadn't said anything about that.

"...I'd like you to relax, though. You're supposed to be able to talk to me about your problems during this time." What would help the situation? "Would you like.. some candy?" It was kind of a lame attempt on Hatori's part, but.. it might work?

What the hell was it with people offering him candy? This was just like with Ukitake, except here he couldn't trust just what was inside the candy. Who knew what the doctor had laced within. The very thought of it made him sick. "My problems," he said while trying to fight back the urge to vomit. "Well, my current problem is that I'm being talked down to by an idiot who thinks he can buy me off with candy like some common child!"

It would have sounded a lot more impressive if Hitsugaya hadn't also been trying desperately to ignore the memories of his last visit with one of landel's doctors.

Okay. Well. That didn't work.

"My apologies," Hatori said with a sigh and a shrug. "I rather like it, myself." He hadn't exactly brought over things from his home country to share with the patients, but he wasn't above trying to exacerbate the situation using any methods he possibly could.

"I don't mean to talk down to you, of course. I know you don't trust me, Hitsugaya.." The use of his name was intentional, another attempt to warm the patient up to him. "But I'd like to ask you why that is. I'm only here to help you."

Clever man, Hitsugaya thought. Using his real name to try and lure him into a false sense of security. Perhaps when he first came here it might have worked, but he'd been toyed with far too many times for it to work now.

"Look into Doctor Muraki," Hitsugaya said simply. "Or Doctor Lecter, if you can find him. Truly investigate what they've done with their patients. Then ask me again why I don't trust you."

"I don't believe Dr. Lecter is here at the Institute anymore," Hatori said evenly. Or, at least, the name on his door had been changed to something else. As for Dr. Muraki... he had seemed like a nice enough man, but they'd only really gotten to speak once, that day at lunch. Hatori usually kept to himself. But Muraki had seemed charming.

"I'll talk to Dr. Muraki about his procedures, if you like." Of course, he supposed all of this supposition was the work of a paranoid teenager. "I'm not sure what they do during their visits, but I'm afraid my own procedures might seem a little boring in comparison," he said slightly ironically, then pulled out an art pad.

He pushed the pad on top of the table, then topped it with a little box of pastels. "Now, before we get started, I'd like to say that I do this with adult patients, as well. You're not being talked down to; you're older than you look, anyway, right?"

Hitsugaya shook his head again. "Idiot. If Dr. Muraki were doing something incorrect towards his patients, why the hell would he tell you if you weren't already in on it?" Not that any of this would help. The man clearly thought he was insane, what good would saying otherwise truly do?

He squinted suspiciously at the doctor as he pulled out an art pad and pastels, and looked even more suspicious as he pushed them towards the captain. "You've got to be kidding me..."

Hatori stared at the young man, only visible eye bugging out a little bit. He hadn't had such trouble with a patient in quite some time. Most of them at least gave some semblance of cooperating.

"...That's a good point, Hitsugaya, but it can't hurt to try, right? I'll see if I can get a hold of him before your next visit; it's all I can do for now." It really was. Hatori did care about his patients. And if this Muraki, charming as he seemed, was doing something to break down rapport between Hatori and his own patients, it had to be stopped.

"I'm not kidding about these, though. Go ahead and take the supplies; I'd like you to draw a picture of a person for me."

Hitsugaya's expression could only be described as unimpressed with this doctor's idea. Can't hurt to try? What a waste of time! Still, arguing the point seemed silly now. It wasn't like Hatori actually cared about the patients anymore than anyone else on the staff did.

The request to draw a picture for him was ludicrous as well. "No," he said simply. "This is pointless. You think I'm crazy, or are at the very least pretending that you believe as much, and nothing I do nor say will convince you otherwise."

Hatori merely stared at his patient for about five seconds after he finished speaking. Most patients actually cooperated, but..

"Hitsugaya..." He was beginning to understand why he'd had to switch doctors. He was sure Dr. Lecter didn't leave because of this patient, but no doctor would willingly take this poor boy in unless they were masochistic. Which Hatori was beginning to think that he himself was. "Believe it or not, you're in Landel's for a reason. You think I'm out to get you - you think the other doctors are, too. This is paranoia, plain and simple."

He sighed. "Now, you might 'convince' me with your actions here in Landel's. Recovering from an illness is a process. You're probably not going to get better in a day, but you have to start taking the first steps to recovery - even on days we don't have our visits."

For how encouraging Dr. Sohma's words were, his voice remained utterly cold.

"I've seen landel's handiwork on my allies," Hitsugaya said simply. "I know what Dr. Lector did to me." Again he tried to hold back his stomach at the thought of it all. "I've seen what it's like here at night, and you can't tell me that we've all had the same hallucination. When others come from where I come from and can recite the same 'fantasy' back to me with as much accuracy as my own, when at night I can still feel the reiatsu of the other shinigami and know when one of them is wounded and unfailingly be correct, when people have posted transcripts of your good doctor landel's speeches and they are verbatim with what I recall from the night...no, this is not paranoia Dr. Hatori. It's not paranoia when they really are out to get you."

He shook his head. "How many prisoners are injured in the morning? How many excuses can be made for broken arms and stab wounds that mysteriously occur during the night? Wouldn't it make the least bit of sense that there'd be an investigation into the cause of all these random injuries? That there'd eventually be a reduction in these injuries, or at least efforts to keep us from hurting ourselves? Either this is the most incompetent hospital the human world has ever seen, or there's something else going on behind these whitewashed walls."

There was quite a bit to address. Shared hallucinations and talk of 'reiatsu' and 'shinigami' aside, two things stuck out in Hatori's mind the most - he had to ask about Dr. Lecter, and he had to address the patient's very serious claim that things were going on during the night, when all the patients were quite definitely locked in their rooms directly after their dinner. Which was somewhat unhealthy, actually, and Hatori didn't exactly approve.

"...Hitsugaya. First of all, you've got to tell me what Dr. Lecter did to you. Second of all, self-injury is more common than ever these days, and while we do our best to keep dangerous materials out of our patients' hands, some do slip by the wayside, unfortunately." He'd had a few patients with injuries, but certainly not that many.

"However, I don't believe that these injuries are that common, based on my own experience. But please - tell me about what you do after dinner."

Whatever the report was, it would certainly have a bearing on what Hatori wrote down in his notes after the session.

Hitsugaya smirked again. "You would only assume it to be another hallucination," he replied. "But he fed me something which he later revealed to be..." He went pale again at the thought of it. "Human flesh."

He pushed that thought aside. "What tools could a patient even use to put themselves in a wheelchair on repeated counts in their own rooms? Go out to the cafeteria and look at the number of prisoners in casts, in wheelchairs, with other injuries. It's a lot more than just a few prisoner slips to the wayside. It's enough that any claim otherwise would be more than ludicrous. It'd be idiotic.

"What do I do? Try to escape this hellhole, of course." A complete lie. Escape wasn't his goal. The death of Dr. Landel and the tearing down of the institute was. And perhaps it was a page out of Gin's book, to mislead Dr. Hatori so, but he had no other recourse. Extreme times called for extreme measures.

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Day 33: Doctor's Office 9 (Dr. Sohma) [4th Shift]

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