damned_institute | Day 34: Breakfast

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Day 34: Breakfast

[starting off in M13]

The last part of the night was little more than a blur in Homura's mind. The men had rushed in, but not joined them, instead staying off to themselves. Before any of them had a chance to react, however, a voice sounded through the air, mocking some other person Homura had never heard of, and the patients themselves.

To Homura, whoever that man was, he sounded a great deal like a god.

But before he could ask questions, the demi-god found himself no longer in the chapel, but some strange room on a bed. Is that what Kenren had meant from his earlier warning? Homura sat up, glad at least that the world didn't spin when he did so. Then the same man from before began to speak again, with a completely different tone. It was confusing to hear him talk that way, calling them patients instead of prisoners as he had before. Homura listened quietly as the announcement was made, then got out of bed.

Maybe he wouldn't have to go anywhere yet. It wasn't like Homura knew where to go anyway, and that meant he had time. If this was his room, and if he had been here as long as Kenren had said, there was a chance he could find something with answers. The Taisho had even told him that Homura had seen Rinrei. Certainly he would've written something down, made a map, something that could let him find her again! He started with the desk at the end of his bed, first finding a small stack of notebooks. Picking up the first, he flipped through, turning the pages with quickening desperation as he found each one to be blank.

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The little replica woke with a start, sucking in a deep breath of air. The difference in the crisp, fresh air of outside to the stark, chemical air in the inside was palpable.

Ion hugged the stuffed doll to his chest, crushing it -

Before looking at it with shock. Tokunaga! Albeit much smaller and cleaner than it had been last night.

His heart sank after his influx of joy; he hadn't seen Anise, and his plan had ultimately failed. When the nurse came to check up on him, Ion was quick to follow her to the breakfast room, barely paying attention to her idle chatter.

Clinging to Tokunaga fiercely, Ion looked around the room - once, twice - and sat down heavily, ignoring the appealing smells of food.

She would be alright. Right?

When Anise awakened that morning, she felt even more disoriented than usual. It was always jarring to suddenly wake up in bed without any memory of falling asleep in the first place, but it was even more jarring when her last memory was being in the middle of a fight with two men, both significantly larger than she was, and both of them closing in on her...

It definitely didn't help that she couldn't even remember why she had wanted to flatten them so much in the first place. At the time, it had made perfect sense to her, but looking back, any reasons she thought she had just weren't plausible. Maybe she just dreamed the whole thing up? It was an easy way to explain why nothing seemed to add up, but the throbbing pain in Anise's head told her otherwise.

That's right; she had been taken last night. She was terrified, fearing that they were just going to make her disappear like so many other patients had. Ami did her best to try and stop them... Anise would have to remember to thank her roommate later. Even if they hadn't accomplished anything in struggling, it was kind of touching to know there was someone willing to fight for her, even if they only knew each other a few days.

Suddenly, the girl shot out of bed, quickly forgetting any lingering grogginess or head pains - there was something way more important to address right now.

"Oh, no! Ion!"

Within the next few seconds, she quickly fixed her hair and stepped into her slippers, hurriedly getting ready to leave. While Anise had been attacking patients out in the field, poor Ion was waiting for her inside! Did he spend the whole night waiting? Did he go out looking for her? The Fon Master had a tendency to find trouble every time the guardian turned her head the other way. Did anything happen to him? At any rate, she had to find him - quick!

The second her door creaked open, Anise nearly knocked her nurse down in her hurry to get out. The woman merely chuckled, commenting about how energetic 'Dolores' was this morning, and how the pancakes at Landel's certainly were worth leaping out of bed for. Anise didn't want to hear it; she took the lead, walking briskly down the hall with the nurse trailing behind her. When she reached the cafeteria, she didn't give the food so much as a glance. As soon as she spotted the familiar green hair - and took an extra moment to confirm for herself that he was the replica she was looking for - Anise made a beeline for his table, leaving the nurse at the doorway.

The girl practically ran to the table, stopping at the side across from where Ion sat, and slamming her palms down on the surface. "Ion, I'm so sorry!" she began immediately. "I really meant to meet you last night! I just..." Her voice trailed off as she got a better look at the boy, and the thing in his arms.

Tokunaga.

Anise froze, suddenly at a loss for words. How did Tokunaga end up here? She thought all her belongings had been taken back after the night ended. And more importantly, if Ion had found Tokunaga, then... did he see what happened last night?

"Anise!" Relief washed over the replica in a wave; he looked up to smile at his Guardian, absolutely beaming. "It's fine!" he quickly tried to amend her worry, stopping her apologies. If anyone needed to be worried over, it was certainly her!

"You're not hurt, are you?" he continued, somewhat urgently - his tone was concerned, worry flooded his veins. It was bad enough she had been hurt protecting him a night ago... "I went looking for you last night, when you didn't show up. I never found you, but I did find him."

Holding out the doll to her, he smiled. "He was a little torn up, but I was more worried about you. The doctors... they took you last night, didn't they?"

Seeing that reassuring smile was enough to calm Anise down, at least a little. She gave a heavy sigh, relieved about a lot of things at once. It looked like Ion had been safe; and he even figured out what happened to her, at least to some extent. It seemed a little weird that he found Tokunaga without seeing her at all - she thought she was with her puppet the whole time! - but that was probably for the best. Anise wouldn't have wanted Ion to see her like that.

Anise shook her head at his first question; aside from a minor headache, she was just fine. Luckily, Tokunaga had taken all the real damage for her, as it usually did. The offered doll looked a little pathetic, with its hands and feet all worn and its one eye dangling from a thread, but the sight of it brought a smile to the guardian's face. She took it in her arms, examining it a moment and then giving it a squeeze. It was really her Tokunaga!

Finally, the girl pulled back the chair in front of her and seated herself, her doll squished affectionately between one arm and her chest. "I can't believe you found it! Thanks, Ion." She gave the Fon Master a grateful smile, which faded a little at his next question. Anise didn't want to say anything to make him worry even more, but if anyone had a right to know about this, Ion did. After hesitating briefly, she nodded gravely and answered, "Yeah. Right around the end of dinner. I don't remember where they took me or what they did, but... I remember everything after that."

The first thing Marcus needed to do this morning was make sure everyone was still in one piece after last night. He first came across the young girl he'd had to fight last night. And her doll, it was a rather terrifying looking little thing, even at that size.

Especially because he'd had to fight it last night. "Is your head alright this morning?" Marcus asked, stopping over next to the two children with his tray.

Hopefully the bulletin post indicated that both Logan and Parker were okay.

"I was glad to," he replied happily. "I was a little worried, since he wasn't so small when I found him." His smile faded away with hers, the gravity of the situation hitting him full-force.

His apology seemed lackluster. "I'm sorry," Ion said anyway. It was all the worse because he couldn't do anything to change it - and even if he'd been there, he wouldn't have been much help.

And now he couldn't find the right words to voice his question. Did you hurt anyone?

He was saved from an awkward silence by a new face, asking after Anise's health. Her head? The replica remained silent, looking to his guardian for the answer. She'd giving a negative to his question, but now he wasn't sure if she was lying for his benefit.

Ack. It didn't look like anything Anise could say would be enough to make the situation look any better. She was doing her best to stay strong in front of Ion, but the truth was that she was still rattled from the experience, herself. The scariest part of it all was how easily the staff here could just change people. Wasn't there anything anyone could do to stop them!?

Anise felt the need to protest Ion's apology, and assure him everything was just fine, but before she could speak again she found herself approached by a large stranger.

When asked about her head, Anise gave a quick glance around the table to see if there was anyone else with a probable head injury sitting nearby, but it looked like the big guy really was talking to her. But that was weird! She didn't recognize his face from anywhere, and she was sure she remembered everyone she encountered the previous night.

"It's just fine!" she shot back in a defensive tone. Here she was, trying to convince Ion that she was okay, and this weird guy just came out of nowhere and started making that even more difficult than it already was! "But how did you know I got hit on the head? I've never even seen you before."

"I ran into you last night, I was the one in the cape, if you remember last night," Marcus had bruises on his back from where he'd been slammed around, but otherwise he was uninjured, and thankfully he hadn't needed to do more than just hit the poor girl on the head.

She seemed like a nice enough kid now that she wasn't brainwashed.

A cape? That seemed such a strange clothing choice -

- hit on the head? Worry flooded Ion again, but he kept from voicing it. If anything, she could have gotten hurt worse - she looked pratically normal, even if she wasn't feeling so.

It was a strange idea to hear his Guardian had been hit. He'd seen her in battle - it wasn't exactly an easy feat to move around Tokunaga to get at the puppeteer on top. From the look of the doll, he'd taken most of the damage...

That was slightly reassuring.

The one in the cape...

Anise stared at the man for another moment, then something seemed to click. "Ahh! You were that guy!? With the weird mask?" Her manners temporarily forgotten, she was pointing a finger at his face. Who could blame her? Aside from the doodles on his uniform sleeve, he looked like a pretty normal guy: totally different from his nighttime appearance, which looked more like an Abyssman character than anything.

So what did he want from her, anyway? An apology?

...Okay, maybe she did kind of owe him one. After all, she had smacked the guy around quite a bit, and even if her motives weren't really her own, it was still her who did it. It was hard to own up to it with Ion watching, but Anise had already decided that she wasn't going to hide anything from him. Maybe downplay the bad parts a little, but no more lies or secrets!

"Um, sorry about all that," she offered after a pause, lowering the pointed finger. It was a little awkward to apologize for something she didn't really mean to do, but it was better than being rude and making enemies. And besides, on top of everything, Anise had lost her temper last night, too. Maybe if she was polite enough, she could play off that vulgar side of herself as though it had been all the brainwashing's fault. She had her image to worry about!

"It's called a faceplate," Marcus said about his mask, though he had been wearing a mask underneath the faceplate. Apparently there weren't people who wore costumes like that in her world, so it was understandable that she'd think it weird.

"There's no need to apologize, you weren't in control of yourself. No harm done, I just wanted to make sure you were feeling better this morning," Logan would be glad to know she was just fine, and Marcus did feel better about what he'd had to do last night to stop her. A lot of the other patients here, unfortunately, probably wouldn't have been so careful not to hurt her more.

[Skipping by request~]

It wasn't like Anise was unfamiliar with faceplates - she was a member of the knights, after all - but that didn't make the guy any less weird-looking. The single piece of armor looked totally out of place, with the rest of his costume appearing to be paper-thin. Who the heck dressed like that? Anise just couldn't wrap her head around it, but she had a feeling a certain Emperor would get a kick out of the colorful getup.

Anise was a little relieved that the guy wasn't actually fishing for an apology. Really, she just wished she and everyone else could forget it ever happened. Eager to put an end to the awkward subject, she smiled with far more radiance than could be genuine given her circumstances, and said cheerfully, "Is that all? Well, as you can see, I'm in perfect health!"

Quickly, so that no one else would have a chance to question her well-being, she added, "Oh, and my name's Anise! This is Tokunaga." She held up her doll proudly.

Lowering it again, she ran her fingers over the puppet, examining the parts that had been torn or pulled. It was common for Tokunaga to get damaged in battle, and Anise was pretty good at stitching it up, but she wondered if the institute's crummy plastic needles would be good enough to do the trick. They would have to, if she couldn't find anything better. After a few seconds Anise realized she had been frowning slightly while lost in thought, and immediately attempted a recovery, giggling and commenting, "Eheh, looks like I'll have some work to do today."

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Day 34: Breakfast

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