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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Thankfully, Yukari sounded more relieved than furious as he had feared. As a result, Ken managed to find a portion of his voice, albeit he still kept his eyes away from hers.

"Yukari-san." He swallowed thickly, not sure where to start. His memory of the beginning was rather shady in the first place. "Last night, I... I think they took me from my room."

Yukari froze where she sat, eyes widening at Ken. No... Trance had even mentioned the possibility last night when they went to go find him, and yet Yukari was easy to dismiss it; she didn't want to think it as one. And here he was, saying just that.

"Who did?" she asked hastily. "And where-- Where to?"

Ken caught the shock from the corner of his eyes, and in that instance, he felt sorry for ever saying anything. Of course, he had to, considering a part of the incident involved Yukari, but...

"I don't know," he admitted. "Sometime after dinner, they must have..." The boy trailed off before shaking his head in frustration. Who knew what occurred during that point in time? "When I woke up, I was in a room. W-With a doctor."

That explained a lot, and Yukari became angry at herself for not realizing this beforehand. There was even an announcement they would be taking 'patients'! But Ken said he would be out, too, so she couldn't be blamed for not thinking of it right away, and what were the chances it would happen to him, of all people?

Pretty high, apparently.

"They didn't do anything to you, did they?" she asked quickly. They had better not, or someone was going to pay.

His jaws instantly clenched at the question, forcing a tense silence from the child's end. Oh, Yukari had every right to ask, and she, in many ways, deserved to know. But it was simply impossible: he could never reveal what exactly had occurred. Even if Yukari understood the connection between himself and Shinjiro, relating the experience was to relive it. Ken lacked the constitution for that.

"I'd rather not talk about it," he stated, his voice audible for only the teen to hear. "Please don't ask me again."

Yukari blinked, all worry and anger washed away from her features into nothing more than a blank, surprised expression for a moment's time; she could understand the first part of his response, but the request after it... Immediately afterwards she went back to frowning, an almost scolding look on her face. In all honesty she was quite annoyed he would only explain where he was and nothing else, as it was painfully obvious by that remark that something did occur.

"Why not?" Yukari asked, her emotions becoming apparent in her words. "I don't care if it's now, or later, or days from now, but you can't expect me to be okay with not knowing what happened."

"I know," Ken piped up, his tone bordering on desperation. He still had yet to look at her. "I'm really sorry, Yukari-san." How well the response would be received was questionable, but the boy had no intention of changing his mind. Things would get far too complicated if he caved.

"But you do need to be told about this," Ken immediately continued, as to not completely discourage Yukari. It probably wasn't the best place to reveal this information, but considering its weight on their welfare, he had to risk eavesdroppers.

Fortunately, most were too intent on eating or conversing among themselves to ever notice the child's words. "They know about us...and our Personas."

A pause, and then she sighed, if a little exasperatedly-- not at him, but the entire situation as a whole. What else was going to keep being thrown at them?

But then Ken spoke up again, grabbing her attention, this time with something he was willing to reveal. Her shock came not too long once he was finished.

"What?" Yukari blurted out, careful to keep her voice hushed only after she began. "What do you mean they know about our Persona?"

To be perfectly honest, he wasn't exactly positive on an answer. Especially on where to start.

As if collecting his thoughts, Ken peered intently at the cafeteria floor. It was a minute or two before he finally spoke, the concentration slipping into his voice. "When I opened my eyes," the boy started, "the doctor asked if I knew my power could evolve."

"I had no idea what he meant by that at first," Ken quickly qualified. "In a way, I still don't. But then the doctor..." Already, he could feel the bile rising to the back of his throat. "He mentioned it by name. It was like he could have worked for the Kirijo Group."

The child furiously shook his head, hoping to visibly discount that possibility. "But there's no way. I'm sure of it."

"Huh?" Evolve? "I have no idea what that means, either-- Mitsuru-senpai never mentioned anything like that." Unless, of course, she was still hiding information from them. Yukari mentally scoffed at the idea, she was still capable of doing that no matter what she said. With a small shake of her head, she continued on, "How could they know something we don't?"

Ken was right-- it couldn't have been possible that one of the staff here came from the Kirijo Group. At least, it didn't seem like it could, or should, be possible.

This was starting to make Yukari feel more uneasy than she pleased.

"You have to tell me-- how much do they know? What else did he tell you?"

Mitsuru certainly had not as far as Ken understood. If she knew about evolving Persona, the senior probably had kept the fact to herself, which the boy could partially empathize. The rest of him feared this forced ignorance might have screwed them over.

Ken furrowed his brow, determined to get the specifics for Yukari. This was rather difficult since he also had to actively avoid talk of the procedure. "As much as we do, at the very least. He seemed to get how it worked." Or the man knew exactly how to bluff.

"But that was all the doctor ever said. Even admitted he didn't have much information," he concluded before trailing off altogether.

Oh, 'not much'? That made her feel slightly better at least, but it was still unnerving knowing they had anything at all. If it was brought up in the first place, they were planning something with such information... And, oh, Yukari wanted to know, yet that would bring her right back into asking what exactly happened that night. It was already made clear that Ken was not willing to reveal that yet, frustrating as it was. Nothing good, that was definite.

Soon, she had to tell herself. It wasn't like he was going to keep that from her forever. Or rather, she hoped he wouldn't.

In the meantime, Yukari stabbed the pancakes before her in some sort of annoyance, although her appetite had dwindled during the conversation. She realized this after she picked up the fork again, giving a dissatisfied look at the food before letting it drop back down to the plate. She wasn't much in the mood for such a sweet tasting breakfast, anyway. "Sounds great." Her voice gave away she felt the complete opposite. Yukari's eyes drifted off before returning back to the boy. "I suppose all that matters now is... you're okay, right?" He didn't sound it moments ago, but that was something he could overcome... couldn't he?

"... I'm sorry, Ken-kun," Yukari apologized, her voice quieter. "I know there had to be some way I could have helped, and..." Instead, she spent the entire night roaming around, growing nothing more than irritated that her teammate was nowhere to be found. And she didn't want to admit that.

[I'm sorry for my failure to be a good tagger! DX]

For the first time since their talk, Ken slumped into the seat across from Yukari. He still had traces of anger in his system, but the account had left him fairly exhausted. Thankfully, there was nothing else to explain, or so the boy hoped. They still had to discuss the implications, of course; that, however, was more manageable than what had occurred.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” he told Yukari, despite his tone entailing otherwise.

Ken tensed when his teammate apologized, as if realizing this entire situation was his fault. She had done nothing in the situation, sure, but there was no way Yukari could have known. Not when Ken had mentioned he had other plans at the night’s beginning. Her absence was completely understandable.

“You don’t have to,” he cut in. “There was nothing that could have been done.”

[no excuses. couch tonight :|]

"Of course there was!" Yukari insisted, both clenched fists on the edge of the table. She didn't intend on putting any blame on herself-- there was someone else entirely for that-- but knowing she did nothing at all to help improve it... She hated that feeling.

Sadly, all that could be said was what's done is done; there was no point in arguing the possibilities when they couldn't go back and change them. At the very least, Yukari learned not to take so lightly of someone's intuition. If only she had actually listened to Trance instead of dismissing them as possibilities that Just Didn't Happen, maybe, maybe... Argh, there were so many places where she went wrong, how could she be so stupid?

With a breath, Yukari leaned back in her own chair, raising a thoughtful eyebrow before cutting into the silence again; "Maybe you should take it easy today. Tonight, too." Really, it looked to her Ken wanted to do nothing more than crawl into a hole, not be out here. He couldn't honestly be up to possible threats feeling as he did.

[But the couch is cramped and smells of hobo. D:]

Ken couldn't see how help was possible. In more than one way, he had backed himself into a corner, what with his nonexistent guard and mixed messages. Worthless, really. Perhaps the doctor had been correct.

There certainly was no use in continuing on that subject, however, so the boy let it drop. Instead, he gathered his hands in front of him into a worried little knot. Yukari's suggestion, despite how tempting it sounded, caused more apprehension on his end. Ken had not forgotten that little issue with the roommate, and they still had materials to gather.

"I probably shouldn't," he quickly answered. "I mean, you have to get your weapon as soon as possible, right?"

[that's no one's fault but your own!]

"Yeah," Yukari replied, crossing her arms. "I'd like to, but I'm not some sort of slave driver." She gave an odd look at Ken. "If you really don't want to, then you shouldn't. I could figure something out. Otherwise... well, I won't debate about it, but I'd rather not make you come with me tonight."

She wasn't entirely sure what she could accomplish without Ken by her side, and she definitely didn't want to wander off by herself. Yukari meant what she said, however, and there was the entire rest of the day to figure out other options...

[Hey, man, I ain't turning down no free couch even if hobos had owned it. :|]

"But..." Ken internally sighed. There was no way to refer to this delicately. "What are you going to do? What if... What if something happens?"

Considering his own situation, there were at least a couple of scenarios that were possible. None of which he would like to have occur.

[then put your hobo couch to use :|]

Good question, and as much as she wished she could say nothing would, Yukari wasn't dumb enough to make such claims. She took the possibility into consideration, another thoughtful look on her face. "I'll be careful," she said. "Don't worry too much about it, Ken-kun. Think about yourself for now."

[I'll put it to use...on your face! :|]

There was probably no way he could ever stop worrying, but Ken had to concede. Yukari was older than him; of course, she would take precautions, especially with what just happened. He was hardly in a position to decide now at any rate.

"Let me think it over. I'll let you know on the bulletin before dinner."

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Day 34: Breakfast

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