damned_institute | Day 35: Bus 1

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Day 35: Bus 1

Sanji woke up groggily to find his nurse already in his room. He gave a sleepy and half-hearted "Buh?" before realizing that nurse meant dayshift, and he'd fallen asleep after dinner.

"Shit!" He sat up abruptly, which gave his nurse a start. "Nami-swan!" How had he allowed himself to sleep through an entire night? What if she'd tried to return to the basement? What if she'd been waiting for him to appear and protect her? He'd let her down!

"There, there. Calm down." His nurse set a familiar flannel shirt down on the bed and Sanji eyed it with confusion. The last time he'd worn that had been... "Sorry I didn't knock or anything, but I was so excited~!" A pair of jeans followed the shirt. "Today is the field trip into town! Aren't you looking forward to it?"

The chef had to admit, the town had been an interesting enough place the last time he'd been. If he could find Nami early on he might even be able to lead her around... So he didn't complain too much as he changed into the other outfit (which he really wished they'd let him keep - anything was better than the regular gray) and was led out to the first of the buses.

He took a seat near the front, hopefully easily visible to any of his crew - especially to a certain member of his crew.

[for Usopp!]

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[for Ritsuka! and, uh, a million eavesdropping people]

Well, that had been a fantastically productive night. So productive, in fact, that they'd very nearly made it to the main hallway.

The only night in which Mello had accomplished less was the evening he spent on the radio with L. He wondered if the connection was significant: did overly observant people interfere with the flow of time by analyzing every goddamn irrelevant detail? But Matt and his History club crew had accomplished plenty the night before, and Matt wasn't one to overlook anything--as long as there wasn't a game boy in his hand. There must be a variable that Mello hadn't considered.

When the nurse handed Mello a neatly folded pile of clothing, he looked at her warily. Shouldn't the institute want to keep its patients recognizable, the way prisoners on work detail always wore colored vests? Civilian clothing would make it easier for one of them to slip away unnoticed, but Landel must have considered that. A test of some sort...as if there hadn't been enough of those yet.

Mello quickly buttoned up his cotton shirt before following the nurse to the buses. If his clothes were supposed to help him blend in with the general population, it seemed like Doylestown was having a twenty-four hour pajama party.

He accepted his bag breakfast and sat down on the first available bench, watching for the person whose description he'd read on the bulletin yesterday evening. For the first time in his life, Mello wasn't completely certain that he wanted the answers to his questions...but he sure as hell wasn't going to let Near get them first.

Ritsuka woke with a start and nearly fell out of bed. Even after almost two weeks of this, he wasn't used to it. He'd just been talking to Soubi, almost confessing the truth to him, when bam - intercom, end of night, morning. He really, really hated that.

Rolling over and going back to sleep was interrupted when his nurse burst in, talking about how excited he should be and how cute his outfit was. Ritsuka just wanted to bury himself under the sheets until she went away, but after minimal internal griping, he eventually found himself on the way to the bus with a sack breakfast and a mostly normal outfit. At least the kitten sweater was gone, but it had been replaced with jeans, a brightly colored long-sleeved t-shirt that Ritsuka could have sworn was probably made for a girl, and a baseball cap.

Shoved onto the first bus, he made his way down. Average height and blond didn't exactly tell him much, but there seemed to be at least one person who fit that description so Ritsuka stopped next to him, looking at him curiously. "Uh, I'm Aoyagi Ritsuka. Are you the one who wanted to talk to me?"

When he heard the voice, Mello looked over the boy in front of him and gave a convincingly friendly smile. "Yeah," he said with a quick nod. "That's me."

Yesterday's conversation with Matt was fresh in his mind, this time as more than idle banter. He knew his friend had only been playing devil's advocate, but a few of Matt's points had wedged into his consciousness. He was wary, more wary than he'd been in a long time.

"You said that you like reading comic books," Mello continued. His demeanor was more inviting than usual. Ritsuka had seemed like the naive, open type on the bulletin board, and those people were best dealt with in kind. "I'm trying to figure out why certain people end up here, so anything you know could help me out a lot. That stuff on the bulletin board meant something to you?"

Whoever this guy was, he seemed friendly enough, so Ritsuka took the seat next to him and dropped the bag breakfast into his lap. The blond and the average height had checked out, but if his companion had mentioned the scar, it would have been easier to know who he was. Then again, not many people would go around talking about a scar like that in a favorable tone. Or at all.

He certainly didn't waste time, and that included telling Ritsuka his name. What was up with that? Brushing that off, Ritsuka shrugged and picked through his meal. The muffin was good to start with so he pulled a piece of it off and rolled it together in his fingers. "Um, sort of. I read them when I can get the money together for it or if I have enough time to stand in the convenience store and read it." There hadn't been a lot of time to do that lately though. "And yeah, I mean, the stuff on the bulletin board, I'd heard the name before. Why? It mean something to you?"

"I've heard it before," Mello said. His voice was casual and he spoke without hesitation, but a hot current of tension ran under his thoughts. The decision not to offer his name or a more detailed physical description had been intentional. If, somehow, Ritsuka did have information about his life...well, Mello had to be careful.

"It was on the news," he continued, opting for Matsuda's excuse. "But Kira's a pretty common name. I wanted to ask if you remembered anything else. Other names, maybe, or locations or events."

"It's not all that common of a name where I come from," Ritsuka noted absently as he finished rolling a ball out of his piece of muffin. It was small enough now that he wouldn't really have to chew it much to eat it. He hated chewing food. Such a bother. Popping the muffin bit into his mouth, he started on another piece, avoiding the nuts. "Um...well, all I know is what I read in the comic book, if it's the same thing, you know? Some genius got really bored and found a book and he killed criminals with it and people started calling him 'Kira.' I didn't get very far because comics are kind of a low priority compared to eating lunch so no one complains to the teachers or whatever."

What else did he remember about the comic though? What had it been called? Death...something. Death Book? Death...? Since it was real to whoever this guy was, Ritsuka figured the name of the comic didn't really matter. "I don't really remember any names right now, but I didn't read very far. There was the main guy, and the shinigami, R-something, and..uh...." Ritsuka bowed his head, looking at the muffin sheepishly. "Sorry, I can't really remember much else. It was awhile ago."

The brown bag in Mello's lap crinkled as his grip tightened on its folded edge. He hadn't been hungry to begin with, but now, all trace of appetite had vanished into a tight, queasy feeling that might have turned into panic if his usual defenses hadn't stepped in.

No. Fuck no. There was a rational explanation for this, and someone was fucking with him. Near? Artemis? Perhaps even L, in some sort of test. Maybe Landel himself. It didn't matter. What mattered was that this was a falsehood designed to lure him into self-doubt, and Mello was far, far too smart to fall for that. He was furious that someone would even attempt it

He gritted his teeth. "This was in Japan, right? What year? Do you remember the killer's real name? What he looked like? Any of the other characters?" The friendliness had left his voice, but his tone wasn't threatening. Eavesdroppers familiar with Mello's moods would have noticed a sharp line of fear through his determination, but to everyone else, he sounded intently focused.

The sight of the stranger's hands gripping the paper bag like that sent alarms ringing through Ritsuka's mind. Something that he said had set the stranger off. Maybe Soubi was right and he shouldn't have come to talk to him. It didn't matter now though because Soubi wasn't on this bus to save him if things went wrong.

No, no - there was no reason to think that this guy was going to go nutso on him. Especially not here, in the middle of a crowded bus with nurses everywhere. He was probably just thinking or had an unconscious nervous tic or something.

Raising his eyes, Ritsuka looked at the nameless boy next to him and tried to sound as calm as possible. He was probably failing, but the last time someone had tensed up at something he said, he ended up with a cut over his eye and a fork in his hand. "Yeah, Japan. The manga ran until 2006, I think. I saw a few volumes here and there, but never bought any. Um, can't remember his real name, but it was written in kanji and read in English or something. Kind of nondescript looking, but the manga-ka was really good at drawing expressions." Ritsuka paused and shuffled his bag in his lap nervously. Was he saying the wrong things again? "Um...the other characters didn't really have names. They went by letters all the time. Can't remember what letters though."

Mello swallowed hard and stared at the bag in his hand for a quiet second. His body remained tense and his mind was taut, but he forcibly reminded himself that he would deal with this as he dealt with everything: efficiently. The apparent calm that descended over him it was as eerie as the eye of a hurricane.

"You probably shouldn't tell anyone else about this series," he said, looking up at Ritsuka. Mello crossed one leg over his knee and gave a calculated, thoughful hum. "If it's about serial killers and the people trying to catch them, some people are going to want that information kept secret, you know?" His voice was friendly once again, but when he offered a smile there was something missing from the expression. "But thanks for the information."

Crap. The guy wasn't normal. Ritsuka really had opened a can of worms by posting to that stupid bulletin. Why couldn't he ever learn to keep his mouth shut? Whatever Ritsuka said that resonated with the stranger set the man on edge and Ritsuka felt like running before anything bad could happen.

Then, just as suddenly as the tension had descended, it was gone. Ritsuka didn't like the smile though. It wasn't a real one and even with how friendly the stranger was acting now, it wasn't right. Ritsuka wished Soubi were on his bus now, if only to have a reason to get away. "...right. I won't tell anyone else." The muffin lay in his lap and Ritsuka quickly picked it up and stuffed it back into his paper bag. "It's, uh, no problem about the information, but you never told me your name."

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Day 35: Bus 1

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