damned_institute | 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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She had a feeling that was the truth, but she hadn't expected the girl to be so blunt about the answer. Wasn't there anything here they could hope for? If you took hope away, what was left? "Mm," she agreed, looking down at the bus floor, "you're probably right."

The question Willow asked next though, she hadn't been expecting. "Ah- yes," she looked up. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I didn't mean to..." Willow amended hurriedly at Kagura's reaction. "I mean, maybe someone might. Or maybe there will be a way without getting anyone's help." That was true, of course, just... not very likely. While Kagura didn't exactly look incapable of handling the truth, Willow had to remind herself that not everyone had the same kind of experience she and her friends had. She had to be a bit more careful about what she said.

Willow had a feeling that she knew what the answer was going to be by now, but she wouldn't be satisfied until she asked. "Um, you speak English really well. Did you learn it somewhere?"

Kagura had a feeling Willow was trying to placate her with the answer she gave. It was a nice gesture, even if it felt a little empty and Kagura did her best to show Willow a smile in return. She let the subject drop at that, more intent upon answering the girl's question anyway.

"Oh no, no," Kagura's cheeks reddened in embarrassment. "My English is really terrible." It was Willow who spoke excellent Japanese, or seemed to, just like everyone else here. "One of my worst subjects in school," she added, wincing as she admitted it.

Willow frowned. If that was true... "Are you speaking Japanese right now, then?" she asked. "Is, um... everyone?" She remembered that Armand had been French, but he'd never really specified how he knew English so well. And with all the Japanese people here so incredibly bilingual, even when speaking just to each other, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that something was up.

Kagura looked dumbfounded for a moment when Willow asked her next question. Of course she was speaking Japanese, what kind of question was that?

"Yes?" she replied hesitantly, almost afraid it was a trick question. "I don't... know any other languages really. W-well, I'm not good at any other ones I mean."

Willow wasn't sure if it a good thing or a bad thing that was the answer she'd been expecting. "So... I'm speaking Japanese right now?" she asked just as hesitantly, her mind racing forward to what that meant. Was there some kind of language barrier? What were the rules surrounding it, if someone knew more than one language? Would anyone have been able to read the Latin she and Anya used once on the bulletin board? Whatever it was, the phenomenon was more proof for Angel's glamour theory, that was for sure. But if it wasn't a glamour, then... how were they doing it?

"Aren't you?" she asked, still hesitant. Why was Willow so insistent? She definitely didn't know English well, not enough to be fluent and the words coming out of Willow's mouth were definitely Japanese. Why did the girl have such a hard time accepting that?

So to Kagura, Willow was speaking Japanese, while on Willow's end it all definitely sounded like English. Did everyone hear something different depending on what language they were most familiar with? What happened, then, if Willow were to speak in something like Spanish right now? Would Kagura still hear it as Japanese anyway?

Seeing the expression on her face, Willow gave an apologetic smile. "Oh, I'm sorry! It's just... to me right now, you're speaking English. So..." she paused. "Could you tell me what you hear when I say this? Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" It was a Latin phrase, one of the first Willow had ever learned. She heard it as Latin, but... would Kagura?

Willow sure asked a lot of strange questions. "U-um... I didn't understand it at all, I'm sorry," she said with some embarrassment. It just sounded like gibberish. French? Maybe Spanish? She wasn't even sure.

Day 35: Bus 1

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