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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"Yeah..." Donna's head lolled to the side, "How far away is this place, anyway?"

That was a good question. Rangiku shrugged awkwardly. "It took a decent amount of time to get there on these vehicles last time, so I assume it must be a good distance away," she replied, wishing that she could be more specific.

"Ugh..." Donna was already getting restless stuck in the bus seat. Sure it was a fairly smooth ride, but she would have taken the few seconds getting tossed about the TARDIS to this anyway. Well, at least there was company.

"So this Captain of yours... he's in the military, I'm guessing?" she asked, trying to find something to talk about. If they were going to be stuck on a ride for a bit, they might as well make the best of it. "Your sweetheart?"

"Mmmmm, sort of," Rangiku agreed, tapping her lips and wondering how to explain it. She'd only been here for one day. The whole idea of other worlds and magic might not have sunk in yet. Or even been broached. "Where I'm from, there are thirteen divisions which fight against... well, monsters although a little different to the ones you see here at night. He's the captain of my division. I'm his second in command."

And then came the question. Rangiku just stared at Donna with wide eyes for moment, trying to imagine the idea of herself and Hitsugaya together and thankfully failing. Then she started laughing raucously at the sheer insanity of that idea. "Oh no. Not at all," she said when her laughter died down. "He's rather too young for me after all. And I don't think he even views me in a romantic or sexual manner ever. Thankfully." That would be bizarre.

"Monsters." Yeah, she knew what those were. "Sounds fun. But you said you were from Japan, didn't you? You have ali-- monsters there too?"

Oh, the Doctor would love to hear about something like that. Divisions fighting off aliens in Japan, but calling them monsters. There were even captains and... Rangiku was probably a lieutenant if she was a second to a captain.

"Is he too young, or is that just how it'd look? You did say that he looked it." But with how she'd laughed, Donna had put to rest any thoughts of this woman being romantically involved with him anyway. There wasn't even any nervous blushing which would have been a dead giveaway. However, with how the woman looked, she probably had someone.

"They're called Hollows," she said. "Big nasty creatures with white bone masks. It's a little difficult to explain to a human, especially if you come from a world that doesn't have them," she said, smiling awkwardly. "Needless to say, they're bad. But hunting them is only part of our job." She could ask if she wanted though and Rangiku would answer. They weren't hiding things from people.

"Both," she said with a touch of amusement. "He's a prodigy. Well deserving of his rank and power, but definitely at least fifty years too young for me. I'm proud to serve him though."

"Ahh, so you're not human either. That explains it then." Aliens fighting aliens then. Well, she supposed a fight was a fight no matter where you were. It left her wondering if aliens lived in Japan though. That was a little too Men In Black for her, but the Doctor had never said there weren't aliens living on Earth. They sure ended up on the planet enough to take up residence.

"How young is he then? Or, well..." She'd said fifty years, and that was definitely not a human age range, "How old would he look if I saw him, to a human, I mean?"

Well, she took that better than Rangiku had anticipated at least. "No. I'm a shinigami. A death god. Some of us were human. Before we died anyway," she said. Some of them had been born shinigami, the nobility, but a lot were those who had died but had enough spiritual energy to become shinigami later.

"He looks to be around thirteen," she explained with a fond smile. "With spiky white hair. He's called Histugaya. He's in charge of one of the groups who work towards taking this place down."

Donna listened, thought a bit, then nodded with a smile. "All right then."

She didn't really think that she was talking to someone who'd been dead before or apparently still was. Even with Donna's own run in with "death", she was pretty sure that kind of thing did not happen often, and especially not with a whole group of divisions with people like Rangiku. Donna could only think that something was getting lost in translation somewhere so she wasn't able to understand it outside of those terms. Well, at the very least she wasn't mistaking Rangiku as being Celtic.

"Thirteen is pretty young. But he must be cute though! Not even old enough to have hit puberty yet..." she trailed off, snickering a bit. Well, if he looked that young, then no wonder he had problems with being treated too young.

"There's a few of us here," Rangiku continued. If you ever need people to travel with at night, we work for something called the Arts and Crafts Club," she said with a wry smile. "That's what it's called on the bulletin to try and keep at least a little bit of secrecy." Not that it seemed to make any difference.

She snorted in amusement at the description of Hitsugaya. She wasn't certain about the puberty thing really but... "He's rather oblivious sometimes," she admitted. Poor Hinamori. "And very cute. The cutest Captain of the Gotei 13."

"Maybe I'll give it a look," she decided, nodding again, "And he'd have to be the cutest at that age. Or looking it." Apparently Rangiku wasn't against teasing her Captain for some fun. Donna liked that. "With the way you put it, I'd have to guess that he's bad with women?"

"As long as you don't spend the nights alone. Even armed it's dangerous. Can you use a weapon?" she asked. It was one thing to use scalpels and railings, quite another to be able to use a proper weapon.

"I don't think he even thinks of woman in that way at all," she admitted. "He's too oblivious to see when someone likes him."

"Spent last night with this woman. Arlene? She told me about the same thing. And I can use what I get - mallet, magnifying glass, so long as I can pick it up and it'll do some good, I'm not too picky." But who could be picky when you were sneaking around warships or about to be killed by a giant wasp?

Donna's eyes fell into a knowing look. "Then he really is still just a kid."

It was good to hear that she'd not been left to fend for herself during the night at least. She knew a lot of people wouldn't believe what they heard and would attempt to escape on their own and make easy targets for anything hungry. Especially fi they couldn't fight. "There are people who make weapons here, but there's a waiting list and you'd need to collect the metal. You might be as well seeing if you can get a decent supply of scalpels or one of the bats from the shed in the field," she suggested.

Rangiku smiled. "He's adult enough when it counts for his work." Often more mature than a lot of the older captains for that matter.

Donna waved a hand. "No need to sign me up. I'll make do." A sword wasn't her style anyway. Or the Doctor's. He had a problem with guns so a sword was probably out of the question!

"Well, that's what matters," Donna shrugged. She definitely hadn't been thinking about work when she was thirteen.

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Day 35: Bus 1

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