damned_institute | Day 35: Bus 2

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Day 35: Bus 2

Wally woke as the intercom crackled to life and was surprised to find himself back in his room. The last thing he'd remembered was feeling relieved at finally beating off those dragonfly-lizard things. There'd been that weird intercom message, then... he wasn't quite sure what had happened after that, but he was certain it hadn't involved falling asleep. He'd be half-wondering if he'd dreamed the whole thing if it hadn't been for the nagging ache on his back and ankle from where he'd been bitten. A quick check revealed they'd been bandaged, apparently while he'd slept. He wondered if he had Kal to thank for that. Maybe he'd get the chance to ask later.

He jumped as the door swung open to admit the familiar face of the nurse who'd woken him yesterday. "Up already, are we?" she said cheerfully as she busied herself pulling out clothes. A blue shirt and a pair of jeans were passed to him. Wally blinked, he hadn't been here long, but he'd gotten the impression that the grey-and-smiley-face combo was standard.

"Does this mean I'm being released?" he asked, hope creeping into his voice.

The nurse turned back to him, pity etched on her features. "I'm afraid not, dear." She smiled brightly as she continued, "but today's when all the patients get a special field trip into town! Won't that be a treat!"

Wally stared at the clothes, his mind working away. He'd been trying to get into town and to a phone last night before he'd been attacked. But if they were going in today, this might be the perfect chance for him to contact the Justice League. He smiled warmly and thanked the nurse as she left to allow him to change, then happily allowed himself to be led to one of the buses, picking a seat about halfway down and sliding in to look out the window. It seemed like today was going to be brighter than yesterday, at least in the area of possible phone calls and rescues. About the only dark patch he could see was that the contents of his paper-bag breakfast were going to be nowhere near enough to fill the yawning pit that had taken the place of his stomach, and even that was tolerable when he was positive he wasn't going to be here much longer.

"And you say that time goes rushing by, but it seems so slow to me, and you see a blur around you fly, but it takes too long, it seems so slow to me..." he sung absently.

[Oh Captain, my Captain~]

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_{[For the twins? Or twin? Or something!]}

"B-but where are we going?" Tsubaki wanted to know, her voice weak.

The nurse's hands were firm on her bare shoulders, pushing her ever forward. Tsubaki had never worn a dress that stopped above her knees before, and not one that also dipped low around her collar with such thin little straps. It wasn't entirely immodest... but not modest enough to soothe the girl's dignity.

Or anxiety.

The last thing she remembered were the rats, the large, unnatural rats. Without Black☆Star, without a weapon, she'd thought a flashlight might not be enough to defend against both. There had been the crackle of the intercom, where an unfriendly voice had started talking about things she didn’t understand and only partially heard… And then she'd woken up. Again. In the same hospital bed with a roommate who was in a deep sleep. That's when the nurse came in, complete with nurse's uniform and clipboard, and greeted her warmly.

Tsubaki's expression betrayed her uneasiness as she tried to see as much as she could, despite how briskly she was being led down the halls. Where or what was Doyleton? Where or what was this place? The intercom had come on while she’d been getting dressed (after a few refusals and the subtle threat that the woman wasn’t taking no for an answer), and all thoughts as to why she was being called ‘Miyu’ were pushed aside. Patients? Even excluding everything that had happened during the night, this didn’t seem like a hospital for curing injuries.

The nurse patted her shoulder. "It’s all right, honey, it’s normal to be a little scared. You were so upset coming in, after all. But you arrived just in time; I’m sure you’ll enjoy yourself today. There’s plenty to do in town, even a game of tag some of the patients are going to set up this afternoon. Okay?"

There was no end to the questions the girl wanted to ask. "I don’t think--Aah!" A soft cry escaped the girl as she stumbled onto the first step of the bus. The woman really wasn’t giving her much of a chance to talk.

"Take your seat now, Miyu. Your breakfast and everything you’ll need is in that bag I gave you. Try to have fun!"

She disappeared without waiting for Tsubaki’s answer, leaving the girl to stare after her. After a pause, Tsubaki turned and climbed all the way into the bus. It didn’t seem like anyone was going to let her off. There were only two people, one who was singing, and the other who was eating his breakfast. Tsubaki sighed and took her own seat, folding her hands tight in her lap. She didn’t want to clog up the aisle. Maybe someone could tell her what was going on when they got…. wherever they were going.

Somehow, Hikaru just knew that the nurses had dressed him identically with Kaoru again. Why wouldn't they? It was "cute," right? Middle aged women were usually all about the twinning. Still, he figured, at least he looked reasonably okay. It was hard to screw up jeans and a t-shirt (even if the orange shirt did clash rather horribly with his hair), no matter how hard you tried.

It didn't look like other people had fared quite as well. There was a girl towards the front of the bus who looked like a magical girl cosplay had vomited all over her, cat ears and all. He thought about going over to express his condolences, but figured it wasn't worth the effort. Instead, he walked past her with a barely contained snicker and looked for someone else to bother.

Oh, this girl was kind of cute. The last cute girl they'd spoken to had been really receptive to Hosting. Maybe she would be too.

"Hey, this seat taken?"

Kaoru would have tried to fight his way forward to reach Hikaru, but his nurse was being a pain in the ass, asking him how was feeling and generally disregarding the fact that being with his twin would make him feel much better. Long sentences aside, he caught up, but not in time to get a seat with his brother. He settled for collapsing in the seats behind.

"Landel's continues to commit crimes against fashion. What's with the clashing?" he moaned, leaning over the seats and smiling to Hikaru and then the girl. "Boo."

Tsubaki turned away from the window, pulled away from her thoughts. "Oh, I'm sorry. It's free!"

It was the clothes, really. They were a little... well, she felt more like a civilian with her hair down and her feet tucked into flimsy little tennis shoes.

The boy who followed not long after the first was identical in both appearance and outfit. Twins? Tsubaki turned in her seat, putting her back to the window so as not to appear rude, unable to quash a smile. They seemed nice, and they weren't talking to her like she were a child. Maybe if the biggest worry was the clothing options, she didn't have as much to worry about as she thought. "Hello," she said to both. "I'm Tsubaki."

Or she was to most people, anyway.

There wasn't anything to panic about (was there?), and she managed to keep the smile on her face, though it waned slightly. "Is Landel's," she started, picking up the thread of conversation, "... really a hospital?" Panicking would come after she heard the name Arachne or Ashura, or if she found out her friends had also been separated somewhere. Now she was more worried that she was a bit disoriented like the nurse had said. With what she'd seen during the night, and what was happening now, she couldn't tell what was going on.

"Orange doesn't go with red hair," Hikaru replied, seamlessly picking up where Kaoru had left off. "Anyone should know that." Except, perhaps, Landel's. They'd already proved that they weren't exactly slaves to fashion with their lovely yellow-on-gray ensemble.

He gave Tsubaki a dashing smile. "I'm Hikaru, and that's Kaoru. He's the cute one." And now they'd get to find out if she'd let them Host her or not. It wasn't the end of the world if she wouldn't, of course, but it was a way to pass the time. He'd never get over how awful Commoner mass transit was. How'd they manage? This thing felt like it would shake apart at any second, and it hadn't even started moving yet!

It was just another one of those mysteries, he guessed. Like instant coffee.

"A hospital?" He blinked. "Uh, yeah. Well, sort of. It pretends to be. I guess you haven't been around very long."

Oh boy, what fun! Time for another Welcome to Landel's/Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here speech.

Kaoru slowly disappeared the seats as he forced himself to blush. A moment later his face was pressed against the gap between Hikaru and Tsubaki's seats and his fingers poked through.

"No I'm not... you are...Stop trying to embarrass me!"

Oh dear, another newbie. Hikaru wasn't being very helpful so he pulled himself up again, ignoring the aches and dizziness and smiled over to her.

"Pretend mental hospital by day, in which we are not who we know we are.... and house of horror by night. Unless you're strong or you know where you're going, you'd best stay in your room at night. It's messed up, but it's true. Nobody knows what's really going on or why we're here."

Was this trip going to end up like the last? SHould they warn her about that too? Nah... maybe...it'd be ok?

"You're from Japan, right?"

She smiled back warmly, bolstered by their friendliness. "It’s nice to meet you!" Hikaru-san, Kaoru-san... Identical twins could be hard to tell apart, but there had to be some differences she could spot so she didn’t accidentally mix them up. Saying one was better looking than the other didn’t quite count--they were both good-looking, weren’t they?

The teasing itself was somewhat lost on Tsubaki, who waved both hands, turning her smile on Kaoru. "Well, you both look nice. I don’t think you look bad in orange."

Although they seemed like very outgoing people, their answers were a bit sobering, dampening her mood despite her best efforts not to let it show. Tsubaki had assumed it was only her, with the way everyone was acting, but their combined explanation proved that wrong. She didn’t question that what they were saying was the truth. That was worrying; how many people had experienced the same thing already?

Dropping her hands to her lap, Tsubaki looked to Hikaru and said, "I don’t think I have. I suddenly woke up in a room during the night. I don’t remember how. Is that... normal? I don’t remember how I got back to bed, either, after I went out into the hall and…" By 'house of horror', did they mean they knew about the rats? Instinctively, Tsubaki would rather not alarm anyone if they hadn’t seen what she had, but the way Kaoru had spoken... "Weird things happen at night?" she asked tentatively, switching her gaze to Kaoru instead. Where was Black☆Star at a time like this?

So that all meant this was supposed to be a mental facility? Then, the other name the nurse had called her, and the gentle smiles sent in her direction, all of it was supposed to mean...?

"Mm, it’s my home country. Does that mean you’re from Japan too?" she replied, putting aside the thought that she might be in a place that might think she was crazy aside, at least while she was talking with these new acquaintances of hers. It was nice they were putting up with all of her questions.

"Oh, Kaoru," Hikaru replied smoothly, "I only tell the truth."

But the girl didn't seem to really get the whole "Hosting" thing, and soon he was out of Host mode and back in regular school mode. Well, it had been fun while it lasted. Plus, how could he Host with his brother when Kaoru looked so ill? It threw off the whole symmetry thing, and it really was worrying the older of the two. He gave his twin a look that said you will tell me what's going on later and sighed.

"That is normal. I woke up at night too. Went out into the hall and then it was morning and they were feeding us the same crap about how you're crazy and your family has put you in this place to 'get better.'" Bitter? Of course not.

"Your home country? Do you live abroad now? And yeah, we do. Tokyo. We go to Ouran Academy?" Probably wouldn't ring a bell.

It never did.

"Hikaru," Kaoru blushed. It made a nice change from his brother telling him how awful he looked these days... He reached down, pretending to pay attention to the stranger, and placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. One of the many tender moments that barely went noticed by the outside. He knew how lonely he was making his brother, because everything one twin felt, the other did too. Maybe today it;d be over....even if Kaoru didn't know what it was...

He didn't think he'd get away with sleeping through the journey without having Hikaru shoot up and look after him. They needed to learn to make new friends and Kaoru didn't want to think about their own problems.

"Weirder still? They drag your friends out at completely different times. Or the SAME time but weeks later. Sometimes they disappear and come back. The same but....different. Different memories about home too." It seemed a terrible thing but Kaoru selfishly liked the thought. Honey had disappeared, but he was back now and he was ok. Haruhi had disappeared and.... if it was possible she could come back, she must be ok, right? Kyouya too. Renge.

Her family? Her friends? Different times? Different memories?

Tsubaki tried to process what she was being told without looking like she was completely lost. So basically, what had happened so far wasn't all that odd, and this place was a mental institution during the day. And at night... Did they mean that mean her friends were in danger, too?

Who or what would do such things?

As she listened carefully, watching Hikaru and Kaoru, she answered, "I... grew up in Japan, and then I went to America to become a Shibusen student." She looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, I haven't heard of Ouran Academy, but I don't know much about the schools there. Is it really famous?" While at home, she'd received so much of her education at home, she'd gone straight to Shibusen without joining any public schools. Maybe Ouran was something she could've read about.

There was a pause as Tsubaki considered what to say or ask next. Then she offered the twins a gentle smile. "Um, Kaoru-san, do you want to switch seats with me? I can sit in the back if you like."

Hikaru blinked. He'd been here for going on three weeks, and even he'd barely been able to understand that. "What my brother means is that time in this place is kind of weird," he said quickly with a playful jab between the seats. "Kaoru and I remember the same things, but our friends don't. For instance, one remembers stuff that we assume hasn't happened yet for us, but he left out a few details. Before I got here, I broke my arm." And Tamaki disbanded the Club to go off to Paris with some skinny French slut. "Our friend doesn't remember that, but he remembers just about everything before or after it." Except for the bit with Tamaki. "So...yeah, it's weird."

He wasn't going to touch the whole "disappearing and reappearing" thing with a ten foot pole.

"What's 'Shibusen?'" Didn't sound particularly American, even if they were getting more and more into Japanese stuff lately. "And yeah, it's pretty famous. It's kind of...hard to get into." Unless your family is fabulously wealthy, a member of Government, or both. Or unless you're Haruhi.

She wanted to switch places? Great! He smiled, figuring it might be a good idea to do this politely. Protest a little, and see if she still insists. "I...I don't want to put you out of a seat, Tsubaki-san," he said, looking and sounding sheepish. He was a pretty good actor, after all.

"Hey, it's not that I don't make sense. It's this place," he pouted, jabbing his brother back. "As you can see, his arms fine since he likes to jab so much."

Kaoru nodded when his brother admitted to not knowing the name. It didn't sound like something you'd leave Japan for.

"Oh! No, you don't have to," he grinned. "It's about time my brother got to sit with a cute girl. You guys just tell me if you want to be alone," he teased. If Hikaru sat next to him, Kaoru was likely to curl up and forget the world and it seemed unfair to the girl. Although...you know...if she insisted....

No. No... Hikaru needed friends and Kaoru needed space. Having Hikaru this near was bad enough. He wanted to have his potential break down away from prying eyes.

The more she turned everything over in her head, the less sense it made. The only people she could think of who could do these sorts of things were witches like Medusa or Arachne... and the kishin. But Medusa was supposed to be helping Shibusen for the time being, and the original kishin was in hiding, wasn't he? The witch Arachne was probably powerful enough, and had a lot of allies working for Arachnophobia, but there'd been so many unexpected surprises over the last few months, Tsubaki had come to accept there was a lot she didn't know. If she considered Arachnophobia not having something to do with this strange place, then she had no idea.

As soon as Hikaru began to explain that time acted strangely, Tsubaki immediately thought of BREW and the time vortex inside the magnetic field. Something like that? But the more he described, the more it didn't sound like the BREW mission at all. Having more or fewer memories than a person should have was very weird. Kid or Maka might have been able to think up a theory, but Tsubaki could only digest it and wonder if it would be the same for her...

The only difference was, she didn't know if any of her friends (or anyone from Shibusen) were here.

"Have you and your friends been here long?" she asked. Hikaru had made it sound like she had a lot to learn. And it seemed like she did. Not knowing what Shibusen was meant that they probably didn't have any connection to it, and were maybe just regular people. By the sounds of it, Ouran Academy was a private school or something close. "Is it an advanced school? I try to keep my grades up, but I'm not usually the high percentile," Tsubaki admitted, opting to further the conversation. Combining regular studies with soul studies, and then there was Black☆Star... She suddenly felt a little awkward, since it was one more smalls step to confessing that she had come close to failing out of Shibusen all together. Laughing somewhat, she said, "Shibusen is in Death City. It's a vocational school."

Then Kaoru went and said all those things, and Tsubaki froze for a quick moment before quickly shaking her head, cheeks a little pink. Cute girl?

"I don't mind. It's no problem!" She got the feeling they'd be happier sitting together.

"We've been here for a while. Almost three weeks, I think. The days kind of run together when you're here." A lot. Even the nights had a routine, even if it was just "fight with Kaoru about going to Tamaki's-->hanging out at Tamaki's-->waking up." At least with the Host Club there had been some variety in their lives. "One of our friends has been here longer, and the other's haven't. One came yesterday, and the other was a day or two before that." Again, Hikaru didn't touch on the Houdini acts people regularly played.

An advanced school? He couldn't help laughing a little at that. "Yeah, kind of. It's really hard to get into the scholarship program. Oh, and 'Death City?' I know that Americans can be pretty violent sometimes, but isn't that just a little dramatic?" Death City. Really. Sounded like some sort of evil gym town in a Pokemon game or something.

Ah, so she was going to keep insisting. Hikaru gave Kaoru a sidelong look Fuck, he really was hiding something. He'd better own up as soon as the bus stopped moving, or Hikaru was going to do something drastic. Like giving him a black eye. "No, my brother's right. I do like sitting next to pretty girls."

"So...what's your 'vocation', then?" Kaoru asked, smiling. What kind of jobs would a place like Death City have to offer? It sounded kinda grim.

She really was kinda cute when she blushed, but Kaoru let it go. He didn't want to embarrass her.

And then...Hikaru. A part of him was disappointed, another part afraid he was losing his brother, while other sides argued that Hikaru needed independence. A small look of pride won over as he smiled to his brother.
"See? I'm only cute to him until a girl comes along," he grinned back at Tsubaki.

Tsubaki's mouth popped open at learning they'd been in this place for almost a month already. And one of their friends even longer than that! "T-that's crazy," she couldn't help but say, voice trailing off. She couldn't imagine having to stay there for so long, despite having only seen brief glimpses of the facility in the day time. If every night was like the one she'd experienced, that was even worse.

To Kaoru, she said, "I'm sure that's not true; you're brothers." Thoughts momentarily derailed, she only flushed further, smiling brightly in response to her fluster. Their teasing was a lot more downplayed than Black☆Star's, though Black☆Star didn't so much tease as be a pervert at times. She was thankful Hikaru and Kaoru's compliments didn't run farther than that, at the same time thinking they were probably just being playful. And caring siblings, at that.

Well, if they were sure they didn't want to swap seats, then...

"Dramatic? I've never thought so..." she replied, and wondered if 'Death City' really sounded odd. It wasn't strange when considering that it was Shinigami-sama's city. Trying to explain Shibusen's purpose was a bit different. Tsubaki realized she couldn't remember the last time she'd talked about it with someone who wasn't already related to Shibusen somehow. "I guess it's hard not to become a student, but uh. My partner and I, we--"

But she stopped herself without knowing quite why, not until she paused, glanced at the window, and saw that the bus was slowing down. Were they there? A moment later, the bus came to a full stop and the staff inside began to move up to the front to let everyone out the doors. Tsubaki hadn't picked a seat too far from the front, and when it was their turn to disembark, she looked at the others.

"I'll see you later, then... Maybe?" The girl still didn't know what was going on. Either way, she didn't want to be a burden.

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Day 35: Bus 2

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