damned_institute | Nightshift 35: West Wing, South Hall 1-A

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Nightshift 35: West Wing, South Hall 1-A

[Coming from here]

So they still had to deal with one of the brainwashed patients tonight; the rest were being carted off for experimentation. Something had changed in the routine. There'd been a pattern earlier, one night to those "trials", the others for the brain-washed patients. But tonight was different for some reason.

So what made it change?

Sanzo was suspicious of sudden change, mostly because it always signaled something was up.

Was it because of that "Jill" pissing Landel off? Or just pure whim?

Whatever the reason, it wouldn't do the patients any favors.

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And now it was over.

Kenshin's breath came in short gasps, and when he saw that Okita wasn't going to be getting up any time soon, he sheathed his sword. Blood dripped down his arm and pooled on the floor, mixing with the blood from his leg. It wasn't the worst he'd ever been injured, not by a long shot, but if they had dragged it out for any longer, he might have been in trouble.

He watched Okita for a moment, clutching at his wounded shoulder. Okita had been trying to commit suicide-by-Choushuu. Now that Hijikata was gone, he thought that this was the only way. And Kenshin could empathize with that, to some extent. The coughing was a clear sign: Okita was dying. It would be a long, slow, and painful death, completely devoid of the glory and honor that he'd been working towards all his life. Still...

"There's no such thing as an honorable death," he said gently. "Not really. An honorable life is so much better. Use...what time you have to carry on the proud traditions of the Shinsengumi, even here. If that means killing this one, so be it. Defend the Bakufu." He knew what it was like. You were so empty inside that you wanted to die just so that you could feel something again. He'd felt that way after Tomoe.

What Okita really needed was something to drink, but during nightshift, that was hard to come by. And he didn't need the person he was just fighting to the death to take any more pity on him than he already had.

Instead, Kenshin sighed and leaned against the wall, still out of breath.

It was over. Okita had never felt defeat so keenly as he did now. That damned rurouni standing over him, lecturing him about honorable deaths and honorable lives. Defend the Bakufu? It all sounded like taunts and filth coming from his mouth. Someone who fought to bring the Bakufu down, someone who killed so many of his men - he had no right to talk to him about upholding the honor of the Shinsengumi and defending the government. The Bakufu wasn't Kenshin's government.

The coughing finally stopped and Okita remained on the ground, head lowered as his breathing gradually returned to normal. No blood yet, just pain and the unavoidable future. Raising his head, he refused to look Kenshin in the eyes, instead holding his hand out for the katana still stuck in Kenshin's shoulder. Honorable death or no, he had one option left to him. He'd seek revenge for Hijikata's disappearance and then he'd follow the others as he should have so long ago. Tradition and law dictated that if his enemy left the battlefield alive, he was to kill himself. Eventually, that was what he would do - in one way or another.

"You have something of mine," he said, voice thin and hollow as he motioned to the sword.

Wordlessly, Kenshin pulled the sword out of his shoulder. He cleaned it on the unbloodied part of his trousers before limping over to Okita and laying it respectfully in front of him. He didn't even grimace until he'd staggered back to his own side of the hallway and slid down the wall, leaving a bloody trail on the paint.

Gripping the hilt of the sword, it took a lot of willpower not to stand and run it through Kenshin's head. The battle was lost though and it would be dishonorable to continue it beyond its time. At least, for now. The war still weighed heavily on Okita's mind whenever he saw Kenshin, and it likely would, until the day he died.

Pushing himself to his feet, he glanced over at Sano and his friend and didn't bother smiling as he usually would. Whatever joke there was to be made about Sano tying up a girl while he and Kenshin fought to the death just wasn't in him right now. But he did notice that despite having been stabbed several times, Sano was no longer in pain or bleeding. The girl was perhaps a healer then. "I suggest you attend to your friend," he said quietly.

The katana slid into his obi and Okita tried to keep his head up as started to walk away. Leaving a battlefield with his enemy still breathing was unacceptable, but he had to. Pausing just in front of Kenshin, Okita stared down the hallway as he spoke to him. "There is no such thing as an honorable life to someone like me, Himura-san. Maybe if we had met under different circumstances, I would have believed you." Lowering his voice so only Kenshin could hear, he finally looked down at him. "Cherish the people you have here, Himura-san. You're very lucky. I envy you."

[skipping a hallway to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/457893.html?thread=37607333#t37607333)]

[From below]

It was over.

Sanosuke couldn't help his relief when Okita and Kenshin stopped. Except he knew that Kenshin still might not be himself, and he'd have to check on that damn quick, in case it stuck. The fighter didn't mind giving Kenshin a smack to the head if that's what it took for him to go back to the rurouni after such a close call.

He didn't need Okita's prompting to remember Yuffie, though he might not have remembered as quickly without it. Sanosuke dropped down, quickly undoing the ties before taking Ninja Girl by the arm to help her up. He tried to be gentle, but he was in a bit of a hurry too. At least he didn't go for the arm he'd bruised earlier.

"Can you heal Kenshin too?" Sanosuke sure as hell hoped she could, because there was no describing how shitty he'd feel if Kenshin had to suffer because he'd used up Yuffie's healing for the day. As soon as the girl was up he crossed the distance to his friend, kneeling down next to him, even before he'd gotten his answer.

"Talk to me Kenshin." He tried to smile. He really did. But damn if Sanosuke couldn't quite make it happen. He was thrilled that Kenshin had won, but worried as hell about the cost. In the dark he couldn't see how bad the wound was, but he could smell all the fucking blood.

Whatever gods there were, he prayed to all of them that his friend was still his friend, and that he'd be okay.

Yuffie still didn't really have a clue what was going on. All she knew (aside from the painfully obvious) was that it sucked, and that it was sorely tempting to act on her impulse to plant her slipper in the back of Sagara's head.

She didn't, though. Yet.

Stumbling across the hallway, the ninja rubbed her head. Ow. Owwwwww. "Ow," she mentioned outloud, for good measure. "Sagara, I goddamn hate you. Even if I can use Clear Tranquil, you can bet your ass I won't be using it on you again!"

Even though the fighting seemed to be over, the atmosphere still felt so tense and thick. Thick like butter. Or maybe batter? Yeah, that was it-- walking was like wading through an ocean of Tifa's best, thickest waffle-batter. Or maybe that was just because of how suckylicious she felt? As soon as she could, Yuffie flopped to the floor on the other side of Kenshin.

"You're lookin' a bit worse for wear," she told the red-head conversationally, despite how hard it was to keep her words from slipping into a mumbling slur. Never mind the fact that she could barely see a thing, let alone make out the extend of his injuries; the smell of blood was a pretty good, if gross, indication of how beat up the guy was.

Okita envied him. Kenshin looked up, eyes widening slightly, before they met the other swordsman's and he nodded in acknowledgment. Their fight wasn't over--far from it--but he hoped they'd come to...some sort of understanding. Maybe, in a few days, they'd be able to talk again without battling it out. They were more alike than they were different, in many ways.

With Okita gone, the rurouni turned to his friends. He knew he'd worried Sano, and there was really no telling what Yuffie thought of him now. She'd seen a part of him that he hadn't wanted her to.

Sano first. "What would you like this one to say?" he asked mildly, trying to smile. It was hard, with the blood still pumping out of his shoulder. It was starting to dry on his shirt, heavy and sticky. Blood always felt the same, whether it was someone else's or his own.

The smile that Yuffie got was a bit more genuine. He understood why Sano had done...that, but it was still kind of hilarious. Especially right now. In spite of everything that had happened, Sano was still Sano and Yuffie was still Yuffie.

"You don't look that much better yourself. Honestly, you needn't worry about this one. His life isn't in danger, and the bleeding's already starting to slow. Save your energy."

Even when Kenshin asked, Sano grinned; he'd said everything the fighter he wanted to say when he started talking, sounding like a very tired, but very rurouni rurouni. He laughed hard, if only because doing so was the only way he stopped himself from jerking Kenshin into a hug in his relief. "What do you think I want you to say? Something that ends with oro damn it!"

Still, even that relief was short lived. Sanosuke had to agree with Kenshin that Yuffie was looking like shit, which Sanosuke was reasonably sure he shouldered at least partial responsibility for. "Uh sorry about all that, Ninja Girl." Maybe it wasn't exactly apologetic, but Sanosuke did smile up at her a bit hopefully. "Don't be too mad, okay? And it's fine if you don't want to use that bubble stuff on me. I can take a lot." Just not pens to the lungs. That hadn't gone over well.

And then Kenshin was being Kenshin. "Damn it, how much blood are you looking to lose tonight?" He didn't hit quite as hard as he could've, but Sanosuke didn't let Kenshin's wounds stop him from smacking the rurouni in the head. "If she can't heal you, fine, but we can at least make bandages. I already ripped my shirt up for something else anyway. But stop acting all tough, cause we all know that wound isn't as light as you're making it out to be."

Geez, some people. The endurance-crazy bastard was Sano's role, not Kenshin's. Not when his blood had made a damn huge stain on the wall.

Kenshin was acting like Kenshin again.

The violence of the fight hadn't really fazed Yuffie. The smell of blood was more than a little familiar, and she'd lost count of the number of opponents she'd killed years ago. It had just been... weird.

Really weird.

But, hey. At least he hadn't done a Vincent and turned into a kinda-sorta-slightly terrifying demon of death and doom. Yuffie could deal, as she always had done and always would do, with whatever life threw at her. She returned his smile brightly, if a little wearily.

The smile was quick to fade into a scowl when Sagara opened his mouth, though. "You're sorry, huh? I ain't forgivin' you that easily!" Her cheeks were pink in both anger and embarrassment, and she added: "You knuckleheaded pervert."

Knuckleheaded pervert he may be, but he did have a point. Kenshin was messed up and they couldn't let him get away with doing the whole macho-man act. "Whatever," Yuffie sighed. "I'll be just peachy. You, on the other hand? You're about as fine as a... not fine thing." Even as she spoke, the ninja was already gathering what little energy she had left. No way was she going to wait for Kenshin to protest! Besides, she wanted to get it over with; she was sick to death of the hallway. Blood wasn't the nicest decoration in the world. Once she'd finished doing her thing, they could go to some room or other and they could explain to her what the hell had just happened..!

And despite her earlier words, when she released the energy of Clear Tranquil, three bubbles developed; one each for herself, Kenshin, and Sagara. Maybe she was just that kind. Maybe she was rubbing her generosity in his face. Or, maybe she'd done it by accident.

Either way, she didn't really notice; as soon as the Limit was over, she was too busy collapsing in a dead faint.

"Still don't understand your understand your fascination with that," Kenshin grumbled, but he didn't say anything else. He didn't need to, it turned out. Sano's punch got him an extended, extremely put-upon "oro."

He knew that was how his friend showed his affection, but usually he was a little more sensitive when that friend was bleeding all over the floor. He was still in intense pain, and being punched in the head--even lightly--didn't help any.

He chose to ignore the heated little debate between Sanosuke and Yuffie at the moment. He was tempted to tease them both about it, but he was feeling too woozy from the blood loss to come up with anything clever.

It turned out that he didn't need to.

"Yuffie-donno you shouldn't--" But it was too late. Whatever magic that Yuffie had used to close the wound in Sano's side healed the rurouni enough to stop the blood. And completely knock Yuffie out.

"Sano, help this one move her somewhere safe. We'll...talk later." Kenshin was already at her side, propping her up. With his arm in this condition, and with the wound in his leg slowing him down, there was no way he'd be able to carry her on his own.

Extenuating circumstances made it okay for Sanosuke to be a totally insensitive dick, particularly when Kenshin was being a totally irresponsible idiot. Really, the rurouni was lucky. If Megumi had been there, Kenshin might have gotten a lot worse. Or he would have if Kenshin were Sano, anyway. Still, the woman would have at least given Kenshin a severe talking to or something.

Then the bubbles came back, and for the second time that night Sanosuke felt what injuries he had going away. He would've teased Ninja Girl about his inclusion himself, except before he could, Yuffie had passed out. Looked like whatever the bubble magic was, it wore her out even more than Sano had.

"No way." Sanosuke had been moving to catch Yuffie too, but he drew the line at helping Kenshin carry her. Frowning at his friend, Sanosuke shifted Yuffie so that her weight was solely on him, draping her over his shoulder right. "You're going to have a hard enough time carrying yourself. I've got Ninja Girl. You just don't pass out on me either. Got it?"

And yeah, Kenshin, Sanosuke thought in silent agreement. The matter was too important to drop, but too heavy to pick up then at the same time. What they were going to do now that the truce was over, and Okita could attack Kenshin at any time. We're going to have a damn long talk later.

Kenshin knew that this was one battle he could not win. Actually, Sano was probably right. A quick test yielded these results: yes, he could stand, and no, he couldn't do it very well. Not without leaning heavily against the wall.

All right, so Sano really was right. Good to know.

The rurouni gave his friend a weak smile. "Shall we be off, then? Apparently there's some sort of clinic the next hall over. Let's get her there."

[skipping over here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/457411.html).]

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Nightshift 35: West Wing, South Hall 1-A

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