Day 36: Waiting Room, Lobby 2

[lady-general.livejournal.com]

Celes had actually relaxed enough, speaking to Naminé during lunch, to allow herself a small smile. It thinned into a line, of course when her nurse materialized from nowhere and swept her off, giggling over her 'surprise.'

"Oh won't it be nice?" she chirped as they walked into the waiting room. "You'll be so happy, I am absolutely sure of it." Celes's small smile thinned itself into a line and she was plunked into a chair to await her visitor. Perhaps I shall be lucky, she thought, looking at some ridiculous motivational poster. It won't be anyone I know, not really. Her nurse wandered away and Celes folded her hands on the table, the picture of impatient waiting.

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[damned-visitors.livejournal.com]

"It's not," Eriko agreed softly, though she was aware of the differences between her and Temote's understandings. Existence was cruel and random at times, but in order to survive one had to accept the injustice of the world. She'd never worked to shield her son, knowing that he needed to see the nature of humanity to protect himself. Unfortunately, he hadn't been content with protecting just himself.

"The man who...who attacked those girls on the subway. The court said that he didn't know what he was doing." Alhough Eriko was proud of her son, she didn't understand the language or intricacies of the justice system. She wanted to change the subject.

"I've planted many new flowers in the garden this year," she said with a hopeful, slightly shy smile. "I'd love for you to see them. The cherry trees are already budding."

[justice-to-a-t.livejournal.com]

Mikami leaned back until he was entirely straight in his chair, putting as much distance between himself and his false mother, practically looking down his nose at her with eyes narrowed.

To him, it didn't matter if someone "knew" what they were doing or not. If someone hurt another without reason, they were unrighteous. Unrighteous people needed to be eliminated. This had been, and always would remain true in Mikami Teru's mind.

Therefore, he didn't find it out of his own character to be upset at one of these lowest of lifeforms, these humans who should no longer be considered persons, being declared innocent of his crimes. It was, however, disturbing to think that whatever this... alternate version of himself had done was enough to land him locked-up. He was not that kind of man - to risk a direct assault or anything - if the opportunity to do it quieter was at all available. Even when he didn't have the Death Note, he'd found ways. Placing a picture online for Kira to find and then hiding his tracks was easy enough, after all.

The woman's continued attempts to change the topic in turn continued to perplex him. He couldn't ever remember his mother being into gardening, and for the nine years he and his mother had lived alone in their small city apartment, they had most definitely not had a garden to do so in. She'd been into scrap-booking, if he recalled correctly... a far cleaner hobby than bothering with the dirt inherent with plants.

Perhaps had he still been that little boy, he would have remained silent. But the ruse of toleration had been left behind over a decade before and he was becoming increasingly impatient. "You should have brought a photo then," he said, "because unless that's different in this world too, flowers don't last particularly long." Supposedly, it was possible to escape the institute by going along with whatever lies they were told. However, barring an actual escape, the only way Mikami saw himself getting "out" any time soon was in pieces. As such, he added, "and I don't think I'd be out in time to see them."

And by now, the desire to learn the "truth" had indeed shaped itself into a compulsion, and he knew he wouldn't be able to walk away from this conversation without hearing what it was he had supposedly done in this twisted-up world and its plastic facade of pleasantries. And despite himself, he could only think of one way to extract an answer.

Feeling far more phony than he had in a long time, he once again leaned forward until the magazine and journal in his hands hung out over his knees. He forced himself to discard his previous emotions. Forced himself to appear sincere.

"Please. I want to hear what I did. It's important." He looked aside to another rather agitated-looking patient, considering whether he should ask the other question on his mind as well. He was unlikely to get a good answer to it, but... it was certainly important and he was curious on what he would get. "And what happened to Kira?"

[damned-visitors.livejournal.com]

"I should have brought pictures," she agreed sadly. Time zones had made communication between herself and the institute nearly impossible, so although she'd known as soon as her son was committed, Eriko hadn't had much time to prepare for her flight once she learned the visiting hours. "The cherry blossoms shouldn't open until the end of March, though, so we still have almost three weeks. You might be better by then."

When she spoke she looked at her folded hands, and although her expression was strongly hopeful, her eyes were shadowed with doubt. She regretted not having made more time to spend with her son back when, in retrospect, he needed it most.

"You...attacked him. With a pen. He didn't die," she added quickly, looking up. "It only hit his shoulder, and not very deeply." For that, Eriko was deeply relieved. "You tried to hurt the defense lawyer too, but the officers restrained you." 'Restrained' was such a clean word to describe the fury and violence she'd seen on the court recording.

Kira. Eriko remembered her son's fanaticism about the politician's campaign, always wearing pins and giving frenetically enthused reports about the debates on the rare occasions they spoke on the phone. It made what she had to say next particularly painful, but she knew that Temote wouldn't let the subject drop. "He was..." she started, then bit her lip, considering her word choice. "Last week, when he was giving a speech at the reopening of an old warehouse, someone in the audience shot him. He...he didn't die from the wound itself, but the strain on his heart was too much." She forced herself to meet her son's eyes. "I'm sorry, Temote. It's sad, but sometimes things like that happen. There's just nothing we can do."

[justice-to-a-t.livejournal.com]

The comment about the flowers was initially glossed over in the face of Mikami's interest in whatever else "Eriko" had to say. He wasn't going to get "better" or want to see said flowers. Ever. Whatever lingering doubts he had regarding the insanity of the story being presented to him were being washed away by her replies - particularly the idea that he had not only done something so... obvious, and the embarrassing implication that he had been unable to finish the job.

And then he was struck by the gall in her answer to the question about Kira. Everything in his being was shot through with the red flush of anger, and he stood up suddenly, a number of loose pages from his clutched magazine fluttering to the ground amidst the clatter of the chair nearly being overturned.

"Listen," he started, his voice trembling with emotion. But then he took a deep breath and set his teeth together, only continuing after smoothing his ruffled demeanor into something suspiciously calmer. "I don't know why you're here, and I don't know who you are. My mother died fifteen years ago." He pressed his glasses farther up his nose. "If you expect me to believe..."

His mind chose that moment of pause to indulge in the mad logic of the chain of events the institute and "Eriko" were presenting. If it was three weeks until the end of March "here" or wherever she was from, it was a little over a month past the time he thought he knew. In Mikami's "there," Kira was about to win over his most persistent of enemies the very next day. It was plausible he could be making speeches if there was that time between what he knew and what this woman was telling him. It was only a matter of if Kira would actually begin to come out and do so, and a question of whether it was possible Mikami could be missing the time after something like that took place.

He was speechless for several seconds, but... no. No. Kira would not have died giving a speech, getting shot. It was ridiculous. Mikami would not have returned to prosecution following it, he would have...

Another outburst from him was in the process of building up when a nurse and orderly appeared on either side of him, the former smiling up at him, saying "Come on, Temote, visiting time is over!" and the man making it as clear as possible, without being outright threatening, that the statement wasn't negotiable.