damned_institute | Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

Okita hadn't been expecting it when his nurse suddenly appeared in the Game Room. He'd expected to be left alone like last week, but instead she gently took him by the arm and told him he needed to say goodbye to Kaden for now. Okita assumed it was time for his visitor and waved goodbye to him, only to be led off himself. The swordsman had followed obediently into the Sun Room, but when he tried to go off to another room, she stopped him. "Not today, Julian."

Not today? Something about his nurse's demeanor seemed off, almost as if she were worried about something. It wasn't until she led him out of the Sun Room that he understood what was going on. He had a visitor. There were only so many people that would come to visit him in a place like this. His sisters, Tetsu, Kondou or... Okita didn't want to think about the last option.

Taking a step into the waiting room, he stopped at the door and turned to look at his nurse. "Are you sure you're not mistaken?" he asked, feeling actual fear for the first time in a long while. If this wasn't some strange punishment/joke for behaving poorly in the chapel, he didn't know what to do. Badou's graffiti was still on his hand and he quickly slipped that hand into his pocket. He could feel the pen there, clipped to the inside of his waistband. The nurse shook her head and moved to the side of the room, keeping a close watch on him as he stayed by the door, trying to hide his anxiety by feigning interest in the strange magazines on a table nearby.

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"What they've turned you into?" Rika asked, still wide-eyed, still glaring a little in confusion. "You look exactly the same as you always have!"

The possibility that Reiko was right was ridiculous. Rika wasn't the one in a mental institution, for heaven's sake! But even though the other girl was trying to hide it, Rika knew Reiko well enough to recognise when she was desperate. Still ...

"You're not," she said, trying to make Reiko understand. "You have have to forget these weird ideas that you're ... you're a Digimon or something, and that I'm some TV character." Then, angrily, to hide the genuine hurt: "How could you forget who I am, Reiko?!"

"How could you forget who you are," she stated blandly, quietly; detaching herself.

Renamon had nothing more to say. She knew Rika well enough to know that once the girl thought she was right she wouldn't see another way unless she was shown. And there was nothing here, nothing in this place that would show this memoryless... this changed--and here was the anger and watch it burn, for how dare they touch her--this changed Rika the truth.

Once again, once more, there was nothing Renamon could do.

She had failed.

It took everything she had left to turn away from Rika, to turn from her hope incarnate, the only thing she had faith in, but she forced herself to do it anyway. "I asked you once if you trusted me, Rika. It seems your answer has changed." Her voice cracked on the last word, causing a new flood of anger to flow through her. She stood silently, willing herself to move, to walk away. Every ounce of her replied no. She couldn't just walk away from Rika. Her hands clenched into fists and she shook--from the effort or the pain, she couldn't tell at this point.

There was nothing she could do more, except... "I'm sorry I failed you, Rika. I..." There weren't words to express what she meant correctly. "...I love you."

"How could I forget who I am?" Rika half-shouted, hands balling into fists. "How could you forget who I am? After all this time and all the things we went through together?"

The girl was unabashedly emotional by now, tough exterior punctured by the reality of how much her friend had forgotten and how much she'd simply made up. Part of it was anger that Reiko could possibly forget everything, part of it was undoubtedly concern, and part of it was disappointment. She wasn't sure what she'd hoped to achieve by coming here, but ...

But then Reiko turned away and Rika's jaw dropped, unexpected tears stinging behind her wide eyes. All the time they'd known each other and Reiko was turning away?

"Of course I trust you!" She shouted, voice breaking before she could help herself. Gritting her teeth, she glared in another direction, fists clenched tightly as she tried to fight down her stupid tears. "But you've forgotten everything! Why don't you trust me, huh? What I'm telling you is the truth!"

Flinging angry words like weapons, Rika's voice wavered despite the anger in it: "If you really loved me, you'd never have forgotten!"

Every sentence was an arrow to the heart, and Renamon's chest tightened painfully. Bringing a hand up to press against it, she focused on breathing; a simple thing. Breathe in, four counts... and out, four counts. Find your focus. Accept all of the pain and move with it.

Except she couldn't move.

She stayed where she was, and turned her head to look over her shoulder, eyes full of a sorrow she would never be able to show anyone else. She said nothing, merely looked at Rika for a few minutes.

Renamon shiftly slightly, still looking at Rika, but eying the nurses as well. "If you keep yelling, there'll be trouble."

Knowing that statement would probably only make the girl more mad and end this visit early, she came to a decision in her head. She stopped fighting herself, and did a quick turn, dropping to kneel on one leg facing Rika, head bowed. She spoke quickly and quietly. "Don't think for a second that I've forgotten you. Things are complicated right now, and whichever one of us is right doesn't matter, because I still know you, Rika. I could tell you your habits and mannerisms; define how you're feeling by which smirk you wear. I've known you in our past, and when all this is over, I swear that I will come find you and stay with you, and I'll learn even more about you." She raised her head to turn bright eyes to Rika. "So don't doubt me. No matter what happens we still carry each other in our hearts."

The look on Reiko's face hurt -- too much for Rika to be anything but more angry, brow furrowed even more deeply, hands clenching more tightly. What the girl finally said in response made her even angrier: did Reiko think she was going to tell Rika what to do?

After forgetting who they even were?

Rika was about to shout something else when Reiko turned around again and surprised her by dropping onto one knee. The words made Rika's frown soften slightly, replaced by a more genuine pain.

"... I know you, too," she said softly, finally. She wanted badly to hug Reiko, almost did, but instead hugged her arms to herself, tense. Things were too weird to complicate further. "I know you," she said again, more confidently. "I know you'll come back to me. I'm sure of it."

She paused again, and then abruptly, voice somewhere between imperious and pleading: "You'd better!"

The nurses were taking a more active role now, escorting patients and visitors alike to the door. She almost wanted to fight them here and now; take Rika and leave, but she knew there were some things at this current point that she couldn't fight.

So she would wait, and learn, and then find Rika, and make her see.

"I will, Rika. You're the first thing on my mind." She stood from her position, thinking of something else to say when Rika spoke again. Renamon smirked. "Of course I will." She softened it into a genuine smile. "I'll always come for you. Don't forget me."

Renamon was never one for goodbyes. With that said, she moved her hand in what could be interpheted as a wave, and walked towards the incoming nurse. This time she wasn't walking away from Rika. She was walking towards her. The only way to her, to the real Rika and the real Renamon, was in this place, and Renamon would find it.

Because Rika was waiting for her.

Day 36: Waiting Room/Lobby 2

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