damned_institute | Nightshift 36: M51-M60 Hallway

Matt paused mid-swing, turning his eyes towards Kenshin. "Are you sure that's all right?" he asked, letting his gaze stray towards the man's reopened wound. He'd already strained himself tonight. It wasn't going to do either of them any good if he continued to do so.

Despite his question, he turned a bit in order to better face the rurouni and got himself into as good of a ready position as he could manage. This would give him a much better idea of how Kenshin planned to train him in the future, wounded or not.

Where in the city did she live? An interesting question. Ayumu rather doubted the man was asking because he wanted to reminisce about shared experiences with places they knew in common. And that brief pause before Edo's name was curious as well.

"Oh, I..." She hesitated a moment, lowering her eyes to her lap as though a little embarrassed, and pulled the coat about herself again. "I'm from Shimabara," she replied, her voice growing softer as she finished the sentence.

After a brief pause she glanced back up at Robin through her lashes. Since he was a foreigner she doubted he would recognize the district's name, but if so she was curious to see what his reaction would be. And if Kenshin truly had lived in Kyoto, he certainly should know.

Kenshin had picked up his sakabatou and was in the process of swinging it in a wide, lazy arc towards Robin when Sen supplied her answer. "Oro?" He was so surprised that it faltered, just a little. Not really enough to matter, but definitely more than usual. Shimabara, huh? Oh. Well, that certainly explained the looks she'd been giving Robin, though the rurouni wouldn't have pegged her for being a courtesan.

This was...rather awkward.

Now why did that name sound familiar? Matt had studied up on Japanese history well, but it still took a moment of thought to place--

The young man turned to blink wide-eyed at Sen suddenly, completely forgetting that he was supposed to be blocking the oncoming swing of Kenshin's sword. It was only at the last moment that he gave a cry of "Shit!" and tried to bring the sheath up, but it was far too late. The blunt side of Kenshin's blade connected with his shoulder and he yelped before sitting down rather hard.

Face very red, he hissed in pain and rubbed at the spot.

[skipped a hallway from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/488114.html?thread=40138418#t40138418)]

The trip over was one he'd made almost every night since Mitsukuni had arrived. He knew it well enough that he didn't have any problems despite the dark and juggling two plates of pie and a closet rod. It was nothing compared to carrying Mitsukuni, cakes, books, and whatever else the Host Club wanted to pile on him. Walking up the corridor, he wondered what he could tell Mitsukuni about his day. He didn't exactly do much and he hadn't learned anything either. Most people hadn't seen a phone or a computer, and Anise had even seen puzzled by the words. Weird place, that's what this all boiled down to.

Approaching as quietly as ever, Mori shifted the closet rod off his shoulder as he approached. He was certain his cousin would notice the two plates of dessert in his other hand, but he still kneeled down a little to hand it to him nonetheless. "Got two for you."

It was fortunate that Ayumu had a lot of practice in hiding her emotions, else she might have had to laugh at the reactions to her statement. Even the trained swordsman had faltered just a little; hopefully that meant he had accepted the lie as truth. Perhaps now he'd let slip just why he was so curious. She had her suspicions, but tried not to make assumptions about anything if she could help it.

She rose quickly to her feet at Robin's yelp and moved closer with a distressed expression, reaching out toward the young man as though she wanted to help but was uncertain how. "Robin-han, you're hurt!" she exclaimed, sounding dismayed. As she got closer, though, she realized there was no blood, and gave a startled glance toward Kenshin's sword. Now that she got a better look at it - that was very intriguing indeed. "Himura-han, is...there something wrong with your sword?"

It had certainly spared Robin a more serious injury, but why would someone be carrying around a sword with its blade reversed to begin with?

It wasn't long before he spotted his cousin, and Honey made sure to keep the light away from the boy's face and just light his path. It took Honey a moment to juggle the things he was already carrying in order to make way for the all-important sweets.

"Yay! Thanks Takashi!" He carefully scraped the pie from one plate over so that both pieces fit on one plate, if only just. Some of the filling was starting to spill over the edge, but he caught it with his thumb and stuck it in his mouth before it dribbled off the plate.

He carefully stacked the plates then, so they were a bit easier to carry, and sat near his door to finish eating them. They were a little messier than the desserts of the last few nights, and since they didn't have to race over to Tamaki's room, they could at least talk about where to go for the night first.

"One of the girls showed me where we might find phones," Honey supplied, though it was all muffled around the sound of the young blonde eating his pie. There was a room on the second floor, but he also wanted to check and see if they had any kind of front desk. Because didn't they always have phones in a place like that? "And I think there might be another place along the way to that one."

[Oh crap, I forgot to mention that Kenshin swung one-handed to spare his injured arm. XD;]

"ORO!" Instantly, Kenshin had put down the sword and was rushing over to Robin. "This one is so very sorry! Are you all right, Robin-dono?!" It was his fault. He'd tried to pull his punches, had only swung with one hand, and it was a sakabatou, but...Robin hadn't blocked at all. That was definitely going to bruise.

And Sen wasn't helping that much, though he didn't expect her to do anything otherwise. Once he'd convinced himself that Robin was not, in fact, going to go into shock and die on his watch, he turned to her, holding out the sakabatou for her to examine.

"It's intentional, don't worry," he said lightly. "This one lives by the sword, but it doesn't mean he has to kill by it. Lives cannot truly be saved if others must be sacrificed. That's why this one carries a sword that can't cut."

As Sen approached, Matt was torn between responding with a quick I'm okay! Don't worry about me! or something more along the lines of A massage would probably make it feel better. Because goodness... the experience that might come with living in a place like that... Sadly, her attention was quickly drawn away, and the frown he gave was as much in disappointment over the loss of it as it was showing the same interest in what she'd turned it to.

Kenshin's sword was indeed backwards, and the explanation made it difficult for him not to roll his eyes. So he was that sort of character. He gave some credit for the backwards sword, though. That was one he hadn't heard.

He got to his feet slowly, tilting his head and shrugging his shoulders to get a good feel of how much damage had been done. "Guess I'm lucky for it too. I happen to like that arm." The bruising wouldn't keep him from continuing their practice, at least, and he got himself back into a ready position.

Edited 2008-11-04 05:51 (UTC)

When the sword was held out to her Ayumu quickly drew her hands back against her chest, as though getting close enough to touch the blade would somehow injure her, her eyes widening a little as she looked at it. An interesting sword and an interesting philosophy held by the one who wielded it, though not one that she agreed with, especially given the plan she had been attempting to carry out when she instead found herself here.

It did, however, tell her something about Himura Kenshin, and only made her more determined to find out more. Who or what was this man? Was it possible that he really didn't have anything to do with her presence here?

"I'm glad for that right now," was all she said, though, as she turned away to return to where she'd been sitting before. "For had it been a sharp blade, Robin-han would have been cut." The tone of her voice said that she would have been quite upset about that indeed.

As she passed the young man on her way back she reached out to lightly brush her hand along his arm, fingertips catching for just an instant in the fabric of his sleeve, and gave him a sidelong glance and slight smile. The gesture was brief enough that Sen might have hoped Kenshin wouldn't see it, but Ayumu was sure that he would.

And Kenshin did see it. He looked at the two, smiling, watching how they interacted with each other and how they were trying to make sure that he didn't notice. The rurouni just smiled, pretending that he hadn't seen anything. It was kind of like watching Yahiko and Tsubame, though this was...slightly less innocent.

Robin was putting on a brave face for the lady, who was appropriately concerned. Then he was back up, in the ready position like nothing had happened. That was also like Yahiko. Kenshin bowed slightly, still feeling a little bad that he'd managed to hurt him. He laughed nervously. "Shall we try that again?"

"Yeah. Let's give it another go." Matt took up the same stance as before, though he wasn't nearly as focused as he had been (as much as he tried).

He was being played like a harp. No, not even a harp - more like one of those player pianos that worked by itself when you stuck a coin into it. Matt knew this, and yet Holy God those eyes.

She was too hot to be a prostitute, he decided. Not that he was all that well informed on what a prostitute should look like. It was possible she was one of those ones that only the rich could afford because of their beauty and how well they knew how to...

Something dripped off the edge of Matt's upper lip and he glanced down at his hand to see a speck of red. The young man's eyes widened and he quickly wiped the short trail of blood from his nose away with his thumb. Kenshin was going to swing and he'd already been embarrassed enough tonight!

One of the aspects of Ayumu's training had involved making use of any weapon that might present itself, no matter how small or insignificant it might appear. Here, apparently trapped in this strange place without any of the various bits of weaponry she usually carried on her person, she was still not entirely unarmed.

It gave her a tiny bit of satisfaction to see that she was winning this particular battle without the combatants even realizing that it was being fought: Kenshin had apparently accepted her as harmless, to the extent that he'd offered his sword to her, and Robin...well. She rather thought she could count this as an effective use of her time.

But for now the men had their own things to attend to, so she merely re-took her place out of the way, sitting on the bed to one side. She watched the practice with a somewhat worried expression now, though, as if concerned that one or both of them might be injured again.

Kenshin's sword hadn't come near Robin's nose, but it was bleeding anyway. Turning his head slightly, the rurouni smiled. "Innocent" indeed. Robin obviously knew very well where Shimabara was, and what it meant that Sen called it home.

But there were other, more important things to worry about at the moment and the rurouni straightened, sword at the ready. Once he had decided that Robin was prepared enough (he wasn't going to make that mistake again), he swung again, slowly.

It was difficult not to drop the proper method of swinging the blade and just do his own thing once the other man's sword came at him, but Matt did his best not to swing completely from the elbow as he blocked. Whether this was right or not, he couldn't be sure. The swing was slow enough that blocking it hardly took much skill. He really was getting the easy course, wasn't he?

Thankfully, neither had said anything about his bleeding nose. He was going to try not to think of what they might tell others when he was out of earshot, though. He had to focus on the important matters, such as how Kenshin's next strike was going to be.

Mitsukuni seemed happy and Mori smiled, settling in next to his cousin against the wall. Although he stood while Mitsukuni sat, but that was just because getting all the way to the ground would be a little difficult. Besides, he needed to keep a wary eye open in case anything or anyone came down the hall. Protecting Mitsukuni always came first, no matter what happened. He'd been forced to give his cousin space today because of the nurses, but now that it was night, he wasn't about to leave his side. Even if he wanted to, it'd be too dangerous. In his worry, he was likely to fall down a trap door hole and hit his head. That would really put a damper on the day.

Mitsukuni mentioned phones and despite the food in his mouth, Mori was able to understand him. At least he had better luck that Mori had. The taller boy nodded and went back to watching the hall. If Mitsukuni knew where to go, he'd just follow his cousin's directions tonight. It certainly would make moving around a little easier. Perhaps he'd gotten a map, too? That would explain why he seemed so confident in where to go.

[skipping Ayunee with permission]

Good, Robin blocked. Kenshin nodded his approval, moving in to take another swing. He was faster this time, wanting to test the young man's reaction speed. They weren't up to "real time" yet, and they probably wouldn't get to it tonight, but hopefully it would at least help his reflexes a bit.

Edited 2008-11-06 03:18 (UTC)

Even if Takashi said nothing, he knew that they both shared a lot of the same concerns, they always had. So he tried to eat the sweets quickly, content to let his cousin stand watch and hopefully they'd have enough time to look for the phones afterward.

He set his plates down and swallowed the sweet remnants of dessert before bouncing back to his feet. "They would probably have phones or computers at their front desk, don't you think? I hope they don't disconnect them at night," he mused aloud, taking his bunny in one hand and his flashlight in the other.

"I haven't been there before, but they said we should look in the patient's possessions room, that's where they keep our stuff," he added. There'd been a map on the message board, but it was the last one, so he'd just studied it and left it up there. It seemed like a straight shot anyway.

An increase in speed. Good. Kenshin wasn't going to take things too slow. It was still manageable, and Matt brought the sheath up to block again. He went underhanded, trying to meet the weapon's center. That was proper, wasn't it? He didn't think video games and anime were a proper reference for this sort of thing, but then again... who knew? Given where he was figuring Kenshin to hail from...

If his form was off, the red-head would say something. That was about as good as he could ask for right now.

[skipping Ayu again :D]

Kenshin smiled encouragingly. Robin was learning. The swings were becoming more natural now, less forced. The rurouni swung again, faster still. Sen was sitting on the bed, watching with rapt attention. Maybe just a little too attentive, but that made...a certain amount of sense, didn't it? She liked Robin, and Robin was showing off.

"Let's mix it up a little. Now, you come at this one."

Front desk. Mori remembered seeing something like that on the walk to and from the Sun Room. He didn't think people would disconnect their electronics at night. Didn't people have answering machines and whatnot to be sure they could take night time calls? He couldn't see an institution keeping up a good front without taking calls. Crazy people didn't just show up during the day, after all.

Moving when Mitsukuni did, Mori waited for his cousin to move next to him before he started walking. The patient's possession room was something he'd heard of, but hadn't gone to see yet. He thought he'd heard it was on the second floor, though. Going to the front desk would be the first stop; and after that, upstairs to see what of their possessions were left over. Nodding in agreement to the plan in his head, he looked down at Mitsukuni and kneeled, waiting for his cousin to get on his shoulders. Mitsukuni was likely thinking the same thing, so it would be a quick trip.

Only a couple blocks? Matt had expected more than that, and was unable to help the confused frown that slipped onto his features. Kenshin was the teacher, however, and he straightened up, ready to come at him. He didn't put too much thought into it - just made a downwards sweep with the sheath. The rurouni would be able to block anything, he was sure. Even one-handed as he currently was.

Takashi seemed to approve of the plan, so Honey climbed onto his shoulders quickly, hoping they could move fast now that they knew what they were doing. On the one hand, he thought it shouldn't be too hard to do, but he also wondered, if that was the case, why hadn't more people gotten out already? There was probably a lot more going on than he knew, but for the moment, temporary fixes would do.

He clicked on his flashlight and held on tight, checking the halls for any suspicious movements as they started off for the night.

[[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/488962.html?thread=40301314#t40301314)]]

The sword practice was interesting and all, and Ayumu did have to admit that neither one of the men was entirely unpleasant to watch. She'd rather hoped that Kenshin might let slip some kind of clue to indicate where he'd learned the way of the sword, as anything that would help her discover the truth behind the man would be of interest. Of course, in a lesson on the very basic moves, it wasn't too likely, but she still paid close attention nonetheless.

At the suggestion that they increase the complexity she edged back just a little, as though nervous of what might happen to a spectator should something go awry. She still kept her attention ostensibly fixed on Robin, though, her hand hovering almost at her mouth in apparent concern.

Kenshin moved quickly, as quickly as this place and his injuries would allow. In a single fast, easy movement, he blocked Robin's swing and disarmed him. He felt a little badly for potentially embarrassing Robin in front of Sen, of course, but he needed to prove a point.

Smirking slightly, he gave the younger man a level look. "Now. How did this one do that?"

Nightshift 36: M51-M60 Hallway

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