damned_institute | Nightshift 36: M51-M60 Hallway

The one she'd followed was suddenly far less interesting than the swordsman, once the latter opened his mouth to speak. "Robin" appeared to be a foreigner, but his unnamed friend was far more familiar. And the way he seemed to grow almost imperceptibly more wary was also intriguing; if he could tell she was there, she'd have to be especially cautious.

Ayumu silently retreated a short distance, then began to approach the pair again. This time, though, she allowed her footsteps to scuff faintly against the floor, mimicking one who was attempting to stay quiet and not entirely succeeding.

Good, that was settled. Now came the problem of the sword. Kenshin wasn't about to let Robin handle the sakabatou. Maybe the sheath, if he needed to, but not the sword itself. "We'll have to start with the pole in this one's closet, if that's all right." It would take a little creative maneuvering to get it out, with the rurouni's one working arm and Robin's obvious...lack of much physical strength, but they could probably manage it.

"Or we could use the scabbard to this one's--oro?" Those were definite footsteps. Kenshin looked up to see a young woman, probably around Robin's age, walking up. She was wearing the uniform so...another patient? "May we be of help?" he asked kindly.

Pole, sheath... whatever worked. He'd probably end up hurting himself with a blade anyway. He was about to say as much when Kenshin suddenly addressed someone who'd approached them. Matt glanced over and stepped back a bit in surprise. He hadn't heard them approach at all, which wasn't a good show for someone who was supposed to be specializing in espionage.

Then again, she was pretty slight. Also just pretty period, which wasn't a constructive thought but he couldn't help himself. "Yo," he greeted with a somewhat lopsided smile.

Ayumu hesitated and drew the overlarge coat about herself when she was addressed, as though timidly trying to hide herself from view. "I do beg your pardon," she began, taking a cautious step closer, "but...might I ask what part of Kyoto this is? I don't believe I've seen it before..."

She returned Robin's greeting with a small, not quite shy smile, and a moment of eye contact that lasted for perhaps a little longer than absolutely necessary. The swordsman seemed to be the more likely of the pair to be helpful in this instance, though, so she turned back to him to await an answer to her question.

"Kyoto?" Oh dear. A new patient. Kenshin gave her a smile and bowed as deeply as he was able to, given his injuries, but he looked a little worried. "This one begs your pardon, miss, but he's afraid that you are no longer in Kyoto. Would you...like to come in?" The rurouni indicated towards the door. "The hallways aren't safe at night. You'll have to forgive us; we were just about to have a bit of a kenjutsu lesson." There was something about this woman, something...familiar. Perhaps it was the Kyoto dialect she spoke, something he had gotten reacquainted with and so used to in the past several weeks but had left behind when Shishio was defeated and they returned to the Kamiya dojo in Tokyo. That was probably it. The Aoi-Ya had practically become a second home while they were there, something that Kyoto had not been back when he had been active as Battousai.

But there was just something about the way she looked...

It was probably nothing.

"Himura Kenshin," he said, bowing again. "And this is Robin Prower-dono. May this one ask your name, miss?"

At the woman's look, Matt found his face turning slightly pink. He removed his glasses, cleaning them off on his shirt. If he thought he could see well enough without them he would have left them off period, but that could end up being even more embarrassing than if he'd left them on.

'Robin Prower-dono' still sounded ridiculously silly. "You can just call me Robin," he said quickly. Really, she could call him whatever she wanted and he'd probably answer to it. It was just a good thing Mello wasn't there to see him making a fool of himself.

No longer in Kyoto? Ayumu didn't have to manufacture the mingled surprise and dismay she showed at that statement, her eyes widening as one hand lifted to her mouth. "I'm not? But...how is this...I was just there, though."

And she needed to be back there, for she had pressing matters to attend to and a duty to fulfill. Whoever had brought her here, however it had happened, she needed to find out and return as soon as possible; perhaps this man knew something of how it might be done. She didn't miss his comment about the hallways not being "safe" - to what was he referring? He carried a sword, it was true (though in a most unusual fashion), but Robin was unarmed and had admitted he had no fighting experience.

However, he did blush rather prettily, Ayumu was amused to note, though she let none of that show.

"I'm afraid I don't understand, but if it would not be an intrusion - I only just found myself here." She gave a somewhat wavering smile and bowed in return. "My name is Sen. Pleased to meet you, Himura-han...Robin-han."

Definitely a new patient. "It's...complicated," Kenshin admitted. "Perhaps it would be best to explain it inside? It's a fairly long story?" Hopefully Robin would be able to help do the explaining. He'd been around long enough at this point that he knew as much as there was to know about this place as basically any Landel's veteran.

"A pleasure to meet you, Sen-dono."

Edited 2008-10-30 00:31 (UTC)

Robin-han. That was so cute. Matt had to will himself to focus on the task at hand. He moved to one side, allowing the young woman to enter the room. Keeping the goofy smile off his face was difficult, but he managed something a bit more polite and serious.

Complicated was one way of putting things. It was difficult to explain this situation to others, and this poor woman wouldn't be hearing it from someone she knew to be truthful, as Matt had heard it from Mello.

It certainly had to be a long story, if she had somehow in the space of - well, she wasn't sure how long, but had manged to end up somewhere that wasn't Kyoto without knowing it. And wherever this was, it was supposedly dangerous and "complicated."

So far it didn't sound entirely different from home, though likely for not the same reasons.

And of course they were going to be polite and allow her to enter first; Ayumu wasn't entirely happy about going into an unknown room with people she didn't know at her back, but when needs must. She just kept the same uncertain smile on her face as she moved past the pair, 'accidentally' brushing an arm against Matt's as she went by.

This explanation had better be a good one, though. If there was a good explanation, though anything that didn't involve being captured by the Choushuu would be good.

Kenshin--being Kenshin--only vaguely recognized the tension between Sen and Robin. Once the two younger patients had (awkwardly) entered the room, he did the same and shut the door behind them. Robin's lesson would have to wait a few minutes; making sure that the young woman knew the dangers of Landel's Institute took priority.

Crossing the room, he indicated that she should sit on the bed. He took the desk chair. "This place is called 'Landel's,'" he began. "As far as this one can tell, it's located in the United States of America, and is a prison disguising itself as a hospital for the mind. During the day, it does its best to make you believe that you are sick, that your memories are false...the product of your insanity. During the night, it's like...this, and the man in charge releases beasts for the prisoners to fight." He paused. If Robin wanted to add anything, he was more than welcome to.

While some part of Matt was well aware he was being played, another (somewhat louder) part of him was willing to go along with the notion that she totally thought he was cute. Hey, a guy had to have his fantasies every now and then. He sat down on the bed opposite her, expression serious though his cheeks were still a bit red - a result of the previous contact.

Kenshin had paused in his explanation, and Matt took the opportunity to add on. "This place is demented - and we'll sound like we are too as we try to explain it, so bare with us." He crossed his arms over his chest. "It can pick people up from any place, any time. Supernatural boundaries crossed, hundreds of years to a couple years differences between people from the same place. When are you from, for example?"

Were it not for the fact that the two of them did seem entirely serious in their explanations (and with Ayumu's years of training and experience she rather thought she would have been able to tell otherwise) she might have thought that they were, in fact, completely insane. The story itself was ludicrous, after all - she'd supposedly been kidnapped across time and space and brought to America, and not only that, in a place with animals unleashed to attack people for sport?

What the two described certainly did not, however, sound like a Choushuu plot; they likely lacked the imagination for something quite so...elaborate. This was both good and bad, but mostly bad, as it meant she had somehow been taken involuntarily from what she needed to be doing. Wherever she really was, it certainly didn't look like Kyoto, though that would be easier to verify if she could get outside.

As she turned over the possibilities in her mind, Ayumu outwardly drew back farther onto the bed on which she sat, moving away from them, pulling the coat closer about herself as her gaze flicked from one to the other in turn. "But that's not possible," she said, allowing her voice to waver just a little. "It...it's the first year of Genji. How could it not...?"

The first year of Genji. That rang more than a few warning bells in Kenshin's mind, though his face remained impassive. What were the odds that someone could be from the exact same place, at the exact same time, as Okita and not be related? As far as the rurouni could tell, the Shinsengumi captain and Hijikata had only been taken within days or weeks of each other, and they were the only ones to be taken from that particular point in history. The odds of Sen not being involved in the Bakumatsu in some way didn't seem terrifically high. Was she Bakufu or Shishi? He didn't think she was Choushuu; he remembered the faces of his fellow patriots fairly well, and she didn't seem to be one of them. She did look disturbingly familiar, though. A spy, perhaps? It was possible. This 'innocent and confused' act could be just that--an act. Or perhaps she was a courtesan, like the ones Iizuka was always trying to get him to see. She could have been anyone, really. Kyoto during that year had been full of people, most of them unconcerned with the war and trying to go about their daily lives as best they could. For all he knew, Sen could have just been another face in the crowd.

Unfortunately, Kenshin was fairly certain at this point that this wasn't the case, no matter how hard he wanted to believe it.

Now the question was this: did she hail from before the Gion Festival, or after? Did she know of Ikeda-ya, and the Shinsengumi's victory there? What about the battles in the months following it that had nearly annihilated the Choushuu and forced its leaders (and a certain assassin) into hiding?

"Sen-dono, this one knows how far-fetched this all sounds, but please bear with us." Kenshin's voice was steady, and his expression hadn't changed. He was good at hiding his emotions. He wasn't going to make the mistake he'd made with Okita on his first day and accidentally reveal himself, in case Sen was affiliated with the Shogun and carried a grudge. After last night's fight, he might not be able to survive another attack by a skilled fighter. "This one hails from the eleventh year of Meiji, some fourteen years after you. Robin-dono is...quite a bit later, this one believes." Definitely from a time much more contemporary with this place's, given how familiar and comfortable with he was with the technology here. "Time seems to be...fluid here. Our captors pick and choose who they want from when, without any regards to personal or historical timeline. It sounds crazy, but it's the truth."

If the year really was 2008, as Mello had seemingly deduced from the magazines upstairs, then Matt was actually from a time a few years after the current date - the future, in other words. There was going to be too much for her to take in already, however, so he'd leave that little extra detail out for now. He just nodded along with Kenshin's explanation.

Matt knew his Japanese history fairly well, so he found it interesting to note what time period each of the patients was from. More interesting - hadn't swords been outlawed in the Meiji era? There would of course be many exceptions to this rule, and he sincerely doubted everyone had abided by it, but for someone of Kenshin's quiet demeanor it seemed odd. Something to keep in mind.

"If we knew how he or they did it all we might be able to offer you a better explanation, but we don't." Matt shrugged. "You're free to ask anyone else in this place and they'll tell you the same thing."

Fourteen years after? And the other was from even farther ahead? Their story grew only more unbelievable by the second, and yet they both clearly believed it.

As for Robin's suggestion, she did indeed intent to verify the story with someone else - anyone else - but for the moment they were the only two here. And if it was true that the hallways were unsafe at night, it wasn't something she intended to test on her own, not when she was so flimsily armed.

No, the two of them seemed more or less safe for the moment, and were trying to be helpful to her. She'd best stay here and learn what she could for the time being; perhaps come daylight it would be safer and she'd be able to explore more.

She finally shook her head a little and smiled weakly, still holding the coat closely about herself. "I'm sorry, it's just hard to believe. But it seems safest for me to stay here, if you don't mind." Because she was a weak female who needed protecting, as she did her best to project. "I have quite a bit to think about right now."

Well, at least she didn't seem to be pressing the issue for the moment. The Bakumatsu was only barely beginning for Sen and everyone else living in Kyoto at the time. To them, it probably seemed more like an extended set of skirmishes than an all-out war like it would become later. She had no way of knowing that the political structure that had existed in Japan for three hundred years was about to be radically and permanently changed.

Kenshin smiled at her again, bowing slightly. "This one apologizes, Sen-dono; he knows it's a lot to take in. You're welcome to stay here, if you wish. We were just going to have a brief lesson in sword basics. You're more than welcome to stay and watch."

A brief lesson? Matt had hoped for something a bit longer than "brief", but then perhaps that's all he'd be able to manage? Kenshin was injured and he still didn't know how hard the shorter man planned to go on him.

Matt stood up, stretching his arms out and cracking his knuckles as though this would prepare him somehow. "What should I grab?" he asked. "Were we just going to go ahead with the sheath?" The pole in the closet seemed like it would be a bit awkward to use.

If Kenshin was telling the truth and really was from a time period fourteen years in the future, there were any number of things Ayumu would have liked to know. The one which immediately came to mind, and was just as immediately quashed, involved the fate of a certain Yamazaki Susumu, as well as the rest of the Shinsengumi - but she still wasn't entirely sure it could be true. Nor did she know if he was to be trusted. It was probably better to just be overwhelmed by the bizarre story and seek independent verification of the facts later.

She only gave a grateful nod in response to the question and drew back slightly farther, as though worried about being struck by stray blows during their practice. The lesson should prove to be quite interesting indeed, if for nothing else the information it might give on this swordsman she had encountered.

"If I'm not in the way..." Ayumu replied to Kenshin's invitation, though she allowed her attention to ostensibly drift over toward the younger man, as if she were far more interested in watching him.

"Of course you won't be," Kenshin reassured Sen. Until she became more familiar with this place, it was safest that she stay there. He couldn't shake the lingering feeling of discomfort and suspicion he felt around her, but as long as she was here, she was his responsibility and he would protect her with his life.

Once that was taken care of, he turned back to Robin. "The scabbard would be lighter," he admitted. It wasn't the right length and it didn't have the right heft, but Robin was an absolute beginner. There weren't any shinai around, that was for sure. This was their best option using what they had available. Wincing, Kenshin unsheathed the sakabatou and laid it getly on the floor before shrugging out of his sling and holding the sheath like a bokkan. "This is how a sword is properly held. Please try to imitate this."

Even as a teacher, the rurouni was still very polite. Definitely a far cry from how he'd been treated when he himself had been learning. He was much less abusive a master.

Matt held out a hand to take the sheath from Kenshin. The rurouni was right in that it was lightweight - too light, really. But it would be easier to train with this than that rod - at least for starters. He'd have to get a hold of one of the alchemists or whoever made weapons. Or rather, he'd at least need to find something that fit the general shape and weight. It might have been better if he'd tried to find someone to teach hand-to-hand, but they might not have been as nice about things as Kenshin was.

The man imitated the grip to near perfection. If there was one thing Matt was good at, it was noticing details. "That right?"

He had to keep his eyes away from Sen, or else he would be far too distracted to do things properly.

It was probably Kenshin's injury that had allowed Ayumu to give any credibility to his claim of danger, even if she kept some doubts about the rest of the story. The way he moved spoke of real pain, and she wondered what could have happened to cause such wounds.

And despite his injuries, he was still determined to give a lesson to the young foreigner who clearly didn't know anything about fighting. Their meeting for this purpose certainly hadn't been manufactured for her benefit, even if they could have invented the rest - though for what reason they would want to bother with such, she didn't know, so perhaps that meant they were telling the truth.

Her thoughts chased themselves in circles, comparing what they'd said with what she'd seen, watching their interaction, as she tried to decide how much was truth and what their true intentions might be. Outwardly, though, she only watched Robin's efforts with every semblance of fascination. Perhaps after the 'lesson' was over she'd be able to persuade him to give her some more information...

Robin caught on quickly. That was good. "Yes, that's it!" Kenshin said, delighted. His shoulder was still screaming at him for moving it, but at least he could move it. There didn't seem to be any nerve damage, in spite of the fact that Okita's sword had gone clean through. That was a very good sign.

"Next, we should try some basic technique." The rurouni positioned his hands like he was holding an invisible sword and "swung" slowly, hissing through clenched teeth. He could feel a couple of stitches pop. "The young teacher at the dojo where this one lives has her student practice individual moves hundreds of times until his form is perfect." Kenshin laughed. "This one thinks that might be a little excessive, given the circustances. Twenty swings should be enough for right now. We can practice more, if it's needed."

That was it? Swing it a few times? Matt wasn't sure what else he expected, but he supposed this should have been on the list. And he was rather glad he wouldn't have to be doing it hundreds of times. Yes, he was very thankful to Kenshin for that.

Especially since he'd be doing it in front of Sen, and just these few times were embarrassing enough. Then again, if she was from a similar point in time it probably wasn't all that odd to her.

"Don't strain yourself too much, sensei." He added the title again out of politeness and the hope that it might make Kenshin take in the situation better. While how much the man wore himself out wouldn't be too much of an issue for him regularly, it could end up being detrimental to his lessons.

The little bits of information were duly noted and filed away, with Ayumu wondering just which dojo Kenshin lived at. She certainly hadn't heard about any with a female instructor - were things different fourteen years in the future (if he really was from the future; the concept was extremely difficult to believe) and if so what did that imply about the future of her country?

"Himura-han? You're injured," she said, tearing her attention away from Robin with apparent reluctance and halfway moving as though to rise. The man was certainly stubborn as the men she knew and had had to patch up from time to time. "Please, be careful..."

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