damned_institute | Nightshift 36: M51-M60 Hallway

While positive reinforcement was nice in its own way, the way Kenshin said it also made Matt feel like a bit of a child. He didn't let this show in his expression, but he almost wished the shorter man would yell at him some, just so he didn't feel like he should be getting snack and/or nap time afterwards.

He couldn't help the raised eyebrow, however, at Kenshin's last comment. It was truthful, but almost darkly humorous the way he'd delivered it. Yeah. Sorry we're all stuck here with no known method of escape that doesn't involve brainwashing. You'll get used to it after a while.

"Not for lack of trying," Matt added without stopping the swings. "You can now at least get outside the Institute after dark, but when morning comes you'll wake up back in your room here again."

Edited 2008-11-02 23:54 (UTC)

There was more talk of being transported unwillingly, which was still something Ayumu didn't understand. Were the people perhaps drugged and carried around? Or their memories somehow altered? And why would people be able to get outside "now," if, as that implied, they hadn't been before?

There were far too many things she didn't understand here, and she wanted to explore and see what else she could find out. But the unknown could also be quite dangerous, so it would likely be better for now to wait and find out what else she could from these two. She could be patient. She could always be patient.

Kenshin's answer was rather a disappointment, though, even if it did prompt Robin to add a little more. "How many of 'us' are there?" she asked, adding a little bit of doubt into her voice along with the worry. Maybe they were lying, or keeping something from her, she hinted. "Are we all supposedly from different times and places?"

Kenshin watched Robin intently, head cocked slightly to the side. He was doing well, better than the rurouni had expected at first. They would be going on to the next step sooner than he thought. Still... "Don't let your grip slip. This one knows it doesn't feel quite right, but it'll feel more natural with time."

He leaned back slightly, giving Sen another apologetic look. He hadn't meant it like that. "For the most part. There are some from the same place and time, but there are dozens of us. Over a hundred, maybe, and all trapped here. Sen-dono, may this one ask you a question?"

[skipping Matt with permission]

Robin's practice might have been almost familiar, even if the sheath was a somewhat unorthodox weapon for the purpose. Ayumu couldn't count how many times she'd watched weapons drills back at home, but the rather obvious differences between this and that, and the fact that this wasn't home made it slightly unsettling to watch.

She blinked curiously at Kenshin at his inquiry, though, "Of course you may, Himura-han." Whatever question he wanted to ask would surely tell her something about what he was thinking, after all. Ayumu gave him a somewhat forced smile as she spoke, as though trying to be cheerful despite everything.

Kenshin watched Robin for a while before answering. How best to phrase this? He was taking a big risk by asking it, but he needed to know how much Sen knew. Somehow. "This one is originally from Kansai," he said brightly. It was, technically, true; the village where he had been born and spent the earliest part of his childhood was in the mountains in Kansai. "And this one lived in Kyoto for a time, before he ended up in...Edo." It felt extraordinarily odd to refer to Tokyo by its old name. "May this one ask where in the city you live?"

That was...an extremely stupid question, but oh well. Turning back to Robin, added, "You're doing very well. Now we should practice a basic block. This one's going to come at you with his sword; please do your best to block it."

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.

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?

[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.

[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)

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."

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.

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?"

Matt blinked, looking between Kenshin and the sheath now laying on the floor. "Well..." he began, tone very sarcastic, "I would be willing to wager a guess that it has something to do with the fact that you're an expert and I have very little idea what I'm doing. But I could be wrong."

He bent down to retrieve his 'weapon,' holding it loosely. "Could also be that my grip was off," he added a bit more seriously. "So what should I go about fixing?"

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