damned_institute | Day 37: Breakfast

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Day 37: Breakfast

[for Sylar, I believe]

At the sound of the intercom, Wally jerked awake and blinked around at the room. He’d fallen asleep. He should have been up and keeping an eye open for ZEX, but he’d fallen asleep waiting on his bed.

“Idiot,” he groaned, ruffling his hair and sighing in annoyance. “Way to help a guy out, hotshot.” Hopefully ZEX hadn’t dropped by and thought he’d left or something, or wouldn’t be too mad at him for just forgetting about it like that. If he was lucky, he’d be able to catch up with the other patient at some point and explain what had happened.

Rolling himself a little awkwardly out of the bed, Wally took the opportunity to stretch his injured leg and test how well it was holding up. It was feeling a bit better, not so much that he could abandon his crutch or that it didn’t pull painfully if he wasn’t careful, but better. Tony had apparently made it through the night in one piece as well, which was a relief. He really didn’t feel comfortable about the thought of his roommate wandering about on his own with an injured arm. Not when Wally himself could relax and fall asleep in the apparent safety of their room.

Yeah, he wasn’t going to let himself forget that one in a hurry.

It was at that moment that the door swung open to admit one of the nurses. She seemed surprised to find him awake and ready to go already, but smiled warmly. “Hungry, are we Mr. West? Well in that case, let’s get you to the cafeteria. The staff have provided some delicious French Toast as well as a range of other foods I’m sure you’ll like. Now will you be needing a hand with your leg, dear?”

“No thanks, I can handle it,” Wally replied, smiling back. After all, it probably wasn’t the nurses’ fault that this place was so messed up, so it wasn’t like picking fights with them would do anything. With a cheery wave goodbye, Wally slowly made his way to the cafeteria, keeping a tight grip on his crutch all the while. Obtaining a plate of food was only slightly less difficult than it had been yesterday – he didn’t have the painkillers to work around this time – but he managed well enough, coming away from the buffet with a tray containing a plate piled high with slices of French Toast and slathered in maple syrup, butter, and sugar, as well as a glass of juice. Not quite as good as some coffee would be right now, but the sugar would hopefully make up for it. And, with how few people were here at the moment, he could afford to take more food than might have been considered ‘normal’ – he’d have most of it gone by the time anyone came to keep him company, then he could just worry about how many extra serves would be allowed before he aroused suspicion.

Feeling pretty happy with how things were looking so far, Wally hummed faintly to himself as he dug in to his breakfast.

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And then Hinasaki-san's friend arrived, and Subaru had to just swallow his embarrassment and do it. Because his leg was still quite sore, he opted to remain seated and bow as well as he could without getting up. "While I'm glad you've both recovered, I still have to apologise for how badly I messed up, that night. My own attack was turned against you," he bowed again in the direction of Hinasaki-san's friend, "and I wasn't able to do anything to help either of you. I'm very sorry. And sorry that I left this so long." Subaru reddened, really appalled at his own cowardice in avoiding this conversation.

That done, though, he straightened up and tried to smile a little. "Well, I probably won't go out tonight, no. I used up quite a few ofuda last night, and should probably stay in to replenish them."

Sousuke listened while he cut up Miku's toast, searching for foreign objects. He couldn't see any, so he left the meal to her. "There is nothing to apologize for. Concerning his strange powers, such an attack could have happened."

In fact, the Lambda Driver was much like that. It could rebound an attack on the attacker, like it had done with Kurz and the sniper shell.

"We have recovered from the attack as well, and aside from waking up underneath my bed this morning, no post-traumatic stress symptoms have been noted.

"Though your apology is appreciated and noted. That is all."

Really, couldn't he accept an apology without it sounding like a debriefing?

Miku took her plate back and smiled winningly at Subaru. She did, however, translate Sousuke-speech to something more natural-sounding. "We're both fine, please don't worry, Sumeragi-san." Miku took her tray back and waited to take a bite.

"Besides, I'm especially used to unlucky things happening. It doesn't make them any less unhappy, but as long as everyone is okay in the end..." she trailed off and rested her left hand down on the chair beside her, and picked up her fork. It was enough for her that she woke up with everyone still here, even if the whole lot of them were wounded.

Subaru didn't quite know what to make of that speech--obviously he was some sort of military person, but whether he was being sincere or dismissive, Subaru honestly couldn't tell. Hinasaki-san seemed to accept the apology at face value, though, so Subaru shook off his uncertainty and gave her a brief smile. "That sounds awfully familiar. Being used to unlucky happenings, I mean. It seems to be the lot of those of us involved with the supernatural."

Sousuke perked up a little bit when the other boy mentioned the supernatural. Miku had supernatural powers too. No wonder they had found each other.

Especially if both of them were prone to 'unlucky happenings'. Sousuke wondered if it was a byproduct of having these sorts of supernatural powers. "Your name is Sumeragi?" Sousuke asked, cutting up his own toast as well.

Miku nodded in agreement. They were like unlucky magnets that attracted lead and not iron. She concentrated on her meal, carefully picking at the bits of fried bread. Instead, she concentrated upon the images she'd seen last night, peeling them apart layer by layer and measuring the images against the research she had conducted before - research that was beginning to match too fluidly. And personal bias, of course, could not flood into the research, no matter how closely to home it struck.

She had, after all, promised Adelheid results.

Subaru gave another seated half-bow to Hinasaki's friend. "Yes, I'm Sumeragi Subaru. Pleased to meet you again under slightly better circumstances." No circumstances in this place could be considered 'good', of course, but a relatively quiet breakfast--food fights notwithstanding--was at least much better than where they'd been that night!

Sousuke nodded. "Sagara. Sagara Sousuke. There is another Sagara here, so if you need to contact me via the bulletin, using my given name is advised.

"Pleased to meet you as well," he finished, bobbing his head again in a slight bow. It wasn't nearly as formal as Subaru's, but it was there. Probably the only normal thing about that whole introduction.

Again, there was that military-esque severity to Sagara-san's words, and Subaru was at a loss for how to respond, at first. Hinasaki-san didn't seem to find the situation tense, though, and she obviously knew Sagara-san better than Subaru did, so he took her calmness to mean that nothing was wrong. "I'll keep that in mind, Sagara-san. Are you from Japan, as well?" It was certainly a Japanese name, but of course there were Japanese people all over the world, Subaru knew.

"Yes, I believe so," Sousuke said. He really wasn't certain. But if the flight had come from Japan and there was a Japanese name in his clothing... that was proof enough, he supposed.

He looked down at Miku, trying to convey that this was skirting around the subject he hadn't wanted to discuss last night. It was probably futile, so he would have to intervene.

"Hina-- Miku is from Japan as well."

Miku looked up automatically when her name was called, fork on the way to her mouth, and ghosts still heavily on her mind. "Mm? Oh, yes." Sousuke's look worried her, and Miku reached between them with her free hand to pat his knee gently. "I think we've discussed that before, though," at least she was fairly certain she had. "Unless my days are just melting into each other at this point."

Miku shrugged and returned her hand back to her lap. But, she wanted to add, it is interesting that his Japan is not yours or mine. A sudden thought lit her eyes up, "Sumeragi-san, did you encounter the tattooed priestess as well, or any other ghosts similar to her?"

Sagara-san's uncertain answer was odd, but the way he changed the subject and shot Hinasaki-san a significant look suggested it was something he didn't care to discuss in front of a relative stranger. Well, that was fine--Subaru had more than his own share of delicate topics that he'd rather avoid.

The matter of ghosts, oddly enough, was not one of those subjects. "No, nothing quite like that. At home I mostly encountered more ordinary ghosts--murder victims, abused children, suicides. I also dealt with people who found old and poorly-written spells in books and tried to use them, hurting themselves and others in the process. I think the closest I have ever encountered is inugami. You know inugami, Hinasaki-san...?" Subaru didn't want to assume she didn't and offend her.

Sousuke looked mildly curious at the talk of ghosts and the tattooed priestess. And considering he'd just learned that Miku had a talent for seeing things that weren't visible to him, he was doubly ready to pay attention.

"Normal people can read poorly-written spells?" He asked. Well, some things just required an authorization system apparently. Things other than top-secret MITHRIL Arm Slaves.

Miku shook her head, "There are a lot of things in the books my brother collected from my great-grandfather and great-great grandfather, but much of it was on backwood villages' rituals," she ducked her head, embarrassed. "Family business, you see, seems to be getting into as much trouble as humanly or inhumanly possible." And sometimes, we even survive! she added to herself.

"We aren't priests, so while there are many books written on kinds of ghosts, we were more interested in the way they became ghosts." She shuddered, disliking the thought of it all. "So, please, anything you could tell me would be quite helpful."

"There are many different types of magic," Subaru explained to Sagara-san. "And while a certain amount of one's strength depends on having a talent for it, there are types that anyone with a strong enough will can use. But not being experts, often these people can't see the mistakes in the spell, and it turns on them or otherwise goes wrong when they try to use it." Subaru hoped that Sagara-san wouldn't be the type to want to try to use magic without fully understanding it, because that never really went well, for anyone. He still had nightmares, sometimes, about those poor girls from the phone chat line.

He turned then to Miku, a deeply sad expression on his face. "Inugami are, as the name suggests, most often made from dogs. It works best if a loyal, beloved dog is used. There are a few different ways to make them, and they're all horrible, but the one that I think applies to your priestess is also probably the most horrible. The dog is buried alive, up to the neck, and food is placed just out of reach. The dog is left to suffer, straining for the food, and often taunted and tormented in other ways as well. When the suffering has peaked, the dog's head is cut off, usually with a bamboo saw or other slow, painful tool." Subaru looked down, realising that he had curled his hands into fists, his short nails cutting into his palms from the force of his clenching. "The suffering makes the resulting spirit very strong. Very strong. It's one of the most powerful and dangerous curses, because anyone at all can do it. It requires no complex spells, no chanting--just a living creature suffering horribly until it dies. It's also a curse that almost inevitably turns on its maker, sooner or later."

Well, that made sense. It would be as though a civilian tried to pilot an RK-92 Savage. Not only was the machine outdated and bulky, the interface would probably be so difficult to understand that all the person would succeed in doing was hurting themselves.

The description of these inugami was horrifying to Sousuke, and part of him wondered if Subaru should have been describing it in such graphic detail in front of Miku. Especially when his charge was eating.

"Why would people make such things if they inevitably turn on their creator?" Sousuke asked, looking a little stern. It didn't sound like the brightest of plans to him, all things considered.

Miku blanched, feeling sorry for the poor animal, but slightly shook her head. She put her fork down, done with eating. Subaru's description had certainly killed that. "The subjects are usually... women. I suppose that stems from the belief that women have greater capacities for suffering." Which wasn't entirely true, perhaps, but they did show it better and more fully.

"In my experience, there is one kind of priestess was isolated for ten years, and then sacrificed during a December festival by quartering. It was hoped that her blood would appease the spirits. I'm not sure if she felt any kind of loyalty, except for the desire to do her duty. I think the Tattoo Priestess is the same. I saw her... marking a mirror, and breaking it. Duty's sake, I suppose. In both cases, the woman's spiritual ability had to be high. In theory, a medium, or a priestess in my timeline could be used for the same purpose, provided they followed the same ritual. But who does that anymore?"

Miku pinched her nose between her fingers. "All so terrible. Why people think it is the best way... I'll never understand it."

It was a bit of a sad statement about what Subaru's life was like that he didn't even think for a moment that such topics might be inappropriate for meal-times. Breakfast had often been one of the few times he had free to discuss things with Hokuto or Seishirou-san, and so it had become habit to take whatever chance he could get to pass along or learn important information.

To Sousuke's question, Subaru answered sadly, "Desperation makes people willing to do all kinds of things. I met two people who intended to make inugami, in my time in Tokyo. Both had lost people very important to them, and the justice system had failed them--they didn't think the perpetrator would be punished any other way. They knew they would likely die, too, but it was enough that their enemy would die with them."

Subaru nodded to Miku, not surprised but still saddened by what she said. "It's an old belief, and unfortunately a true one, that spiritual strength is only increased by anger, by sadness, by any kind of suffering. Happy people, content people, don't often linger after death, or at least not for longer than they need to to say goodbye to their loved ones."

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Day 37: Breakfast

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