damned_institute | Day 37: Sun Room

Joe had read some of the larger notes stuck up on the bulletin board when the announcement came on the intercom. All things considered, this Landel guy didn't even seem so bad. Even if these people were held here against their will, he was certainly nice about it.

Apparently, the new patients - including Joe - were to hang around in the Sun Room or go to Arts and Crafts with the kids. Well, there was plenty of information on the board, including maps and descriptions of monsters, for Joe to prepare for the nighttime, when he could seriously get going on fighting his way out. He could look for where the boss would probably be waiting, or where his V-watch might be, and figure out how to fight the monsters. In fact, he had plenty of time to work all that out... but this the first time he'd had to really relax since he got his powers. So it couldn't possibly hurt to enjoy the calm period, could it?

The red-head stepped back from the board, and hopped back onto a comfy-looking couch to digest in the sunlight. He reached up to pull his cap down, and sighed when he realized it wasn't there. "Oh well, nothing's perfect. I still wouldn't call this hell."

[free!]

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Unwell was putting it lightly. Regardless, Kira could see why the others would want to avoid telling her as much as possible. He, too, kept his mouth shut for the moment, unwilling to tell her that the entirety of Soul Society went into chaos, that it had only settled down just in time for the arrival of Aizen's Espada. The battle she spoke of was one he hadn't participated in, but he heard of their successes - that the captains who went defeated their enemies but wound up trapped there, leaving the rest of them to protect the living world.

... perhaps he was the only one in the present - furthest in the future. And Hinamori was from the furthest in the past.

It kind of figured.

Now that she had released him, Kira finally turned most of the way around, taking one step back and feeling the windowed wall behind him. She looked terrible, but at least the light was still in her eyes - a determined one, dulled by loss and confusion, but a light nonetheless. It wasn't desperate, and that alone gave him the tiniest possibility for hope.

"There was chaos," he said. "It hadn't really been solved even when I last heard." Months and months ahead of her time ... if he had come from then, would he even be sane? After a brief pause, he continued. "There was never any talk of removing you from your position." Maybe it would comfort her. Maybe not. It had been a valid fear for him as well - after all, hadn't he been right there, knowing nearly as much as they did?

The knowledge that they hadn't been debating stripping her of her rank was a comfort to Momo. Small it may be, she still felt like she had rightfully earned it. She managed a small smile at that, but it didn't last long.

"I think... part of the reason I may be better here than... when everyone is from... is because I've had time on my own to think things through. I haven't been interrogated by the 2nd, I haven't been seeing the looks, hearing the whispered comments among the other divisions," she said. Her gaze dropped. "I've also had others, those who have become friends and aren't shinigami, to talk to. Ones that had no idea what I'd done. What Aizen-sa-- what he'd done." She looked back up. "They know now, because I've told them or they overheard Kuchiki-taichou's reprimand, but I wasn't... judged immediately."

She reached out to take Kira's hand. "Let's sit, okay?" She looked over at an empty seat. "Oh... stay on my right side, please? I want to be able to see you."

So this place had actually helped her. Kira could see why as she spoke. With time to think, other things to focus on than a future full of emptiness and despair, and people who wouldn't judge her immediately, of course she would be able to make realizations and steel herself. And so she was healing now - slowly but surely - among so many others, and among those that she could hopefully trust.

He wondered, very briefly, if it would have been any good for him to have come from that time. But no, just like he'd thought before, he would have likely been mad with guilt. Even if he did recover, the sight of Gin would have ...

As she took his hand and carefully lead him away from the window, Kira frowned a bit. Her eye was that badly damaged? She was blind? He sat down after she did, on her right side as requested, and looked at the damage he could see.

"What happened?" he asked, immediately concerned. Her injuries had worried him before, but now, in such close proximity, he could see the full extent. Her eye looked terrible. What did this place do to her?

Remorse stirred in Momo's stomach as she thought back to that night where she killed Rhode. Best for her to get used to explaining what happened; eventually, Signum was going to question her about it. She could only avoid the knight for so long.

"Two nights ago, a confrontation between another patient and myself escalated. This person, a non-human type called a Noah, had insulted myself, Shiro-chan and the shinigami and effectively threw a gauntlet down before me. I admit, Kira, this place has also made me a very angry woman. I couldn't let the matter go, not when this Noah had already been blacklisted by the shinigami for her continued assault on the other humans here." She sighed and rubbed her temple. "The confrontation or words turned into one of blows and I'm honestly not sure if she kicked me first or if I grabbed her collar before she did that."

She gestured to her cast, emblazoned with the firebird she drew on it, and then motioned to her torso. "With the injuries that I still carried, she got an upper hand before I was able to use my demon arts and regain my sword." A sad look washed over her face. "I lost control of the situation when a human interfered, trying to break it up. He ran right between us as I was attacking and I left myself open to the Noah as I averted my strike so as not to skewer the boy. She took advantage of it and knocked me to the ground, clawing at me. I'd lost a lot of blood,my sword trapped under me and she was going to tear me apart." She closed her eyes. "It was my life or hers. I killed her."

Momo's hand went to her deadened eye. "She destroyed this eye. The only reason it's intact at all is because of the many healing spells I was given. I can see changes of light in it, but that's all." A tear formed again. "I think... I think it's just this gigai that's damaged and I'll have its sight back once we're freed of them, but... I'm not sure."

Kira had never doubted Hinamori's fighting ability - okay, maybe once or twice back in the academy, but did that even count any more? - and so to know that she had succeeded in a battle here when she was weakened against an enemy who had no restraint was a bit of a relief. But to see her so injured afterward - half-blinded, her wrist broken, possibly worse hidden under her clothes - gave him enough worry to override that relief. Even if it was just the gigai, she still couldn't get out of it here. The only way for her to heal completely was to get out of here altogether.

That was their goal anyway, wasn't it? He looked at the damage around her eye forlornly, then down at the cast on her wrist.

"It has to be," he said, trying to convince himself as much as her. "And even if it's not ... maybe the Fourth could help." Could they fix blindness days after the fact? More? He knew they were good at what they did, but he wasn't sure if they were that good. "You did what you had to do. If she was a threat, there was no choice." She'd protected her honor, and a human. He would have done the same, he imagined. He hoped.

"Not everyone is going to see it as that," Momo replied, quietly, pulling her legs to her, seeming smaller than she normally was. "I have a good friend, one that's not shinigami, who is a knight, that is going to have issues with this because the Noah was another patient. I don't know what her reasoning is, but I know she's going to have words and... I don't like having her disapproval."

Momo then sighed. "And the other Noah, the one named Tyki, is going to attempt to get revenge. I don't know when, but I know he's going to try." And with her eye she wasn't entirely sure she could fend him off, but she wasn't going to say that. "I'll find a way, so please don't worry, even though I know you're going to."

She sighed and looked across the room, her gaze finding Ichimaru among the others. "You know... it's only because of Hitsugaya's orders that I haven't killed him. I swear to you, Kira, if he tries to harm you, in any way, I will end him. This truce he and I have had... it's over. I'm not going to let him do to you what he did before."

Day 37: Sun Room

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