damned_institute | Night Shift 38: File Room 1

[From here]

Once inside, Homura took the flashlight he kept in a pocket and clicked it on. This was one area of the institute he hadn't been to before. Unfamiliar terrain on top of being alone and previously injured made the task more daunting than it should have ordinarily been, but there was little that could be done to change the situation. He moved quietly forward, keeping an eye out for potential threats as he came to the cabinets. It only took a glance to ascertain that he'd chosen the room where Okita's file would be, and so Homura focused on finding the right drawer.

Which was, of course, locked. The demi-god chuckled lightly, wondering if Landel enjoyed giving them these minor frustrations. Not caring about the condition he left the cabinet in afterward, Homura grabbed the handle, and began to pull. It took some doing, and the handle itself had nearly come off before the drawer finally opened with a slam.

After a careful look around to be sure that he hadn't attracted any unwanted attention with his efforts, Homura scanned the names. There were man, most of which Homura didn't recognize. But as he had predicted, Julian Ikeda's file was among them, easily removed before Homura closed the drawer again. He was tempted to open the folder then and there, not to invade Okita's privacy, but to see if they did indeed include results from their so-called sleep therapy. Yet such an answer was easily enough obtained, and Homura had respect for his friend's desires. He knew that Okita wouldn't want anyone to see the contents of these files.

The flashlight was turned off once again, and Homura quickly folded the file in half so he could fit it into his back pocket. That done, he headed back out of the room.

[Back out to here]

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[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/555254.html?thread=45774070#t45774070)]

The room was already open, which was a godsend. Ritsuka didn't want to relive his failed attempts at fighting with the stupid door when someone was in the other room with a gun. The last thing he needed to do was go banging into the lock and attracting that person's attention.

Shining his flashlight around the room quickly, he stopped on the row of file cabinents and looked up at Kio. The last time he'd been in here, something had attacked Soubi. Something invisible, at that. He didn't think Kio would handle it quite so well as Soubi had. "Your file will be in here. Alphabetically ordered. Get it quick and let's go. I hate this place."

Kio darted one final glance at the woman before sneaking inside the room. It was dark, so he too turned his flashlight on, shining it haphazardly around the room. He looked down at Ritsuka and then nodded.

Akatsuki Shinro. He'd be in one of the top rows. Deft fingeers scanned and opened one of the drawers. So many files here. Kio quickly found the label on his and pulled it out. Temptation nagged. He opened it and shone his flashlight on it, determined to just scan it. There it was: his life according to Dr Landel. Photos. One of him with his mother and grandmother, he and his wife and daughter and one with Sou-chan. When had these been taken? He was young in the first photo, perhaps no older than 9, smiling at the camera. His wife was holding their baby girl and grinning up at him, while he stared wide-eyed at them both. He and Soubi, that day they both went to the game arcade, Kio dragging on Soubi's sleeve.

Who had the nerve to spy into his life like that? His hand clenched around the flashlight, but still he kept on reading. The text was cold, impersonal. Kio read slowly: Patient name: Akatsuki Shinro. Age: 22. Gender: Male. Parents: Yuki (mother), Haruki (father). Diagnosis: Borderline Personality Disorder, Shared Psychotic Disorder.
Akatsuki Shinro seems an almost atypical case. Having witnessed his father's suicide when he was 6, he was forced not only to deal with the death of a parent but also with the withdrawal of his mother's affection. He struggled to "make her happy" again, as some therapists claim. Indeed, this seems to have become the focus of his life, to make others happy.

Shinro seems to have repressed the memory of his father's death and indeed never mentions his family. He entered adolescence a fairly normal boy, not showing any outward signs of problems. He met someone in high school, a girl named Maki, whom he developed a strong bond with. The circumstances around his marriage are unclear, but within a year of meeting her, their daughter Maya was born.

He went to art college and here it seems the grief he has supressed started showing. Shinro started neglecting his wife and daughter at this point, preferring instead to associate with a fellow student. He began trying to "make everyone happy" again and developed borderline traits. While not outwardly violent, his love for piercings (many of which are self-inflicted) and his tattoo both indicate a tendency to hurt himself as way of preventing others from getting hurt.

As he spiralled further into the delusion of a non-existant family, Shinro's wife insisted that he be admitted to Landel's for treatment.

He could feel his knees giving way under him. Lies. All of them. There was truth in some of the words, but it was a lie. Kio's breath hitched in his chest. Ritsuka had warned him. With a snap, he turned to the letter M. Opening the drawer with grim determination, he pulled out the file with 'Matsuda Hiro' on it, but did not open it. No time.

Kio looked at Ritsuka. His throat felt dry and his eyes itched. He couldn't cry. He wouldn't allow himself to. Lies. "I have it, Ritsuka. Do you need anything else?" His whole chest felt two sizes too small. He needed to get out.

When Kio went to get his file, Ritsuka gave him some privacy and looked away. Whatever he found there, the boy wouldn't ask about it. He knew his own file had made him doubt his own existence and that experience came with a few days here to get used to the way things worked. Kio was still new, regardless of the day or two he'd been stuck within these walls. He'd lived a relatively normal life, and a relatively happy one. Suddenly getting thrust into a world like this? He could only imagine how hard it was to cope.

It wasn't until he heard the second drawer opening that he turned around again. What the hell was Kio doing? It didn't take him long to recognize where Kio was digging around and his mind stopped for a second. There was another file there and that meant Soubi's file had been replaced. Was Ritsuka's file replaced too? Why was Kio getting Soubi's file? Had Soubi asked him to?

"Yeah, I need to know what you're doing with his file." He faced Kio then, looking up at him with a grim expression. He knew what Kio found hadn't been good from the look on his face, but he also knew that everything in those files were lies. "Did he ask you to get it and keep it a secret from me?"

It amused him slightly to look at Ritsuka's determined face. He hadn't expected to waltz right out of the file room with his and Sou-chan's files, but it was quite apparent that Ritsuka would not go down without a (metaphorical) fight. Kio was tired. Not from the running around, because there hadn't been much of that. The stuff in his file, though... That had simply drained him.

There was really only one way out of here and he knew it. "He's worried about you. He thinks he's really upset you." Kio gritted his teeth. "He saw me at breakfast and asked me to take care of you and make sure you weren't hurt. I'm picking the file up for Sou-chan, yes. I was meant to do it more subtly, because he doesn't want you worrying about him. I'll give it back when I next see him."

He'd lied. Outright lied. Kio knew he'd done it before, to Sou-chan no less. This time, as always, he told himself it was to stop people from being so sad all the time. To make them stop worrying. He could deal with worry and sadness, but some people couldn't. He had to make them happy.

Worried? Upset? Just how upset did Soubi think Ritsuka was going to get now that he knew he was being kept out of the loop again? He knew how much Ritsuka hated that! He knew how much it hurt him not to be trusted and yet, here again was another example of how Ritsuka would never be as close to Soubi as his real friends. He'd wanted to talk to Kio when he'd been hurt in the field. He hadn't wanted Ritsuka to know he'd battled Zero alone either. There were always secrets and always lies flying around and Ritsuka was frankly tired of it.

Telling Soubi to be honest with him wasn't enough anymore, but ordering him wasn't something Ritsuka wanted to do. "Fine," he finally said, a little more tersely than was probably appropriate. It wasn't Kio's fault that Ritsuka was this angry. "Give it back to him tomorrow then. Let's get out of here before that fight in the other room ends."

[going here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/555254.html?thread=45774070#t45774070)]

Night Shift 38: File Room 1

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