damned_institute | Day 40: Lunch

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Day 40: Lunch

*hobble wobble*

"Damn that SCOURGE!" Starscream cried out, the slowly-filling cafeteria producing a jarring echo of his raspy voice. His limping, already bad enough from not knowing how to properly use his crutches, was now exacerbated from the injuries he'd received the shift prior. Despite the gauges in his non-casted leg so lovingly provided by the aforementioned 'patient', Starscream could still put some weight on it, but not so much that he could really stop and rest; relieving the soreness under his arms was out of the question. The nurse that walked behind him with his tray, already upset at having to deal with yet another troublesome inmate, was growing rather impatient as his charge slowly made his way down the food line.

"Just...give me a standard serving of the aquatic creature's flesh, some of those fried potato slices, two bananas, and three bottles of juice," Starscream sighed, his anger from just a moment ago assuaged by the physical exertion needed to move the way he did. "I'm going to sit down here...bring it to me when you're done."

He was hardly surprised to find that one of the bananas was completely bruised along its inner curve, or that the handful of 'chips' on his plate were all on the small side. Tired and frustrated as he was, however, he could barely muster a 'damned flesh-creature' before moving his fingers to the plate, picking one of the longer 'chips' and shoving it into his mouth listlessly.

There was an unusually high concentration of sodium chloride crystals on it. Of COURSE.

[For Tony Stark]

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When he started to laugh, Chise's face felt hotter than before. This was so embarrassing! Well, not as embarrassing as the time when she suggested her class to start evacuating, because at that moment she sensed an oncoming attack aimed at her from far away.

"But, but...I made fun of your name," she protested, "a-and I just met you! It was a mean and stupid thing for me to do. Even if I was asking, it would still be considered as being mean. Anyone could tell that you aren't a monkey. I'm sorry."

There was still tears in her eyes when she wiped them. If only Shuji (or somebody) was here to call her stupid for saying that, then she would feel a little bit better afterward.

Luffy thought it'd been an honest question. And anyway, it was obvious Chise hadn't been trying to be mean with it, so he didn't see what the big deal was.

"You already apologized before you took the pill," he pointed out. "What's the point of apologizing for something if you're gonna apologize for it again afterwards?" Maybe she just liked repeating herself a lot. Or apologizing all the time, either one.

"Anyway, you should stop crying," he added seriously. "You'll get your food wet." Although...maybe it'd add a little extra flavor, now that he thought of it.

He had a good point about apologizing for something you already apologized beforehand. It really was a force of habit for her to apologize for everything she did.

"...I'm sorry," the tears had finally stopped but her eyes were still wet. This was the second time she cried today. "I cry all the time, even for the simplest things, so it's nothing you should worry about. I'm always like this ever since I was born and I'm always screwing things up. I...I want to be strong for both myself and him, but...I'm not sure if I am strong enough, especially in a place like this."

She couldn't even protect herself from a swarm of mutated dragonflies.

Idly leaning back in his chair, Luffy listened to the girl as she spoke. So she wanted to be stronger -- that was something he could get. A guy had to be tough if he wanted to make it on the Grand Line, after all. And while Luffy wasn't something who put himself through rigorous training like Zoro did, he knew he was going to have to work hard if he wanted to be the Pirate King someday.

"So being strong's what you gotta do," he said simply. Whether she could actually do it was something he had no way of answering, but that went without saying. "If you want it bad enough, and this guy is so important, then what's stopping you?"

"I...I don't know," she muttered. It would've been easy for her to blame it on the institute, but that wouldn't be an acceptable excuse. "I want to blame it on this place because I couldn't find my boyfriend last night, but it wouldn't be right to accuse this place for all of my present problems. It's what I am that's stopping me. I don't want to be weak, or too strong to the point where I'll end up killing him and everything around me."

Chise suddenly realized that she'd just told Luffy, a complete stranger and a boy, about her personal predicament. She inwardly berated herself for being so inconsiderate.

"I'm sorry for telling you my problems when we only just met. I know that talking about it releases emotional tension, but it might be a nuisance for you. I don't know if you understand the feeling of being unable to do things here, that you could easily do beforehand."

"Sure I do," Luffy replied. If this was back home, he would have been out of here by now, and Landel would have been sent flying a long time ago. It was simple as that, and it had to be the same for a lot of other people, too.

"Anyway," he went on, "if you're worried about all that stuff, just get some help from other good people in doing what you gotta do." Most matters were usually pretty cut-and-dry for Luffy, and this was no exception. "If you're trying to be strong on your own, that's kind of a stupid thing to do. Nobody knows how to do everything."

Well, unless there was a devil fruit for that somewhere out there, but Luffy had never seen anything like that before.

"You do?" she questioned, "You have special powers of some sort?" The subject of different abilities partially lightened up her mood. She wondered if Luffy was a magician.

When he mentioned asking for help from other 'good' people, her expression fell. "I...don't know anybody here that could help me. All the ones that I do know of are dead." Both her best friend and Lt. Tetsu are dead, and Shuji wasn't here. There was nobody that she could relate to. "I'm all alone."

"Oh, yeah," he said simply, as if they were talking about anything but special powers. "I'm a rubberman! So, normally, I can stretch super-far." Landel had done something to mess that up, but Luffy was gonna find a way to fix it. The main issue was whether it was going to be before or after kicking that bastard's ass, but he'd figure that out later on.

He listened, face oddly blank, as she explained her predicament. Then after a moment, he tipped the brim of his hat back and stared at her with an almost unnervingly intense gaze. It wasn't that he didn't get that she was having a hard time -- that much was obvious. But was she really as alone as she was making herself out to be?

"It doesn't look that way to me," he finally said. "I see you, but sitting behind you are all sorts of people who're stuck here, too. And a lot of 'em are good people, you know!"

"A rubber...man? Stretch? How?" Dumbfounded by the sound of it, she couldn't help but stare at him. The ability to stretch, she never would have guessed it.

She looked behind herself after he informed her that most of the patient population were good people. Well, Kurogane seemed like a good person (even though he had a scary face), but she wasn't so sure about the rest of the others.

"I suppose most of them are good," she said, turning back to Luffy. "But...I doubt that they would take me as their friend, if they knew what I really am." A weapon of mass destruction, the angel of death, someone who wants to live after causing widespread suffering. "Would you even want to be friends with me, if I...if you knew all the horrific sins I've committed!"

"I throw my arm out and it stretches," he explained. "I'm like a rubber band!" Really, he thought it kinda spoke for itself, but he guessed not a whole lot of people have seen stuff like that. Well, if they weren't from the Grand Line, anyway.

As for whatever she'd done before coming Landel's, Luffy didn't think it mattered much. "Well, you seem like a good person," he said, shrugging. "And if it's stuff you did before I met you, what does it even have to do with anything?"

Besides, he was a pirate. The word "sin" didn't really mean much to him in the first place. Betrayal of one's nakama, broken promises, heartless cruelty -- those were things he hated, but Chise didn't look like she was capable of any of that. (She'd spend so much time apologizing beforehand if she even tried.)

But whatever it was she was talking about? Luffy wasn't about to decide whether it was horrible or not -- it could have been, if she was so upset about it (even though she got upset about a lot of stuff). But, really, he didn't think it mattered to what was going on right here, and right now.

"Anyway, when you say stuff like that, it sounds like the only person stopping you from finding friends is you," he bluntly pointed out. "There're all sorts of good people here, and if they're good people, they'll know you're good, too."

To him, it was as simple as that.

"I...see," she said, slowly taking all the information and reasoning in. He made it sound so simple, like a walk in a park. Maybe, just maybe, in this place there were people that would forgive her, forgive her for everything she did before. Luffy and Kurogane, the only two people she talked to about her concerns, were willing to forgive her. However, if they were in her world their opinions would be in a different tune, but right now, she didn't care. Just the fact that a couple of a people were willing to forgive her, made her happy.

"I think I understand what you're trying to say," she continued, and was crying again, but in happiness. "Before, Shuji and I only had each other. When I woke up here I thought that I was all alone and had no-one else to get help from. I'm sorry for being so stupid."

"Do you - I mean...can I be friends with...you?" she asked. To Chise, it was an out-of-the-blue question, but she wanted to know the reassurance that there was at least one, good, and forgivable person here.

Well, at least she was starting to get how silly it was to say she was all alone here. That couldn't really be true for anyone. Even when all of Luffy's nakama were gone, he'd still had people like Brock who'd given him a helping hand when he'd needed it. A person just had to look in the right places! (And it wasn't like this place was all that big anyway, so it just made finding friends a lot easier, in Luffy's opinion.)

When she asked if they could be friends, Luffy's expression brightened and he gave a wide smile. "Sure!" he replied with a small chuckle. "You don't even really have to ask me." Sometimes people just started being friends because they acted like friends, with no other words said about it between them.

A large and genuine smile appeared on her face. "Thank you Luffy, I'm happy that I had this chance to talk to you." Deep down inside Chise was glad that she was able to make a friend here.

"I'll try my best to get stronger so that everybody here can escape." she said, bowing before a nurse retrieved her.

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Day 40: Lunch

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[The End (finally)]