damned_institute | Dayshift 42: Bus 2

Before anyone could come to any decisions for their next move, the room suddenly filled with a thick fog. Faster than he could realize what was happening, it had filled up the entire room and swallowed every single one of his friends. Then there was that undeniable stench of iron, blood and... he last remembered taking a step back and feeling that slippery skid and the realization of what that was. By the time he yelled, he was sitting straight up in his bed like he'd bolted awake. Like it'd been nothing more than a bad dream. ...What the hell just happened?!

"Oh! Good morning!" The nearby voice made him yelp with a half squeak-like noise. Oh, for hell's sake. It was one of those freaking nurses again. She was beaming at him like nothing had happened at all. Before he could so much as ask one question, the hag started blathering real fast about some field trip and buses and getting changed and hurrying up before everyone left without him and... OH MY GOD, WHAT WAS SHE DOING?! She was grabbing at his shirt like she was about to start helping him get dressed (or undressed in this case).

He flailed in a desperate attempt to get away from her and yelled his consent to go along if she would get out and let him change HIMSELF. What was the matter with her?! Thankfully, she left but told him to hurry. Hell if he knew what she'd do if he took too long. So for the sake of not getting freaking stripped, he quickly changed into the clothes she'd left on the bed. Clothes being the ugliest looking white-and-black track pants he'd ever seen and a bright blue sweatshirt with a cute little penguin design on the front. This was some kind of joke, right? ...Not to say the penguin wasn't cute or anything but there was no way, no way, he was wearing something like this in public.

But the nurse had burst right in again, and before Kanji could offer much protest, he was being pulled down the hallways and through the doors of the bus. He'd yelled some things her way, but she totally wasn't listening at all. By the time they stopped, he was standing at the front of the bus with a paper bag and the nurse had run off to cart another poor sap along. Frickin' PERFECT. For the sake of not standing up there like some kind of zoo animal for everyone to stare at, he plopped himself into one of the seats by the front and sighed in complete exasperation.

[Free. No limit.]

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"I never said death isn't to be feared," Momo replied calmly. "It just another part of life. There is a reason most humans never know that shinigami exist or that there is even a so-called Afterlife. Though, when a human dies, their entire existence changes. They will not see the people they knew when alive, venture to a new plane of existence and, whilst in Rukongai, build a new 'life' and never know when they will be reincarnated back into the living world. Death is a mystery to almost all."

She was not put off by Taura's reaction at all; the woman was human and thus to be expected. "There is nothing wrong with that part of you. You are human," she said as if that explained everything. To Momo, it did. "If you'd like my advice, I'd be more worried about the health of the soul rather than the body. But you didn't ask for it, so feel free to disregard it. My apologies."

"Then I think I'll stick with living for this life," Taura said, essaying a smile. Some of it seemed to stick, though her shoulders were still slumped.

It wasn't any use dwelling on it, no matter what. So she took her own advice and looked forward. "So what are you planning to do in town? I guess without any money shopping is out. Even food...was this supposed to last us the whole day?" She held up her bag, which was down to some orange slices.

Momo offered her bag, minus the juice box, to Taura. "You are welcome to mine. I don't eat very much."

She really didn't have any plans. Maybe she'd just find a nice tree in the park to sit under. "Oh, I think there's a spot in the park with my name on it. They do give us these little books with papers we can exchange in specified places for services or food." She chuckled. "Many find ways to acquire things normally not available to us. I'm not good at that sort of thing, so I don't even try."

"Really?" Taura hesitated, wondering if politeness dictated she refuse. But Momo hadn't touched her food, and she was kind of tiny. "Thanks," she said, and took the bag.

She peeled the top off the second yogurt cup, one of her nails bending a little. "Maybe I can find some nail polish. I'd never realized it had a purpose beyond looking pretty." She scowled at her nails, this time because they were soft and weak and looking ragged, rather than as a symbol of the changes she'd undergone. "That and information. I know lots of people have been to this town before, but I can't just sit around and wait for rescue. It wouldn't be fair."

Momo shook her head a little. "The townspeople are not helpful in any way. They are all convinced we are what the staff presents us to be during the day. Some of them make take pity on us and give some of the children candy, but if you're expecting aide from any of them, I'm afraid you will be mistaken."

She sipped her juice box. "I remember on my first trip seeing some of the others try to run. There is far more staff in town than there is in the institute. I believe Landel and his people create more just for this trip. Be wary on the way back. Once in the past, the bus was stranded outside the institute walls when night fell."

She shook her head again. "None of the staff are human, we know that now."

"There must be a weakness somewhere. There's no such thing as an impregnable prison." Taura wasn't sure who she was trying to convince, but it sounded like what Miles would say. Or not say; he'd just find it and be halfway out before everyone else had even realized he'd started to move.

"Create more? And what do you mean they're not human?" Creating servants wasn't a foreign idea, not when she'd been commissioned and designed and built to spec, but creating servants overnight was. "What are they?"

Taura may very well have been trying to convince herself. Momo... she wasn't sure if she'd given up or not. She had her duty and would see it through, but the light of hope she once held had died with Signum. Intellectually, the shinigami knew if the prison was meant to keep them inside, there is a chance it could be weakened from the outside. This was proven true if one chose to believe in Jack and Jill. Momo did not.

"The buses were stranded and the staff, both nurses and orderlies, were interspersed inside the buses," Momo explained. "Night fell and, upon the setting of the sun, the staff transformed - mutated - before our very eyes, becoming some of the monsters we are set upon by at night."

She paused. "They are not human. They have no souls."

Taura had hope, but if that left, escape was her duty, and to give up trying would be to betray everything she'd been given in that dirty basement. And that was Not An Option. She could hear the words in Miles' voice, extra capital letters and all. It made her smile, irrespective of the context.

She could hear echoes of something else he'd said there, and it was worth repeating. "Human is as human does. They've already proven themselves monsters, even without that. But I will keep one eye on the height of the sun."

Edited 2009-06-29 00:21 (UTC)

"Some people have a weakness to the form they see during the day, unable to contemplate harming the staff as they appear to be human," Momo replied. "Many have arrived since that trip that ended in such circumstances. I am pleased to hear that you do not harbor such a weakness."

Dayshift 42: Bus 2

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