damned_institute | Night 43: F1-10 Hall

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Night 43: F1-10 Hall

Breaking down the bed frame after she'd eaten some of her meal had given Teresa something to do while she waited for the night time phenomena to arrive. Having not been conscious when it occurred the previous night, she was curious. She was not disappointed. The overhead words were certainly something different.

As the door opened, Teresa finished wrapping shredded bedding around the bottom portion of the six foot long metal bar that had once been a main side support of the bed's frame. It wasn't good quality metal by any means, but it was better than nothing. At least, she didn't think it'd break the first time she hit something with it given her reduced strength. As she hefted the weapon, she swung it around to get a feel and decided that it would do for now. Should she manage to find the right kind of stone or a file, she could even work a rough edge onto it.

A few more strips of cloth and the hybrid tied the makeshift weapon across her back, the 'hilt' sticking a foot and a half above her shoulders, and fashioned the cloth so she could pull on the knot by her right shoulder for a quick release. That done, Teresa took her flashlight and exited the room.

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"I should be the one thanking you," said Yukari, smile returning. "You valiantly defended me not once, but twice from the monsters." And gotten horribly injured in the process. Why couldn't everything just be danmaku play? "Raine said you still have your injuries... does it still hurt? Seeing spots or any of those other things from last night?" Hopefully those more worrying symptoms were a result of blood loss and weren't an ongoing infection.

She idly began stroking the ninja's hair, her face leaning against her other arm on the bed.

"If you hadn't been asleep, I might not have had to. I don't know how you managed that with all their creepy moans and stuff," Sheena replied. Then again, Yukari could probably be able to sleep through the annihilation of Palmacosta.

Fingers in her hair slowly made the ninja relax and she shifted just a bit to let the half of her hair that was trapped under her free and available. With the movement came the jingling of a bell as the ninja refused to set it down.

"Shoulder hurts a lot if I bump it against something, but otherwise it just throbs. I ripped the stitches this morning cause I moved too fast, but that's it," she answered. "Raine poked at it and stuff, so I guess I'm ok."

"The moaning was kind of a bother, and they looked really gross, so I had to leave the bench I fell asleep on and took a nap in the horse shed instead," she replied far too nonchalantly. "I didn't think they'd find me there..."

A little laugh that trailed off at the ninja's movement. Yukari set to work on casually disentangling the hair that she now had access to. But what was that jingling noise?

"Well, that was silly of you. Why'd you do that?" Not that it took much imagination; someone - that baldy again? - got her upset and she tried to do some kind of ninja attack... yeah, that sounded like Sheena.

Sheena mumbled something that might have sounded like stupid youkai when Yukari admitted to taking shelter in the shed and falling asleep. There wasn't much in it since she was easily distracted by the attention to her hair. She was almost tempted to undo the pink ribbon in it, but then she'd have to worry about possibly losing the ribbon - it was her favorite one and she'd had it for years (and showed it).

"Miku got sick this morning in the Sun Room and I had to ninja out of the way. I just kinda... ninja'd too fast onto the arm of the chair."

Or there was always "accidentally ran into furniture". Not particularly ninja-like, but from the girl who was traumatized about falling down holes and caught her hair in a tree, it didn't sound too unlikely.

"...that was silly," said Yukari. And now to start broaching the harder topic. "Anything else exciting happen today?"

"Better that than getting covered in Miku-mess. I had been hugging her," Sheena replied. "Nurses even let me get the stitches redone without having the stick that stuff that numbs the skin in me. That stuff makes me feel all weird." This is why she preferred Raine's magical healing over the institute's conventional healing.

At the youkai's question, every muscle in Sheena's back tensed. "No," she stated flatly. "Nothing exciting." Traumatizing, yes; exciting, no.

True, better to be silly than gross. Though did she just say she got stitches without anesthetics? Yukari winced; she'd never had stitches before, with or without anesthetics, but it didn't take a great imagination to know how painful having someone sew your flesh together would be.

And there was the response she was waiting for, the poorly concealed lie. Of course, she was cheating since Raine had already told her, but she didn't have to let the ninja know that.

"Oh, really?" she said, her tone laden with disbelief. "Nothing at all? You just felt like sleeping in because of an aching shoulder?"

"No, I'm in here because if I go out there, I'll just end up getting myself killed," Sheena stated, bringing her knees up as she curled into herself. She was so unfocused and uncaring about her own physical state because of all this, going out at night where the monsters were was an invitation to a gruesome death. Then where would that leave Corrine?

Free. Sad, but free.

"And why would that be? Even with a hurt shoulder, I'm sure if you were careful you'd be fine," supposed Yukari. But you wouldn't be careful, would you? At least the ninja had the presence of mind - or lack of will - to stay inside instead of getting herself killed. "Or is something on your mind?"

Just what had happened with Corrine this afternoon to leave the ninja so depressed? Yukari could imagine, but...

"There's a part of me right now that doesn't want to exist." Sheena paused. "I may be a big huge disappointment, but at least I'm smart enough to not go looking for it."

Monster-assisted suicide? A desire for self-destruction was never good, so Yukari was relieved Sheena had a handle on it. If she had been forced to search the institute for a wandering, depressed ninja, that could have been quite troublesome.

"A huge disappointment?" murmured Yukari, brushing the ninja's hair softly. "And wherever did you get that idea?" Though with what she knew of Sheena's past and her tendency to blame herself, it wasn't hard to figure out; she'd heard this before. But what had brought this up? Her visitor? Yukari found it hard to believe someone the ninja cared for so much would make her feel this way, but with the way this institute changed things...

"I had to ask, didn't I? I couldn't just keep my damn mouth shut," Sheena mumbled. "Who put me in this ranch? Great fucking question."

Sheena didn't often swear that badly. "I asked, and he said it was Grandfather." The bell jingled again as the ninja squeezed her eyes shut, fighting tears, as she brought a closed hand up to cover her face. "I shouldn't have..."

Yukari couldn't recall any mention of her grandfather, though she had mentioned that she had no parents. Was he the one who raised her? If so, then that would be rather hurtful, that sense of betrayal, or worse, thoughts that it was somehow punishment.

"Your visitor did?" confirmed Yukari, her mind still with the conversation enough to recall that she was keeping her own knowledge of the situation a secret. The other part of her mind was wondering who had put her in here, according the "real" world. It would make sense that it would be Linnea, as her personal assistant and whatever else their relationship might be, but unless this was a difference between Ran and Linnea, she couldn't imagine the shiki- the woman doing something like that to Yukari, even if she thought she was crazy. Someone else?

"You were close to your grandfather?" she asked quietly. She must have been, for that simple piece of knowledge to evoke such a reaction.

The ninja could only nod, not wanting to open her mouth considering how hard she was trying not to cry. Sheena's only concept and real experience of love came from her grandfather and it'd been twelve years since that awful day she failed as a summoner and the future hope of Mizuho.

Sheena's silence said more than anything how hard this was for her. The only words left were for details, and those details didn't change the fact that the girl was truly hurting. So Yukari saved the words for later and instead simply leaned up onto the girl's bed, wrapping an arm around her protectively and pulling her close. Sometimes a touch could convey more than words ever could.

So much for not crying.

Tears slipped free and Sheena's shoulder shook as she let herself be held by the youkai. With each shake, the bell jingled more audibly than before as she wasn't concentrating on keeping the hand holding it relaxed. Her other hand came up to Yukari's, her still manicured nails digging into the youkai's skin as she clutched to the limb.

She didn't want to be crying, but she got the sense that it was okay at the moment. It was okay to be this weak with the youkai there to keep her safe. Maybe... just maybe Yukari understood. It was such a familiar feeling it made her chest ache.

Centuries and centuries. That was how long Yukari had lived. More than long enough to have both seen this scene and experienced it. Curling her fingers around the hand Sheena was grabbing her with, Yukari leaned her head against the girl's, long blonde locks draping over them both.

"That's right, let it all out," she whispered gently. "I'll be here waiting."

Because, sadly, that was all she could do for her at this time.

"I'll be here waiting."

Those words, so eerily similar to something Corrine had said to her earlier, broke what little restraint Sheena had. An almost violent sob came from her then, shaking her body so hard she came close to accidentally headbutting the youkai. She let go of the bell, leaving it on her pillow, as she brought it up to secure her hold on Yukari.

Sheena had thought she'd gotten all the hard emotion out when she'd cried like a child on Raine. How wrong she'd been. There was just something about the youkai, something she would probably never understand, that allowed her to just completely let that last bit of restraint go. No wonder she knew she was eventually going to get hurt in the end.

Right then, this was exactly what she needed, as much as she may later deny it ever occurred.

Yukari only smiled softly as Sheena's finally let go of her pent-up feelings and let them out. The sudden grab was a little surprising, but not all that unexpected. Once the ninja was latched on, Yukari adjusted her own embrace to hold her securely, one arm around her shoulders, the other cradling her head.

And, true to her word, she waited.

There was a time when Sheena was a very young child and the world was full of wonder where anything and everything was possible, that someone told her that crying was good for the soul. That it wasn't shameful and it wasn't a sign of weakness. It was a sign of life and cleansed the very core. Every living creature on Tethe'alla, she was told - the field mouse to the winter wolf to even the great spirits - cried in their own way when it was needed.

Somehow, throughout the years, Sheena had forgotten this. Between the way she was treated after the Temple of Lightning, how her tears at that time had been yet another source of scorn, to having to build up a thicker skin so she could survive in a place she knew didn't want her, she convinced herself that crying was wrong and should be fought against with tooth and nail. As her tears finally died down and she was burdened with hiccups and not wracking sobs, she realized how much the simple act of crying her head off in the warm embrace of someone that cared about her really did make her feel better.

Even with Raine, she'd still held back something. The youkai, unfortunately, got it all. Was that really such a bad thing?

It seemed the storm was coming to an end. Hopefully Sheena was feeling better for it; Yukari, for her part, mostly just felt like the front of her dress had been under a faucet, but that was neither here nor there.

"There, there," she crooned softly, gently patting the girl's back, her silk gloves cool against the ninja's skin. "That's better, isn't it?"

Gently stroking the ninja's hair with her other hand, Yukari continued to hold her close for as long as she needed.

The ninja nodded, letting go with one hand to wipe at her face. She hiccuped a few more times before she managed to find her voice.

"C'mere off floor. Gotta hurt your knees," she said, having realized that this whole time (which was for Origin knows how long), Yukari had been kneeling on the cold, hard floor. She kinda felt bad about that.

Yukari's knees were smarting a little and it was very stiffly that she disentangled herself from the ninja and stood up before sitting down on the bed. She laid a hand fondly on the girl, ruffling her hair.

"You just have to let it all out sometimes," said the youkai. "If you keep everything inside, you're liable to explode." Or have it compact into something cold and hard and dark, but Sheena didn't seem like the type. "And I'd prefer to keep my ninja in one piece."

Sheena shifted back to allow room on the bed for Yukari, grabbing her discarded shirt to clean her face with. That was when she realized she wasn't wearing it. And Yukari was right there. Oh well. Too late now. With a sigh, she set the shirt aside and pulled the covers up a bit for modesty.

"Yeah... keeps the soul clean or something," she replied, blowing some of the hair out of her face. "I don't... do that. Often. Or really at all." Not unless something shoved her face first over the edge like this had and everything associated with it.

Sheena rubbed the back of her neck to ease the crick in it, before she gently took Corrine's bell back into her hands. It wasn't much too look at, to be honest - round, no bigger around than a single gald, and it shone with a tarnished gold color that spoke of age and hardship. One one side, there was a little dent in a corner from her time in Sylvarant, back when she and Corrine had been enemies to Colette and the others. It wasn't noticeable, the bell's sound unaffected, but Sheena knew it was there.

Resting her hand with the bell in her lap, Sheena looked at it for a long moment before she suddenly looked up at Yukari. "Since when am I your ninja?"

Cleansing the soul with one's tears? There was something poetic in there somewhere. Or vaguely commercial - clean your soul with saline solution!

"Oh-ho, embarrassed? What does it matter; it's not like we aren't both women," said the youkai with a smile that said it surely did matter. "And you have been since I decided so. Just now." A smirk.

Still, that bell was interesting. Yukari hadn't seen it before, so was it a gift from her visitor? Not that Yukari had gotten anything, but there weren't many physical items she was too attached to. The way Sheena held the bell made it seem important to her.

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