damned_institute | Day 44: breakfast

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Day 44: breakfast

Yuffie had died.

No, really. Seriously. She had actually died. Bleeding all over the place, making a horrid, sticky mess and scaring the hell out of Suzaku; she remembered it clearly. Kind of. Sort of. Through the blood loss, the pain, and the visions. Through Aerith's voice whispering in her ear, Cloud's stricken eyes, and her own panic. As bad nights went, it had been Bad, capital B and all the trimmings, and oh, god. She sat, trembling on the edge of her bed, eyes closed and hands pressed hard over her racing heart. The by-play between Landel—Landel!—and Lydia barely even sunk in. There was nothing in the whole world, any world, that could prepare you for something like…

Had it all been some kind of hallucination?

Had she imagined the whole thing?

No… She didn't think so. Nightmarish or not, Yuffie knew reality. But if it had been real, how was she alive now? That kind of pain wasn't something you could just cook up, was it? She thought about it all the way to the cafeteria, drifting behind her nurse without focus or intent. Maybe if she tried to stay clinical, tried to step back… But she'd never been good at that when things got personal. And every time she closed her eyes or blinked, she swore that the scenes played back to her, like an overused commercial on a crappy channel on a crappy TV, in a run-down dump of an inn that smelled like mothballs and yesterday's breakfast.

The scent of blood and damp, rotted wood clogged her nose. Disgusted, Yuffie shoved her bowl of cereal—handed to her by a clucking Plucky—off to the side so that she could melt into her chair, palm heels scrubbing against her eyes. Too much. This was… Too much. She couldn't even paste a plastic smile on her face to make herself feel better. Her usual shield, the white noise of inane babble that could filter out almost any crisis, was in tatters all around her. Five minutes, she gave herself.

Five minutes (not) to think, five minutes to get her act together, because there was no way she could let herself shatter here. No way…

[Closed to Sheena]

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When the night ended before it even started, it always left an annoying feeling within Yukari. The conversation with Mitsuru barely got anywhere, and then-- morning again. She didn't even get to see what Junpei wanted, but hopefully he managed on his own okay. At least it ended on something good-- she had the Evoker back, which meant if she needed it for anything she could actually use it now.

Unlike most others, Yukari was feeling fine, and one could say she was pretty much oblivious to whatever the previous night had brought. She got breakfast as usual, and when she scanned around the cafeteria to see who was around, Junpei was quickly spotted; although...

Wow, he really didn't look very good at all. When she got closer, Yukari could definitely tell something happened.

"Junpei," Yukari called out softly to him, her voice full of concern as she set her tray down on the table across from him. "What's wrong?"

Waking up had been disconcerting for Minato; his last clear memory had been of running towards the main hallway, an eerie feeling of paranoia creeping up on him. But then he was in bed again, being woken up by a nurse and ushered off towards the cafeteria. He had almost woken up late again, despite the chiding he had received the other day.

Explosions, ghostly voices over the intercom, bursting bathroom pipes -- definitely not what he had been expecting for his first night. He wondered if he had left the rest of S.E.E.S. unable to do anything because of his own unfamiliarity with the area. Mitsuru would have made sure they completed any outstanding missions. ...If they did missions within the institute.

Oblivious to the extent of the hardships faced last night, Minato picked through the breakfast selection while glancing around the cafeteria. The nurse said everyone was expected to eat breakfast for the first shift, so he would be able to see the others if he searched hard enough.

He didn't look up when he heard the tray placed on the table across from him. Whoever it was, he didn't want to deal with them. He didn't want to have to explain to some dumb kid or nosy old guy or girl why he was crying. He just wanted...

Yukari. She was there. Hopefully Minato would be around too. He'd figure something out; he always did.

He still didn't look up. "Come over here," he told Yukari in a choked whisper. "Please."

Yukari stared down at him with raised eyebrows, and for a moment she didn't move from where she stood. He was crying? Oh no, whatever this was over, it couldn't have been good-- not at all, because she had never seen Junpei like this. If this was over something she could have been around for, something was going to get punched. Or, well, she'd wish for it anyway, because even when they weren't in a place surrounded by nurses she still managed to refrain from doing so. Much.

Point being, she'd still feel horribly guilty for it. Junpei was an idiot at best most times, but that didn't mean he deserved to be hurt like this.

As Yukari made her way around the table, she looked up and spotted yet another familiar face-- it was Minato's, and quietly she gestured him over with the nod of her head. She didn't know if he had talked to Junpei yet, but his support would definitely help. He was good at that sort of thing.

Then she sat down on the closest chair next to Junpei, her tray left abandoned on the opposite side of the table, and folded her hands into her lap, facing him. "What is it?" Yukari asked again, a little more forceful than before; she wasn't going to do with beating around the bush explanations, not now. "C'mon, tell me."

Minato had spotted Yukari’s familiar brunette haircut before he actually saw her turn around and nod at him; in a sea of identical T-shirts, he had few other ways of recognizing his friend. He carried his tray over, blinking as he saw who Yukari was seated with.

Seeing Junpei without his hat was strange enough. But seeing him sitting there, crying? Junpei didn’t cry under duress—he had personally seen what happened to him in the past. He got upset. He got angry. The only time he had seen Junpei to the point of tears was…

…

Something huge must have happened last night.

He slid into the seat next to Yukari’s abandoned tray, across from Junpei. Gray eyes flitted from one teen to the other, questioning. “What happened?”

Minato. Minato was still there. Good. There was still hope.

Junpei finally looked up at Yukari and, after a long moment, reached out to her, wanting nothing more than a hug. They might have their moments of being at each others' throats, but Yukari was a close friend.

"...she's gone. Again. Chidori..." He drew in a shaky breath. "I felt her die. I did die. Again. And..." His voice caught; he'd need a little bit before he could continue.

Junpei reached out, and it was clear what sort of contact he had wanted, but his following words were far too puzzling to be able to realize it right away. Yukari froze with widened eyes, attempting to make sense of them.

Chidori was gone? Yukari had no attachment to the redheaded girl, she had to admit, and still thought she was a bit of a strange person if not an enemy, so she couldn't say she'd particularly miss her presence or anything... But him, on the other hand-- she heard his story, she knew a little of what happened, and them being apart like this again...

Yeah, it wouldn't be easy.

But... "You what?" Yukari said incredulously, and before anything else she pressed her palm upon Junpei's forehead. "That couldn't have happened-- you look fine now."

Although, that was only in appearances, because she knew his emotions hardly felt fine at all. Whatever he meant by the rest, it hurt. A lot. So Yukari just let out a weary breath, removing her hand and lifting both arms. "Here."

He had only heard that Chidori was in the institute from Yukari and Mitsuru the day before, and he had accepted the idea with slight wariness. How could the dead come back to life here? And now she was gone, before he could see the walking dead for himself.

But Junpei’s words … didn’t surprise him. As soon as he had seen him crying, Minato had a feeling that the tragedy was very close to home. He glanced away as Yukari lifted her eyes to accept Junpei’s hug; he suddenly felt like an intruder, sitting across from them like this.

As for ‘I did die. Again.’… A perplexing statement. Something to do with Chidori’s life force in him? Was that what he had meant?

Minato shook his head after a moment, voice even as he pressed for more information. “And…?”

Burying his face against her shoulder, Junpei held onto Yukari in a bone crushing hug. After a few moments, he felt better.

"I died. Like it was me that had given my life force to her, not the other way around. Dying sucks," he added on.

He then raised his head. "And it's worse. Ken's gone and so are both senpai. I don't know what happened, but they're gone. All of them. It's just us."

If it had been anywhere else at any other time, Yukari certainly would have felt awkward; she wasn't much of the type to offer hugs to begin with, and this was Junpei. She would have sooner walked the streets of Iwatodai in some hideous, gaudy attire than given him a hug willingly. But she didn't, because she knew he probably needed this more than she could imagine, and the brief lack of hair indicated as much when he latched on.

Yukari wasn't sure what to do aside from patting his back silently. What he was saying still didn't make any sense, because someone getting killed during the night happened frequently enough (a thought that sickened her), and they normally stayed... well, gone. But Junpei was still here, and Yukari didn't know what to think of what he was saying, so all she did was slightly turn her head towards Minato with a quizzical expression that asked if maybe he knew what to say or do.

But then Junpei continued on, and Yukari could swear her heart skipped a beat. "... Gone?" she echoed disbelievingly. "But-- I was just talking to Mitsuru-senpai last night. How could she-- all of them be..."

The quizzical look Yukari had aimed was returned, albeit in a much milder form than what one would expect from a confused teenager. Minato had been mulling over Junpei’s comments about dying when he finished with his newest bit of information. What?

Granted, he couldn’t say anything about Ken’s presence in the institute, but he had seen Mitsuru yesterday. He had traded notes on the bulletin board with Akihiko. How could they be gone? The impact was dulled by the fact that he was new to this place and had no idea what the others had been through while here, and he knew that.

“How do you know that?” He could understand Chidori and Junpei’s connection, but the others…

Slowly, almost reluctantly, Junpei let go of Yukari and sat back up with a soft, "Thanks."

He then sighed heavily and grabbed his napkin, wiping at his face. "I know because I asked my nurse about them. You too, Yuka-tan. I'd have asked about you," he said to Minato, "but I don't know what the nurses call you. They told me the others had been discharged and that I should take them as inspiration to get better or something."

He was quiet a moment. "They said Chidori had been discharged as well."

For a long minute, Yukari only stared at Junpei before finally clenching a fist on the table's edge; she was angry at first, but then, she didn't know how she was supposed to feel afterward. It was true that anyone could disappear in an instant, but in all the time she had been here, it never ended up being someone Yukari knew personally. She didn't want them to be gone, because it meant less familiarity in such a foreign and horrible place, and it also meant less power they had behind their team, but... It was such a selfish way of thinking, right? Them not being here anymore was a good thing-- or so she hoped, because there were all sorts of theories and ideas floating around that could happen and none of them were good.

She had a right to feel uneasy about it, Yukari thought.

"So now what?" Yukari asked, breaking her silence. "What do we do with just us?"

He had questions, but he wasn't sure this was the time to ask them. Right now, they had to think about what was keeping them going. Back home, the answer was clear. Here -- also clear, but not nearly as neat and tidy as stopping the end of the world.

And without either senpai around, they didn't have anyone to give direction. No one to issue orders or make sure they were all ... still around from day to day.

Minato drank his juice before responding. "We keep going. We figure this place out."

As far as he was concerned, they had no other choices.

"Yeah, we will..." Junpei rubbed the back of his neck. "Man... I've gotta blow off some steam tonight or I'll eventually end up doing something even more stupid than normal. I'm gonna take the evoker tonight, okay Yuka-tan?"

He then looked at Minato. "Dude, I've got two questions for you and they're all damn important. What the hell are the nurses calling you and when are you from?" He pointed at his chest. "They're calling me Josh Hart and I'm from the end of November, a week after Chidori died." His hand started to shake again, but he quickly clenched it into a fist and set it on his leg.

“Christian Aarons.” The use of Western names was still strange, but at least he was noticing a pattern here. The Western food in the cafeteria, the racial variety around here… But his mind was wandering again. “The date was December 31st before I arrived.”

If none of the others were from around December… Did that mean he was the only one who knew the reason for the Dark Hour’s continued presence?

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Day 44: breakfast

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