Day 44: breakfast

[thatdamnedninja.livejournal.com]

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]

Comments

[cursed-exorcist.livejournal.com]

"It took on my appearance, but I also heard and saw other people I knew. There was another with me, but I haven't seen him since last night," Kagura said, wishing she had gotten the young man's name. The whole thing was just weird, and Kagura wanted to chalk it up as an illusion, but it felt too real to simply dismiss.

"No scar, no trace at all. The whole thing seems like some sort of elaborate illusion." That type of healing or regeneration was inhuman, but the Kyuubi hadn't claimed any credit yet. That was definitely something she was going to keep to herself for now. It's just not something you share everyday with perfect strangers. Hell, if the agency didn't know, Kagura probably would have put off telling them, but rampaging through Tokyo had hardly been discreet.

[chainsaw-royal.livejournal.com]

Multiple doppelgangers? Or were they part of the illusion? Since it seemed these other hadn't attacked either, the latter made the most sense.

"Well, if you see him again, try to confirm whether or not he saw the same scene as you. I'd be interested in knowing," she said naturally, as if it never crossed her mind that she might want to keep such details private. After all, this was an important investigation into a strange incident. Thoughtfully chewing another piece of melon, Hime mulled the description of the attack over.

"Was there some connection among the others that you heard and saw? Or did it just seem to be anyone and everyone you knew?" she continued the interrogation. Obviously, it had to be pulling from her memory, so was it going from a specific memory or was it just randomly pilfering her brain for faces to wear as masks?

[cursed-exorcist.livejournal.com]

"Right, I'll do that later, if I can find him." Hime's line of questioning was starting to get personal, entering uncomfortable territory. All that tension transferred to her fork, which slipped off the slice of fruit she'd been trying to stab. Hopefully, Hime had missed that.

"There didn't seem to be any connection aside from the fact that they were all people I knew from back home, like you said." Kagura's answer was short, not volunteering any unnecessary information.

[chainsaw-royal.livejournal.com]

Hime noticed the slip, but there was nothing strange about her being shaken up. Most humans would be after such a supernatural encounter. That, or she was just clumsy. So she thought nothing of it.

"Hmph," was the Royal's only response. It turns out this wasn't such an interesting incident after all. A shapeshifter that also induced psychic based attacks was certainly a curiosity, but nothing more. Especially since its attacks seemed to be entirely illusionary with no substance. "Well, I'll be sure to be wary if I encounter anything like that."

There wasn't much else to say about it, though Hime had other questions; unlike the Kagura she'd been with last night, this one seemed to have a brain between her ears.

"Did you hear those announcements last night? Along with this morning's, it seems our keepers are in quite the bit of turmoil," she said, smiling dryly.

[cursed-exorcist.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I noticed," Kagura said, remembering the earlier announcement. Her eyes carefully looked around, and her sixth sense stretched out, searching for the orderlies and staff. "Do you think there's a way to take advantage of their confusion?"

Kagura hoped that in their current turmoil the Institute's guard would be down, allowing the patients to accomplish something worthwhile, but the problem was that Kagura didn't know what she should do. She needed a weapon, but they probably didn't have a spare katana lying around for her. Wait! What about that guy from last night? Kagura could talk to him and hopefully get some leads.

[chainsaw-royal.livejournal.com]

"Maybe. It doesn't seem to be affecting the nurses and orderlies, and those are the ones we'd have to deal with first," reasoned Hime with a frown. The actual staff they dealt with on a day to day basis seemed almost robotic in this regard. Questioning them did no good; they didn't even seem to recognize anything was wrong or different. "It may be an exploitable weakness tonight though, provided they don't get their act together by then."

[cursed-exorcist.livejournal.com]

Hime's words seemed correct. While Kagura had noticed a slight tension in the nurses and orderlies, their overall performance and attitude didn't seem to be affected much.

"You sound like you're already working on a plan. Care to share?"

Kagura still felt like she hadn't got her bearings yet. All she had to go on was Sohma's explanation, which hadn't been as thorough as she would've liked. Kagura was still confused, and Hime seemed like as good an ally as anyone else.

[chainsaw-royal.livejournal.com]

"Hmm? Actually not in particular," she admitted openly. "It was supposition; the night seems to be when we have most freedom and the people behind this do the most. From what I've observed so far, the day seems to be fairly automated and we don't have many ways to take advantage of this opportunity, whatever it may be.

"If they're still fighting amongst each other tonight, they may be keeping less of a close eye on the prisoners," she continued. "It may be easier to make progress, though what progress is to be made is questionable at best. Figuring that out what purpose we have seems to be half the mystery." The announcements about military experiments here yesterday, and now this strange incident with the head doctor and the other voice. Perhaps someone on the bulletin knew.

"First priority is arming yourself though. Have you picked up a weapon?" she asked coolly. She wondered if this girl had any sort of combat experience. The idea of someone flailing around at night against some large monster was less humorous than it was pathetic.

[cursed-exorcist.livejournal.com]

Kagura carefully listened to Hime's words. Her comments were well thought out. Kagura liked to think she had a good head on her shoulders, but Hime was a much more thorough thinker.

"Not yet. I was hoping to find a sword or something, but I doubt our kidnappers would make it so easy for us," Kagura said. Getting a weapon was her main priority, but she wasn't having much luck. Then again, she'd just woken up, so she hadn't had a lot of time either. "But the boy I was with had a sword. He told me he and his friends had to fight some kind of sand monster to get it."

[chainsaw-royal.livejournal.com]

A sword, was it? The Royal wouldn't have minded something with a little more reach than the knife she had. It was still better than nothing; she was not particularly skilled in unarmed fighting.

"This institute, for all its lies, seems to mostly only contain the kind of items one would expect of a normal hospital or mental facility," she noted. It was too bad Flandre hadn't found her yet; it couldn't be that hard to find a defibrillator in this setting. "Although, while in the kitchen last night, I found some kind of secret passage in the refrigerator. A tile had been pried up, exposing a hole leading downwards with a ladder. It's possible the secrets of this place are down there."

She needed to find someone who knew something about it, perhaps those who had actually gone down there last night. Unfortunately, it was obvious Kagura would know nothing about it having just woken up last night. Unless that was where she encountered the doppleganger?

[cursed-exorcist.livejournal.com]

"I see. I guess, at the very least, the kitchen will probably have some knives," Kagura said, somewhat disappointed. She couldn't hope to find anything better, but maybe if she found the boy from last night, she could get some clues on a weapon. Fighting monsters wouldn't be easy, but a weapon, a sword would be a worthwhile reward.

"That certainly seems like a good place to look. If the hole was already exposed when you got there, then that means someone has already been there, maybe one of the other patients. If that's true, then they might be able to tell us more about the layout or what to expect." Knowing the Institute's layout would certainly be useful because right now, Kagura barely knew the way to her room.

[chainsaw-royal.livejournal.com]

"A few. I obtained one," Hime acknowledged. "My companion and I were lucky enough to sneak past a large fight in the Sun Room. There was a mention of 'brainwashed patients' yesterday on the bulletin board and from the way some of the fighters were trying to talk to the aggressor, I think this may have been such a case."

The girl had more or less just said what was on Hime's mind which, while not very helpful, at least it meant she was thinking along similar lines as her.

"Unfortunately, the night ended before I could investigate any further," she said, a sour look on her face. "I had been warned of this but... it was still rather sudden."