damned_institute | Night 44: Second Floor Kitchen

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Night 44: Second Floor Kitchen

[from here]

The light from the flashlight held up over Lunge's shoulder gleamed whiteback at him in the darkness from the walls. Metal glinted silver from the corners of his vision and handles winked from the doors of cabinets and lips of drawers. Only when he was sure that the work surfaces and tiled floor were completely free of life did he finally step aside, albeit more from the decision that there was no need to back out than out of concern for Sheena's safety. Even so, he kept his back firmly against the wall and his senses primed for stimuli; only last night had he been ambushed by no fewer than three monsters in what he had assumed was a perfectly safe area, and given the sheer number of hiding places the kitchen had to offer he didn't want to take any chances.

"There's a sink over there," he said, gesturing with his free hand, "and my guess is that any one of those drawers could contain knives, if you change your mind."

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Given what Sheena was after was certainly not anything she had to worry about others seeking, she had no problem with Lunge stepping past her into the next room. If he wanted to be monster bait, so be it; it'd make it much easier for the ninja to counter should one appear. Which didn't happen.

As the older man seemed to stick himself to the wall right by the door, Sheena moved past him into the kitchen itself as if she wasn't remotely worried about monsters. She'd learned long ago that caution only got a ninja so far. Fingertips trailing across the counter surface, Sheena eased a few drawers open, nodding to herself, at the various cooking utensils she found. Good, good...

One drawer indeed contained knives, a couple actually, and the ninja pulled them out and left all but one on the counter top for Lunge. The one in her hand disappeared quickly as she turned back toward the sink, having been deftly slipped between her back and her obi, the big pink bow tied there concealing the location of the weapon from prying eyes. She was pretty sure there'd be knives there when she finally went about making the curry, but she figured it was better to take one just in case.

"So... what does an inspector do, anyways? I've never heard of one before," Sheena asked as she turned the faucet on and watched the semi-murky water as it poured into the sink.

Sheena carried about her the loose confidence of one used to danger. Lunge watched as she crossed the floor and began to examine the contents of the drawers- cooking utensils, he noted. Not alcohol, then, food. But why...? Creature comforts can be a powerful motivator. Either it's for a trade of sorts or she's homesick.

Breaking away from the wall, he moved to the drawer she had emptied of knives and selected one- more designed for slicing processed lunch meat than severing flesh and gristle in combat, but it was sharp and sturdy and that was enough for him.

He looked up as she spoke, head cocked just a little to the side. She'd never heard the term 'inspector' before? Hmm. The clothing and ninja-esque abilities did suggest that the young woman had been taken from a time and place in which the police most likely operated very differently indeed.

"'Inspector' is a rank in the police," he explained, running a finger lightly along his blade's edge experimentally. "I work with the BKA- the federal organisation that investigates the more serious crimes in my country."

"Oh." So, the police were like the Papal Knights then. Ugh. They were a stuffy lot.

Dipping her hand into the water, the golden blood washed off and she cupped a handful of water. Bringing it to her lips, she tasted the liquid. Furrowing her brow, she tried it again. It wasn't the greatest quality of water and had a funny taste, but it was drinkable and the taste would be covered up with the spices.

Taking a cloth from a small stack nearby, the ninja dampened it and gingerly began cleaning the blood off her own face, wincing a bit at the tenderness of the cuts. Stupid monster.

"So how high is your rank? Sorry, but I've made it a point to not get involved with the Papal Knights back home and Sylvarant doesn't have any big organizations like that," Sheena said.

'Oh' indeed. Someone didn't sound happy to have a policeman in the room.

But just what were the Papal Knights? Presumably they were made up sort of law enforcement in whatever country Sheena was from, but 'Sylvarant' wasn't ringing any matches in his databanks. Nor did it match any linguistic patterns he was familiar with, not even Japanese. And if she wasn't Japanese, what was she?

"High enough to overrule any officer operating outside of the BKA and most of those within it," and to get away with murder, Lunge added silently, "but low enough to answer to a Chief." The answer was purely mechanical; his mind was elsewhere as he turned from the counter to fix her with a penetrating look. "Just where are you from?"

So, Lunge was like a vice-chief. He was sounding more and more like Tiga. Great. Well, he had no jurisdiction over her, so Sheena really didn't care much.

"I'm Mizuho," Sheena replied, giving the bloodstained cloth a disgruntled look. Those cuts better not scar. "It's a hidden village in Tethe'alla."

The ninja tossed the cloth down on the counter, shut the water off and then moved to the stove. Hopefully it would light. If it didn't, Sheena's plan was going to need a major overhaul and she wasn't looking forward to building a fire. It would just give that damn youkai too many opportunities to make Sheena accidentally catch herself on fire.

"Sylvarant is Tethe'alla's sister world." Woosh! Oh good, it lit. "Oh, I'm not from this Earth place we're supposedly on. Figure I should clarify that before you get confused trying to figure out where those names are."

Mizuho. Another Japanese word, although his grip on the language wasn't so strong that he could grasp at any sort of meaning. The dish-cloth slid a little way across the counter towards him. Lunge ignored it and continued searching the drawers for other potentially useful items- just as Sheena offered the second part of her explanation. His hand froze over the steel prongs of a barbecue fork.

"... not from Earth. I see."

No. No, he didn't see. Not at all.

First Scourge and now Sheena. With the thinnest of sighs he resisted the urge to conveniently 'forget' that sudden revelation and instead continued the conversation, pausing only to begin the process of piecing together a rough estimation of the kind of universe she supposedly inhabited- or at least, seemed to think she inhabited. Both hands were full, but he set down the knife to place the left one against the counter as he asked, "What exactly is a 'sister world'?"

As Sheena tested the stove controls with a critical eye, so answered Lunge.

"A sister world is on that is linked to another through mana. Think of mana as a planet's life force. It exists in every living thing on a planet," she said. "There's a mana stream that connects Sylvarant and Tethe'alla together. It's the only thing left from when the two worlds were one."

That wasn't completely true as the Tower of Salvation was shared between the two worlds, but she didn't want to get into all that. "But they were split apart four thousand years ago, so I can't say much regarding that."

She shut the gas off and her eyes turned to the various cooking pots hanging on the wall. They were pretty decent quality.

Along came Sheena's answer, and with it the familiar tapping of Lunge's hand as he typed out her description, albeit with a little hesitation. It was all completely impossible, of course. Scientifically speaking, the explanation was baseless nonsense. But the trouble was, that was precisely what he himself would have said about the entire Institute's very existence- and here he was, scavenging knives from Martin Landel's kitchen cupboard.

But this he had evidence for. This was reality. He didn't have to believe Sheena's supposed origins, just accept them.

And if he was going to accept one impossible thing...

"If you don't mind my asking," he started again, glancing sideways at her as she examined the range of cooking pots hanging nearby, "are you some sort of ninja?"

Then ninja caught the weird typing motion of Lunge's hand out of the corner of her eye and she raised an eyebrow. Whatever. Old people were weird sometimes.

"I am - a guardian fighter to be exact. Master of the Igaguri Style and the Mizuho chief's granddaughter," she replied easily. She then gave Lunge a small smile. "Am I the first ninja you've knowingly met?"

The typing stopped, but onto for the briefest of moments. So. This meant he was dealing with someone who was- or at least believed she was- a ninja from another universe.

It was gratifying to know that his observations had been correct, but by this point, Inspector Lunge wasn't suspending his disbelief so much as holding it for ransom. "Apparently so," he answered, the corner of his mouth twitching a fraction. "You don't tend to find many ninja where I'm from."

The next drawer along was empty- at least, it didn't have anything worth picking up.

"You don't find many in Tethe'alla either; Mizuho is the only village of us left and we don't exactly associate much with the rest of the world. Sylvarant doesn't have any," Sheena replied. "There are a lot of ninja here, though, from all sorts of worlds, so I'm sure you'll come across another one."

The ninja made her way to the fridge and opened it to take a brief look inside before moving to the pantry. Hopefully, they had what she needed.

[to here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/745940.html)

Back in the kitchen again, Lunge paused in the doorway to give the room a thorough sweep before slinking back in. The room was untouched, save by his and Sheena's hands. Eyes falling on the open drawers, a thought occurred to him suddenly and he started up a search again, this time for sandwich bags and napkins. At the same time as his hands rummaged through a nearby cupboard, his mind continued working on Sheena.

"'Heal'? You have some sort of powers?" Again, Lunge didn't sound nearly as cynical as he was. Good.

Sheena had paused just before leaving the pantry, having caught sight of a box she'd missed earlier. It was rice, which was good, but it wasn't the normal kind of rice she was used to. Reading the instructions on the back proved to explain it was a boil-in-bag kind. She didn't like it, but it would do for the curry. Box in hand, she exited the pantry and closed the door, so quietly it didn't make a sound.

When Lunge asked his question, Sheena just looked at him for a long moment. Hadn't she told him she was ninja - a guardian fighter even? They generally came with powers.

"Uh... yeah. I am ninja," she replied. "I have excellent control over my mana. And no, I'm not going to tell you everything I can do, but I can tell you it's not magic. I'm human - can't do common magic."

[From here. Going to assume a timeskip so that Sheena and Lunge are no longer present]

And so they had finally made it. The kitchen was empty (where had the people who'd broken in ahead of them gone?), but it did smell of food, which obviously made sense. Was this where some of their meals got made, or was this only for the nurses?

That didn't really matter so much, though. They were here for a reason, and Sora started to scan his flashlight over the sizable room as he looked for spots where useful stuff might be stored.

The drawers were the obvious place to start, and so he moved over to open a few. He was mainly finding cooking utensils and things like that, but there had to be something good hidden away here, right? It just wouldn't be fair otherwise!

He turned back toward his two companions for the night. "Just grab anything that looks like it might be useful!" he explained.

Tsubaki hadn’t seen much (if any) of the second floor, herself, and she was careful to store away what information she could glean from the surroundings as they continued on. Being in the company of people who had flashlights was helpful in that way.

As they came nearer the kitchen door, she looked over the broken lock as she moved past. Sora probably had the right idea; it didn’t look like it’d been destroyed haphazardly or unintentionally, like from the result of a fight. The kitchen, too, seemed okay at first glance… A bit cluttered, though, which meant just about anything could be lying in wait.

She looked around. “What about raw materials weapons makers and others could use? Should we be looking at that stuff, too?”

"Aye, captain!" Hokuto replied, with something approximating a straight face. It proved to be a bad choice of words; she could totally picture Sora playing pirate, up to and including making people walk the plank. Say, for insubordination... which she was so going to be guilty of sooner or later. Especially since he was so little-kid cute she just wanted to squeeze him and ruffle his hair.

Somehow she managed to stifle any stray giggles and got to work; mainly, she was looking for anything sharp, but if Sora had any other suggestions she'd keep them in mind.

Sora grinned widely at Hokuto's response, certainly not minding the pirate reference. He and his friends had definitely played that game a few times, although it was usually Riku who got to be captain. It was nice to get that role for once, although he realized that this leadership position was way more important than any game.

He saluted at her just for the heck of it, but got back to business in regards to Tsubaki's question. "I think we should just grab anything that might be helpful, so yeah, raw materials would be good too." It would be nice if they could find some knives so the whole weapon-making process could be worked around, but he didn't know how likely that would be.

Until he opened a draw and saw a glint of metal. Lifting up his flashlight, he carefully grabbed out the knife and smiled to himself. It wasn't particularly large, but he doubted anyone would refuse this if they were offered it. "Well, that's a start!"

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Night 44: Second Floor Kitchen

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