damned_institute | DAY 45: Sun Room (Second Shift)

Entry tags:

DAY 45: Sun Room (Second Shift)

There was something fishy going on in the Institute today. All over the bulletin board, people were talking about having "woken up", having been "cured"... and it seemed as though ZEX was one of them. Tanaka wouldn't have recognized the note at all if it hadn't been signed - his wording, his handwriting, even his name had changed - and a part of him still wondered if it had been an imposter, trying to pull the wool over the Captain's allies.

But it'd be easy enough to find out the truth. Whoever it was had agreed to meet him, and Tanaka was waiting for him just outside the cafeteria doors, ready to catch him as he came from breakfast. If "Max" was an imposter, then he'd discover the identity of a hidden enemy. And if he was really ZEX...

...well, he'd have a whole new set of things to worry about.

[for a ~~spoiled rich brat~~ brainwashed Admiral]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Ah. Well." Yuuko glanced away briefly with a vaguely uncomfortable air, shifting her weight from one foot to the other as she slid her hands into her pockets. "That's...it isn't 'Sen'." Or Ayumu, either, but this was going to be hard enough without getting into more and unnecessary details.

She looked back again, her smile slightly forced but the apologetic expression underneath entirely sincere. "It's Yuuko. Actually. My name is, I mean." Only then did she move toward the spot he'd vacated for her, although she still didn't quite sit, just in case he changed his mind.

So he was right. "Sen" had suffered the same fate as Yuffie. Well...that would certainly give Kenshin and Okita quite a bit to talk about later. The rurouni sighed and then smiled. "Oh yes, of course," he replied, sounding slightly apologetic. "Sorry about that, Yuuko-dono."

This is madness, he kept telling himself. Complete madness. What did Landel think he was going to gain by turning these patients like this?

"Please, join this one!" Kenshin smiled brightly. "And, ah, sorry about the cat! He just sort of jumped up here..."

Well, at least this wasn't going to start another argument, and for that Yuuko was quite grateful. It was hard enough knowing the kinds of things she'd believed and done and dealing with that without people trying to convince her that she hadn't been crazy after all. The idea was completely ridiculous; even Makoto had pointed that out.

"Oh, it's all right. You don't need to apologize to me at all," she replied, forcing the smile a little bit wider as she settled down on the couch. The cat was hardly an issue at all, anyway; she rather liked cats, even if she'd never managed to own one, between her uncle's allergies and her landlord.

She hesitated for a second there, realizing she didn't know what his name really was, and reluctant to use the one that he'd given, so she just skipped over that part. "I actually felt like I needed to apologize to you, for my actions lately. I mean, I doubt you could imagine the silly things I used to believe about you," she added, with a nervous little laugh.

Kenshin's smile was equally forced as "Yuuko" took her seat, but at least he had practice in making it appear natural. He seemed almost relaxed around her, but in reality he was beyond wary, ready to leap up at a moment's notice if he had to. He was almost convinced that this wasn't an act, but around her he could never be certain.

"You don't have to apolo--" but she started anyway, and the rurouni realized that this was most certainly not an act. Troubled, he reached down and started petting the kitten again. He laughed along with her, his voice slightly strained. "Oh? May this one ask what sort of things you believed? Just out of curiosity."

"Oh, it's..." Yuuko paused, then gave another weak laugh and reached up to tuck a stray bit of hair behind one ear in an obviously nervous gesture. It sounded incredibly silly now, which she supposed was a good sign in a way - it meant she had a much firmer connection with reality now, after all. Or so she could tell herself.

She finally shook her head, focusing her attention on the kitten rather than him. "It all seems so ridiculous now. I mean, how could I possibly be someone from nineteenth-century Japan, here and now? I'd have to start believing in time travel or something.

"I suppose I paid a little too much attention when we covered the Shinsengumi in history class. I wrote a paper on them once, you know." Yuuko glanced down at her hands in her lap, absently plucking at the grey fabric covering one leg. "So I guess if I was inventing that kind of thing, I had to invent someone from the other side of the conflict, too. I mean, I know I never actually did anything to you, but I...I'm sorry for distrusting you."

The differences between "Sen" and "Yuuko" couldn't have been more pronounced. "Sen" was guarded, and her emotions had always seemed somewhat forced. "Yuuko" was open, genuine.

Was Yuuko the woman behind all of Sen's lies, or was this just another front? There was no way to tell, really, but it was still more than a little disconcerting to compare the two.

"Oh, yes," Kenshin laughed, his heart sinking, "that is rather ridiculous, isn't it?"

He moved over and painfully extricated the little ball of orange fur from his trouser leg, offering it to her as a gesture of reconciliation. "You don't need to apologize," he said softly, and meant it. Yuuko had nothing to apologize for, after all. It was Sen, not Yuuko who had attacked him. Kenshin could tell that Yuuko's intentions, at least, were pure. "You were confused. This one bears no grudge."

Edited 2009-11-08 20:44 (UTC)

Yuuko glanced up again as he laughed, her expression somewhere between relief and gratitude. Himura (or whatever his name really was) seemed like a nice enough young man, and she was pleased that he understood and didn't bear a grudge for what she'd done in the past. When she left this place, as she hoped to do soon, she didn't want to carry with her lingering regret or guilt for what had happened while she was here.

She reached out to take the kitten with a quiet laugh and shook her head slightly. "I still needed to, I think. You're a good person..." And she paused for half a second, not wanting to use the name he'd given, but lacking anything else to use, and then just moved on. "...and you didn't deserve to be thought of that way."

As soon as she brought it close enough the kitten immediately started clambering up her shirt toward her shoulder, and Yuuko bit her lip to keep from giggling. "I mean...well, for example, how could you possibly be held responsible for my brother's death if he isn't actually dead?" she asked, carefully detaching tiny claws from the fabric of her shirt. "He was here on Sunday, and he's clearly just fine."

Kenshin certainly didn't feel like a very good person at the moment, but he had to keep up the facade. His experience with Yuffie at breakfast this morning had taught him that it was much less of a headache to just play along with all this, and pray that it would pass eventually.

Still, he couldn't help latching on to something she'd said. Her brother. No wonder why she'd taken everything so seriously as Sen; apparently being in the Shinsengumi was a family affair. Kenshin wondered who her brother could be. One of the captains, perhaps? Or maybe just a foot soldier, one who had fallen beneath Battousai's blade...?

In spite of himself, Kenshin paled slightly. "This one wasn't aware you had a brother, actually," he admitted.

"Oh...no, you wouldn't be." The kitten managed to escape and wriggle into the space between her neck and shoulder, entangling itself in her hair, and that occupied Yuuko's attention enough that she didn't even notice the look on the man's face. Too bad she hadn't put her own hair in a braid earlier, because this was going to be a little complicated. "Ay--the person I thought I was, she...ow, stop that...she didn't like to talk about him."

She managed to pull the kitten out again, wincing as she unwrapped a lock of her hair from around one of its paws, while it made things more difficult by trying to wriggle out of her hold. "Something about it keeping them safer if she didn't acknowledge their relationship. I must have been watching too many spy movies while studying the Shinsengumi, or something."

"Oro? Spy movies?" Not that Kenshin actually knew what 'spy movies' were, of course, but 'spy' stood out to him. "Ah, well, this one is sure your brother understands, if you thought it would keep him safe. The sentiment is definitely appreciated!"

Kenshin had been an only child, but he knew very personally how it felt to want to keep loved ones safe.

He smiled at the kitten. "Would you like this one to take him back? He seems determined to make a nest in your hair..."

"Yes, you know. Spy movies?" Or maybe he didn't know, if he still didn't believe in reality. Yesterday she probably wouldn't have remembered what a movie was at all, which really seemed a bit odd to her. Yuuko paused, then shrugged slightly to dismiss it as unimportant. "Like in the stories. False identities, pretending to not know someone. Things like that.

"Though I don't think Makoto really appreciated it, to be honest." Especially considering how upset he'd seemed when he came by the other day. It'd take a lot for her to make it up to him, once she was home again. She paused a moment, then sighed. "I'm sure he would've preferred I thought he was who he really is. He even brought a book the other day to prove that he couldn't have been who I thought he was, he was so unhappy about it."

Once deposited in her lap again the kitten seemed to be cooperating for the moment, though the way his tail swished said it was only a matter of time. Yuuko smiled down at it and shook her head. "I think it's all right. Thank you, though."

"Yes, of course," Kenshin lied. He still had no idea what a spy movie was, but from context he thought he could pull together her general meaning. Especially when Yuuko clarified like that. "This one was just taken aback, that's all. You don't seem like the type who would be fond of spies."

All right, now he was lying through his teeth, but at least they were making civil conversation. Even if it was a bit strained.

"You were confused. This one's sure he knows that," he said. "What's most important is that he still loves you; that much is obvious. He wouldn't be so concerned about you--wouldn't visit you here--if he didn't. And this one is sure that he knows you still love him, even if you feel that your motives were changed because of your...ah...illness."

"Oh, well, I'm not a huge James Bond fan or anything. Historical spies, though - they can be quite interesting." Half a second after the words left her mouth, though, Yuuko realized what she'd just said and promptly blushed, ducking her head as though she suddenly found the kitten highly fascinating. She'd spent the last while thinking she was a nineteenth-century kunoichi; of course she thought spies were interesting.

The other topic was a welcome distraction, though, and she nodded slightly without looking up. She could feel her eyes watering a little despite herself, and she blinked rapidly, deliberately letting her hair fall forward a little to hide her face. "I...I hope he does," she replied quietly. "It was. Mm. I think I scared him, more than a little. At first. And then...well, it was just the two of us, and he had to call for help to deal with me. It wasn't fair to him, at all."

She sighed, absently tapping the kitten on the nose when it tried to gnaw on her knuckle. "It must have been hard for him, having a crazy sister telling him she was a long-dead Shinsengumi spy and that he was one, too. I just hope he's as understanding as you think."

Shinsengumi spy.

Kenshin had known that, of course, but Yuuko's other revelation made him want to crawl into a hole for a while until the danger passed. Shinsengumi spy.

No wonder she'd reacted so badly to the name "Yamazaki" the other night. Her brother was Yamazaki Susumu. He had to be.

And if and when Yuuko returned to her senses and went back to being "Sen," she would try to kill him. Again. It was that simple, really. In all his time working for the Choushuu Ishin Shishi, being privy to all their intelligence, Kenshin had never heard that Yamazaki Susumu had a sister. The secret had been so well guarded that even their informants had not known.

The rurouni could only pray that she didn't remember saying it.

"This one is sure he is. You're his beloved older sister, aren't you? This one was an only child, but he can't imagine that a younger brother would blame his sister for falling ill..."

Edited 2009-11-10 05:56 (UTC)

Maybe he didn't really believe what he was saying, but still? He was doing his best to be comforting, and with someone who had done nothing but smile and lie to him while silently planning how best to kill him and hide the body. Even if she was better now, he didn't really have any guarantee of that, and so Yuuko found his willingness to forgive and even be kind to be rather sweet.

Even though she could logically see why "Ayumu" disliked him so much (being on opposite sides of a conflict would certainly lead to hostility in and of itself) at the same time Yuuko didn't quite understand it. He'd always been nothing but polite, judging from her somewhat biased memories, and here he was trying to encourage her. Clearly she'd been imagining a lot of things to believe he was a cold-blooded assassin.

"I hope so." And now she actually sounded a little more hopeful about it, and she glanced up to give the man a smile that wavered just slightly. "Thank you. For being so nice, I mean."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

DAY 45: Sun Room (Second Shift)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject