DAY 45: Sun Room (Second Shift)

[violent-varmint.livejournal.com]

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]

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[tostepforward.livejournal.com]

"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."

[degozaruyo.livejournal.com]

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..."

[tostepforward.livejournal.com]

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."