Day 46: Lunch

[tostepforward.livejournal.com]

The mere fact that she'd been susceptible to whatever hold the Institute had had on her yesterday was sufficient to leave Ayumu both upset and angry - no, not angry, downright furious, both at herself and whoever was responsible for that. But there was also the fact that because of it, she'd lost out on an entire day of work, and in several ways had ruined some of what she'd done already. That little conversation with Himura the day before, for instance, was something she'd sincerely prefer not to remember if she'd had any choice in the matter.

Unless the man was a complete moron, which, unfortunately, was one thing she couldn't believe of him, he had to have realized just who her brother was. After all the effort to keep that fact quiet (not exactly a secret, but certainly not advertised; half the Shinsengumi probably never even realized it because there was no reason to) she'd gone and chatted about it with him. Told him all about it, practically painted a bright target around a weakness that shouldn't have existed in the first place.

She'd spent the shift in the Sun Room pretending to sleep, while in truth forcing herself into calm. After years of practice she could shunt away the useless and distracting emotions, focusing only on what was important and needed to be at the forefront of her mind, and by the time the intercom signaled the lunch period she was feeling considerably calmer. The time to silently observe others had, as well, alerted her to something she probably should have noticed earlier: Mello was back. Would her previous objective be reinstated now? He seemed to have far less of a bulletin presence this time, so perhaps not. Still, though, it bore investigating.

None of her thoughts were visible, of course, as she moved through the line, examining the lunch selection somewhat dubiously. Now with the benefit of Yuuko's memories she might recognize the food, but she certainly didn't share the enthusiasm for it that her imaginary self apparently had. Ayumu skipped past that part and settled for the salad bar and some bread, then positioned herself in a place where she could watch both the door and the rest of the room, setting her journal open in front of herself as though planning to write something. There was far too much that she'd missed, too much work to do now.

[for Okita]

Comments

[swornandbroken.livejournal.com]

Mello's theories and knowledge about the Institute were a work in progress. In a day, he'd gone from being certain the whole thing had been orchestrated for the sole purpose of taking him out of the picture to realizing that whatever the hell was going on here, it went too far, involved too many variables, for that. He tore the pizza crust into small pieces and ate a few, trying to pull something more useful from his mental file on the place than what they both already knew. L was right, of course: catching Kira had to take a backseat to getting back into a position to do it.

"I don't think it's random who they drag in, but there's no pattern I can see, yet, except that they take people who know each other. You, me, Matt, Near, someone called Mikami, who apparently knew me. That's not a chance sampling from back home. They've gone to a hell of a lot of trouble to get specific people." Including what amounted to time travel, and apparently being interested enough in Mello himself, among others, to kidnap them twice. But why? He tore another bit of crust off, but just tossed this one onto his plate.

"Who told you Near had been here? Did they actually see him?"

[ryuuzaki]

"No, you cannot accurately say that 'they' have gone to a lot of trouble. They may have, or they may not have, depending on how easy it is for 'them.' The mechanism of abduction is not known, although I'm told that some of the situations have been impossible... locked-room scenarios and so on, like moving vehicles. That is anecdotal, however." L paused to swallow the bite of fruit he was trying to speak around, his last. There was still some pizza left on his tray, but with the exception of the sweet baked pineapple, it wasn't to his taste.

"My own should have been relatively difficult; I was taken from a place with strong security measures. To me, the supposed irrelevance of how secure the situation ought to have been implies relative ease on the other side of the equation." He paused to shrug. He preferred to work on as few assumptions as possible; a guess might be lucky, but supportable facts were always preferable. Hunches came later, and were mostly useful as directional cues. He would still have to double back if a weak hunch didn't pan out, and decide how much effort to commit to a strong one.

"Some of the people here know each other; some do not; without interviewing everyone who is here, has been here, and will be here in the future, there is no way to be absolutely certain about the assertion. What we can say is that some people who know each other have been here."

On the periphery, nurses seemed to be picking up their activity. He suspected that it was only a matter of time before one came to encourage him to move on to the music room, a prospect he wasn't looking forward to. He wanted to be able to hear Landel's announcement; if it interrupted the conversation, so be it.

"Matt mentioned that Near had been here. Do you think he would have taken it on faith?"

[swornandbroken.livejournal.com]

Poke a fucking hole in every idea I have, that's nice. Even if L were right--which, okay, he probably was--it was annoying.

"No one should've been able to get to me, either." Mello had sidestepped the security to get into Lidner's place easily enough, but no one on earth should have been able to break in while he was there, not stealthily enough to catch him by surprise. He still didn't believe plucking people out of any time they cared to was easy; the idea made him feel too powerless, and he'd never accept that.

He rolled his eyes reflexively at the realization that it was almost time to get fucking herded along again, but he was done eating.

"No. Matt wouldn't have believed it without a reason. Do you know who this Mikami person is?"