damned_institute | DAY 23: BREAKFAST

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DAY 23: BREAKFAST

That hadn't felt like an entire night.

And his goddamn head hurt. Pounded, even. Enough that he wondered if he was going to end up playing another round of "Christen the nurse" this morning.

Maybe it was because he'd spent so much time and energy trying to find Nowe. That could be the reason behind both those problems. Just the thought of it made his stomach turn, made him want to fucking choke something.

Still, there was shit to do. He forced himself out of bed to put away his pens and the other leftovers from the adventures that didn't happen last night. He'd have to try to talk to Sora today, to see if they could just do tonight what they were going to do last night... and to see if the kid was doing alright.

...he just wished his head would stop hurting. That was probably the result of just how badly he'd overreached himself the previous morning.

The nurse that showed up to get him was cheerful. He grunted at her, listening to her with only half an ear until she mentioned all the excitement, about someone pretending to be a patient, all that crap that Landel had mentioned.

Renji gave her a narrow-eyed look. "Dr. Landel is a goddamn lying coward, and he's lying about that, too," he said. Whether it was true or not, there was only so much good cheer he could take on a shitty morning. "I hope he chokes on a cock." No matter how much venom he put in that statement, it wasn't enough.

Then he had to listen to a lecture about language and gratitude for the rest of the walk to the cafeteria, so maybe it wasn't worth it after all. She dragged him through the breakfast line, and he ended up with granola and toast and tea and a cinnamon roll, because not even a shitty fucking night could ruin his sweet tooth. Though that thing was looking a little too sweet.

The cafeteria was pretty much empty; he had his run of the place. He sat himself about as far from the doors as he could get, and proceeded to stare at his breakfast.

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The food was as good as it had been yesterday and she had to wonder at that. Did the staff really believe what they were telling the patients? Because it would be much easier to break someone's morale if they weren't serving good food. Easier to weaken a prisoner too.

She shrugged in reply to his question. "Met some people. Wondering how I ended up back in my room."

She tensed at his last question, stifling the urge to hit him for it. She had a fairly good idea of what he was getting at and the assumption was so infuriating, despite how logical it was. "I don't see the man who brought us here anywhere around," she said flatly. She thought he knew her better than that. She wasn't the type to use such deceit and she was sure Renji would much rather just beat any information out of Gin if he wanted it.

Her reaction was accurate enough, but he wasn't going to just let his guard down so easily. Not after yesterday. He took a slow sip of his tea and set it down soundlessly on his tray. At least she'd confirmed that he wasn't the only one experiencing the strange phenomenon of waking up somewhere after being quite sure he was in another place.

He hissed a quiet laugh at her anger. "Ara~ no need t'get upset. If I recall c'rectly ah've got plenty of reasons t'be a lil' careful. S'pose tha's my bad f'over estimating Abarai-kun and all his lil' friends."

She snorted disdainfully at that. Seemed to her like she had perfect reason to get upset and he still hadn't adequately explained himself yet. She declined to reply straight away, instead taking a sip of her tea to calm herself before she could say things she'd regret. She set the mug down again and looked at him coolly. He always brought out such conflicting emotions in her.

"And I'm not Renji, nor is he my keeper."

Possibly... possibly if it had been Hitsugaya, things may have been different. Hitsugaya had earned her loyalty many times over. And while she was friends with Renji, he wasn't her captain.

He did miss teasing her. Seeing her face when she was upset was much better than when it was sad or hurt. He played with the handle of his teacup, glancing up at her occasionally.

"S'tell me then. What I've done t'deserve this kind of attention." This kind of... loyalty. He was hesitant to give her his full attention. He didn't want the others making any connections and he had no doubt they would be suspicious enough when they saw him and Ran together. Couldn't let them know he did have a weakness. Kissing her in front of Kurosaki was one thing, he was just... a ryoka. He wasn't all that bright either. But...

"Can't just be that I'm wonderful comp'ny." She wanted an explanation. And he just... couldn't force himself to give her one. That would... be the same as giving up.

She ate carefully, deliberately, trying to ignore the way he was scrutinising her. She didn't like it. Made her feel like a child again, being stared at in the hallways of the Academy because she was from Rukongai. Especially not coming from him.

"You were always very difficult to ignore," she said coolly, cursing him inwardly for his obstinate nature. Couldn't he accept friendship when it was offered... when it had never been taken away?

She twisted her knife idly between her fingers and sighed heavily. This was getting her no-where. Should she just give up on him? Pass it all off as him playing her from the time she'd met him again in the Academy? Because she'd never suspected him until it happened, even when Hitsugaya had mentioned it. She'd pushed that suspicion away gladly.

"You said you weren't doing it for a power trip," she said finally. "I trust you." For her sins. For some foolish, stupid naive reason, she did still think the best of him.

I trust you.

The words left a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach, a feeling many might think he was unfamiliar with. Regret.

Gin pushed his teacup away. He was hungry, but he didn't know if he could force himself to eat at the moment. He folded his hands carefully in his lap as a quiet moment passed between them.

"What would you have me do?" he said finally. The smile on his face was still there, but it had faded, becoming something more natural. "I won't apologize for what I did, not to them. You know s'well as I do just how... corrupt things are. Being human was bad enough..." He paused, unsure, but the words kept coming. "You hope for somethin' like heaven, but instead you get Rukongai." So much for happy endings.

"You still trust me," it was a statement now, rather than a question. "Ran-" he started. "...when we get out of here, I can't just go home to Soul Society and pretend like nothing happened."

"You think I don't see that every time I go out to Rukongai?" she said quietly, staring down at her knees. "Every time I perform a Soul Burial, it's all I think about." Whether that soul would find a family there, someone to help and protect them, or whether they'd end up in the lower districts with the poverty and sqalor and crime that she remembered too well. She didn't often think about her death and arrival in Soul Society, she'd tried to forget it as much as she could. Being promised something better, a place in the land of the gods as her child's mind has thought of it, only for bitter disappointment to set in when she realised that she was still hungry and and could still be hurt.

And then the nobles in their grand mansions and fine clothes. It was supposed to be different in Soul Society. And while she knew that some of the nobles were good, Cpatain Kyouraku and Ukitake came to mind, it still didn't change anything.

She gave him a wry smile at his last words. "You woldn't be you if you did something like that."

He smiled back, though there was no feeling in it. He didn't need to tell her about how hard life had been growing up in Rukongai, they'd both lived it. But it still didn't answer his question of what to do now.

He'd laid his plans so carefully, only to have the complete unknown that was Landel's pop into the equation. The odds had to be infinitesimal. As much as he hated that kind of thinking, it just wasn't... fair.

But there was no use in dwelling on what was done. He had to deal with the here and now if they were going to get anywhere at all. "So nice of y'ta notice." The smile returned, though it was little more than a smirk.

"Question still remains though. What t'do from here?" he mused aloud.

Such an empty smile hurt to see, worse than the habitual smile he nearly always wore. Still, it was something at least. She wanted to just reach out and touch him or something, wipe away that look and make things how they used to be.

"Difficult not to notice when you've known someone this long," she replied, pushing her now empty plate to one side and turning to face him full on.

"We get out before anything else," she said, with a primness she'd picked up from Nanao over the years of their acquaintance. Obviously, it wasn't that simple, but it was all that mattered for the moment. Previous alliances and betrayals needed to be set aside if they wanted to escape. Gin was a captain, and not someone to be overlooked in terms of power. "I've no idea how it works afterwards. All this talk of different times..."
Not her area of expertise.

After his agonizing conversation with the ryoka earlier, it was a relief to see Ran come to the conclusion in only a matter of moments. He was pretty certain Kurosaki was still having trouble wrapping his mind around it.

Different times... he might've been willing to write some of that off as Jack just being... strange, but the books he'd seen had confirmed it. Something was off with the time. And the place. Hadn't the girls said Los Angeles? He wasn't sure how accurate it was, but it was the only guess he'd heard so far. "If we had access t'our power, it'd be easy. I'm pretty certain they've a way of blockin' out our reiatsu." It wasn't a power he'd witnessed before, not even in the altered hollows, but that didn't mean it couldn't exist. Their power was blocked and their Zanpakutou were either sealed or destroyed. Neither was an option he liked, though the first was preferable to the second.

"We've got a couple a' options right now, but s'hard t'say for certain since we don't know much 'bout the enemy." Though if the radio broadcast last night was any indication, Gin feared he had far too much in common with the man. Made things a bit simpler though. Know yourself, know the enemy. Gathering information right now was priority. If they were going to formulate a plan, they had to have all their facts straight.

"They have some way of blocking it for sure," she agreed, frowning slightly in thought. Surely if they were blocking reiatsu, then she wouldn't be able to feel anything. Instead, it was there, sort of, just heavily muffled. It felt like if she tried she might be able to touch it with her fingertips. And hadn't Ichigo said things about it. "Just... you'd think someone with the power to bring us all here would be able to block it completely." And she was hungry enough that she must still be producing reiatsu.

"I hate that I can't sense Haineko," she said, voice just an angry whisper. Her Zanpakuto and her partner. It felt like part of herself had been ripped away.

Something occured to her that she probably should warn him of. "I should tell you. Apparently people sometimes disappear. Just vanish with no warning and you don't see them again." She shuddered at the thought of that happening to any of the people she knew.

"It's a game," he said after a second of thought. "There's no logic here. No reason. Bringin' us in, treatin' us like we're crazy, then lettin' us free at night to play with their toys. Only to start it all over in the morning." He sat still, though the hands that rested in his lap were clenched tighter than they had been.

Then there was the matter of their Zanpakutou. All of the shinigami had to be feeling that sting. He cursed himself for not taking more of the knives with him when he'd had the chance. "It's not Haineko, but," he hesitated, glancing up at her blue eyes. "If you need a blade, I collected some last night." She was the only one that would ever come close to having his full trust in return. Not to mention the fact that he didn't want to see her get hurt. "M19," he added. "Can't promise I'll stay there long though."

The last bit was something of a surprise, though it really shouldn't have been. So what then, they let the prisoners run around for a while, then when they've finally run themselves ragged, they take them out back and slaughter them? It did put a damper on things. As well as give them some incentive to hasten their pace. "That so..."

"A game?" Rangiku repeated tightly, anger rising in her. This was some kind of game with them as the pawns? She had to admit, Gin had a point. "There are more effective ways to break people if that's what they wanted," she said, a sharp edge to her voice now that she thought of it more in depth. "And if they can take our reiatsu, then they could definitely make sure we couldn't wander around at night."

She sighed softly and reached out finally, placing one hand over Gin's clenched fingers gently. "You have blades?" she asked, her eyes widening slightly. "Where from?" If they could get more of them, that would make things much easier. It would definitely be much more useful than a metal railing. She smiled gratefully at him. "Thankyou. I'll get there as soon as I can tonight." She couldn't deny the wamr feeling that that inspired in her. It meant he at least trusted her to some degree. "I'm in F14." An equal showing of trust in him.

She nodded, trying to think of anything else he'd need to know. "Don't know if they're dead or just... disappeared. Although something about what that Doctor said doesn't sit well with me. That there's been patients here who ended up getting brainwashed by them or something like that." She truly hoped that that was not so. But maybe... maybe they chose some subjects at random for this process, or took them away when they got to a certain point.

That was the point. If these people were taking their reiatsu, making them dance like puppets on strings, what other explanation was there? "Unless we really are mad," a small sarcastic smile crept across his lips.

He tilted his head and raised a curious brow at her. It was one thing to offer her a weapon, quite another to her companions who seemed intent on his demise. "That I'll have to be keepin' a secret for now." He let his hands relax at her touch. "No offense darlin', but there're some here I'd rather didn't have that kind of advantage. Not 'less I know my neck'll still be in once piece aft'ward."

It was helpful, whether she knew it or not. He'd learned what he felt was precious little about this place. Brainwashing patients wasn't a happy idea either. Made it all the more difficult to ferret out the people he could and couldn't trust. "Ara... just keeps gettin' better n' better this place..."

She couldn't help but smirk at that idea. She was fairly sure that people who were mad didn't usually share in the same delusions. "Either that or the Twelth put something in the water and this is a mass hallucination." More seriously she added, "And I can't believe that some of the injuries I've seen are delusions or 'accidents'."

She shrugged helplessly at him, a slight smile on her lips. It had been the first thing on her mind and had he really expected her not</i. to wonder where he'd found knives? Too many people needed weapons for her not to. But still, she could understand his reasoning. "All we need is for a Hollow attack and things'll be complete," she said, smiling humourlessly.

No, the injuries were real enough. Though he was surprised at how quickly his were healing, even for a shinigami it was fast. The bruises from the other day remained, but only as slight discolorations. He hadn't had a chance to check on the neck injury just yet, but it was likely the same story.

A hollow attack? He almost laughed. It was second nature to think that way, being a shinigami, but as for himself, if anything, he'd welcome it. It would mean a way of escape, back to Hueco Mundo at the very least. Though he doubted Aizen would take the time to do something so kind as to fetch him. "Really don't think we'll have t'worry about that one."

He glanced up, feeling someone's gaze upon him, only to find Abarai and friends all sending him their angriest faces. It was cute really, did they think it would hurt his feelings? He smiled brightly in their direction and waved cheerfully, as though he'd just seen an old friend. "Ara, I'm so popular this mornin'."

Rangiku nodded in agreement, resting her chin on her hands, looking at nothing particular. "Things I've heard of that are here anyway are enough to deal with." Like those cats she'd seen. She shuddered slightly thinking about it. She'd seen plent of cats roaming the halls during the daytime, but those were normal cats and kittens; full flesh and fur, not those rotting monstrosities which had attacked Rukia.

Gina' movement brought her out of her thoughts and she looked up in surprise to see who he was waving at. She winced seeing Renji and Rukia and had to suppress the urge to punch him. So much for subtlety and discretion. "I can't imagine why," she said dryly.

Feeling a bit more relaxed, he picked up a piece of meat from his tray, snapping the bacon into pieces as he listened. "I take it y'didn't run into anythin' last night then?" The monster he'd seen had been intimidating without a weapon, but even then, he was fairly sure it wouldn't have posed too large a problem. Especially if they outnumbered it. He could understand humans being upset by a monster like that, but the other shinigami?

Gin had difficulty feeling any pity for a man who played lap-dog to the Kuchiki family. "I'm just tryin' t'be friendly," he said with a smile. "Must get tirin' t'have that angry face of his all th' time."

The way he snapped the bacon reminded her that she was still hungry. She eyed his plate with hungry eyes and finally reached over and grabbed a piece of bacon, popping it into her mouth before he could try to take it back.

She wondered if she could get seconds.

"I didn't see anythin' personally," she began. "But Kushiki-san and some others got attacked by monster cats. All rotted, like they'd been dead for a long time," she added with distaste clear in her voice. "You?"

It was sort of difficult to resist returning that smile and her lips quirked upwards for a moment before she schooled her expression into one of disapproval. Friendly like a shark. "I doubt he wants to be friendly back," she replied pointedly. "Make me think you want another mouthful taken out of your neck."

Gin only gave her a knowing look as she stole some of his breakfast. He didn't really care, not like there was any chance of them starving to death here. Not will all the other things about. Besides, she had to keep up that figure somehow. He wasn't about to complain.

"Similar," he commented, picking up a square of toast and pushing the rest of the tray in her direction. "It was some kinda spider creature. Huge. Rotted. I'm sensin' a trend."

He caught that small upward turn to her lips, though he didn't say a word about it. He gave one more glance back at Abarai before he moved his gaze back to Ran. "That an offer?" he grinned. "I hafta say it sounds much better comin' from you than Abarai."

Rengiku widened her eyes, giving him an innocent look in return. She was hungry and there was food. She accepted the tray with a gleeful smile, starting in on it enthusiastically.

"Someone read too many horror stories when they were designing this place?" she offered. She was fairly sure things like that shouldn't even be able to exist. That state of decay well... they were dead and shouldn't be moving around in physical bodies like that.

She raised an eyebrow questioningly at him and them smiled flirtaciously. "Ahh, that depends on how good you are."

Gin chewed on his toast and took the occasional sip of water. "It's a possibility," he smirked. Given what the two of them had spent their afterlives doing, there were few creatures that would really surprise him. It didn't mean he wanted to deal with them without his Zanpakutou though.

It was... nice to be able to joke around a little bit again. Even if it was only shallow flirtatious banter. "And if I've been bad?"

Rangikue finished off the bacon and started in on the toast as though she'd never see food again. She'd never quite grown out of that way of thinking, despite her years in Seireitei. "And if our reiatsu weren't blocked, this place wouldn't still be standing." That was quite a pleasant thought. Smoking ruins and ash and maybe a few flames in strategic places.

Her smile widened and she leaned in a little closer, the neck of the T-shirt gaping open a little. "I don't think I could just let you get away with taking a bite out of your neck," she purred.

He did like the way she thought, though daydreams wouldn't do much to help them escape, let alone bring back their Zanpakutou. He was used to Ran's voracious appetite and if she still had that, she must still be doing well. He finished his toast, resting one elbow on the table, cupping the his chin in his hand.

He couldn't say he was disappointed with Ran's performance. She knew just how to make the best use of her assets. "Ara~ You jus' wanna see me facedown on those drugs Abarai-kun got, doncha?" he replied jokingly. "Don't think they'd look too kindly on that sorta thing in the middle of their cafeteria. Then again, it'd certainly liven things up 'round here."

"So mean," she said, pouting melodramatically at his words. She'd missed their teasing and it had certainly improved her mood. If the night was hell, they might as well make the days as light as possible. "How could you think that of me!"

The pout vanished, replaced with a teasing grin. "It might make things more interestin', sure," she said as though considering it." Her smile sharpened into something more hungry. "But it's not as much fun if you're drugged senseless."

DAY 23: BREAKFAST

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