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 warm tea seemed to help, somehow, but Rukia still wasn't sure she could stand on her own just yet. She looked up at Renji as Adelheid excused himself for a moment. "Am I squashing you? I didn't realize that would knock me out so badly." She squirmed again, thinking that she should get up, or at least sit in a chair.

When Adelheid returned, she smiled at him, nodding her thanks. He seemed like a nice kid, if a little aloof. He sort of reminded her of Ishida, but he wasn't nearly as rude as the Quincy.

Renji smiled at her. "It's fine," he said. "I'm a fuckin' ox, remember?" As much as he hated to admit it, he wanted to hold on to her. And maybe a little more than normal, because of what had happened last night. "I would've warned you, but I knew you weren't going to listen." You never do...

When Adelheid came back, he gave the kid a grin. "Thanks," he said. Between him and Rukia, his other cup of tea was drained. "Where are you from?" he asked. He'd decided that he liked this kid, so he wanted to find out a little more about him.

...yes, he was really not sure if he should actually stay or not. Those two were close, obviously so, and it made Adelheid feel awkward. And lonely; he wished that he was back with his dear sister, so he wouldn't be so alone. If she was there, he wouldn't be feeling all of the doubt or the pain! If only she was...

He shook his head, offering a slight smile as he pushed a cup of tea to both of them, taking his own back before considering how to answer the question. "I was born in Germany," he decided at the start, realizing that he'd never given his last name. "My full name's Adelheid Bernstein, but please call me Adel."

And even though he was getting used to the idea, he still prepared himself for the inevitable moment when it would click, his family history would press on his shoulders, and both of them would proceed to hate him fully. It was just a matter of instinct.

"Well I wasn't gonna let you do it instead," she muttered at Renji. Moving around made her head hurt again, though, so she just sat there for now. She'd move in a couple minutes.

Hands still shaking, she reached out for the full cup of tea. The flavor of the tea here was different from what she was used to, but tea was tea, and Rukia wasn't picky anyway.

Germany. So maybe he was from the same world as them; just, not dead. "Adel, okay," she said to the young man. "My name is Kuchiki Rukia, but Rukia is fine." He looked maybe 15, but with those muscles, she wondered what sort of life he had lead. She thought for a moment, then asked, "So... before, were you a student? You seem pretty young."

"That name's a real mouthful," Renji said. He wondered if all German names were like that. "I've never been to Germany."

He thought he probably ought to add a little bit about them, just to be fair. "We're both from Japan," he said. A much older one than Adel would be used to, he figured. "We do... police work, of a sort."

...police work. Adelheid had to mentally laugh. Police, and here he was, an arms dealer, wanted by Interpol and most major governments. Thankfully, that was a detail he kept to himself, and at least he could keep his internal despair from appearing on his face or features. So long as he kept some things concealed, it would all be for the best.

With a soft chuckle, Adelheid offered, "A friend of mine said that someone must have been inebriated when coming up with German names, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. As it is, I never really spent much time there, though what I've seen of it, it's a beautiful country." A pause, and he added, "I've been spending a lot of time in Japan, recently; I must admit that the language was much harder to learn than I had thought."

Which was quite obvious from his earlier gaffe, but he was learning, and would continue to do so. For his line of work, he had to. "And no, I'm afraid I'm not really a student; I taught myself. My profession is that of prize-fighter, to put it bluntly."

Rukia listened quietly as Adelheid spoke, trying to stay still and not make her head hurt worse. Renji was warm, and a surprisingly comfortable seat though, so sitting still was pretty easy at the moment. She perked up when he said that he was a prize-fighter. "So that's how you learned to fight," she said. "What's your weapon?"

The ringing in her ears had finally gone away, so she set down the tea and picked up a piece of toast to munch on.

"That's pretty impressive," Renji said. He grinned. "We should fight some time. I had to teach myself as well. 'least 'til we got to the Academy, but I only really learned sword work there." He chuckled. "And all the hand-to-hand shit they tried to teach us was pretty boring."

He ate some more toast. Since he had two people preventing him from brooding, his appetite had returned, somewhat. "What part of Japan have you been in, mostly?" he asked. "I'm originally from Kyoto, but that was a long time ago..." And he snorted. "You think our language is hard? I had to learn to read English. That's a crazy language."

This was... surprisingly normal, which Adelheid hadn't been expecting. But it was nice, too; a good change of pace, and also a nice way to start the morning. It was strange, just how different everything was in the daylight. And not thinking about the Institute, not thinking about plans to make or information to share, was fine as well.

"'A long time ago'? Pardon me for saying so, but you don't look that old, Renji." He chuckled slightly; he wouldn't have pinned the man as very old at all, especially not compared to some of the others Adelheid had fought against. "But I have been to Kyoto; it's quite the sight in my world as well."

A pause, and then he softly added, "I had to learn English as well; trust me, I know exactly how difficult it is." It had been easier for him, because it was in the same linguistic family as German, but it had still been quite the interesting experience.

Then they got to the part that was more about what he did. Adelheid was quiet for a moment, thinking how best to answer that as well. His hands were still a little sore from the previous night, to say nothing of their condition, but an object lesson would probably serve him best. "My 'weapon' is one that will be accepted in any tournament I happen to enter into. Though I can use quite a few other armaments, as well. So... I would like to try my skills against yours, Renji; I'm certain I would learn a great deal."

With a slight smile Adelheid put his hand out, palm-up, and quietly willed energy to flow down his arm and into his hand, forming a small shield of ki energy that shined for the brief moment Adelheid held it in existence. Then he dismissed it, so it wouldn't draw too much attention. "As both of you are well aware, in my world I could do much more than that. It is quite the source of frustration, being so limited."

Rukia looked to Renji to answer Adel's question, since he was the one who had said they were police. She didn't see why it mattered to tell people here about them, since everything else was so weird, but Renji had also been here longer than her.

She watched Adel with interest as he held out his hand. He hadn't needed an incantation to produce the light, so either he was very good, or it was a different type of magic from Kidou. "Well," she said to him, "If you have any free time after you two are done smacking each other around, I'd be interested in learning more about your art." She nodded at his hand. "It seems different from what we practice."

He shrugged. "I'm a lot older than I look," he said. He fell silent for a moment, trying to decide if he should just give up all the secrecy bullshit. There were people from all over, here. And if they did get out of here, they could erase memories if they needed to.

A glance at Rukia didn't really offer any help. And Kurosaki hadn't been all that helpful to him. Oh, what the hell. He was getting tired of coming up with lame-ass lies, and he sucked at that shit anyway. He rested one elbow on the table, chin on his hand.

"Well, if I'm going to be perfectly honest, I died in Kyoto well over a century ago," he said, sounding cheerful about the whole thing. He grinned. "So we're not the sort of police that you were probably thinking of." He decided to stop at that for the moment, just to see how Adel reacted to it.

Some people, he thought, would be better with the whole shinigami idea than others. Adel seemed pretty calm and collected.

...well, that had come out of nowhere. And yet Adelheid chuckled softly, not stunned for more than a second. "That is quite the detail to leave out. But I assume, if you are still 'alive' in a sense, that your job is to police those on the other side? Regardless, if you wish, I can keep a secret as well as any."

That would make sense to him, and it would fit in sadly well with what he knew of his own world. And as he knew that he preferred his own secrets to be kept... well.

He turned to Rukia, and added, "I would be happy to tell you what I know, if you would be so kind to do the same? I doubt I could learn to use the magic you utilized, but I'm still curious about it."

Rukia smirked up at Renji, amused at his behavior. 'By the way, I'm dead' was certainly an interesting way to answer a question about one's age.

Looking at Adel, she added, "Well, we protect the souls of the dead. But sadly, here, with are without our weapons, and most of our powers. As are you, it seems." She munched on another bite of toast, then added, "Of course. Just... maybe when I'm not feeling quite so, er, bad." Her vocabulary was failing her at the moment.

He shrugged, adding to Rukia's explanation, "And some of what we do ends up protecting the living, as well." He grinned at Adelheid. "I'm kind of sick of feeling like I should be lying to people all the time, but yeah, keep it to yourself. There's probably some people that'd freak. And other people that just don't need to know my business."

He noticed Sora come into the cafeteria. And also saw Valyn sitting not that far off - when had Valyn gotten in? He obviously wasn't paying very good attention, and that was a little worrying. Even if he'd been in a shitty mood, that didn't justify being so unobservant. He waved at both of them to let them know they could come over if they wanted. He figured, whether or not Sora chose to join them, he'd make it his business to talk to the kid before breakfast was through.

He was rather amused by the idea of Rukia and Adel sharing magic tips. "Magic." He snorted. "You guys have fun with that. I suck at that shit." He gave Rukia a rather teasing smile. "But stabbing things doesn't make me almost keel over, so who's laughing now?"

"I wouldn't dream of asking for more when you're weakened," Adelheid mildly offered to Rukia, knowing that she was only recently brought back from collapsing and that they wouldn't be able to chat on the matter at length for that same reason. But, someday, when both of them were feeling better, that would be fine. Despite himself, Adelheid held out the hope of learning how to use that kind of magic; if he could heal, wouldn't that prove his father- and by extension, himself- wrong when they thought that destruction was the only course through life?

He shook that off, glancing over at Renji again. "Yes, I imagine there would be many people who wouldn't know how to handle the knowledge of someone being dead and yet speaking to them. But even before I came to this place, I knew a fair number of individuals who had died and come back. It isn't that great a surprise for me." Which honestly made the boy shiver; some of those he had dearly wished would have remained in the grave...

...but he didn't want to think about that either. Instead, he watched the people to whom Renji was gesturing; one a small boy with spiky brown hair, the other a blond with... pointed ears. Adel had to wonder if that was Valyn; if so, then the fact that he knew Renji might have proven to be bad had Renji shown any signs of malicious intent. But as it was, the German rather doubted that the healers had banded together in some sort of consortium. Perhaps it was a more wide-spread gift than otherwise?

The boy took a slow, lingering sip of his tea, letting the soothing taste wash through him as his crimson eyes slid shut. There was so much potential in this place, so much that he could organize... and yet it was frightening, as well. If those who could guard the dead could be dragged here, or those with as much power as Adelheid himself, then how could they hope to reverse the process?

Elbowing Renji in the ribs, Rukia replied, "Yeah, well, I'm also not having nosebleeds all over myself." She glared up at Renji. "Jerk." She was feeling much better now, with some tea and toast in her stomach, so tried to get up again. There was a only a quick moment of vertigo, which passed quickly, leaving that headache behind. But it was maneagable.

Plopping down in one of the free seats, she pulled her tray over and picked up the other piece of toast. She looked at Adelheid. "Huh. So you can see spirits? Or were these actual physical bodies that came back?" It probably didn't pertain to their current situation, but Rukia was curious, and the boy seemed so restrained. Maybe it would draw him out a bit more.

Renji stuck his tongue out at her. "Give it time. I've been here longer and done more." More to a stupid degree, really, but he had to do what he had to do. He let her off his lap without protest.

"Died and come back..." Renji said. He toyed wit his mug. "Huh. People don't really come back where we're from. Dead is dead, there's just different varieties, kind of. But since I've gotten here, I've run across a bunch of people who insist that they died, and came back. And as far as I can tell, they're all the way alive and haven't died at all. Is that sort of thing common, where you're from?"

Adelheid was glad to see that Rukia was up and mobile to an extent; he'd been worried that it would be lingering for some time, but this was much more relieving.

Hm, and perhaps his world was a little more strange than he had originally expected; if he knew something that these two did not, when they were already dead, that was quite the interesting situation indeed. As for the question, he was quiet for some time, looking off to the side as he thought.

When he spoke, he didn't meet their eyes. "There were both, and even more than that. Mostly they were in a secret society called the 'Hizoku' or the 'Flying Brigands.' Some of them seemed to be 'zombies', those who had died and only imperfectly come back to life. Some seemed to be nearly human... and then, in a wider sense, more individuals were able to die and come back as completely human, as though death hadn't occurred or hadn't slowed them down in the least. And then there are demons, who could be nearly killed but then just stand up as though all of the damage done to them had been nothing."

Adelheid shivered slightly, remembering all of those. It had been terrifying, fighting against individuals with that much power... but he quickly clamped down on that. No need to think about that now. Besides, it had all worked out in the end, had it not? "As for your question, Rukia... I can only see spirits that are summoned, which everyone in my world can apparently see as well."

Rukia nodded, munching her toast, as Adel spoke. It was certainly different from what she knew, but everyone had been saying that the 'patients' here came from various worlds. Very strange, all of it. She wondered if anyone here from from this world, the one they were currently in.

"So," Rukia began, "Can you summon spirits, or are you limited to destructive magic? We... well, some of us," she smirked, looking at Renji, "Can use destructive, as well as binding and healing magic."

Renji's eyebrow twitched. "I can. I just don't because who needs that shit when you're good with a zanpakuto? You'll find out what that feels like some day," he taunted. Oh yeah, he was going to get punched for that. It was weird to think about it, but damn, he'd missed this, just this petty, silly sniping at each other.

He turned his attention back to Adel, wondering what was bothering the kid. Probably it had just been a bunch of unpleasant experiences for him. "Zombies..." He was pretty sure he'd read some bad books that involved that kind of thing in the past. Or maybe it'd just been mentioned in one of the Sherlock Holmes stories, but that seemed odd. "And demons. Huh. You're definitely not from the same place as us, that's for sure." He smiled. "People can't normally see us..."

"Me? No, I'm unable to do so, and I'm not sure I would want to do so. Though... I must confess, learning how to bind them could prove more useful than I had originally thought." Adelheid sheepishly ran his hand through his hair again, a little subdued; it had been a series of unpleasant experiences, and he preferred not to think of them in public.

...and speaking of things preferring not to think about, he didn't know what to think about Renji and Rukia snarking back and forth at each other. His expression of concern was again shown to Renji; didn't he know that teasing a girl was likely to get them to snap and beat someone down? And Rukia seemed like the sort for that...

He shook his head. "I don't actually use 'magic' per se, or at least, not magic in the sense that you do. It's ki energy; my body's own power that I can direct as an energy flow. 'Magic' in my world is more ritualistic, generally involving deals with demons or gods." And no, he didn't want to go into how he knew all of that. "But it does seem like I'm the only person from my world, sadly. And, do you mind if I ask about this 'zanpakuto' or why people normally can't see you?"

The entire situation was kind of baffling, really.

Whipping around to face Renji, Rukia punched him in the arm as hard as she could, which was a lot harder than most people her size could punch. "Don't get all high and--" She realized she was starting to yell, so brought her voice down to an angry hiss. "-mighty just because you can release Zabimaru's Bankai, Mr. Look-at-me-I'm-a-Big-Important-Vice Captain!" Really, she wasn't angry with him at all, but this was how things were with them.

Rukia's manner instantly changed as she turned back to the conversation, expression calm and attentive. "Ah, yes. Zanpakuto are our weapons. They take the form of katana, usually, but they aren't physical weapons. And most people can't see us because we don't have corporeal bodies. At least, not usually."

Renji winced theatrically when she hit him. Actually, she did hit hard - he just had a high tolerance for pain. And if he threw in the wince, she probably wouldn't punch him again.

...well, it was a 50% chance at least.

He grinned at Adel, to let him know it was okay. Him and Rukia had been friends for a lot longer than most humans ever lived; it was probably kind of odd to see.

Since Rukia had gone and mentioned the bankai, he added a little to her explanation. "The zanpakuto can be released into several forms. The last one is the bankai." He shrugged like it was no big deal.

Actually? Adelheid didn't find it weird, more than for the brief moment of concern when Renji was punched. After the man had grinned to show it was all right, Adelheid simply shrugged and moved on. It was absolutely nothing new to him, seeing someone getting hit by a girl that they liked; if anything, he was relieved to finally see that bit of normalcy.

"So you are more spirit than person... I see. I think that the Hizoku would have been fascinated to know this, even though none of them use weapons at all, other than their own bodies. Certainly nothing like a spiritual weapon."

He did, however, make a mental note that if he was to make a weapon for the two of them, it would definitely need to be a katana. Which seemed to be a remarkably popular weapon; Adelheid had to conclude it was because of the high number of individuals from Japanese- or at least oriental- cultures.

"If you don't mind me asking, about how powerful would you be, utilizing this 'bankai'? I do not know if you are aware of this, but apparently the Institute will sometimes alter people, give them their equipment and powers back, and then force them to guard certain locations. I understand if you do not want to explain, but even a warning would be useful."

Rukia looked at Adel and Renji, suddenly very alarmed. She had heard some mention of people having their powers back, but not being able to act of their own free will or some such. Any Shinigami who could release his Bankai was a force to be reckoned with, and Renji alone could bring down this whole building in a moment. And Renji being controlled by someone else... It was a terrifying thought, and came a little too close to some events in their recent past.

Rukia opened her mouth, then shut it again. This was Renji's question to answer.

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