If one hadn’t been around to see the hospital when it’d been acting like a hospital, nurses and a cheery Head Doctor and all, one might not believe that those surroundings and the military-run one they were in now were one and the same. The transformation had been as lightning quick as the inexplicable shift between day and nightshifts; Tsubaki’s head was still spinning from the revelations. To add to her disorientation, when she returned for dinner, she found her missing belongings packed neatly in a box. Hadn’t they been gone that morning? On the box was a number that matched the one on her military tags, which by all accounts seemed to be her designation.
The intercom offered no answers during dinner, and she was only slightly relieved when a familiar voice finally broke the silence--not that he was in the business of reassurance. At least not compassionate reassurance. He did remind them that they were prisoners under a very close watch, which only served to make her feel like a bug trapped in a test tube.
Landel might have been gone--temporarily or permanently--but they were still being poked and prodded. Nightshifts were still happening like nothing had changed.
As for this night in particular, Tsubaki had a problem. Exactly where was she going to go? Staying in wasn’t an option, but she, Kurogane, and Fai hadn’t agreed to discuss their situation again. There were more loose ends than ever there. Professor Stein was gone now, or so she’d been told, which begged the question of what had happened to his office. (What would’ve happened to him as one of the Institute’s doctors if he’d still been around when this Aguilar had assumed leadership?) And she hadn’t heard a thing regarding the experiments stopping. They could still be going on… There was one other thing that was bugging her, and it, too, remained dangling, an unresolved thread. Kurogane. Would he still be in the area if passed by his room? Just to check in? There were other things to talk about besides just that one strange question…
The intercom offered no answers during dinner, and she was only slightly relieved when a familiar voice finally broke the silence--not that he was in the business of reassurance. At least not compassionate reassurance. He did remind them that they were prisoners under a very close watch, which only served to make her feel like a bug trapped in a test tube.
Landel might have been gone--temporarily or permanently--but they were still being poked and prodded. Nightshifts were still happening like nothing had changed.
As for this night in particular, Tsubaki had a problem. Exactly where was she going to go? Staying in wasn’t an option, but she, Kurogane, and Fai hadn’t agreed to discuss their situation again. There were more loose ends than ever there. Professor Stein was gone now, or so she’d been told, which begged the question of what had happened to his office. (What would’ve happened to him as one of the Institute’s doctors if he’d still been around when this Aguilar had assumed leadership?) And she hadn’t heard a thing regarding the experiments stopping. They could still be going on… There was one other thing that was bugging her, and it, too, remained dangling, an unresolved thread. Kurogane. Would he still be in the area if passed by his room? Just to check in? There were other things to talk about besides just that one strange question…
There was only one way to find out.
[off to here]
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