Day 60: Patient Library (Third Shift)

[poorexample]

After handling two conversations that had been difficult for completely different reasons, Castiel had to admit that he felt weary. It was not a sensation that was new to him; between Izaya showing far too much interest in his kind and Ruby simply being who she was, some peace and quiet was what he craved

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[oneman_onekill]

Bagged lunches weren't very exciting, but Niikura swiftly reminded himself that he could be confined to the cafeteria with yet another bowl of pink goop sitting in front of him. And that? That automatically made bagged lunches the best thing ever.

He wasn't really in the mood to head outside or check out one of the activity rooms, and the Sun Room was starting to get a little boring, so the library it was, and wow...it felt nostalgic. He had never cared much for reading (or, at least had pretended to not care much--some pretenses needed to be kept up), but Katsuragi could almost always be found in one poring over some book or another and lamenting the absurdity of the world, to the point where he and libraries had become eternally linked in Niikura's mind. It was kind of painful to walk into one now and not see that familiar mop of hair, and for a moment, he really did have second thoughts.

But...it was also kind of silly to let things like that from the past keep him down; he told himself he might as well deal with it now, and walked in with a little more force and speed in his step.

Maybe a little too fast because the next thing he knew, Niikura had run into a nearby chair. Normally, it might have been just something he could have laughed off, but this chair was occupied, and by a man with ridiculously long hair to boot. And if anime had told him anything, it was that epic hair was only reserved for epic people.

Epic.

Niikura smiled sheepishly and took a few steps back. "Eh heh...sorry! Wasn't lookin' in the right direction, I guess."

[terriblehaiku]

The quiet was nice, the lunch was tolerable, and his book was interesting--all in all, Hijikata was almost enjoying himself, up to the moment someone walked smack into his chair. The spike of irritation that caused, however, was almost immediately overtaken by a sense of inevitability.

This was how things always went, even back home. If it hadn't been this, it would have been something else. So instead of barking some angry retort, he just sighed and gave the individual a mildly disgruntled look.

"No, you most definitely weren't. Be more careful."

[oneman_onekill]

"Don't have to tell me twice," Niikura muttered, although it was without any hint of resentment. As polished as Akumetsu was, the fact still remained that Shou was a teenager who was still growing into his height and dealing with that stupid awkward phase where he was just a bit too lanky for his own good.

He leaned over and peered at the other man's book, completely disregarding any concept of personal space. "Poetry, huh? Cool." Not really, but he didn't want to accidentally insult someone's taste in literature--well, he took that back. Some poetry was alright. Most of it didn't make any sense, and required too much thinking to change that.

[terriblehaiku]

Well, at least he had the grace to acknowledge the issue. That was something, anyway.

His manners, however, still needed some work, if the way he casually invaded Hijikata's personal space was any indication. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) he was all too used to that sort of thing, thanks to a certain captain. "Some of it's not bad." The rest of it, he didn't understand in the least, but he supposed there were probably some cultural barriers in the way.

[oneman_onekill]

Niikura shrugged and smiled fondly. "Aye, that's how it usually is, hit and miss." He looked at the other man. "You into poetry or somethin'? Most guys, they wouldn't pick this kind of stuff right away, y'know." It was kind of a funny image, a guy like this being all sensitive and mushy on the inside. (Wasn't that the type that usually wrote poetry? The sensitive souls or whatever.)

Heh, tsundere.

He sat down next to the man, opened his lunch bag, and began pulling food out and setting it on the table. "Not that it's bad or anything, just different. And kind of cool."

[terriblehaiku]

Hijikata arched an eyebrow slightly, before nodding. "Sometimes." After another moment, he leaned back in his chair, giving up on reading for a moment, as it looked like he was going to have to endure some company for awhile. "Plenty of great men write poetry," he added. Clearly, this kid didn't know any real men of honor. "It's a worthwhile intellectual pursuit."

[oneman_onekill]

Intellectual pursuit? Well...okay, he could see that. And it was true that plenty of great men had written poetry. He could too, if he honed in on the right Shou sitting in his head, but poetry was not formulaic, and things that he produced tended to be that way. The right amount of this. The right tone of that. It was hard to strike the "right" note with emotions, which was probably why he didn't care for poetry all that much--or, at least, writing it.

"Do ya write any?" Niikura asked, sandwich halfway to his mouth. "There used to be someone who would post haikus and stuff on the board, but they haven't put up any for a while." The unspoken I wonder what happened to him hung in the air as he bit into his chicken sandwich. Mm...flavors: he'd missed those.

[terriblehaiku]

Hijikata looked through his own food, trying to find the parts that weren't too offensive. He wasn't really finding the selection much better than the pink gruel they'd been serving previously. With an inward sigh, he gave up on it for the moment.

"Occasionally," he replied, almost reluctant to admit to anything. He hadn't been doing much writing since he'd gotten here. There wasn't much that was inspiring about the place. Besides, the last thing he needed was Souji getting a hold of them again. "Were they any good?"

[oneman_onekill]

[orz I'm sorry this took so long ;A;]

Oh...another picky eater? Like that kid from this morning. Maybe, if the other man didn't want it, he could ask--

"Huh, I see." Niikura swallowed and smiled. "So I guess you're a great man, then?" he added as a joke. The guy seemed so serious, and this conversation needed some zing or something added to it, stat. "And they were alright, I guess. I'm not really the best judge of poetry." They'd followed the proper haiku form, at the very least.

"Oh! And hah, should've introduced myself before--I'm Niikura Shou." He threw a sloppy salute. "You're...?"

[terriblehaiku]

[No worries.]

"Not yet," he replied. "Working on it." Which was true enough, even if his tone was more flippant than it was serious. Assuming he ever got out of this place, he had aspirations, and a plan to see them through. "Hm. Maybe they'll post again." And maybe he should ask Souji if he'd been up to any mischief involving his haiku before his arrival. If nothing else, he might know something about who had been posting them.

He arched an eyebrow slightly at the salute. "Hijikata Toshizou."

[oneman_onekill]

"I see. Well, at least ya got one of the requirements out of the way." This time, he laughed, although only lightly. Didn't want to accidentally give the guy the idea that he was mocking all of his hopes and dreams. Funny way to get to greatness, though, poetry.

Niikura was about to just wish the man luck with his mystery poet-hunting and then bow out of the conversation (that he'd started) to eat his lunch before he got dragged off to another room when the man suddenly offered him a name that he had only seen in history textbooks and the occasional anime.

For a second, his brain didn't register the magnitude of this, but then it sank in, and Niikura descended into his second fit of relentless inner fanboying for the second time in less than twenty-four hours.

...ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodit'salivinglegendican'tevenohmygodohmygodit'shim Was he staring? He was getting a little better at this cleverly-disguising-his-utter-shock thing, but he couldn't be sure because there were no mirrors around. Oh man, it was him! Hijikata Toshizou, the Demon Vice-Commander himself! In a library! Reading poetry!

In his surprise, Niikura forgot that he still had some of his sandwich in his mouth, and promptly had a coughing fit as it went down the wrong way. Coughing on his sandwich in front of Hijikata Toshizou: so uncool...!

He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "Sorry about that, forgot to, uh, forgot to chew or somethin'...anyway, um, cool! That's a..." You're famous and you're also dead but I can't say that. "That's a cool name."

[terriblehaiku]

Hijikata was used to getting a reaction to his name. Usually, it had something to do with his reputation as the Shinsengumi's vice commander. He was also used to absurd and/or baffling behavior, usually coming from either Ichimura or Souji, less often from some of the other men, or Kondou himself (why the man thought that part trick of his impressed anyone... but he was letting his mind wander, wasn't he?).

He was less used to both those things in combination, however. As fearsome as his rep might be, it didn't tend to make people forget how to chew. That being the case, he gave Niikura a look that suggested he might very well be out of his mind (and that was familiar. Was everyone in the library mad?), took a bite of his lunch, swallowed it, and then replied in an even tone "It's just a name."

He was, however, more than a little suspicious now. No one yet had recognized him, Souji aside. Just what did this young man know?

[oneman_onekill]

Oh great, his total lack of subtlety had been noticed. (Duh.) Niikura groaned internally; he'd have to tread carefully and make sure he didn't let anything earth-shattering slip while providing a satisfactory explanation if it was demanded of him. And he wasn't so great at those; he was the best at things where he could draw experience from other Shous, but none of them had ever met a famous historical figure in the flesh for obvious reasons.

"Well, it's a cool one," he said defensively, even though even to him it seemed obvious that he was hiding it. "And you're..."

Damn it. There was no good explanation that allowed him to wiggle out of this. Time to make concessions. If he told Hijikata that he was from the future, that wouldn't make the universe explode, right? As long as he didn't mention any spoilers, maybe he was safe. "...I mean, sorry, I'm from a Japan in the future, and y'know, you're kind of, uh...famous." Niikura scratched the back of his head. "So it's cool, gettin' to meet you for real and...and stuff."

[terriblehaiku]

Hijikata took all of that in with a look of skepticism on his face. While he'd already had time to grasp the fact that there were, in fact, people here from all different times and places, it wasn't often someone proclaimed it so freely, and certainly, no one had so far claimed to know who he was.

"I guess I did my job, then," he replied in a neutral tone. Part of him very much wanted to press for details--information was always vital, after all--but he was also wary. Wary of what he might learn, and wary of how much he'd be able to trust that information.

[oneman_onekill]

Actually, his Japan was more like the present one and Hijikata's the past, but it was all a matter of perspective, and Niikura was very flexible when it came to that. Besides, he had no problems admitting to anything here, short of his...slightly psychopathic vigilante tendencies, but then, that was a matter of perspective as well. Shiina didn't think he was crazy, for one thing, and Akumetsu did have normal people's support, for another.

"Aye." ...okay, so that had been a bit of a white lie, but who ever said that Niikura had to be honest as well as open? And that key word again: perspective. "Sorry if that was, y'know...shocking or something."

Although, the way Hijikata was looking at him suggested that he thought he was lying instead, which was fine. It didn't change the fact that he'd met Hijikata Toshizou.

[terriblehaiku]

"No, that's... good to know," he replied, shifting his expression and tone to one that was more neutral. If the information wasn't true, it wouldn't hurt him much, and if it was... well, it was reassuring to know he'd left some mark behind, that all of his ambitions had not gone to waste.

"Thank you for telling me." He wasn't really in the habit of offering thanks for anything, but he knew being impolite here was uncalled for, and offering up the words was easy enough, after all.