Day 20: Breakfast

[right_handed]

Scar felt as if he'd passed out as soon as he'd gotten to his bed due to the admittedly strong fatigue and pain that having a badly injured arm tended to cause a person to feel, even one as conditioned and battle-worn as the stern-faced Ishbalan. He woke up feeling rested but regretful, and his fear that he'd wasted a Nightshift ripe with the

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[stray_shinigami]

Renji levered himself back up into a sitting position. He was a bit pale, but out of force of will, he set his face back into an expression approaching normal. "Fine," he said tightly. He picked his fork back up, but rather than eating the remains of his breakfast, he began methodically mashing them into paste.

He'd already gotten the feeling they were pretty well powerless, at the mercy of who knew what. It wasn't a feeling he liked. But he also knew that there was always, always a way out.

"Then we'll figure a way out." His tone left no room for argument. "I've got you, you've got me, so we're better off than we were." He really had no idea how smart Ichigo was, so he wasn't going to assume that the guy still being stuck here meant defeat. One hell of a fighter didn't necessarily equate with one hell of a survivalist. "You're going to tell me everything you've observed. Everything. I don't care how insignificant you think it is." It was a start. He was behind the curve, here. It would be stupid to cover ground Ichigo had already covered. "And do you have any idea who's in charge of this shit hole?"

[soul_defender]

One of Ichigo's bright orange brows suddenly perked up, giving the replacement shinigami a very offsetting look. There was that attitude again, rearing its ugly head with Renji's sharp, stern demands. He could only glance back with a look of mild irritation as he slouched comfortably back into his seat.

"You're...being really bossy, and it sorta pisses me off." he replied, the distates clear in his tone.

Still, he wouldn't keep Renji in the dark over such a little matter. His fellow shinigami deserved to know what he was up against. "Well...during the day, like this, everything's fine and normal. The doctors are okay, the nurses act sweet, and we're all crazy, so they say. They probably called you some lame-ass name, didn't they?"

Briefly, Ichigo stopped his story and began to glance around the room; it only seemed like minutes ago that he had been in this very spot, being pummeled mercilessly by an unbeatable opponent.

"But at night, this whole place changes. Monsters, and other freaky stuff. Some aren't so serious, but some of 'em...geez, they're just insane." he continued, nodding firmly. "We get to do whatever we want. Some of the doors are locked, but just about everything else is open. I'm not sure how big the building is, though...I keep getting stuck on this floor, but I've heard there's more levels, above and below."

"Nobody knows how we came here. Most people just woke up in one of the rooms, right out of nowhere. But, there's a good number of us, from all sorts of different worlds." Ichigo paused again, this time making a quick nodding gesture at the ceiling, towards one of the mounted speakers. "But that damn voice...some kind of head doctor that nobody ever sees. He's running the show. I've been trying to find him since my first day, but...che, it's not easy."

[stray_shinigami]

Renji's own eyebrow went up as a mirror to Ichigo's. He imagined saying, 'Looking, jerk, either I cop an attitude or I throw up on your lap. Choose.' But he couldn't see that going anywhere productive. And it would be really, really embarassing, too. So he just ignored it, for now. He wasn't all that fond of Ichigo, but they'd deal with it as they went. All that mattered was getting out.

"They're calling me... Kyle," Renji said. "I don't look like a Kyle, do I?" For just that second, there was an almost plaintive note in his voice, but it was quickly gone.

"Okay..." Renji swirled the mashed remains of his breakfast around on his plate. "Trying to find the head doctor probably is the right idea. 'Cause if escape were as simple as breaking a window, no one would be here. You got any sort of map or anything?" His tone was softer, now, more conversational than commanding. He couldn't take out his frustration on Ichigo, not when the kid was the only person he could really trust. But stopping up the bit of emotion that had been leaking out was just adding to the not of worry in his stomach. "What've you eliminated so far?"

[soul_defender]

Ichigo himself had just finished up the remains of his breakfast, looking and feeling very satisfied on a full stomach as he pushed the emptied tray off to his side. No matter how crummy this insidious establishment was, Ichigo could at least find a little solace in a decent meal.

"No, no map...I was just wishing for one of those the other night, too. The layout's pretty simple, and between myself and some of the others here, we should know just about everywhere that you can go."

Though it was difficult for Ichigo to make any lasting friendships, owning to his customarily surly disposition, he had been able to make a few trusted allies here. Last night had been particularly interesting in that regard; there was just something about the blonde who had been so quick to help in their desperate attack.

"I've been all around the bedroom halls...there's nothing important there. There's one main hallway from there; it leads past the Sun Room first, which is right outside here." he adds, pointing towards the cafeteria entrance. "There's a library and some kind of art room through those doors...then, if you keep going down that hall earlier, there's a really creepy medical area."

Ichigo began to rub softly at the edge of his chin, trying his best to grasp all the sights and sounds he had encountered from before. "The hall also had some stairs. Haven't been up them yet, though."

[stray_shinigami]

Renji shuddered at the mention of medical rooms. He had a bad feeling about that. "Alright," he said. "We should try to check out the next floor up, then. Though if there are doors you can't get through on this floor, those might be a good bet too." He frowned. "What we need is a... hm... janitor closet? Supply closet? There should always be useful things in there." Like broom handles. A broom handle would be a lot better than a bunch of cheap plastic pens. "If he's a doctor, though, he might be in the medical area. I don't know... have you looked through it much?"

He couldn't blame the kid if he hadn't. Renji wouldn't want to, himself.

[soul_defender]

"Janitor's closet? But, why...oh, sorry." Ichigo had nearly been too quick to judge, forgetting that Renji had not been around long enough to know better. There were much more suitable materials just waiting to be found in many of Landel's little treasure hunts.

"Actually, that's another thing. There's a lot of stuff just laying around the building, and it's free for the taking. I was just in the kitchen last night, looking for knives and things."

There was also the matter of alchemy. Ichigo wasn't entirely sure how to explain it, and certainly didn't want to end up looking completely stupid again with some far-fetched explanation. "There's a few people here that can even take metal material, then use some weird power to make it into other things. Swords, even. They won't be like what we're used to, but it's better than nothing."

Lightly, he turned off to the side, staring out of the open cafeteria doors, all the way to the distant hallway. Ichigo looked a little uncertain, speaking in a light, yet decisive tone. "Sure. The stairs going up are easy to get to. If we get separated today, just come to the room M10 at night. I guess we can find somewhere to go from there."

[stray_shinigami]

"Huh." Renji wasn't sure what to make of that. But, again, he couldn't make assumptions any more about what was weird. "If I get my choice between a sword and having to put out someone's eye with my thumb, I'll take the sword," Renji said. "So that's another project. Which people?" He felt a little better now that they had the skeleton of a plan.

He fell silent for a moment as Ichigo's expression changed. He'd never really seen a look like that on the kid's face. And he really wasn't sure what to do about it. His first instinct was to just ignore it. But considering the situation, he couldn't really afford to ignore anything, not if he was serious about getting himself and Ichigo out of there in one piece - and with most of their marbles.

It was kind of funny, he thought, that he was already thinking in terms of him and Ichigo. It was just that damn good to see someone he knew, even if it was really stretching the meaning of "know."

"I'm in M44," he said. "We'll figure it out." He set down his fork. His voice dropped a bit lower; it cost him a lot to let go of the all business attitude. "You okay?"

[soul_defender]

"Ah, no, I'm fine. Of course." Though his voice remained rather distant at first, Ichigo was able to lift the stance of his tone to more solid ground, back to casual indifference. He would even follow it up by louring his lips, offering up the same sort of divided confidence he had shown Renji several times in what the vice-captain was aware of; the kind of strength Ichigo would often show, both his steely determination and his concern when it was not only his own life hanging by a thread.

Looking up again, Ichigo noticed suddenly with a look of surprise just how crowded the cafeteria had become since their conversation began. He'd noticed the alchemy-user who had helped him before, Roy, a tad earlier, but he had then become lost in a sea of chattering faces. Still, without any of the right materials, the colonel wouldn't be able to help him, unless...

"Oh! I almost forgot..." he mumbled softly, staring down into his lap. Ichigo reached into his pocket, only to find the book of matches still there. "Well, I'll show introduce you to a few people soon. I need to pay someone back for helping me the other night, too, so I'll help you meet all the right people." Ichigo nodded, grinning knowingly.

[stray_shinigami]

Renji shrugged. "Alright, sounds good." There wasn't really anything else to say, at that point. He looked around the cafeteria and caught sight of Rufus. Considering that he'd been one of the few people (other than Zexion) that Renji had met last night that hadn't acted like a complete moron, he figured he'd say hi. It wouldn't hurt anything.

"Lot of people," he murmured. That suddenly made him a lot more worried. He hadn't realized there had been so many. And it was a lot tougher to keep a large number of people prisoner than it was for a smaller number. Considering Ichigo hadn't mentioned any escapees... that made life more complicated.

"Oh..." he looked back at Ichigo. "I've just been telling everyone that asks that I'm from Kyoto. Not that anyone so far has had a damn clue where that is, but... eh. Just so you know."

[soul_defender]

Keen to hear, Ichigo caught the breeze of Renji's gently murmured words, and nodded firmly in assent. There were plenty of people here when he first arrived, and there seemed to be more and more added every single day, introduced in baker's dozens or more. "More than you might think. Some of them actually belong in this sort of place, though..."

In his daily interactions, Ichigo had met several unique individuals, and the light reiatsu they emitted was frankly disturbing. Some were simply jaded, while others had no regard for human life whatsoever. "...they're killers. Not the same kind of monsters you'll see at night, but they're definitely monsters. I'm sure you'll be able to sense them right away."

That was enough of all the serious talk for now, Ichigo decided. More relaxed, he leaned back in his seat and stretched his long, lanky arms high above his head just as yawn began to escape his lips. "Kyoto?" he suddenly replied, looking unconvinced. "Well, I guess your dialect is fine. But, there are a few people here who know a thing or two about Japan, so don't exaggerate a lot."

[stray_shinigami]

"I'll keep my eyes peeled. But... do me a favor and warn me. I feel like someone's stuff me full of wool or something. I can't feel anything, at least not yet. Maybe once I get used to the absence of... everything, I'll start picking up the little stuff." He kept his tone flat, but there was a slight tightness to his mouth that spoke volumes on just how hard this was for him. He'd been a Shinigami for a long time. To suddenly be reduced to this... it was like going deaf and blind and numb, all at once. Right now just the silence was so deafening that it was no wonder he couldn't pick up anything.

He moved on to a happier subject quickly. "But I was from Kyoto," he said, giving Ichigo a toothy smile. "Just not from your century."

[soul_defender]

Again, Ichigo looked visibly surprised for a moment, but his expressions were different than from before; he looked a little unsure as well, as if he wasn't sure just what to do or think.

"Wait, wait, wait..." he said, desperately fighting an impulse to begin snickering. "You can't sense anything right now? I actually have a better spiritual sense than someone for a change?" Though he was able to keep himself from laughing outright, Ichigo was clearly bemused by the twist of fate. Normally, he was the one on the outside, unable to pick up on such things, so it felt a bit encouraging that someone was even less perceptive than him for a change.

"Eh...ah, never mind." Renji didn't look quite so amused by it, a sight that quickly and embarassedly changed Ichigo's tune. "Okay, you're from Kyoto. Doesn't really matter around here, though...you could say you're from Mars, and nobody would freak out. Tell 'em you're Shinigami too, if you feel like it. They won't get it, but they won't care either." he added, in perfect seriousness. "So, there's some people I wanna talk with, feel free to tag along."

[stray_shinigami]

Renji shrugged. How could he explain to someone as young as Ichigo how ingrained... everythng was. He felt so damn disoriented. He couldn't blame Ichigo for not getting it, but it rubbed him the wrong way all the same.

Then again, sympathy really would have rubbed him the wrong way, too.

Well, if Ichigo could still manage to sense things and the like, Renji could damn well do it too. He'd been a Shinigami for years. He'd adjust. He'd just have to concentrate on listening, and see how it went. He hoped it went well. He didn't like this feeling of numbness. He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "It's like when your ears are ringing. Maybe you can still hear, but all you can hear is them ringing... oh, fuck it. Never mind." He sucked at explaining things.

He shoved his plate of mashed-up food away and stood. "Lead the way."

[soul_defender]

(( OOC: Check me out! Moving over here! ))