Night 28: Men's Bathrooms (M1-M40)

[screwthegods]

[ From here]Homura's steps grew progressively faster, though perhaps the demi-god himself wasn't aware of it. The trip was made in silence, Homura falling into familiar thoughts as they walked. Plans for the next day, contacts that needed to be made, goals that needed to be set. Kenshin and Kenren needed their weapons, and then they could do more

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[opposingheaven]

So, this was where they got their metal from. If Homura had done this before, then Kenren assumed the damage didn't remain once day arrived which was a damn shame, but at least it gave them a limitless supply of good metal. That would definitely be a help.

He nodded at Homura and knelt down next to one of the sinks, examining the pipe beneath it before grasping it firmly. "Sounds like a good idea. He tugged it firmly, testing how strong it was, before starting to pull it, bracing himself against the wall to give himself a better grip on it.

He glanced up when the other two men arrived, raising an eyebrow as the man created a light out of nothing. Interesting, but not really enough to tear his attention away from more important things.

[screwthegods]

Homura really should have known that Kenshin would end up playing the friendly helper given the chance. In a way it was frustrating. He had a task, and that task did not involve helping random strangers. They'd been fortunate to not encounter any sort of creatures in the bathrooms thus far, but the demi-god doubted it was anything more than a matter of time before they did. And given the labor involved in their task, it was all the more important to have someone keeping an eye out for them, instead of on people who apparently had yet to realize the water at night was as likely to kill them as anything else

[opposingheaven]

Well, at least if Kenshin was dealing with them, then Kenren didn't have to. Not that he would have bothered anyway. He wasn't in a particularly altruistic mood at the moment.

The pipe came away in his hands finally, some of the black gunk oozing out over his hands and spraying his chest along with the blood from earlier. It stank. At least he wasn't wearing any clothes that couldn't be easily replaced.

He got better as he went along, taking out more pipes and piling them nearby where they'd be easy to reach if he needed a weapon in a hurry. A pipe on its own would work better than what he'd been using beforehand.

Finally, he glanced up at Homura, wanting to see how many of the things were left and what they could move onto next.

[screwthegods]

Kenren and Homura worked well together. The bathroom only had eight sinks, and even with their strength so reduced, the pair managed to clear the first six with relative quickness. The final two, however, were impossible to get to thanks to the intruders, and Homura briefly met Kenshin's gaze before he moved to rejoin Kenren, the look a silent order to get them out as soon as possible.

Getting swords was hard enough. Homura didn't intend to run out of metal on top of the other difficulties.

"Keep your stock close to you." He spoke quietly, leading by example as he put his pipes into the pillowcase. "Grab them the second you hear the start of the announcement to end night. You'll wake up only with what you're holding."

[opposingheaven]

Great, annoying that they were in the way. And it wasn't as though they were exactly being secretive about what they were doing. It should have been obvious that they kinda' needed to get in there. Ugh, morons. Normally he wouldn't have cared, but every small thing was annoying him now. It wouldn't get any better, he didn't think.

He nodded in response to Homura, flipping the other god a mocking salute. "Thanks for the warning. I'd hate to go to all this trouble to end up with nothing." He glanced around the bathroom speculatively. "Taps and stuff next?"

[screwthegods]

Homura shared Kenren's frustrations, but despite the dwindling time still paused as he overheard snippets of the other conversation. Did the man intend to cause Kenshin harm? To do so would be foolish; no matter what powers he had at his disposal, he faced two healthy gods, and a human whose combative skills certainly weren't lacking.

He truly hoped that the pair didn't intend to waste any more of their time.

"Yes. But let's not stray too far from here." Doubtless Kenren had heard the same thing, and would easily grasp Homura's meaning. Still, he tried to make light of the situation as he moved back to a sink, ignoring the mess spilled out underneath to work on removing the remaining metal, and teased Kenren with a smirk. "It's good to see your reputation for mocking your superiors is still lived up to, Taisho."

A slight distraction, neither enough to take focus away from their problems, or their pains. But better than nothing.

[opposingheaven]

Kenren's expression darkened as he half listened to the conversation from the two newcomers, not happy with the implications of it. Ah well, if it came to it, he was sure that they could prove a match. He could use a fight to work out his frustration anyway.

"Yeah. I think we can find enough stuff in here to keep us busy," he replied, nodding at Homura.

He smirked slightly over the other god's comment. "No-one's ever given me a good enough reason to change. There's only one superior from there who ever got my full respect and even he easn't immune," he said, his smirk widening into a grin.

[screwthegods]

Kenren's consent, then the only thing left was to set about prying the remaining pieces from their holding places. It was a slow process, sometimes involving twisting, sometimes pulling, and sometimes beating the hell out of the parts with the pipe. Each went into the pillowcase when it was free, and Homura could only hope that it was enough for his purposes in the end

[opposingheaven]

More of that vile brown crap from the taps this time, and these were a real bitch to remove. Shame the fittings hadn't loosened like the locks on the doors did at night. At least the bag was filling up pretty decently. No clue if it was enough for whatever process made a sword in this place though.

He snorted disparigingly at the mention of rumours. "There's always rumours in Heaven. Not like there's much else to do. We were just good subjects for it." Both their public and personal lives had been subject to it enough times and it had served as a decent enough smokescreen for him and Tenpou for a long time.

Kenren looked up at Homura, his smile never faltering. "I'm sure there were, and maybe they could've." He shrugged dismissively. "Point is, they never tried. If they were so sure, they should've come at me. I've got no time for people who won't back up their claims."

[screwthegods]

"Better than you realize, perhaps." After all, Homura had been there for a part Kenren hadn't been: the aftermath. Even the orders of the Jade Emperor hadn't been enough to silence wagging tongues, happy to distract themselves from the boredom. Grinning to Kenren, he decided to tease the Taisho a bit. "If I asked, would you tell me which ones were true?"

It felt strange to be talking to the man like this. Homura had always watched from a far, certainly while they were in Heaven, and then on Earth, until the time to act on his plans came. But in both instances, Kenren had been far off, intouchable in the past, and a regretable secondary in the future. To speak with him directly lingered in Homura's mind almost in disbelief.

He'd admired the man for quite a long time, after all.

As Kenren made his bold statements, Homura laughed. Just as he was said to be. "Well said, Kenren."

[opposingheaven]

Kenren chuckled softly, his smile widening to match Homura's teasing. It was a question he could actually consider now that there wasn't the need to play court games. "Maybe I would," he said consideringly. Might be nice to have someone else know the whole of it, since they ended up not remembering. "Depends which rumours you ask about."

He was certain that those rumours would come up sooner or later. It was kind of inevitable.

"It's nice, not having to guard my words here," Kenen admitted. "I played at politics for too long."

[screwthegods]

Homura was tempted to ask then, but the continued sounds of conversation from the other group was enough to dissuade them; he wanted to listen to the story when there was neither a great chance of being overheard nor interrupted. "Perhaps sometime when we're more focused on talking, then." He paused for a moment, considering. "You're free to ask anything you'd like about what happened afterwards. If there are any issues left unresolved in your mind."

The admission, however, made Homura chuckle, and give a skeptical look to his fellow god. Even he had heard and seen just how well Kenren 'played at politics.' "Is that what you were doing at the Jade Emperor's celebration, then? An interesting way of going about it."