Day 30: Men's Showers (Fourth Shift)

[broken_exorcist]

As though his conversation during the last shift hadn't been terrible enough... the way that girl had treated him like a child, it was just another nail in the coffin to be herded along to the showers with all the other children.  Allen knew he must be dirty, but he was far from enthusiastic about the idea of public nudity.

When he arrived,

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[osakapwnzu]

"Oh," Heiji said, his face breaking into a grin. "I gotcha, I gotcha!" He laughed and rubbed Ritsuka's head as if to ruffle his hair. Which didn't work very well, seeing as Ritsuka's hair was wet. "Sorry, a lot of people from Tokyo give me such crap about it. I think it sounds awesome, but they're always going, 'Whaaat? Speak Japanese you crazy tan-skinned freak!'" Heiji growled at the mere memory. Osaka-ben was perfectly good Japanese! Why did everyone think he sounded weird? Well, at least Kaito hadn't given him lip about it.

Heiji frowned and opened his mouth to speak, but Ritsuka held his head under the shower. The detective decided against trying to shout over the volume of the water, and tried to satisfy himself with remaining silent on the subject--for now. He tried to pretend he hadn't heard what Ritsuka had said. This kid was giving him some rather scary signals.

"Huh?" Heiji looked back down at Ritsuka, "Oh, uh, yeah. It's pretty busy--at least the area I operate in is. And then there's all the tourist spots 'n stuff, all the best places to eat are usually crowded... Hey! When we get outta here, you should come visit me!" He grinned. He certainly was picking up a lot of people to show around Osaka in this place. Of course, Heiji offered to show anyone he liked around Osaka. "Y'can bring your friends or your parents if y'like. I'll take you guys to some tourist spots and good food, how's that sound?"

[forgot_it_all]

On instinct, he reached up to throw Heiji's hand off his head, but the hand was gone as quickly as it came. Why did everyone treat him like he was somet stupid child? He hated it when they touched his head here! This guy acted a bit like Kio, outgoing, carefree. ...lucky. "You speak fast and they're probably not used to hearing it. They're just trying to catch what you say."

Operate in? That was a weird way to talk about where he lived. Did Heiji work instead of going to school or something? Or was that some sort of Osaka slang? "Huh? Oh...yeah. It might be awhile before I can get down there - and there's the issue of whether or not your world and mine are the same." Getting down to Osaka meant convincing his mother he could go, or taking her with him. Taking Misaki anywhere was a bad idea. If she lost it on the train, they might get separated or worse. "But what do you do in Osaka? I mean, you said 'operate' like you work there or something, but you can't be an adult yet."

[osakapwnzu]

"Could be," He shrugged as best he could. Heiji didn't have a problem with being different, but he did have a problem when people called his accent weird. More often than not, people complained that his accent was stupid or strange rather than asking him to repeat things. Or, in the case of that stupid jewel broker, did both... "D'ya have the money ready? Kaaah, it still sounds weird even when I try so hard!" Heiji was talking to himself now... Ritsuka was getting a great first impression, no doubt."

Heiji bit his lip and tried to wash himself. Ouch, ouch, ouch. Soap and open wounds as a combination? Sucked, for the record. "Ah, well, yeah that could be a problem. I read somethin' about that on the board, but I didn' pay too much attention, really. Doesn't really matter, right? We're all here now, so..." He grinned.

"Ah! That's right, I left that out of my introduction, didn' I?" He laughed. "'M Hattori Heiji--Great Detective of the Kansai Region! Cool, huh?"

[forgot_it_all]

"..." The twelve year old only stared at Heiji as he randomly started talking to himself. Oookay, that was a little weird. He turned back to his shower and finished washing himself off, wringing out the towel before loading it up with more soap. Heiji was doing a crap job at avoiding his injuries in the shower, meaning he'd probably had little experience at it. Ritsuka, on the other hand, knew all too well how to get clean without making him want to peel his skin off from the pain. Standing up, he moved behind Heiji and sighed. "You're going to aggravate your wounds that way."

He didn't hestitate to wash the detective's back, not really caring if it was weird or anything. He just hated to see people in pain and he knew how to do this better. "Yeah, I guess not. If they can bring us here, that means we might be able to jump dimensions if we got our hands on the same technology. Maybe we could even see all the people we've met here again, not just their versions in our worlds."

That would be nice... He'd like to see Alfons and Miku again - the real ones - and he'd promised to take them home with him. That was something he was going to try and do no matter how hard it was. Alfons couldn't go back to his own world. He just...couldn't. "You're a detective? But you're only like...17."

[osakapwnzu]

Heiji smiled, "Hey, thanks! It's kinda hard to maneuver stuff with my arms all scratched up." He sighed happily as Ritsuka scrubbed away. How come the kid could do this, but he had issues with it? Must be used to it, sadly enough. But didn't he say he lived in a suburb or something?

Well, he'd met stranger people in the span of three days. Exorcists, people who should be dead, et cetera. This kid could have been like Kudo--young on the outside, world-weary on the inside.

"Yeah... That'd be fun, I guess," Heiji hadn't exactly met anyone he was particularly attached to. At least, no one that wasn't from his own world. Did Okita even count on the alternative dimension front? He'd existed in Heiji's 'world' per se, but he was dead. So would that be time travel or...? Agh, he didn't know. Homura was a demi-god, so he could probably go wherever the hell he wanted to, and Kaito was from the same city as Shinichi. "D'you have many friends from other dimensions?" He asked, smiling over his shoulder.

"Hey, hey, don't go judging me based on my age! Otherwise I might do you th'same favor!" Heiji frowned slightly. He got so much crap over being the Kansai region's best detective at 17. Some people even accused Heiji's father of solving cases for his own son to make himself look good--which annoyed Heiji to no end. His own successes were just that: his own.

"Yeah I'm only seventeen, but I solve practically every homicide or disappearance that comes across my dad's desk. Without his help, before you ask. What can I say? I'm just a detective genius~" He flashed his cocky grin. "I c'n tell ya about a couple cases, if you're curious!"

[forgot_it_all]

"Yeah, I kind of guessed." The claw marks were deep, painful looking, made by a creature that was good enough to get onto the boy's back and cling to his body. Cats? He remembered hearing about mutant cats here. Or maybe it was more of those nasty gray eyeball...things. "This might sound weird, but you want me to get your arms and stuff? You must not get hurt here often."

When Heiji smiled and asked his normally inocuous question, Ritsuka started and looked away. He did, in fact, all of his friends here were from different dimensions. Everyone except Soubi, of course. He was going to lose all of them, unless he figured out a way to take Alfons home with him and if he could get Miku to come. "...yeah, everyone I know here is from a different dimension from me except for one guy. But you're probably different, too, unless you were born with a second set of ears and a tail, and lost them already."

"And I won't judge you, if you don't do the same for me. I'm not a kid and I hate it when people pat me on the head." Going over to rinse out the towel, he frowned as the water ran a little red. The wounds were recent, maybe even last night or the night before. The idea of this guy running around solving crimes and whatnot at such an early age was cool and all, but Ritsuka had one major problem with it.

"I don't believe in detectives anymore," he said, not meaning to be insulting, but probably coming across as just that. He soaped up the towel again and went back to washing Heiji's neck and shoulders. "When we really needed one, they failed my family and never caught or followed up on our case. So...sorry, but I don't find hearing about criminals and murders very appealing. It's good to know that some people aren't completely incompetent at their job though."

[osakapwnzu]

"Yeah, that'd be great!" Heiji said with a grin. "I don't get injured all that often--though I was shot before I came here. I just didn't have to deal with it." Frowning, he remembered waking up in the strange bed with no gunshot wound. He'd just been at Shinichi's place in Tokyo, the wound had been there and was bandaged. Why hadn't it been there when he woke up?

"I got a really cool injury though, in kendo! He pointed behind his left ear. A small raised scar, about two and a half inches in length, ran from the back of his skull to his neck. "Kid named Okita gave this to me--wouldn't stop bleedin' so they called the match. Sucked."

"Haaa?" Heiji raised an eyebrow. Ears and a tail? "Uh... nothing like that... unless my parents kept something seriously big a secret." He laughed nervously. "Uh, did you have a second pair of ears and a tail?" He looked over his shoulder and tried to look at Ritsuka's back. Was pretty much impossible. Maybe that was his 'delusion'? Like his delusion of being a famous detective from Osaka. Well, he was probably telling the truth about this ears and tail business. No reason to discount him.

"Oh, sorry about the patting. I pat my seventeen-year-old friend on the head too, if it makes ya feel any better~" Of course, this friend currently resided in the body of a six-year-old, but it didn't change the fact that he patted him on the head all the time.

But he could see why Ritsuka didn't like being treated as a kid--the boy had already been exposed to things that a kid his age wasn't used to. Talk of detectives and criminals and murder. Incompetent detectives, no less.

"I'm sorry, Ritsuka-han," Heiji said, glaring at the tile in front of him. "If it had been me, I wouldn't have stopped until I caught the guy--especially if it was you." Crimes against children... despicable. It was even more certain that he didn't live in the same dimension as Ritsuka now. A case like that would've been solved in a day--maybe two--by the Famous Sleeping Kogoro if it had happened in Tokyo. "You have some crappy detectives in your world. Sorry about that. Some people just don't deserve a badge--can't tell their ass from an evidence bag."

[forgot_it_all]

Ritsuka never would understand why people took such pride in scars. He didn't like the scars he had at all. And being shot? Detective was definitely off his list of possible career options if he ever stuck around. Taking the soapy towel, he started on Heiji's left arm, then moved to his right, taking care to avoid the wounds as much as possible. It wasn't too hard, but washing them would be a pain.

"Ah, so different worlds then," he muttered to himself, finishing up Heiji's right arm. Dousing the towel, he went and started cleaning the soap off. "Yeah, everyone in my world is born with ears and a tail. My brother had a really nice set..."

So had he, actually. Ritsuka liked his ears. He missed them and what they signified, and he felt sick thinking about who had taken them from him. "Just don't pat me on the head anymore and we're fine."

Ritsuka paused, the towel against Heiji's back and he bit his bottom lip. Should he tell this guy about it? It wasn't like he enjoyed talking about it at all, but... Seimei was alive. Somehow or another he was still alive and hadn't come home. Either it was because he had been alive here, or it was because he'd never... Would Seimei lie to him like that? "It wasn't me. It was my brother."

Details were unnecessary at the moment, so he continued with his job of helping Heiji with his shower. Crappy detectives or not, it didn't matter anymore. Whoever had died was gone, Seimei was still alive and alone somewhere in their world. Time for a change of topic. "You can get your legs, right?"

[osakapwnzu]

"Ears and a tail... interestin'. Guess the sick bastard--uh, head doctor. Sorry. I guess he took 'em off ya, then? I've heard of some people bein' changed completely, so ears and a tail couldn't be that difficult." Heiji concentrated on the wall again. It was a clear violation of personal space, changing someone's appearance without permission. With Ritsuka, it would be a simple matter of surgery. But the people who had been animals and things... just what kind of power was required to pull something that big off?

"He prob'ly took 'em so you'd go crazy faster. Nothin' like telling people their physical appearance is a lie to throw them off their rocker, yeah?" He was steadily growing to hate Martin Landel with something of a fierce passion. Picking up children and performing 'corrective' surgery, then trying to convince the subject it never happened was lower than low. His situation wasn't too bad. He could deal with being told he was from Canada. No big deal.

"But anyway, if your brother had a crime committed close to him, wouldn't that make it your business--" He stopped. Ritsuka had said 'had'. His brother 'had' a really nice set of ears and a tail. It wasn't me, it was my brother. "Oh God."

Heiji realized that he hadn't been very clear. He'd meant that if a crime had happened close to Ritsuka or his family, he would have done everything he could until the case was closed. But it had sounded like he meant he'd do everything he could if Ritsuka had been the victim of a crime. It wasn't Ritsuka though, and it wasn't just any crime. It was his brother who was the victim of a homicide.

"I'm sorry for your loss," He muttered, not exactly how to cover up his blunder. "Uh, yeah, I can get my legs."

[forgot_it_all]

The head doctor? Could the head doctor have done it? Ritsuka paled, his hands gripping the towel so hard his knuckles turned white. Was that who did all this to people? Was he the one responsible for...?

Could he have...?

He felt sick. For the first time in a long time, Ritsuka wanted to throw up and curl into a ball and hide. No matter what everyone else said about losing one's appearance here, he always remembered that Seimei had kept his ears and tail. Seimei had remained pure while Ritsuka had not. If someone from their world could keep their ears and tail - something they lost naturally later in life - then why hadn't he?

"...he.." Ritsuka tried to get the words out, but failed. He couldn't think of that now - not now. Not when he'd have to leave this room and go back out and face Soubi or Alfons or Miku, the nurses, anyone. He'd have to wait until he was alone in his room--or in the hall or something. He had to be someplace people couldn't see him.

His mind blocked out everything until Heiji said he was sorry for Seimei's death (was it really his death?) and that he could get his legs. Stiffly, he held out the towel, not quite sure how to feel anymore. "...it's fine. I- It's over now."

[osakapwnzu]

"Hey, you okay?" Heiji turned around, his face drawn into a very uncharacteristic look of concern. Ritsuka looked like he was going to lose whatever he ate at breakfast. He'd been like that the first couple of times he'd seen a corpse. Hell, he wasn't proud, he would admit to throwing up at least the first three times. Had remembering the scene disturbed Ritsuka?

"Listen," Heiji put a hand on Ritsuka's shoulder. "It's probably really easy to say it's fine and in the past. But I know shit like that stays with you. I have nightmares about the people I see dead being killed over and over again. It's not fine, I know that much. It's not fine that someone stole your brother's life for whatever reason. It's selfish and deranged, okay? So don't tell yourself it's okay--you may start believing it. And then, who knows what else you'll start to believe." Heiji took the towel from Ritsuka and looked at it. Pink and soapy.

[forgot_it_all]

"I'm f-fine, I'm ju-- Don't touch me!" Ritsuka started when Heiji touched his shoulder and he instantly smacked the hand away. He didn't want to be touched anymore, not now, not after that thought was put into his head. The head doctor could have been the one to rob him of his childhood. That despicable man behind the intercom, the puppetmaster of this hell house - he could have been the one to-- He hadn't realized his breathing had elevated, his heart racing and he suddenly snapped out of it, looking at Heiji in horror. "...s-sorry...I'm sorry, it's just--"

Breathe. Take deep breaths, calm down, one step at a time. Ritsuka closed his eyes, forcing his body to obey his mind before he looked at Heiji again. "...I know. I have... nightmares, too, but that's--"

He was failing. He couldn't stop thinking about the head doctor and what he might have done to him. "It's not the murder. My brother might still be alive, it might-- there are circumstances. It's..." He took a deep breath again and sighed. "It's complicated."

[osakapwnzu]

Heiji withdrew his hand when Ritsuka shouted and pushed him away, as quickly as though he'd been burned. He'd just been trying to help, but apparently Ritsuka just didn't like to be touched. And if his speech pattern was any clue, the kid was falling apart at the seams.

"Ritsuka, hey, calm down. It's okay. I won't touch you again, okay?" He didn't exactly know how to calm the kid down without touching him, though. Heiji was a really physical type--he'd punch people in the shoulder, ruffle their hair, pat them on the back. This was going to be really difficult. Ritsuka was like a computer riddled with viruses, slowly shutting down. He'd said something, and he wasn't sure what it was, so it was nearly impossible to take back whatever he'd said.

"Hey! Hey Ritsuka, I'm a really dumb Osakan, right? I say a lot of dumb stuff and I really don't know what I'm talking about. Y'know one time, I handcuffed myself t'my friend, and I was too stupid to know where the keys were, so we spent the whole day handcuffed until my dad took a pair of wirecutters to the cuffs. Stupid, huh? She's a girl too. She screamed, and screamed, and screamed at me. I'm probably still as dumb as I was back then, so try not to think poorly of me. I can't help it."

[forgot_it_all]

Calm down, calm down, calm down. That was easier said than done. Before, it had just been some shadowy unknown figure that might have taken his innocence. Now there was a face to the demon, or at least a name and a voice. He resisted the urge to shut everything out and forced himself to look at Heiji.

The guy was concerned and it was no wonder - Ritsuka sounded like he was having a breakdown. In a way, he was, but he didn't want to do it here in front of Heiji.

He could overcome this as he'd overcome so many other things. All he had to do was find a point of focus and keep it in mind. Thinking about all of this later was a great focal point. He hadn't really heard all of what Heiji said. Something about handcuffs and a girl and her screaming, but he doubted the real story was anywhere as weird as that. "I don't and...I'm fine. Just something you said struck me wrong, but I'll be alright - just need to think about it more later."

[osakapwnzu]

Heiji frowned. Well that hadn't worked at all. He had some great, distracting stories, but most of them involved his line of work. Which, Heiji thought, Ritsuka wouldn't want to hear about now. God he would suck at being a therapist.

"Maybe you should just forget about it for now, yeah?" Heiji said carefully. "Think about it when it's not so close to the evening. Concentration is key then, y'know?" Ritsuka was obviously not fine, and if he was planning on doing something stupid in his not-fine state, no doubt he'd get hurt.

Think of something else to say, think of something else to say...

"Y'know, this reminds me of a story," Of course it didn't, but Heiji could lie. "I was talking to this elementary school kid, trying to help him find his parents. He told me I looked and talked funny, so I tried to explain--" Read: shouted. "--that I was speakin' Osaka-ben, but he got upset and threw a punch at me. I held him back, and suddenly, five or six of his friends jumped me from behind! I didn't even see 'em comin' I was so focused on this one kid. Kaah, it was a mess! My dad even saw all this happen, it was so embarassin'!"

[forgot_it_all]

"Maybe." He'd definitely be thinking about it later, but all he had was evening. During the day he was surrounded by people and their prying eyes. He'd always had some measure of privacy before, whether it was going to his bedroom or sitting in a park, but here he was always, always surrounded. It was starting to get on his nerves. "And yeah, I know. I have friends I need to find tonight and things to do - I'm not that dumb."

Maybe he was, but he wasn't going to admit that.

Suddenly Heiji launched into a nonsensical story about him getting completely owned by a pack of kids and Ritsuka just stared at him. Did Heiji had ADD or something? Why in the world would Ritsuka remind the detective of the time a bunch of idiot kids mugged him? For a moment, it seemed like Ritsuka was going to comment, but instead, all that came out was: "....what?"