Day 30: Patient Library (Fourth Shift)
While he waited for his bulletin board correspondant, Farfarello perused the library's offerings once more. There was no sign of any of the books he'd requested in the suggestion box but he wasn't very suprised that this was the case--even if, by some chance, the Head Doctor actually intended to grant any of the reasonable requests it still would
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If the responses to her bulletin had any merit, she certainly would feel more pain tonight. And speaking of bulletins, it was time she spoke with Aidou.
"Oh, Alice, it's so nice to see you taking an interest in something again," her nurse babbled. Miku ignored her. "I'll just leave you to your thoughts, dear girl, be positive!"
Miku mumbled something like an assent and pulled a book on the occult from the shelves. It didn't look very interesting and would only serve as a rest for her journal. There were... a lot of men in this room, weren't there? One, that she recognized, even in repose. The medium swallowed. Things between the two hadn't been very smooth lately.
Why had he changed so much from the person she met? Was he really so petulant? Miku looked for another seat, suddenly unsure if she wanted to go through with what would surely become a fight.
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And speaking of girls, there was one in particular creeping around his table.
Sighing, he nudged the seat of the second chair with his heel. He didn't need to see to know who it was. "Take it if you don't mind my head in your lap. I'm getting a pain in my neck anyway." Even it wasn't Hinasaki Miku, no doubt Aidou would have made the same proposition to any other female, regardless of having a book over his face and being unable to gauge physical attractiveness.
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Then again, she'd paid the price of a kiss for a knife and a camera, so who exactly was more forward? Her, the Radio Man or Aidou? "I don't mind," she replied quietly. She paged through her journal and looked for a blank page. It wasn't too hard, though some were missing from her first set of maps.
Aidou plopped his head in her lap a moment later. She looked down at him, half- amused, but reminding herself to be careful. He had a terrible temper, didn't he?
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That, and Aidou could agree to be less annoyed with someone, so long as they pampered him in some way. Borrowing Miku's lap was a start. He could overlook his complete and utter irritation with her, at least until she did something stupid again.
"So?" he sighed. His eyes fluttered closed again. "Are you prepared for our talk now?"
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There was a weird feeling in her heart, like something heavy had sat on it.
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Of course, if she'd really been... touched as he had, then she wasn't in her right mind, not really. Aidou didn't like to dwell on his experience, simply because he was not a human, and having human emotions boiling in his heart had been a hard blow. Probably more difficult than a human could comprehend.
But it was the worst kind of violation. He, at least, could sympathize with that.
"Then there do you want to start?" Now that you're not acting like a fool.
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"She was a priestess, someone special, who took on everyone's suffering, but..." Miku paused and worried her lip. "Something happened. Someone died. They bound her to a shrine by staking her to the ground... I've already told you, what the tattoos mean, and, there's a person I was talking to, though, I'm sure I've confirmed it simply by reading the responses from my bulletin... it's a curse. I don't know if it's the killing kind, but if they've disappeared, then I doubt they'll return."
"Your... your tattoos... they weren't red either, were they?" Miku didn't look at Aidou, instead looking at her pen-hand, marked with scars.
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Of Miku's confession, he said nothing. Only, "No, mine were also blue, and it seems that's a common indicator. If you are connected to her in some way, even if you don't realize it, then it explains why your case is different." He paused there, as though waiting for her to interject. There were other reasons as to why she could be labelled different... "Anyway, the rest of your experience is similar to mine. It fits."
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She was just as normal as anyone else... plus or minus a few things. "That's all, though, just that little thing. What about you? Are you all right now?" Have you stopped being angry with me? Miku brought her fingers to her clavicle, searching for the little black band that usually decorated it. It wasn't there, and no one had yet returned that little piece of comfort. What could she do? Make a new one?
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He shifted his head, looking upside down at her, analyzing her.
"I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it," said the vampire. He wouldn't dare say that about her fear, but what about her warranted such a shift... That was worth protesting. "It might be important. The goal is, after all, to destroy it once and for all." Among the rest of the Institute, but that went without saying. As for any concern on his behalf... Curious how she was still able to consider others, whether sincere or not. It was interesting to note how they internalized in such different ways. Idly, anyway.
"The markings and that which comes with them as not reappeared," Aidou answered. It was a purposefully misleading response. He wasn't going to point out utterly not right everything and everyone was.
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No, she had to believe in him, that he was a good person. "There was something that happened, before I came here, it's not quite the same, but the feeling behind it is." If I must suffer, so must you. Wasn't that what all the grudged ghosts felt? She put her hands down on either side of Aidou's head and sighed quietly. "It will be fine, though, I'm tougher than I look, Aidou-kun."
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Hm.
"I don't believe it's fine, but if you say so," he allowed. If she wanted to believe in her 'toughness', then whatever. He wasn't going to start arguing with her over whether she was all right or not. "But what you're saying is that you've had a similar experience, is that it?"
Even if he was in a physically vulnerable position, he didn't see the point in avoiding the issue.
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"While I was there, there were times that... they would put me to sleep, and when I awoke the next time, there would be another mark... and another... and another..." Miku shook her head, the sudden flare of pain in her face and palms surprising.
Survived. Wasn't able to save him. Shouldn't have survived.
She touched the inside of her right wrist in memory, where the first rope had appeared. The skin was pale and white, lined with the deep blue of her veins where it met the heel of her hand. "But, I stopped it, and they're gone now. Of course... I wonder if the cost was worth it sometimes..."
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And he had been marked by that bestial priestess too, hadn't he?
His chest expanded under a deep, silent breath, but he didn't say anything while she touched at her rest, just watching her upside down face. Finally: "Do you regret surviving?"
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She shrugged and kept looking down at him. "Sometimes. It's very lonely, sometimes." Even with Rei and Yuu, she knew she was encroaching on their to-be-family. They must've minded a little; the sister of a colleague that vanished, just suddenly taken in by Yuu. "Anyway, I think you've heard quite enough about me, Aidou-kun." Miku returned to rubbing away the phantom pain of the rope burn.
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Yuki, he had never bothered to ask. Now that Miku had revealed some of her history, it helped illuminate certain things. Not that he had a vested interest in Hinasaki Miku, not at all. Phantoms and curses, though... Yes, he supposed it might be lonely. The way she talked, she acted as though she'd lost loved ones, which wouldn't be surprising. In his opinion, he believed there to be a considerable gap between a human's idea of loneliness, and a vampire's--just another difference that inflamed tension between the two--but there was no point in saying that.
"Yes, I suppose you're right," said the noble, blinking up at her face once more before turning his gaze to the room. "If you've done it before, any opinion on how to get rid of this phantom woman?"
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