Day 32: Lunch

[damnrudecock]

Sanosuke hadn't quite been ready to part ways from Kenshin, but his nurse was insistent, and she was offering food. That second thing was what really got Sano off the couch and headed to the cafeteria. And at the very least, the thing about Okita had been settled, which meant the fighter could focus on his meal

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[blurred_divide]

[waiting on Hitsugaya]

With his back to the wall, Angel kept one eye on the door for Hitsugaya, although he wasn't too focused on it. The captain could probably locate him easy enough.

He wasn't quite sure exactly what the reasons were for Hitsugaya to ask to speak with him specifically; he'd expected him to seek out Anya herself, but it seemed Hitsugaya was taking a bit of a roundabout route here. Either way, this likely worked out for the best. Anya had been willing to talk to him (barely), but he doubted she'd be up for explaining herself to anyone else.

He pulled a piece of pepperoni off his pizza and chewed absently on it, trying to look occupied before his nurse came over and attempted to get him to meet yet more patients.

[whiteychan]

Hitsugaya was not looking forward to this conversation. The fact that the meal options sounded outright revolting didn't particularly sit well with him, either. Who knew what they had cooked into this "pizza." Ever since his 'therapy' with Dr. Lector, the idea of eating anything he didn't know sickened him...even something as seemingly harmless as pizza

[blurred_divide]

Well, all right, so none of that was entirely unexpected, although it seemed he had failed to consider that whatever group Hitsugaya was leading might've somehow become the de facto local authority. This place really was setting itself up to become a society of its own, wasn't it?

"Her name's Anya," Angel replied evenly. "I spoke with her this morning. She won't be bothering you again."

In truth, none of it was as clear-cut as he'd made it sound because while that talk had changed something, a person didn't do a complete one-eighty from a single conversation. But mentioning that would just complicate things. He didn't think Hitsugaya would understand and the last thing he needed was for someone to interfere the way the Watcher's Council had with Faith.

"If you feel it'll keep your people safe, I'm not going to stop you from letting them know about her. But I don't think you or anyone should be confronting her right now. Not in that way."

[whiteychan]

Hitsugaya's entire demeanor darkened considerably when Angel mentioned her name. That annoying mental case was the one who had attacked him? "Oh, her." he said, his voice low.

Hitsugaya took another drink of his water. "I don't want anything to do with her. The woman is insane. If you think you can keep a tight enough leash on her that she won't go after any of my people again, I'll trust you on that, but if she attacks and harms any of my people again without provocaton, I won't hesitate to kill her."

[blurred_divide]

Angel frowned. The threat at the end didn't bother him so much as what came before; he couldn't blame Hitsugaya for wanting to defend himself and he had to admit that Anya's mental processes were maybe sometimes a little...off, but-

"She's not an animal," he said flatly. "And she's not on anyone's leash. I'm saying she's not going to hurt anyone again because she's made the choice not to herself."

[whiteychan]

No, Hitsugaya thought. She's just a stark raving mad lunatic.

"Alright then," Hitsugaya said, choosing not to vocalize his sentiments for the time being. "And if you trust she'll keep herself to her word, then that's good enough for me, for now. Why did she attack him in the first place?"

[blurred_divide]

Angel had been hoping to avoid delving into the exact reasons behind that because he wasn't too sure how well it would go over, but now that Hitsugaya had brought it up, he might as well.

"She's a vengeance demon," he said. "She grants wishes on behalf of scorned lovers, women specifically. Someone here probably made a wish to her."

He could add that men were pretty much the only ones who'd ever be in danger in that case, but that likely wouldn't help.

[whiteychan]

Hitsugaya blinked a moment as Angel explained exactly what Anya was. Well, that...no, that didn't explain anything regarding why she was so odd. But it left a bitter taste in his throat.

"Is this something someone would have to verbally express to her, or could they have unintentionally caused her to go out to try and kill this man?"

[blurred_divide]

"As far as I know, they'd have to make a specific wish out loud, but vengeance demons usually have pretty extensive powers," Angel said. "The limits on this place are probably what caused her to physically go after her target. Normally, she'd be able to grant them on the spot."

He paused for a moment, contemplating. "She was human, though," he added, quieter, although he wasn't sure if he was speaking specifically to Hitsugaya anymore. "For awhile. It's changed her, I think."

[whiteychan]

The last statement Angel made might as well have been made to himself. The young captain didn't particularly care about Anya or her changes. His priorities lied elsewhere.

"And is there any possibility we could discern who this individual is who wished another prisoner dead? It seems to me that she would be the greater threat than the assassin, especially if she knew what Anya would do." The dark and angry look on his face had all but faded, and was once again replaced with the stern look of a captain who was concerned for the safety of his men. If other patients were sending out hitmen now, it meant people were focused internally when they should be focused on the external enemy.

[blurred_divide]

Angel shook his head. "If you want to find out, talk to the guy who was attacked. It's usually not that hard to pinpoint who in his life might want him dead."

Usually. There were probably cases where the pool of scorned women were fairly large.

"I wouldn't jump to conclusions, though," he said. "Just because she made the wish doesn't mean she actually intended or believes it could've been carried out. She might've just happened to make it to the wrong person. Or...the right person. Depending."

He likely could've left things without clarifying them and used it to divert Hitsugaya's interest away from Anya, but he also really didn't want some innocent woman being jumped on by an angry captain. He hadn't ever looked too deeply into the way vengeance demons worked, but there was no way those wishes were all made by people fully aware of the consequences of what they were actually doing.

And in truth, Anya would probably have to deal with Hitsugaya and what she did sooner or later. Nothing was ever left unpaid.

[whiteychan]

The suggestion to avoid jumping to conclusions annoyed the captain slightly. He had a good intuition and often went on that, but still made no move until it was clear who the culprit was. He wasn't one to go off without thinking.

"I don't plan on it," he said grumpily. "And if she's truly sorry for what she did, finding out from Anya would be a lot quicker and more accurate than trying to guess from a man who may not want to tell the whole truth on a situation. He may be every bit as guilty as she."

He took a drink from his glass of water. He didn't like dealing with whiny, arrogant, crazy women like Anya, but if that's what it came down to... "I'd like to know who she got her wish from, and if she'll only tell you, then I'd appreciate you getting that information for me. It's possible this is just a misunderstanding, or someone wishing someone else dead more than they actually want it; however, if this were a planned move, then we need to find out who it is and what we can do to prevent it from happening again."

[blurred_divide]

As much as someone wanting someone else dead was entirely not a good thing, somehow, Angel didn't think focusing on this was exactly a top priority, especially since he doubted any more wishes were going to be granted. But Hitsugaya seemed to have his own mode of operation and he didn't think it would do much good to bother convincing him otherwise.

He studied Hitsugaya for a moment. "I'll ask her," he replied simply.

Not that he was without interest himself, but the man last night had hardly come off as a victim in any sense of the word and that alleviated any major concerns he might've had. Besides, he had to admit that with everything going on right now from Anya to Willow to this place, adding another case to his plate was stretching things a little. If Hitsugaya wanted to pick it up instead, that was probably for everyone's benefit.

[whiteychan]

Hitsugaya nodded slightly. It was just another issue to be dealt with on a long line of issues. For the most part he didn't expect much to come of it, but it was still something else to do. The busier he was, the less he had to think about being trapped here, being without the familiar presence of Hyorinmaru on his back, dealing with odd thoughts with Momo...

No, the more he had to do, the less he had to worry about any of it.

"Thank you," he said simply, then took a drink of his water. "Still no news on the vampire, but it doesn't seem that there were any attacks last night that I'm aware of. Not surprising as it seems the vampire doesn't need to feed ever night..." unless the disappearing patients were due to the vampire, but somehow he doubted it.

[blurred_divide]

"I've been trying to identify who's what," Angel replied. "But I can only tell if they're close by."

There were too many people in one single area all the time. Not to mention, too much of a mix of things he hadn't ever encountered before. It made it hard to pick it all apart when he couldn't even recognize what half of these people were. And his sense of smell just wasn't as good anymore, something that was continually bothering him on a subconscious level.

[whiteychan]

Hitsugaya nodded slightly at Angel's response. "I've been avoiding looking at people's spirit threads, as even simple observations that were as plain as day to me where I come from cause pain and can only be maintained for short periods of time. One of the others may have a better idea, but I haven't had a chance to bring the subject up without drawing attention to it from others."

He shook his head sadly. "As limited as we are, simple issues like this are much more difficult." It was an issue that had frustrated him immensely since arriving over a week ago.