Dayshift 22: Chapel

[claire_ity]

Claire woke up in her room just like before, with little idea of how she actually got there. This time, though, she noticed something different about the room. There was another young woman, a blond, sleeping in a bed across from her. Before questioning that, though, she made sure to hide the items she'd gotten that night in her closet, shutting

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[faithful_dog]

Naoe nodded as he looked at the child. His face carried a small smile. "I kept everything," he said. "Both sets," he added as an after thought, though he wasn't sure the boy would understand what he meant by that. "I gathered one for a..." A pause. "Friend..." The word was strained as he spoke it.

Kagetora was not a friend but saying 'for the man that I've been obsessed with for a few centuries and who loves to torture me and who is currently in the body of a high school boy not much older than yourself who hates me because I nearly attempted to rape him in a hotel room last summer and who doesn't remember the centuries we've spent together because of something horrible I did to him thirty years ago causing him to lock his memories of his real existence' just seemed a little too complicated. Plus it was giving away too much. Naoe had grown to respect the boy last night, but that didn't mean that he trusted him.

He thought all of that for only a second or two, using the time to turn his attention back to the front of the chapel. "I'm pleased that you were able to as well, but it worries me at the same time." They were able to move him into a room without waking him. It would have been very little effort to take away the items he had collected at the same time. There must have been a reason that they both had been allowed to keep them.

[sasuke_of_sound]

Sasuke paused when Yoskiaki mentioned a friend. It sounded a bit like there was more to it -- actually, it sounded like 'friend' the way Naruto probably said 'teammate' when referring to Sasuke -- but Sasuke wasn't one to probe into matters that didn't concern him.

"I also thought it was strange," he said, pitching his voice low despite the surrounding murmur. "They're moving us somehow, but they're not taking anything away. It's like they want us armed."

The thought was troubling. It could mean a lot of things, none of them good. Sasuke was forcibly reminded of Orochimaru's experiments, locked away in underground cages and forced to fight to the death in order to live.

Shrugging off the eerily apt comparison, he turned to scrutinize the man again.

"Last night, you used something," he said, trying to explain it with a vague hand gesture reminiscent of the one Yoskiaki had used when he'd glowed blue. "That light. What was it?"

[faithful_dog]

Naoe smiled slightly, as if the fact that he had exposed himself was no big deal.

"I am a monk," he offered by way of explanation. "In my world that means I have access to a certain type of spirituality that allows me to do things other people cannot do." He frowned slightly as if something had just occurred to him. "I am not supposed to be open with it, though," he admitted. "Please do not make it be public knowledge, in case anyone from my world finds out and remembers."

It was as good an excuse as any, and believable considering that Sasuke probably knew very little about where Naoe had come from. This place may have been horrible, but it was convenient in some ways. He did not want to explain to Sasuke that he had, in fact, been born over four hundred years ago and died during a very bloody time for Japan. He didn't want to have to go into how after death he had denied the reincarnation cycle in favor of possessing bodies of newborn babies. The reaction to that would probably be... interesting.

He thought of Takaya again, as thoughts of his Lord often floated into his head, and the time when he had had to explain to the boy that he was not actually Takaya, that he had taken over Takaya's body and sent Takaya's soul back to the cycle of life. That wasn't entirely true though, because Kagetora had sealed his memories he was as much Takaya Ougi as anyone could be.

Naoe didn't give any hint that what he was saying wasn't completely true and it was actually at least only a half-lie. Tachibana was a monk, because Naoe could benefit from the information being a monk could give him, and certain people did believe that gave him abilities and spirituality he wouldn't have access to in any other profession. If he had been in any other mood or any other man, he would have been proud of such a lie.

[sasuke_of_sound]

A monk? Sasuke blinked. He hadn't heard of any 'spiritual' powers beyond onmyoujutsu, and his experience with that was secondhand, limited to what Kabuto or Orochimaru could tell him about Tayuya of the previous Sound Five.

"Of course," he said in response to Yoskiaki's request. He saw no reason to mention it, anyway. Mostly, he wanted to know if it was a sort of chakra. "Do you know anything about chakra?"

[faithful_dog]

"Chakra?" Naoe asked, considering word. "Spiritual energy. It is believed that there are places in the body where energy is centered but that it also flows through the entire body. There are several points of interest though, the base of the spine, the heart, the third eye are all examples. There are entire sects of Buddhism and Hinduism, among others, that deal with the idea of chakra and of course that is the main focus yogis. It is believed, that you may be able to achieve enlightenment by opening each chakra and allowing the energy to flow freely throughout your body."

He turned to the boy, smiling slightly. "Does it work differently where you are from?"

[sasuke_of_sound]

Sasuke nodded at the end of the explanation. It was probably that 'world' thing, again.

"The basic structure sounds the same," he said. "But it is used differently. We channel it and use it to fight. I thought that what you did -- what made you glow -- might have been a chakra technique the way we use it."

He paused, and then added, "Is it possible to learn or obtain the power that you used?"

If it was difficult to acquire or somehow forbidden, it would be a simple matter to learn. Sasuke had no qualms with forbidden power. If it was limited to Yoskiaki's 'world,' it would be troublesome. Or if Yoskiaki wasn't willing to teach it.

Sasuke leaned back in the pew and glanced at the stained glass windows, discreetly surveying the room. A few more people of interest had entered -- Naruto looked injured, too; were those two entirely useless? -- but this conversation was more compelling. His stance was casual, indicating that the question was meant lightly and could be easily refused.

[faithful_dog]

Naoe shook his head. "I'm sorry, if you are not born with what I can do, then you will not be able to do it." Not unless you became one of us, that is. "And even if I could teach it to you, I am very limited here, I can barely do a fraction of what I can usually. Besides, the abilities I have are meant mostly for the purpose of exorcising spirits that have turned malicious towards humans."

He peered curiously at the boy, wondering if he came from a place that allowed him to believe in evil spirits. He had no qualms about telling the boy this very limited amount of what his real 'job' was.

[sasuke_of_sound]

"I see," Sasuke said. He was no stranger to limitations of blood, to say the least. Although the exorcists he'd heard of had been a combination of backyard-shrine quacks and 'mystics,' there were probably genuine exorcists out there.

"So they've limited your powers, too," he said, and frowned. "Yet they let us keep our weapons and let us out at night. This setup makes little sense."

Unless Sasuke stopped ignoring persistent visions of Orochimaru's dungeons.

He glanced expectantly at Yoskiaki. Sasuke wasn't above asking for an opinion from someone he deemed capable.

[faithful_dog]

"I think it's possible they may be trying to give us just a little bit of hope," Naoe offered. "Think of it this way, with no hope many people would give up, in the same way that a starving dog will eventually lie down to die. However, if they keep giving us scraps we may still have some fight, some will, some hope. With tiny bits of food the dog has enough energy to bare it's teeth."

Naoe was not above using 'dog' as an analogy of himself. He was, after all, Kagetora's faithful and loving pet, his dog. Hate swelled inside of him, hatred towards his Master and hatred towards the people behind this place. He didn't show it though, if he could spend an entire summer alone with Takaya and only attack him once, at the end when the boy wouldn't stop bringing up that woman then he could discuss the possible intentions of this so-called hospital with Sasuke without seeming anything but calm and thoughtful. A fitting demeanor for a chapel.

"By taking away our abilities they have ensured that we will not escape, but by allowing us to keep limited weaponry they have provided us with the will to carry on. That way, their experiment, or whatever this is, can continue."

[sasuke_of_sound]

Sasuke frowned. As much as he disliked the thought, Yoskiaki's conclusion sounded a bit like his own. One large experiment. Were they all expected to kill each other, eventually? What was the purpose?

"Why do you think someone would do this?" He asked, finally. "I know -- of someone who performed a similar experiment, but he was just interested in strength."

There was a minute hesitation before the preposition. It was probably best to distance himself from Orochimaru and his habits for the moment, given their present situation.

[faithful_dog]

Naoe considered the question. "There are many reasons that people do things like this," he said, looking back to the front of the chapel. "I think, considering the great lengths they have gone too, that it is possible this is a test of their power just as much as it is of ours. We are probably even insignificant next to their own quest for control."

He trailed off as he considered this. These people, because Naoe had no doubts that the ones in control of this place were just human beings, no matter how powerful, had a sadism that even exceeded Kagetora's. At least Naoe's Master always did things for a reason, at least most of the time.

[sasuke_of_sound]

"So. For amusement," Sasuke said dryly. Somewhere underneath the bitterness was fury. Wasn't that what Itachi had said? I wanted to test my power. By playing with lives as if they were cheap toys. As if they meant nothing.

"I'm more concerned that it might be for research," he said after a pause. He couldn't allow himself to feel. Naruto's presence was bad enough. "I'm pretty convinced that they run experiments on us."

Judging by what he'd been able to untangle from his 'therapy' with Muraki, at any rate.