Day 47: Sun Room [2nd shift]
Cloud knew he should be taking the opportunity to check out the rec field during the day. The fresh air would be a welcome change from the crowded stuffiness the Institute usually provided, and he would have a chance to scope out the area when it wasn't all under the cover of darkness. When offered a choice, however, he remained in the sun room
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This had to have been at least his fourth attempt to get something done in the basement, but right when they had appeared to have reached their goal, he had woken back up in his room.
He hardly paid any attention to his nurse as she guided him to the Sun Room, too frustrated with his lack of progress to listen to her regular drivel.
"Oh my," his nurse said, drawing his attention for a moment. "Sarah looks like she's in a foul mood. Why don't you try and cheer her up Soujiro; you're friends aren't you?"
Following his nurse's line of sight, Hitsugaya recognized "Sarah" as Senna, a fellow shinigami that he hadn't seen or heard from for the past couple of days. If her outcry and attacking the couch were any indication, he suspected that she probably felt as pissed off as him.
While Hitsugaya didn't know her well enough to call her a friend, she was still a comrade. After seeing her public outburst, he was concerned for her mental wellbeing, so he did as his nurse asked and made his way over to other shinigami. In a way, Senna was the perfect distraction for him, focusing on someone else helped dispel Hitsugaya's frustration at his recent lack of mission success.
"Senna, are you alright?" Hitsugaya asked after he had stopped a few meters away from her.
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The voice addressing her was all too familiar. A myriad of emotions slid through her in a rush--panic, fear, relief, dismay. There was no one stronger than the others. Something abstract made her think of Momo.
The girl straightened on the couch without thinking. "Yeah, 'course," she answered quickly, choosing the easier route. A second ticked by, and then she sighed, leaning back against the couch again. "Hell. No. I'm not. But..." She shook her head, shrugging. There was no need to get into it. "Sorry I haven't been around."
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"Your absence was noted, but in light of the event that happened a few days ago, it's understandable that you would feel... disoriented." He suspected the previously absent members had fallen victim to the brainwashing that had occurred a few days ago, including Senna, but he didn't want to drag the details out of her if she didn't want to talk.
Seeing Senna so distressed caused Hitsugaya to feel awkward and useless. He wasn't good at comforting people, because he just didn't know how. Very few people had looked out for Hitsugaya in his life, and that had greatly shaped his solitary personality. He was a firm believer of not depending on others when he didn't need to, but he also knew there were times when people felt weak and needed to lean on someone else. However, he doubted that Senna would want to confide in him.
"Do you need anything?" Although it was a pathetic attempt to console his fellow shinigami, he felt he should at least make the effort for a comrade.
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The girl looked at her lap for a moment. "Disorientated's a good word," she said. "'s'been a trip." At least he didn't seem mad or disappointed. And he wasn't telling her that she had been kicked out while she was missing, so really, that was all she could ask in this case.
When Hitsugaya asked, Senna looked up, smiling at him for the first time. "Yep!" she chirped. "I completely need something productive to do tonight. I feel like I wasted enough time." And that was exactly what she needed most right now. Something to do. Something to keep her moving. "Besides," she added. "That town is really fishy."
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"I understand the feeling. Lately, the nights don't seem long enough to get anything productive done." Sighing, Hitsugaya pressed his fingers against his temple. He remembered what happened last night, and for a moment, self-loathing simmered beneath his stoic face. Luckily, Senna's voice brought him out before his anger could boil over.
"Fishy? Well, our entire situation is strange. Is there anything about the town in particular that stands out?" Besides being attacked by an army of zombies.
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Though... He seemed the same. Complaining about the night's work was an echo of time past, and a part of her smiled. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Time shifts around here. Doesn't help anything." Hell, one night she didn't even get out of the patient halls. That had been a bummer. She shook her head to herself.
Hitsugaya's question made her tap a finger against her cheek in thought. "A couple things. It feels strange for one. It had a weird monster I had never seen before--it was a lot smarter than your average one, too." Her finger moved to point in his direction. "Plus. Compare it to the town we visit once a week. Even that night, it was better off than those ruins. It's like..." A bomb hit it. Or something. "It was completely trashed. Demolished. People..." The girl shuddered slightly. "What used to be people all around. How'd it happen? Why'd it happen? There has to be some clues, right?"
She hadn't been all for the town when she was first set on it. Being outside was great, even in the creepy forest. But after spending almost a week going there... What had happened? There had to be some answers to be found.
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"How intelligent was the creature you came across?" he asked. The only smart creatures he had come across within the institute were that robot and his doppelganger. Hollows had varying levels of intelligence, but the less intelligent ones were usually easier to defeat.
"I've only been to town once, but the change... I can't explain it. The only thing I noticed was that everything went to hell as soon as the sun set, in other words when the night began. Whatever's happening here, the trigger seems to be the night. It's as if the night affects everything, the institute, the town..." The zombie army had definitely caught Hitsugaya off guard. He hadn't been expecting the town and its residents to transform like that. In the worst case scenario, this entire world could be under the control of their captors. Or was this some sort of natural occurrence, something about this insane world that twisted everything in it?
"It's possible that the town residents are unknowing prisoners or guinea pigs too." If they were truly just monsters, Hitsugaya couldn't see the point of letting them live human lives. Then again, nothing their captors did made any sense to him.
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Senna blinked as Hitsugaya continued, catching up. "Oh. You meant that town." She tilted her head, considering. "Yeah, I've only been there once after dark, too. I just thought it was like here--the people get affected the same as the place." He was right, though. It was impossible to know if the people in town were in on it or just helpless. That thought pissed her off more than she would like.
Senna drew a knee up to her chest, wrapping an arm around it while she talked. This... wasn't as hard as she thought it would be. Huh. "The ruins, though. I can't see how they would be anything but what they are. I mean..." That place was beyond creepy. "It's just a wrong place. And... I think it's been like that for a long time." Her eyes clouded in memory of the details there.
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"Speaking of the ruins, I've only heard of them before, but that's the area your team had been exploring before your absence. If it's not too difficult for you to talk about, I'd like to hear what you found." He had gently phrased it as a request, because he could sense that the ruins were a sensitive topic for Senna from her words and mannerisms. Just because Hitsugaya wasn't familiar with the regular social norms didn't mean he wasn't observant of the atmosphere. However, as the leader, he needed to know what they found, so he could analyze the information for the sake of the everyone.
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By now discussing the ruins was even preferable. Senna dragged her other leg up, sitting in a loose half-lotus. "Well, like I said before. It's completely demolished, not something you'd find ravaged by time, right? More by people. Or something." She shook her head. "There's maybe three to five buildings there. I know the inside of one really well. The first room is like a school, blackboard and all the stuff. There's an American flag, too, which I guess backs up the New Jersey theory."
The girl's eyes shifted, putting her thoughts in order. "But the back room shouldn't be there, I don't think. A lot of people have agreed. It's a decontamination station. And it's way out of place in an old school house like that."
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"Do you believe there's any further need to investigate the ruins?" The decontamination station in ruins sounded suspicious, but it seemed like Senna's group had covered most of the ruins and found nothing. "Perhaps this armored giant was protecting something?"
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Maybe nothing. But maybe something all the same. "It could have been," she mused. "Can't know. If he was guarding something, he was doing a pretty bad job of it by trying to destroy it with us. Unless it was something else in the town." Further up and further in. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to explore more of that creepy place. But there was definitely something there. She just wasn't sure what it could be.
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"If you're up to it?" Hitsugaya asked, giving Senna a choice. This was his way of offering a professional courtesy to his fellow shinigami, since it was clear to both of them that she had some issues she needed to work out, but then again, so did everyone else, Hitsugaya included. This place was terrible on the spirit.
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She frowned at that, considering. "Who were you thinking of to send with me?"
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She shook her head. "So that works."
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