Day 54: Breakfast

[arc_wrench]

For once, HK was working very hard to hide a giddy facial expression as he met his nurse at the door. He'd already hidden his scalpels in his clothing. The wonderful, sharp implements of doom would be needed today. “Statement: Despite my reticence towards all processed meat and plant products, I am experiencing intolerable levels of hunger,” he

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[notachick]

He'd never woken up so disorientated before. His last memories were of having a relatively quiet if pleasant dinner with Guy, eating his food as best he could, taking the pills for the no-longer lingering fever, and then... the morning intercom came on, rousing him from a drowsy, dreamless sleep

[terriblehaiku]

"Good." He was grateful to have Souji here. Out of anyone, Hijikata knew that he could depend on the captain to get him up to speed quickly and reliably, knew that he could trust him implicitly, which was vital in a situation where he found himself completely without any other resources. If this wasn't some sort of deranged dream--and he was having to stubbornly admit it didn't seem likely--there was going to be work for him to do, and he was going to need all the information he could get his hands on

[notachick]

Gathering the names of people was going to take time, so Okita was glad for once that he hadn't made many plans to meet people in regards to the club. Besides, with Hijikata here now, the structure of it was going to have to change. Of course, Hijikata couldn't take over the club itself, being new it simply wouldn't make sense. However, the thought of issuing orders to Hijikata made the captain uneasy; extremely uneasy. He'd have to find a happy medium so as to not upset the senior members of the club while still keeping Hijikata in a leadership role. Definitely a good thing he hadn't made any concrete plans for the day then

[terriblehaiku]

That... made absolutely no sense. He could understand somehow managing to kidnap people from all over, but how did you take someone from a time that hadn't happened yet? It was nonsense. Souji should have been bright enough to recognize utter lunacy when he saw it, he seemed to be believing every word of what he was saying. Unless this was just an elaborate scheme to mess with him. As fond of practical jokes as the younger man was, however, Hijikata couldn't see him going so far as to feed him false information when they were stuck in this sort of situation. Not for the sake of a joke, certainly

[notachick]

"Having fun?" In reality, Okita had no idea. He'd seen people throw food before, sure, but that had been in jest and mostly when those involved were extremely drunk. Sometimes Okita wondered in the people here were in a state of constant drunkenness considering how some of them acted, but even that wouldn't excuse this. It was just tactically impractical to attack when there were new additions to the staff. The fact that the new people were carrying weapons only compounded that fact. Now, if a patient could hope to get a weapon away from someone, that would change things, but it was a gamble that could end with an unnecessary death. And with the disorganization that seemed to be rampant, there was no way this riot was going to end well.

Okita had been in a riot that had been rather well done and even that had ended poorly. This, however, was just going to end in someone going to solitary and a lot of people getting sedated

[terriblehaiku]

"This isn't fun, it's idiocy." He scowled as more food and dishes went flying past. If any of this hit him, so help them...

But he couldn't really do anything about it. Not here, where it was obvious the staff was retaliating with force. It made sense, on their end. There were more kidnap-ees than staff, despite the power imbalance, and if they didn't deal with it quickly it would continue to escalate. Why the idiots who'd started this mess couldn't see that this was bound to backfire, Hijikatata couldn't see. Perhaps they just didn't care. There were plenty of people who just didn't give a damn about anyone but themselves.

"I think that's a good idea." He really had no desire to be pelted with whatever people chose to fling in their direction, especially when they couldn't react without attracting undesirable attention to themselves. He looked around, trying to decide on the best path of escape. "Aren't I lucky?" Really. This was shaping up to be the worst morning he'd had in a very, very long time.

to the Sun Room

[notachick]

Okita laughed despite himself at Hijikata's almost expected answer. He couldn't exactly argue with his leader on that point, but he did think it was a little bit fun. Even if the food flying around was wasteful and the mess it left behind unclean, people seemed to be enjoying themselves. Whether they were merely throwing food or actively attacking the nurses and being beaten down by the new guards, they did seem to be having fun. Maybe there was something to be said about reckless mayhem

[terriblehaiku]

Woken up at an ungodly hour after being apparently kidnapped and trapped in some kind of completely ridiculous jail, and now his captain was laughing at him. Wonderful. Well, it wasn't as if the day could get any more trying than it already was. At least, he certainly hopped no. And he could forgive Souji his laughter. At least it meant someone was enjoying themselves

[notachick]

"You'd be surprised," Okita replied as he reached behind his neck and unclipped a second pen from its hiding place in his shirt collar. This he offered to Hijikata with a pleasant smile. He remembered all too well how Hijikata had dealt with the withdrawal before and while the captain thought a little less smelly tobacco in the commander's life wasn't such a bad thing, he also knew how difficult it was to deal with. Thankfully, Okita had some of those modern mini-pipes left over from when he hadn't been able to pass them off to Badou or the other Hijikata. He wasn't sure if his Hijikata would take them, but it was one other way to help him at night at least

[terriblehaiku]

Hijikata frowned when Souji held the object out to him. It was a little annoying that the younger man had clearly pegged his fidgeting for what it was, but at least he had the good grace not to say anything about it. He took it and looked it over, trying to work out what it as. It was the same as what Souji had used to write on the paper earlier, but didn't resemble any sort of brush he'd ever seen. And he couldn't say for sure what it was made of. There'd be time to examine it later, he supposed. For now he just held onto it. It was enough to keep his hands occupied, at least

[notachick]

Even if Hijikata wasn't using the pen yet, at least he'd accepted it. Having something in his hands would help him throughout the day until Okita could find him at night and offer the cigarettes as a substitute. It wouldn't be the same as his pipe, but perhaps it would help Hijikata overcome the worst of the cravings until the man's pipe could be located. The patient possessions room was a good place to look. If Hijikata's 'real' life persona had been a smoker as well, it was entirely possible that the pipe would be there.

More, importantly, it seemed like the staff was starting to leave the room and Okita stepped away from the doors, leaving room for Hijikata to do the same. "Oh, yes, they're terrible about that. You should have seen the last riot. Now that was chaotic," he said with a laugh that belied his careful observation of the staff. It wasn't just the nurses that were abandoning their posts, the new guards were doing the same. They were leaving and quickly for some reason or another. Those that were out of the

[terriblehaiku]

The shift in the staff's mood was telling. He might not have been at all familiar with his surroundings or these people, but Hijikata knew enough to know that when the people in charge started abandoning their posts, nothing good could come of it. It was hard to tell if the people still rioting sensed the shift as well, or were simply too involved in their act of rebellion to notice they were being abandoned. He shifted away from the doors with Souji, keeping an eye on the situation. It was hard to say what was going to happen, but he wanted to observe, if possible. It was information he could use later

[notachick]

Deal with that? Okita's smile faded slightly as he continued to watch the cafeteria scene, knowing exactly what Hijikata meant by that. He would deal with it as they had dealt with Niimi and Serizawa - decisive and bloody. That was simply how the wolves of Mibu operated. Anything that didn't help them was pushed aside because that was the image they had to project. They had to be terrifying, murderous fiends to scare the rebels who were quickly approaching the capital. They had to strike fear into their enemies' hearts at the very sound of their name. The true battlefield was decided there, not with steel and strength, but with cunning and fear.

"I'll brief you on the situation later," Okita replied, suddenly realizing the difficulties Homura had experienced whenever Okita had tried to kill Kenshin. It was so easy to want to kill the man, too. It was too easy to revert back to the person he'd been, ignoring the person Kenshin was now

[terriblehaiku]

Hijikata didn't miss that slight shift in Souji's mood, knowing where the younger man's thoughts must have gone. He'd have to reassure him later--he was ruthless about getting things accomplished, yes, but he wasn't going to jump to the most brutal solution right off the bat. If Sannan's death had taught him anything... well. He didn't want to think about that right now. Dwelling was pointless. He had to learn from it, and move on from there, even if his current trajectory had been drastically altered by being dragged off to this place. For now, he simply nodded in acknowledgement. This wasn't the place for that kind of discussion

[notachick]

Someone else might know. If someone else knew, then Okita would just have to find out what they knew and how much they knew. Some people seemed to be getting out of the cafeteria with minimal damage while others were dropping like flies right where they stood. It was with mixed feelings that Okita noted Sai among the ones who seemed to be getting away. He could speak with the boy about it, but he knew better than to try. The last time he'd seen Sai, Okita had tried to kill him. That never left a favorable impression on anyone