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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[stray_shinigami]

Renji woke in confusion. For a long time, he simply lay in bed, trying to figure out what had happened the previous night. He remembered clearly getting Nowe and Sora down to safety, and after that, things became completely incoherent. He sat up slowly. His side ached, his throat was sore, his stomach churned, and he was terribly dizzy

[stray_shinigami]

"Yeah," Renji said, unwittingly echoing Obi-Wan's thoughts. "Never seen anything quite like that before in my life. I'm hoping the metal thing was a helmet or a mask, but considering the way shit is around here, I'm not going to hold my breath." He thought for a moment; he hadn't gotten a real good look at the thing, all told. "I think it was wearing an apron, like a leather one. Maybe it was going for the butcher look." He shrugged. "It has a giant weapon, longer than I am tall. Not enough finesse to call it a sword... more like an oversized machete. It drags its weapon when it walks, so I guess it's some warning. You can hear it scrape on the floor." He frowned. "And goddamn, it's strong. Practically turned the back of Nowe's head to mush, just with striking him on the wall once

[braidless]

"Never seen anything quite like that before in my life," Renji said. "I'm hoping the metal thing was a helmet or a mask, but considering the way shit is around here, I'm not going to hold my breath

[stray_shinigami]

Renji pointed at Nowe, still asleep against him. "This is Nowe." He smiled slightly. "Him and Sora were with us. They did good. They tried to run when we told them to run. Good kids." He looked down at Nowe. The kid still looked like hell.

"I was worried he wouldn't live," he said, quietly. "I... did the best I could. And it looks like it worked out." He sighed. "Like I said... we got the kids out. Kurosaki was willing to sacrifice himself for it. And I would have done the same... but he had a better chance fighting back. I was already injured." He couldn't help how much bitterness crept into his tone, then. Kurosaki was a Shinigami, yes, but he was also still just a kid, himself.

Hopefully he was still alive.

He looked at Obi-Wan. "There's so many goddamn kids here," he said. Hell, you look like you're still a kid, yourself. He seemed about to say something else, but thought better of it. "Thanks. For keeping an eye out for Kurosaki."

[braidless]

Obi-Wan's gaze settled onto the young man sleeping against Renji's shoulder. He looked exhausted - more than likely a result of the encounter with the pyramid-headed man last night.

Still, he looked like he was in remarkable shape for someone who got their head smashed in hours before. Whatever Renji had done must have been effective. The Jedi turned to the red-haired man, his eyebrows faintly rising with surprise. "Are you a Healer?"

He nodded a little at Renji's comment about the younger patients. "Yes, it's a little disconcerting," he admitted. "It just shows how low these people will stoop in order to have people to experiment on."

Obi-Wan gave a small, tight smile. "And don't mention it. We should help each other out whenever we can. Besides, the day just started, and I know a lot of prisoners chose to go to the Sun Room. He could be walking around somewhere else without us knowing it."

[stray_shinigami]

Renji laughed softly. "I'm more like the exact opposite," he said. "I just got lucky. They've taken my sword and chained my spirit, but I still had enough to give. I didn't expect it to work." And he was pretty certain it had been a near thing. That was probably why he felt so shitty. "It's something anyone can do, if they're desperate enough..."

He shook his head. "I hope you're right. There's no better death than that earned protecting others, but... Kurosaki's kind of young for that."

Damn, but he was being grim this morning. Time to try to change the subject. "I've been meaning to speak with you," he said, grinning at Obi-Wan. "If you're in the mood for less practical talk this morning. Had an interesting talk with Jinn-san at lunch yesterday... kind of made me wonder if you were one of the people that was kind of curious about death..."

[not_a_savior]

[ Leaping back in now! ]

Nowe finally stirred against Renji's shoulder, shifting in his seat. His eyelids opened slowly, revealing bleary but still bright blue irises, and he blinked a few times as he sat up.

"Ah!" he jolted upright once he noticed that he'd fallen asleep on Renji, his cheeks coloring a bit. He hadn't realized he'd been so tired... he must have slumped over once he'd fallen asleep. Damn. That was embarrassing.

"S-sorry, Renji, I guess I was a lot more tired than I thought," he muttered, staring at his lap before he realized there was someone else sitting on his other side. He blinked, looking up at this new man. Wasn't this one of the people Renji had pointed out when they'd first met, in the cafeteria?

Nowe shifted. This was horribly awkward. He wanted to introduce himself, but it seemed wrong to just wake up, stick out a hand, and tell this total stranger his name. Instead, he turned to Renji.

"Friend of yours?"

[braidless]

Obi-Wan wasn't quite sure what Renji meant when he said he was the opposite of a healer. Maybe he was some sort of soldier or warrior? Still, his powers must have been pretty well-grounded if he was able to heal a severe head wound. Obi-Wan had learned basic healing techniques over the years, but he didn't think he would have had it in him to do something like that, regardless of what Renji said

[stray_shinigami]

"That's part of what we talked about," Renji said. "To confirm... he is very much alive. His spirit is strong." He smiled. "Similar to yours. Even if he seemed to be dead, his chain of fate is still whole."

He let go of Nowe, resting his arm on the back of the pew now. "Don't worry about it, Nowe," he said. "If you need rest, it's okay. I don't mind. I hope your head is feeling better, now." He cleared his throat, wishing that nagging irritation in it would go away.

[not_a_savior]

Nowe nodded. "Nice to meet you, Mr... erm, what do you like to be called? Mr. Kenobi?" he tilted his head, only further embarrassed by the fact that he didn't know what to call this new man, and also that he realized Renji had looped an arm around him while he was asleep. He sank down a few inches in the pew. His morning wasn't going very well already.

"My head's alright. Still a little sore. I can't move very fast either, or the room spins."

At the thought of what had happened the previous night, Nowe's expression softened, some of the red fading from his cheeks. He stared hard at his lap.

"...thank you, Renji. For last night," he said softly, and in a much smaller voice, he added, "you could have died."

[braidless]

Obi-Wan blinked a little at Renji's words. He thought he understood what he meant when he talked about "spirit," but...

"Chain of fate?" the Jedi echoed. "I'm not entirely sure if I know what that is."

He turned to Nowe; it seemed he was growing more flustered by the moment. Obi-Wan gave him a faint smile that was meant to be reassuring. "Obi-Wan is fine," he told him. "I heard you had a rough night. You're fortunate to be alive."

[stray_shinigami]

Renji's eyes narrowed slightly at Nowe's comment. "No thanks necessary," he said. As hoarse as he was, it made his tone even more gruff. "I'm sorry if I scared you, but it wasn't that bad. I'm very hard to kill."

...not that he knew that for certain. But might as well say it anyway. He didn't want Nowe worrying about him like that.

He turned his attention back to Obi-Wan. "The chain of fate is the link between your body and your spirit... your soul. When I talked to Jinn-san about it, he said spirit is like the Force. Maybe that helps." He shrugged. "When the chain is severed, the spirit is freed, and... moves on."

[not_a_savior]

Nowe nodded in response to Obi-Wan's comment. "Ah. Obi-Wan it is, then. And yes, I am very fortunate, but it's thanks to Renji here, really." He smiled himself. Obi-Wan seemed to be pretty friendly, at least, and if Renji trusted him, Nowe knew he could too. He turned back to Renji.

"It's alright. I'm just glad to see you survived the night. You sound awful, though." A small frown creased his face. If he hadn't been stupid enough to get himself smashed into a wall like that...

He sat back, content to let Renji and Obi-Wan keep talking with one another, not wanting to interrupt.

[braidless]

Obi-Wan nodded a little as Renji spoke. "So you're saying Qui-Gon's...'chain' is still intact?" He paused, turning the words over in his mind. Yes, he supposed it would make sense to equate "spirit" with the Force. Many cultures did.

"How do you know his chain isn't broken?" Obi-Wan asked, though it was more out of curiosity than any sort of skepticism.

Obi-Wan turned to Nowe. "So far Renji is the only person I've met who's capable of healing severe wounds," he said. He glanced over at the red-haired man. "Though I get the feeling it wasn't exactly the easiest thing for him to do."

[stray_shinigami]

"Yeah," Renji said to Obi-Wan. "He feels alive." He shrugged. "If he were dead - which he's not, but anyway - I'd be able to see the broken chain." He shrugged. As strong as these guys were, he was surprised they weren't used to seeing ghosts and the like. But maybe it worked different where they were from. Or they were avoiding the ghosts. "Kind of surprised you guys can't..."

Renji had been really, realy, really hoping that Obi-Wan was going to not bring that back up now that Nowe was awake. He'd just wanted the kid to be able to drop it. So much for that. His lips compressed in a thin line of annoyance

[not_a_savior]

Nowe wasn't stupid, however, and could see how annoyed Renji was with the topic. He said nothing in response to Obi-Wan's comment about the redhead's abilities and just nodded silently, not wanting to irritate the man anymore. He felt like he owed Renji a lot, the least he could do was not piss him off any more than he already was.

He looked back at Obi-Wan again, curiously, when Renji asked about the 'force'. What was that? He hadn't heard of anything like it before. Was it kind of like a pact? He didn't butt in, not wanting to come off as rude, instead just returning to listening quietly to what they had to say.