niteo_logs | Virtue, dear friend, needs no defense, The surest guard is innocence

Shunpo had its advantages. Obviously it was fast, and it also allowed him to bypass most obstacles. After so much time wandering the streets on his own, keeping to himself and away from the network, he'd developed an acute understanding of where most everything was. So when Hitsugaya Toushirou arrived at the location, it was no more than a minute or two after he'd left the apartment.

He stepped out of shunpo upon arrival, tense and alert. Once a captain, always a captain. And no matter what the hell this city was or who was in it, if he could help in some way, he would. There was no reason to hide his presence, not when the location had been advertised openly. So he didn't waste any time in calling out, stretching his senses to see who was there and where they were. "Oi!"

Ritsuka flinched when the voice broke the silence, jerking back and bumping the boxes behind him, which teetered on the edge of toppling over. His pulse quickened and he gave a sort of whine, tucking his head into his knees and trying to cover the space where his ears should have been with his arms.

His head instantly jerked in that direction when he heard the whine, the shaking boxes more than enough of a clue as to where the boy was. He did what Ritsuka hadn't managed and pushed the boxes over and out of the way as he crouched down beside him, taking in the full extent of the damage now that he had a better view than the PDA had offered. He was roughed up, but it looked as if the cuts opening up the edges of his lips were the worst of it. No ears, he noted in the back of his mind, Ritsuka's attempts to hide it only drawing more attention. He had told Uchiha Sasuke losing them meant you were an adult. Hitsugaya chose to ignore the implications for the moment.

The cuts on the mouth were bad, but they were no where near fatal. Healing kidou was far from his specialty, but for something like this, he could at least manage to close up the wounds, perhaps even lighten the scars so that they'd be less noticeable. He didn't bother saying anything. He wouldn't know what to say, and if he tried it would be far from comforting. He only held one finger to his lips and moved the other hand to Ritsuka's mouth, muttering under his breath. The hand near Ritsuka's wounds began glowing with cool blue reiatsu, and he set to work, needing complete concentration to get this right.

He sucked in a breath, violet eyes peering nervously at at him, and when he reached for him he started to scoot back away from the hand, but when he saw he wasn't trying to hurt him he stilled. His eyes darted about while Hitsugaya worked, afraid of looking any one place in particular.

His shoulders remained tense...he wanted Soubi. But he didn't want him to see him like this.

"Calm down," he finally managed, worry lines creasing his brow as he continued the kidou spell. It was hardly what you told someone who'd gone through something so obviously traumatizing, but it was what he needed Ritsuka to do none-the-less. The cuts were slowly coming back together, flesh resealing itself to flesh, but if the other boy remained to tense and jumpy, it would probably start to hurt even worse.

"Mm." He made a small noise, not quite affirmative, but he did seem to be trying, closing his eyes and taking slow, shaky breaths. It felt strange, but the adrenaline pumping through his system had dulled most of his pain into a numbness he couldn't describe.

"...I can't feel Soubi," he choked out, unable to hold it in, even with the silent warning to be quiet.

The edge of his lip twitched at the choked admission. He could feel the other presence that had entered, but he didn't sense any blood lust or animosity. Whoever it was was staying out of the way, which made them much more cooperative and much easier to ignore than Ritsuka. Ritsuka, who was muttering about not being able to feel his partner, who was opening his mouth and trying to talk even as the edge of his lips were being healed. Then again, if Hitsugaya had ever lost track of Matsumoto's reiatsu... No. That didn't matter because she wasn't here.

He sighed. One side was now reattached, the other side getting close. He wouldn't chance asking questions until the healing was complete, especially when he didn't want to get distracted. But as soon as the glow began to fade, he took a deep breath and released it, his shoulders slumping ever so slightly as he moved his hand away to inspect the outcome. Not bad for an amateur like him.

Alright then. Now he could ask questions. "What does that mean? When you can't feel him."

"...I can't feel him at all," he tried to explain, "Here." He placed his hand over his heart, over the place where his true name was written down his chest. His eyes became glossy again, and he shook his head, not knowing how to explain it. "...It's like he's dead." His voice was small and hoarse, and he glanced warily towards the woman. Was she safe? He hadn't talked to her before. Was anyone safe?

Edited 2010-06-10 04:22 (UTC)

Well... shit. But no, that didn't mean anything conclusive. If Hitsugaya had known what Soubi's energy signature was like, he could have searched for it, but he didn't. "I doubt he's dead. You're the only one in danger here," he reassured. It was an empty reassurance, certainly, but a reassurance none-the-less. "It's more likely something's happened to you than to him."

Ritsuka swallowed, wanting to protest, but he gave a small nod, and wrapping his arms a little further around himself at the appearance of a third person. So that was Grimmer. He groaned and tried to hide his face in his knees. He didn't want all these people looking at him.

It didn't take Vera long to arrive at the location, once she had found out where it was using the PDA's map. When she arrived, she hesitated for a split second; an unexplained fear bubbled up before she mentally slapped herself as she entered the garage.

The woman frowned at the the smell of the garage; blood, old and new and...she mentally shuddered at what else was in the air, her grip on her backpack strap tightening even more than it already was. Vera looked towards the direction where the boys were, the one with white hair seemed to be helping the boy from the picture with some sort of blue light glowing from his hand. A look of confusion crossed her face for a second before she shrugged it off, whatever it was, it was slowly healing the wounds on his face.

She took a few cautious steps further into the garage but not to close to the boys, the last thing she wanted to do was startle them while the one from the picture was being healed. She instead scanned the interior of the garage, looking back towards the others with a look of unease every so often.

Although Grimmer was fit, he was still far from being as fast as a soldier like Vera. Therefore, he arrived in the area shortly after Vera, panting lightly and with his hair messed. His blond hair, which he had always kept as short as possible back in Germany, was left unattended to once he arrived in Nescrea, and one might notice that it had now gained a few inches in length. His inability to get a haircut didn't bother him that much, but he still felt unfamiliar with the mildly longer hairlength.

Once he reached the garages entrance, he slowed down and glanced about, wondering if they were being watched. Maybe the clown would conveniently still be around, so he could kill the guy without the trouble of tracking him down. Oh, how he wished it were that simple.

After he entered the garage, he walked beside Vera, before he looked over the scene before him. He made no move towards the research materials on the boxes, and watched Hitsugaya in silence. This was..exactly the kind of complicated situation that he had no clue how to act in. Maybe..he was suppost to frown? Or was he suppost to cry? Or did he have to smile? If he frowned, how strong did the frown need to be?

Tenma had told Grimmer that he done a good job in talking the boy Milosh out of committing suicide. But...could he really do it again?

In the end, Grimmer had a completely blank expression on his face.

The sound that announced Soubi's arrival was not a cacaphony of destruction, but a dead silence. Anger was not hot and burning. It was cold and without any room to feel anything else. A chill sharper than a knife that seeped into the waking world as he ran, frost forming on the half-thawed ground of spring. Coating his path in ice as fast as it took the heart to beat. The power it took to do this leaking from him without a thought - his emotions unchecked.

He did not care that there were others in the garage, save that they were between him and his sacrifice. The sacrifice he could not feel, the one he was not strong enough to protect, not able to find because their bond was a flimsy as rice paper. And it was his fault. It had to be.

Soubi didn't stop at the door, the ice forming on everyone and everything as he moved to kneel next to Ritsuka. The anger that bled out directed as much at himself as it was the Joker. His knees gave out as he lowered himself down, dropping him hard to the floor, body shaking at the proof before his eyes that he had completely and utterly failed his only duty in all ways.

His mouth opened, but he couldn't find the words.

The tears finally spilled over his checks when he saw him. Tears of sorrow and of relief. He wasn't dead. He couldn't feel him, but he was there. His cheeks flushed in shame of Soubi seeing him like this. It was meant for Soubi. He wanted to give his ears to him. But he'd been so stupid and trusting as a fucking child, and look what he'd done.

"Soubi, I-I'm sorry-" he sobbed, throwing his arms around his Fighter's neck and clinging to him tightly. He buried his head in his shoulder, fingers tangled in his pretty hair, and mumbling over over , 'I'm sorry'.

Edited 2010-06-10 04:33 (UTC)

Soubi couldn't stop himself from wrapping his arms tightly around Ritsuka when the boy fell against him. He couldn't keep himself from burying his head in his love's shoulder and simply cling to the other. He didn't know what else to do but hold Ritsuka as tightly as possible.

He could see and touch his sacrifice, but he couldn't feel him. Was this his punishment then?

"You did nothing wrong. It's my fault" he whispered back, voice choked with tears he hadn't realized he was shedding.

"I was stupid. I thought I could trust him. He said if I came he'd give us food, enough for everyone, I just wanted to help-" he mumbled, "And I couldn't feel you-and-and I was supposed to give them to you- and there were so many- and- I thought you were dead-" He had to stop there, trying to catch his breath, chest heaving as he hyper ventilated, "Soubi, I want to go home. Please, I want to go home."

Soubi clung all the more tightly, gathering the boy into his arms. Picking him up and standing, his legs regaining their strength. He didn't know how to get back home, but he could take Ritsuka away from this disgusting place.

"calm" Soubi whispered, power pouring off him in an attempt to help Ritsuka. Not knowing anything about the collar his sacrifice wore, only that it would have to be removed.

"I love you"

"Mm- my..." he motioned towards his tattered clothes as he was scooped up, where his PDA still sat in his pocket. He would miss it later if he forgot it, and who knew if he would ever be able to find it again.

Soubi's words seemed to work, taking a slow breath and laying his head down eyes closing. He just wanted to disappear.

"Love you," he repeated numbly.

Hitsugaya's eyes widened at the sudden energy being released - frigid energy, his kind of energy. And when the face he recognized as Ritsuka's partner from the PDAs made its way inside, he silently stood and moved out of the way. He frowned at the ice following the man, but it didn't touch him. No one could use ice against him, not when all the water in the atmosphere was his to control.

He did his best to show no emotion at the display taking place before him. The ugly cuts at the sides of Ritsuka's lips were now only faint scars, which meant Hitsugaya had done what he'd set out to do. He wouldn't interfere now.

((ooc: Just in case the people standing around still want to do something or get some CR in. Jump in on this thread if you'd like, however many people would like.))

Hitsugaya refrained from moving again until the two partners had left the building entirely. He'd refrained from breathing, really, but he hadn't noticed until he finally exhaled. Once they were gone, he turned around to the boxes he'd misplaced, surveying the area as Vera had when she walked in. He had to wonder if there was any significance in the location or if it had simply been chosen out of convenience or even at random. But he wouldn't figure that out by simply standing there.

Slowly be bent back down and picked up the forgotten cigarette, glaring intensely as if he actually expected it to tell him what had happened.

Once they were gone, Grimmer immediately paced towards the papers and books on top of the boxes, as though he had been holding himself back from going after them the entire time.

"He actually has the nerve to leave food for us after...doing that. He's done a very good job at completely ruining these for all of us." Grimmer's formerly blank expression was now replaced with a angry frown. He'd finally found an expression that he thought was...maybe appropriate for the current situation.

Grimmer picked up the manella envelope and checked inside, before proceeding to check everything else; the outside of the wine bottle, books, papers, to see if anything was missing or vandalized. Indeed, after thinking that these were gone for good, Grimmer was thankful to have them back, but...at such a cost.

His grip suddenly tightened exponentially, crinkling the side of the paper booklet in his hand."I told the poor kid that he was a complete monster too...the poor kid..." His German accent seemed to be becoming more apparent; as though he was so carried away in his anger that his language skills were slightly falling apart. "That monster wants to mess with all of us..."

Once the couple were gone, Vera released the breath that she didn't know she had been holding in and run her hand through her hair, frowning when she found that it was shaking.

"But I..." Shoving the thought out of her mind before she could finish it, she placed her hand into her trenchcoat pocket while the other continue griping her backpack strap. Vera gave the interior of the garage another look over, noticing Hitsugaya picking up the cigarette, before moving towards the boxes.

She gave the contents of the boxes a look of disgust and anger; was offering food supposed to make this all fucking better? Vera glanced up towards Grimmer when she heard him speak, giving a soft, whispery sound of agreement as she gave the books, envelope and papers a curious glance. As she turned to survey the area again, she felt her anger grow and it only got worse because there was nothing she could do; the boy was most likely traumatized and that fucking clown freak was probably laughing at them.

Speaking of MREs... are they supposed to make a ticking noise?

"Food is food, but if he's as bad as you say he is, I wouldn't eat it either way," Hitsugaya spoke to Grimmer without turning around. He hadn't ever seen him in person before, but from the way he was talking, Hitsugaya could assume he'd been involved with the perpetrator in the past. He was beginning to realize just how much of a handicap it could be to ignore the PDA network for so long, not being able to recognize so many people by their faces. He'd have to start changing that.

But it was only once he was crouched down and again level with the boxes that he noticed the unexpected ticking noise. Oh, hell. He could draw Hyourinmaru and freeze the boxes; that would stop whatever it was. But it would also be just as destructive of evidence as it would be if the bomb (was it a bomb? maybe, maybe not, no point in taking chances) just went off on its own.

"Grab what you need and get out. Now."

Vera frowned when she heard Hitsugaya speak; he was speaking a language she didn't understand. But when she also heard the ticking noise (a fucking trap, a bomb, she should have known that there was a trap, it was obvious!) she took a guess it was something along the lines of "Get the fuck out."

She let out a hiss as she turned towards Grimmer; the papers and books on top of the boxes most likely belonged to him by the way he was looking at them. So she unzipped the largest compartment of her backpack, which was nearly as big as she was, grabbed the ones that he wasn't holding, shoved them into her bag and then zipped it back up. The woman grabbed Grimmers arm before making a beeline towards the exit, making sure not to go too fast so that Grimmer didn't trip or stumble.

She made a mental note to slam her head against a brick wall later for be such a fucking, oblivious idiot.

"Hm?" Grimmer glanced between Hitsugaya and Vera quickly, unaware of the ticking bomb until Vera suddenly began shoving his papers into her bag. Oh dear, that was not good.

The East German quickly gathered up in his arms what Vera did not put in her bag. While one would assume he was being foolish to risk his life over some papers, for Grimmer, his entire life was that research. He needed to expose Kinderhiem 511. It was the last thing he had left.

In that sense, Grimmer was deeply thankful that Vera was helping him with this; otherwise he probably would not have been able to grab everything in time. Still, he was slightly bothered that she was not running out the door, and instead was risking her own life to help him. But she somehow struck him as the type of person to keep helping him, no matter what he said. So, Grimmer did not waste time by saying anything to her.

He had nearly everything once Vera grabbed his arm, and Grimmer let himself be pulled to the exit, occasionally looking back between the MRE's and at the pale haired Asian boy. "T-Thankyou!"

Vera kept her grip on Grimmers arm as she continued out of the garage and onto the street; when she heard him thank her, she turned her eyes to him and gave him a curt nod. Her gaze turned to the white haired boy in the garage for a second but she wasn’t worried about him, she had a feeling that he would be able to escape the bomb without her having to drag him along as well. If anything, the female soldier was more worried about the bomb.

There was no way to tell how long it had been ticking, how long it had left before it fucking blew and how bad the explosion would be. A frown appeared on her face as she considered this; since it was ticking it was most likely a crude bomb…or the clown was fucking with them. Her frown deepened further as she thought of this, her pace becoming faster to the point that Grimmer would most likely have to jog due to her abnormal speed and there was the fact that she was refusing to remove her hand from his arm; any attempts to remove it would result in her tightening her grip and a cold glare from the irate woman.

If the bomb did blow before they could get a safe distance away, Vera was certain that she would be able to survive it, although it would probably really fucking hurt, but it most likely wouldn’t be the same situation for Grimmer. With this in mind, Vera slowed down a bit so that she could pull the taller man mostly in front of her while using her grip on his arm to push him forward; her strength and speed allowed her to make him move at a faster pace.

At least this way if the bomb did go before they could get a safe distance away, there was less of a chance that he would be seriously injured. She owed him for helping her out when she first arrived here…and she felt like she could possibly trust him, which was a good enough reason for the soldier to help him.

Hitsugaya's frown deepened into a grimace. Depending on the type of bomb, it could be better to freeze it (i.e. preventing an explosion), but at the same time he wanted to know what type of bomb it was. If he did freeze it, it would shatter before he had a chance to figure out what he was dealing with. For someone who hated not knowing something as much as Hitsugaya did, the answer was easy. If a few buildings were felled, he honestly couldn't care less. So long as the man and woman who'd been there with him were out of the way.

It looked like they were getting there at least. So he wasted no more time. The cigarette still in his hand, he stepped back into shunpo, easily catching up with the other two in only one or two steps before falling back into the realm of sight. Better to stick with them for the moment, just in case.

Ding!

The explosion was immense; whatever had been stored in those MRE boxes, it was much stronger than simple TNT or rigged-up nitroglycerine. It was military-grade, and it seemed that the Joker had taken precautions to ensure that whistling the explosion away, as Fay had, was going to be much more difficult.

Debris was sent flying in every direction; smoke filled the entire block, and the plume of fire reached high into the air. The concussion was strong enough to collapse the fronts of the buildings across the street, making them fold like brittle paper.

On their PDAs, sent to match the time of the explosion, there was the Joker's laughter, high and raucous.

Grimmer blinked, surprised as Vera pulled him forward, and for the first time began to consider removing his arm. Crap, he was slowing her down, wasn't he? She was just a kid, soldier or not, he couldn't risk her getting hurt in any explosion for his own sake. With that in mind Grimmer tried to pull his arm loose, only to fail due to her surprising strength.

Although the East German could still feel anger and fear, (the simplest of emotions), he did not place any value in his own life. He was an empty being, and exposing Kinderheim, as well as helping others was what he existed for. In a way, his unusual selfless-ness originated from the fact that he felt nothing. He would gladly paint himself as a serial killer, and destroy his life of freedom, so long as a good, innocent young man, (everything that Grimmer could not be) was allowed to live his life to the fullest as a result.

As they exited the building and ran into the streets, Grimmer attempted to pry his arm loose a second time. "Please, you don't need to worry about-" The explosion went off, and Grimmer's voice disappeared amongst the blast.

When Grimmer began to awaken, he was face down on the ground, with loose, singed paper fluttering around him. As he shifted his ashened face, he was in the strange state between unconscious and consciousness. He suddenly believed that he was still in 1998 Europe, he was helping Dr. Tenma in Prague...he wasn't in another world, where his lifelong goal of proving 511's existence was impossible. He wasn't stuck where the dead government system that he hated so much had returned in full force. Most importantly, he wasn't in a world where the children around him lived in miserable conditions and where horrific events happened to them for no reason.

Then a single piece of paper floated in front of his eyesight, and the hard, empty reality came to him at full force.

Fighting against the angry concussion that pounded at his head, Grimmer forced his upper body up. The wine bottle lay shattered beside him, but a good portion of the papers in his arms had (fortunately) been protected as he landed on top of them. However, those that were not protected were now scattered everywhere around the group.

Immediately remembering the other two, Grimmer turned himself over in near-panic, for the moment unaware of any painful injuries that may be on his body. He was just focused on the others sake. "Are you two okay?!"

Vera frowned when she found herself laying on her back with a slab of debris on her, but the frown turned into a scowl when she remembered that the bomb had gone off and that motherfucking, bastard clown had laughed as it happened. She promised to herself that she'll ram a live grenade in his mouth when she see's him; see if the sick bastard will still be laughing then.

She pushed herself up (taking note of the throbbing in her left shoulder and her inability to move that arm), easily shoving aside the slab that had pinned her down with her right hand, and noticed that her backpack was laying next to her with only a few scuffs on it, which was a relief.

When something warm trickled down the left side of her face, she brought her hand to her forehead and sighed when she found blood on her fingers; it wasn't that painful, but it wasn't certainly helping her headache. And judging by how her left arm was incapable of moving and any attempts to move it resulted in a very painful throb in her shoulder and arm, it was most likely dislocated.

When the young woman heard Grimmer, she turned towards him and gave him a nod before she shrugged her trenchcoat off, revealing the patchwork of old scars that covered her arms. Only a glance at her shoulder told her it was definitely dislocated by how the bone was protruding oddly, and all other wounds on her arms were just superficial. Vera pushed herself onto her feet and, with the skill of someone who had done this many times before, snapped her arm into it's socket without even so much as a twitch on her face. She looked completely calm despite the anger that was welling up inside her.

A quick look at the once-street-now-wasteland brought a low whistle from the female; military explosives by the look of it, most likely stolen from the prison. Grabbing her bag and coat in her right hand, she walked to where Grimmer was sitting not far from her, making sure to grab the random singed pieces of paper in her path, and then crouched down next to him. A quick look over didn’t reveal any serious or fatal wounds on him, but she wasn’t too sure yet.

From her position she surveyed the street for the white haired kid, he was right beside them when the bomb went off, so he should be okay.

Surprisingly, when the other two got a good look at their surroundings, they'd find that he was still upright, one foot planted on the ground while his other knee had hit the pavement. Actual skid marks lined the ground where the force had pushed him yet he'd refused to topple. His arms had shielded his head, leaving them badly marred from flying debris. Along with a painfully skinned knee, having literally been skinned by a drag across the hard ground, and a few small cuts, those seemed to be the extent of injuries received.

Hitsugaya was pulling himself back up in no time at all, sparing only the smallest of winces when he first put weight onto that knee. He'd be dyeing his haori red in a few minutes, he couldn't help but think with a frustrated huff. But he'd dealt with much worse, and in his mind if he couldn't even handle this much, it would be an embarrassing failure on his part.

What with the other two moving around and shouting, he figured they were okay for the moment, and he focused his attention on the damage caused. It was more than he'd been expecting, but he didn't regret his decision. The raging laughter broadcast over the PDAs only served to piss him off, and watching yet another large chuck of drywall and wood and cement topple to the ground after the building it belonged to could no longer hold its weight helped to satisfy a small sadistic need in the back of his mind. Maybe seeing something like this would finally knock it through some thick heads that if they were going to do something stupid, they'd probably end up being blown to pieces before they could finish.

His expression carefully neutral, he decided if this was the sort of message this man chose to send, he couldn't be left to his own devices. His own devices included military-grade explosives.

Finally, he refocused on his two temporary companions, and he quickly took note of how Vera dealt with her dislocated shoulder. A single, pale brow rose in silent question, but rather than waste time voicing that question, he slowly trudged in their direction.

Grimmer nodded towards Vera quickly, deciding that she looked safe, and then turning towards the 'youngest' person in their group. His eyes moved across the skid-trail in amazement; he'd already witnessed him healing Ritsuka's scars, but...really what kind of things could these people not do? What was this boy?

It didn't occur to Grimmer as they were running away from the explosion, but now that he had the chance to think about it, Vera seemed a bit stronger than what could be expected of even a top soldier. But she didn't seem to have any magic powers from what he could tell, so...maybe it was just his imagination?

Grimmer made a mental note to perhaps ask her about it later, and looked back towards her in time to see her remove her trench coat. An expression of mild surprise crossed his face at the sight of her scars, but he said nothing. She had certainly not gotten her rank through any easy means. "Your shoulders probably dislocated, you should-" Grimmer visibly winced as the shoulder was snapped into place. Just hearing that was painful!

Now that the two others were okay, Grimmer suddenly noticed that amongst his skinned elbows and a concussion that was growing worse by the second, there was throbbing pain radiating from his ankle. He'd probably sprained it during the explosion as they were running away. "S-Stupid Clown..." He cursed, the ringing laughter suddenly reaching his memory again. He'd left behind Grimmer's stuff after that event in order to mess with him. Oh, how he had succeeded so much.

Like Grimmer, Vera also looked at the skid marks in amazement before her expression turned into a combination of amazed and impressed. He certainly wasn’t an ordinary kid then, if that and his method of healing the boy were any indicators.

The look faded from her face and turned into a frown when she noticed that part of his white coat was slowly turning a shade of red. By the look of it, that skid must have more or less completely skinned his knee, and she had seen what happened to wounds like that after a while; ‘gruesome’ would be a nice way of putting it. Grimmer seemed to be in okay shape, although he probably got a nasty bang on the head like she had, however he had no external wounds like she did…which was still bleeding. With a huff, the female soldier used the back of her hand to wipe some of the blood away before it dripped into her eye, while making sure not to get blood on the papers.

With this in mind, she placed the papers that were in her hand into her bag, and more or less yanked the ones Grimmer was holding out of his hands and placed them into her bag as well. Vera then reached into a smaller compartment at the front of the bag and pulled out a small, worn first aid kit; it still had most of its bandages and creams in it so it should do the job for now.

Vera glanced at Grimmer at his curse, ”I think he’s more than a ‘stupid clown’...”, she thought to herself and hoped that her questioning expression conveyed her thoughts. His elbows didn’t look too bad, but she made sure to clean them just in case; any protests would only just result in an annoyed look from the woman before she continued cleaning the wounds.

When she had finished, she looked towards Hitsugaya and gave a nod to his injured knee before turning her eyes to look at him; did he want her to patch it up or was he going to use his healing light thing on it?

Reconnecting two sides of a cut was one thing; dealing with flesh that wasn't even there anymore was an entirely different thing altogether. Hitsugaya was not a healer, and he wasn't about to try something like that on himself. Not unless he had to.

By the time she'd finished with Grimmer's elbows, he'd bridged the space between them, watching them both with a critical eye. The man had been talking quite a bit, but the woman hadn't said anything at all. She'd spoken to him through text over the PDAs as well. He frowned at the tought but didn't mention it. It was hardly the time or place to do so. "If he was so stupid, he wouldn't have gotten away with it," he offered instead, his voice fairly quiet but obviously frustrated.

That ever-present frown only deepened when Hitsugaya noticed the look Vera gave his knee. He hastily opened his mouth to protest (He was a damn shinigami. He could handle much more than some human.) but closed it just as quickly. There was no Fourth Division here, no Unohana-taichou to give him one of those deadly smiles to make sure he didn't leave before being discharged. If he walked off now, the best he could do for himself would be to dump it in ice water and hope it went numb.

So it was with a grudging snort that he nodded. Verbal agreement was too much of a defeat for the moment.

"Yeah...I'm aware that was abit of an understatement." Grimmer smiled weakly, noticing Vera's expression as he reluctantly lifted his elbow. He didn't want to waste time here, but the soldier seemed rather insistent, and his concussion was making him far from enthusiastic to argue with anyone. Therefore he was silent about how he always carried medical supplies with him, and could just apply them at home. The bandages proved rather useful when he was hit with walking canes by angry directors, or beaten to near death in abandoned basements by some fomrer Czech Secret Police.

Speaking of being beaten to near death in abandoned basements, his concussion was beginning to hurt even more than the headache he got from that incident. He really did want to drink some water and isolate himself in a dark corner until his head felt better. Or beat a certain purple-dressed clown to death. Either one would be great about now.

"Maybe stupid is the wrong word; but the other words are...more inappropriate, and I'd like to call him that anyhow." He gave a broad grin towards Hitsugaya, before he looked down in confusion at his scraped knee. "Can't you heal your scrape like what you did before?"

Again with the fucking weird language! Vera thought to herself in annoyance when she heard Hitsugaya. But now that she listened, it seemed to resemble the Sychli language from her world, which she had some understanding of; the kid was talking about the bastard clown not being stupid because he got away or something like that.

The female inwardly snickered at Hitsugaya’s reluctance before motioning him to sit on a nearby slab of concrete. It didn’t matter if he did or not, it would just be easier to treat his knee if he sat down. Either way, when he decided to stay standing or sit, she pulled his trouser leg up so she could see the wound. It wasn’t as bad as she thought, since there wasn’t that much debris in the wound, so it wouldn’t take long to clean.

At Grimmer’s comment, she casted him a faint look of amusement before finishing cleaning Hitsugaya’s wound. "The only ‘inappropriate’ words to describe the sick bastard would be anything even remotely positive.” Vera thought to herself as she made sure that the knee was completely clean before beginning to apply the bandage.

It wasn’t brilliant; her occupation was to kill people not heal them, but it would do the job and she made sure that the bandage was loose enough so that he could still bend his knee while the bandage securely stayed on. She pulled his trouser leg back down before giving him a nod and standing up to go put the first aid kit back in her bag.

Vera once again turned to look at the street as she pulled her coat back on and felt a swell of sadistic glee when another building folded in on itself. But it would probably be a good idea to get moving soon.

The question made him a little uncomfortable, not that he was willing to show it. Instead he followed Vera's direction, sitting atop the slab with one knee bent and his injured one stretched out. The loose fabric of his shihakushou would have been easily brushed out of the way. It wasn't until the wound was well on its way to being clean that he returned his attention to Grimmer. He really didn't want to answer the question. It was never a good idea to tell strangers your weaknesses, but he didn't want anyone coming to him for healing in the future either.

"Before, I reattached two sides of a cut. That was all I did, and that's the extent of my capabilities in healing kidou."

As soon as Vera was finished, he was up and walking again. One last look at the rubble was all he needed to know there wouldn't be anything left worth looking for. Ugh. What a bother.

"Kidou...?" Grimmer blinked, watching the two as he felt the side of his pained right ankle. It hadn't begun to swell that badly yet, so maybe it wasn't very severe. He could probably find out how bad it was when he attempted to stand up. Still, unless Hatsugaya could heal torn ligaments, than he was going to need to be really careful for the next little while.

"Is your abilities common in your world? Do you...know what Japan is?" A few of the other people here seemed to be Japanese, but then said that they lived somewhere else. Not to mention the fact that this child also dressed far from a modern day Japanese person.

One thing was for certain; after finding himself in this strange dimension, and meeting people from seemingly countless other ones, his view of life was never going to be the same. Hopefully he could keep this entire experience to himself, and not sound like some strange conspiracy minded oddball. He knew he was considered a third rate journalist, but he didn't want to be viewed as an insane third rate journalist. Not to mention the fact that shrinks were one of the last places that Grimmer ever wanted to end up in.

Although she had now more or less understood what Hitsugaya had said, the word ‘kidou’ caused Vera to give him a questioning look, and since Grimmer seemed curious about it she wasn’t hearing things wrong. At Grimmer’s question, she gave the blonde man a curious glance, noting how he felt his right ankle (she wasn’t going to fuss about it just yet) before turning her eyes back to Hitsugaya.

”Japan?” She thought to herself in confusion; it was most likely a city or country from Grimmer’s world. But if the kid had heard of it, it gave her the idea of how some people were from different worlds and some were from different versions of the same one…or something along those lines.

“Fucking hell, Micela would have a field day with all this.” The soldier felt homesick at the thought of her far-too-optimistic-for-her-own-good commander/friend, but she didn’t dare show this to her two companions.

Vera instead turned her attention back to the two males, obviously curious about the topic.

He sighed at the sudden interest in his words. But in the end, explaining kidou wouldn't give him a large disadvantage. He was skilled with it, certainly, and would use it when necessary, but he was a swordsman through and through.

"They're not common ... but they're not uncommon." Because that was oh-so-helpful. Oh well, here went nothing. The most concise and straightforward answer he could muster while still making sense. "You'd probably refer to it as demon arts or the demon way. Essentially they're spells utilized through reiatsu, the body's core energy source. Bakudou, the way of binding. Hadou, the way of destruction. And healing kidou, unclassified use of reiatsu to heal wounds."

Which he had trouble with, partly because his reiatsu didn't play well with others, partly because he couldn't simply learn the technique once and be done with it. He'd learned ways around it. (Note to self: Freezing wounds in order to get through battle is only a temporary solution. Need to find a good, trustworthy healer ... fast.) He also decided that the fact that reiatsu was a term for spiritual energy didn't need explaining either. Clearly the laws of death were vastly different here, and telling people he was a shinigami, a damn god of death, probably wouldn't go over well. Especially when he didn't seem to have any power over the spirit realm here anyway.

"I've been to Japan, yes," he added, rather vaguely. He was wearing traditional Japanese clothing, spoke with a Japanese accent even when using other languages, had a samurai sword strapped across his back. Yeah. That was a hard one to figure out.

The East German nodded blankly, trying his best to absorb everything that Hatsugaya was saying, and hopefully have a decent understanding of it. His smile widened upon realizing that this really did sound like something out of a super-hero cartoon or comic. First Noriko turned out to be a super hero, and now this boy. Feeling like he was inside of a comic book of some kind really did make his experience here a lot more interesting.

Grimmer nodded, deciding that...yep this guy was Japanese. He really did like to very vague; what caused him to be so afraid of sharing information with them? Well, being too naive and saying too much could easily create a bad situation for a person if the info got into the wrong hands. After all, ultimately the only person one could trust is themselves. Therefore, Grimmer did not take any offense to it, and just went along with his defensive vague-ness.

"I'm from Germany, but since the Berlin Wall fell 9 years ago I've been traveling across the former USSR alot to report on the human rights abuse during the regime." He glanced toward Vera, realizing that she probably wouldn't understand what he was talking about. Even though they could understand each other, it seemed that they came from very different worlds. He made a note to ask what her world was like later.

"What's your name?" He turned back towards Hitsugaya, his smile having returned to his face. That was a safe question to ask, right?

He suddenly heard the rumbling and cracking of a unstable building, and looked over his shoulder to watch as it fell and scattered across the street. "Yeah...we should probably be leaving soon."

The woman of the group attentively listened to Hitsugaya's explanation, and mentally went over it when he was done, although his vagueness pissed her off a bit; it wasn’t like she would be able to yell out this information, although she understood his vagueness, since he was telling absolute strangers possibly important information. So this kidou was healing magic only certain individuals can use and there were other spells that could be used as well. And he had been to Japan or something, Grimmer seemed to understand though. The spell talk sounded like something out of those games Amitai used to play...she honestly didn't think that she would miss that bastard.

Instead of dwelling on this, the soldier turned her attention to Grimmer, her face clearly showing that she had no clue on what he was talking about; what the fuck did a wall have to do with anything? When he glanced at her, she gave him a confused shrug; at this point she didn’t care as long as it was explained to her later on.

At the sound of the older man’s suggestion, Vera gave a nod and grabbed the last few pieces of paper that were fluttering around and placed them into her bag with the others. She gave a nod to Grimmer’s right ankle; can he walk or would he need help?

If Hitsugaya had known Grimmer's smile was brought on by thoughts of superheroes and comicbooks, he likely would have been apalled. Those were some of the last things he'd ever want to be compared to. It was such a childish notion, a damn superhero coming to save the day. Not to mention that the mental image of certain shinigami he knew in a cape and tights was enough to make him want to puke. (Anyone but Yamamoto-soutaichou. PLEASE.)

Mention of Germany and the Berlin Wall, however, was a much more manageable topic for Hitsugaya. If this man's timeline was nine years after it fell, then they were no more than six or seven years apart in time. Not to mention from, if not the same world, then worlds with very similar histories.

He nodded his acknowledgment, to show he knew what Grimmer was talking about, before giving his answer, "Captain Toushirou Hitsugaya." He purposely spoke the name in Western order and his title in English to avoid any confusion as to which was his given name and which was his surname. He hoped the formality he used would press the other two to refer to him by his surname. Really, he didn't mind if they left out the title at this point. It was just that the one, single silver lining this place had to offer was that no one had yet called him "Shirou-chan." So long as that continued, he could deal with any number of exclamations that he was too young or he was lying, that he was playing around, or any combination thereof. He wouldn't like it, at all, but he could deal with it.

He'd wait for the other two, make sure they could make it back to the apartment building. Or, well, the man anyway. Vera seemed more than capable herself. He wasn't sure about Grimmer. From what he's said, he sounded like more of a journalist than anything else.

"Alright, Captain Hitsugaya!" Grimmer's smile increased at the wording; it was almost humorous, a small child calling himself Captain. Still, Grimmer went along with it enthusiastically. He seemed to act incredibly mature for his age, and Grimmer had no doubt that this 'child' had sincerely earned the leadership title. He really did carry himself as some kind of group leader, and he didn't strike the East German as the type to just add a title on because it sounded cool.

Still...what kind of organization did Hitsugaya work in?

Grimmer said nothing outloud, and just nodded agreeably towards Hitsugaya. "I'm not sure if you already know from the reading the PDA messages, but I'm Wolfgang Grimmer, and this is Vera Solomon. I've been here for about two months now, and she just recently arrived."

Once he was finished talking, Grimmer took a deep breath and tried to stand up, making sure to put most of his weight on his uninjured foot. It was slow and he winced a few times, but managed to successfully get on his feet. He smirked and put his hands on his sides. "Well...I've had worse sprained ankles."

He took a few slow steps forward, wincing lightly but otherwise capable of functioning normally. It hurt, he wouldn't be able to jog, and he'd need help walking over the debris, but on flat surfaces he'd be fine.

Grimmer really did feel mildly out of place in Nescrea. From what he could tell, there were more people with 'super powers' than normal human beings here. In fact, the only other 'normal' human he knew was The Joker...which meant he was practically alone. Grimmer even suspected that Vera had some kind of power, perhaps not magical, but still unusual. Even though he had been a former Stasi and an internationally traveling spy for East Germany, he still felt abit weak in comparison to everyone else.

And no, Grimmer would not include The Magnificent Steiner in his profile of his capabilities. Even though his second personality could easily defeat a roomful of highly trained, armed Czech Secret Police in little to no time at all, Grimmer refused to use that side of him. Steiner existed for when him or others faced 100% certain death, and for nothing less than that.

Unlike Grimmer, she didn't really find a kid calling themselves a Captain as something unusual; it would be rather hypocritical if she did considering that she became a commander at a rather young age and Hitsugaya did carry himself as how a leader would as well as acting very mature for his age. If anything, she was more curious about what type of organisation he worked for due to how his outfit was far different from what she would expect, compared to what she was used to seeing a captain wear anyway. Then again, they were from different worlds.

Vera gave a nod towards Hitsugaya when Grimmer introduced her, her expression a tad more agreeable than usual, and then watched as Grimmer got onto his feet; just like she thought, a sprained ankle. He seemed to be able to walk with it fine though, although she would still keep an eye on him.

The soldier hefted her bag onto her back and took a couple steps ahead, the heavy weight of it not seeming to affect her at all, before she waited for the others. She wasn't that concerned about Hitsugaya, as he now seemed to be able to walk fine, and she was prepared to help Grimmer with walking if he needed it.

Virtue, dear friend, needs no defense, The surest guard is innocence

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I had a nice reply. It got eated. Have this instead.

Lol, np! I've had that happen to me as well.

Lol, same here.