The Morgue / The Infirmary

The stale air of the morgue was always unsettling. Being it was fused with the infirmary. Everything always smelt so...sterile. So hollow. At times the room filled with the smell of charred remains. As necessary a building as it was, it was likely no one ever liked to be here. It had been some time since Hajime had to get treatment here and in his mind, he sulked about his near-perfect record being reset once more.


He had been sitting on the bench outside the inner room, having already gotten treatment. All he could do was look down at where his wound once was. What now remained was a hole in his pants.
"Awww man, I'm going to have to change these." He pulls and tugs at the material. It was obvious that the young sorcerer was disappointed in himself.
He is interrupted by the boisterous voice of his uncle, arriving from the Admin Building. His Yellow shirt and army shorts always alarming to see. It was obvious he wasn't a student. At all.


"Hajjjiiiiiiiiiiiiii saaaaaan. ! Don't feel so bad little pup. You did well this time. A riddle and a witness. Look at you! Fix that goofy-ass face of yours." A chuckle escapes him as his hand roughly pops against his shoulder. Haji swats his hand away and huffs.
"Don't troll me, uncle. I'm not happy about this shit. I had been on point for so long to. Fuck!"
"Hey Heeeey. Don't curse at me you jackass. Now you realize maybe a little help can go a long way. You did good but if you had someone to help you, maybe you could have prioritized the curses while they went to save the hostages. Or yo and another ally could have split the forces of the curses and gone to town. You aren't me you know. I hate to toot my own horn...but..."
Haji gave him a look of genuine confusion.
"Okay, I do like to toot it. And I play a mean MEAN tune. But look young blood. Even then. I could use a hand every now and then. Especially if its a hand from a group of bad bi-"
"Uncle! This ain't the time for your crazy talk!"
Hajime stands up and grimaces at Majin who recoils with a big grin on his face. His hands raise from his pockets and point upward into the air as if he was under arrest.

"Heh, Alright alright don't take me in chief. Go ahead and get yourself ready. Your new classmate is currently doing his test alone. You gunna' help him or nah?"
Haji's shoulders drop and his expression dies down. "Teammate? Aww, cmon. Do I have to?"
"Well not really, I guess. Not everyone has had the superhuman training you have though. I made sure to work you to the bone. You did have to do yours alone. We have a nice-sized class this year. Don't you at least want to see the first years? Maybe you'll make some friends for once you loner. "

Haji crosses his arms and scoffs. The thought of new teammates was somewhat irritating. Yet in the back of his mind. It seemed somewhat cool too. Maybe it would liven up this dead-ass campus. Or so he thought. For a moment he stood in silence as if he had a choice to think about it or not.

"Aight Unc you got it. You driving?"  He snatches his mop off the wall and heads toward the door.

"...I wasn't exactly planning on it. But why not. I skipped out on it the first time. If I try it again Principle rawr rawr will chew my head off. Better than being stuck up here all day."

And thus, uncle and nephew began to journey to Namimori Technical College. Hajime would replace his torn trousers and wash up. He met Majin at the parking lot and tossed his mop in the backseat. With the turn of a key, the car backed out of the parking space and swerved toward the exit of the parking lot. The short road lead toward the much longer mountain path. A short drive later and they were alongside the ocean.

Shoujou finally woke up five days later after the tragic event, now known as the Bochi Neighborhood Massacre. He opened his dead eyes only to see blood-stained bandages wrapped around him like a mummy; little did he know his hair had gone snow-white from the terror he went through that night. Shoujou squeezed his eyes as beads of sweat began to rain from the top of his forehead, but his thoughts failed to surface. The only thing he could remember was a man with dreads and a mop picking him up and fleeing the scene. '...Where am I?' He thought. Even though Shoujou couldn't move a finger he figured that guy had to be somewhere nearby or willing to check in on him. It was obvious that Shoujou was in some kind of state-of-the-art facility. Since he couldn't move, all he could do was wait for Hajime to arrive and speak with him because perhaps he could help the boy remember what happened five days ago. To Hajime's knowledge, he walked through a pool of blood that stood 5 inches high where Shoujou was passed out beside a dead old man who was a senior to the principal and an old geezer that even Majin respected. This old man was named Genzo Masakage, considered the strongest sorcerer just until now. 

"New teammate...yeah right. That Kimiki guy was useless. I'm definitely not working with him. Now I gotta babysit this other guy too? What the hell do I look like? Sigh..."

As usual, the air of the morgue was just as unpleasant today as it had been yesterday. As he wandered down the hall once more, his mind wandered through the various details of the events of Episode 0. Those events had dominoes all around the city. And one of the victims of such an event was none other than the grandson of Genzo Masakage. Haji had known the man somewhat, he certainly remembered seeing him when he was little. But the rest of what he was had been shrouded in old stories and legends. Majin knew much more. All Majin had said before about the kid, however, was that "Technically...he is family." Whatever 'technically' meant. As Hajime approached his room, he sifted through his belongings on the wall. An old school ID with the name "Shou-jou...Masaakaaage...Okay." He steps into the room with his hands held in a particular seal.
RELEASE!
Alright sleeper, The wraps should have done their magic by now. Wakey wakey."
simultaneously the various wrappings became undone, revealing the boy's pale complexion. His hair was stained white when the other day it was clearly black. "What is this? Tokyo Ghoul?" Hajime remarked at his altered appearance. Besides a few scrapes, he seemed brand new. One could hardly account for the scars on the inside.
"Oi, You, open your eyes. I know this is going to sound cliche but 'W h a t   d o   y o u   r e m e m b e r'.
D o  y o u  k n o w   y o u r   n a m e?" He wasn't trying to patronize him, but he wasn't exactly trying to be here all day either, though he felt some way about his situation. In the end, it was just another day at the office. The pain was just a side effect of power.
He would wait for a coherent reply. He only had orders to check on him and get him acclimated. He would probably need to check in with Majin and the principal. Whichever made more sense first.

MITEI’S SPEECH HAD SOOTHED HIM, but not to the point where he was completely calm. He responded with a simple nod and slowly picked himself up, letting Mitei lead the way to the lake. They resumed their walk, and while Katsumi and Mitei were calm and collected, Kensaku was drowned by the feeling of fear. At every corner, his head was on a swivel, quickly checking from left to right like a paranoid criminal. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to be home, playing video games, listening to music, and it was this fact that disgusted him. His cowardice was shameful. He was supposed to be the brave and flashy brother that the smaller siblings looked up to, not a coward that curls into a ball of tears with every inconvenience. 


Kensaku’s ears perked up at the sound of multiple men, seemingly shouting down at the lake. His sense of hearing was incredibly basic, so it all sounded like mumbling to him. Dense, evil energy seeped into his skin as a chilling feeling crept up his spine. This was the same energy he felt ten minutes ago. His heart started to race, the thumping becoming so intense that it almost hurt. His breathing became short and sporadic as his eyes widened in fear. Kensaku felt restricted as if a snake was slowly wrapping around him and tightening its grip. Suddenly, with an earth-shaking boom, the soil below him began to rattle. A crimson shadow was cast over the forest that they were in, causing Kensaku to look up. His stomach sank. 


        “This can’t be real,” He said with tears pooling in his eyes. Kensaku couldn’t move. It was like the dream had repeated itself, and he was immobilized with terror yet again. It wasn’t long before boiling droplets of rain melted through the leaves and fell onto his skin, which was unprotected by cursed energy. It seared his palms and the pain snapped him out of his daze. He realized that if he continued to stand here, if he fought back, the rain would likely leave him dead, or in critical condition. Luckily for him, he was protected by a shield of leaves. Knowing his brothers were just as fast as him, if not faster, he didn’t have to worry about carrying them. His feet burrowed into the dirt as he prepared to blast off with the power of a jet. His muscles primed themselves for a takeoff, and with a thunderclap, Kensaku was off. 



As he galloped through the forest, traversing through the trees, Kensaku’s head would occasionally snap around, making sure that there was nothing following him. He did his best to stay under the shadows of the leaves, but every now and then, a drop or two would breach through and fall onto his arms, or his back. He winced in agony but pushed through regardless. He dodged the thick tree trunks because if he hit one, his speed would be dramatically decreased and he’d be put through incredible pain. Mitei and Katsumi followed him, hopefully doing the same, and within about three minutes, they had made it out of the forest.

BY TRANSPORTATION SENT BY THE SCHOOL, THE UNMEI TRIO MADE IT BACK TO THE SCHOOL. KENSAKU AND MITEI UNMEI WERE SENT TO THE INFIRMARY TO TREAT THEIR INJURIES.

---

 

The rose-painted bandages on Shoujou came undone through the work of unco sorcery, and as soon as they were released, the room's AC turned his pale skin into hunks of jagged ice; his stone face remained unchanged. His eyes were mirrors, he had become a man ready to pay the ultimate price to change his recent past -- one could see some of his humanity slipping away. A voice of balanced pitch stitched into his ears as he lay in his bed with dead eyes.

"Oi, You, open your eyes. I know this is going to sound cliche but 'W h a t   d o   y o u   r e m e m b e r'. D o  y o u  k n o w   y o u r   n a m e?"

Shoujou looked at Hajime and then to the ceiling. He raised his palm and stared at the back of his scarred hand, watching it shake. An awkward smile surfaced on the boy's face since it was obvious his body still remembered the fear of the curses he saw that night. With a weak voice, Shoujou spoke, "Where am I?" He figured Hajime wasn't interested in killing him, and by the look of the room the boy was in, it wasn't some shady place. Shoujou came to this conclusion due to his background as a delinquent. It might've been rude to answer Hajime's question with a question but it was understandable; once Hajime answered that then Sho would reply.

"My name is Shoujou Masakage, and if you're trying to get me to talk about what happened, I would rather not." A silent pause filled the room before he continued, "Anyone would want to forget something that horrific," His words came out chilling the more he spoke. One could tell Shoujou had a screw or two loose from that event, but when would it show itself? He laid his blue eyes upon Hajime once more, able to tell the boy didn't want to be here; talking about that and derailing for the questions was better than the current conversation. "If you didn't want to be here, you shouldn't have come." Hopefully this would annoy Hajime to make him forget why he came here in the first place.

"Where am I?" Shoujou responds. Hajime assumes he is gaining his senses. Getting the grog out of his eyes. sighs and steps forward into the room, forcing the blinds open allowing the sun to beam in.

"You're somewhere in Tokyo, Jujutsu Tech to be precise. I doubt you've heard of it."

"My name is Shoujou Masakage, and if you're trying to get me to talk about what happened, I would rather not." A silent pause filled the room before he continued, "Anyone would want to forget something that horrific,"

Hajime frowns, recalling the various mission reports he had to file after numerous horrific events. He remembers when he was young, wishing he could forget. Not wanting to remember. That feeling had long since been suppressed, if not died altogether. Shoujou too would let this sentimentality go after a while. Haji shoots the boy a puzzled look.
"If you didn't want to be here, you shouldn't have come."
He smirks as if he had a choice. At least he knew his name.
"Well...unfortunately. Here at Tokyo Tech doing what your told is just a part of the game. And since your going to be living here, hearing what happened to you Is the only way we can reconcile that trauma of yours. Here we specialize in dealing with the horrific. So I'll ask again...What do you remembe-"

The door opens suddenly, and one of the new students enters covered in tatters.
“Hey. . .” he speaks with a soft voice. he had the appearance of a delinquent from the 80s. With a flamboyant outfit and the pompadour to boot. Hajime wondered if he knew that hairstyle came from indigenous people from America. He also had to ask what era this guy thought he lived in. “I was sent here because of my injuries in our test, mission, thingy.” Hajime watches the boy's eyes scan from left to right. He then opens his mouth again. “Do y’all know where the nurse is, I’ve got to report to the Admin Hall and tell them what I saw after this, so I want it to go quickly…"

Hajime leans against the wall alongside the window. "Well you already chose to sleep most of those injuries off. You went this long why come now? Wasn't your test was yesterday? Were you delirious from pain or something? Ha!"

Hajime chuckles once out loud and continues. "Unfortunately the doc is off today. She's got some errands to do elsewhere. But hey, you didn't get any help before this, you should be okay. But here if you need "Something". Hajime taps his mop on the ground twice, as the bands of it latch out toward Kensaku. Rapidly, these talismans cover most of his body, beneath his clothing like bandages. Though, bound tightly and uncomfortably it feels comical to see. Hajime wondered if the boy would panic at this sudden motion. Even if it was for his own good.

He turns his head with a bland smile, peering into Shoujou "Well, want to tell us what you remember now? You're not in Kansas anymore my guy."