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[demarcates]

wesley.gibson@compass.net (3) is2g (╯°Д°）╯︵/(.□ . \) D55 63:19PM first.last@compass.net (6) Re: Mission D11 8:01PM first.last@compass.net (12) [text] D10 9:35AM

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Week 10, day 6, after the tortures

[conceded]

Toshi

Toshi, where are you

[conceded]

[ One after the other, they keep coming: ]

Toshi, please, we need you

[conceded]

I need you

done I promise

[conceded]

why won't you answer me?

[demarcates]

[ ten minutes. ]

sorry. the school

[conceded]

I couldn't save them.

[demarcates]

and neither could i

[conceded]

have you been at the school this whole time?

[ What's unspoken is: why? ]

[demarcates]

yes

[ not a good question. ]

[conceded]

I see.

[ Is not telling him why better? ]

[demarcates]

im sorry

[ maybe... ]

[conceded]

don't.

[demarcates]

[ . . .

what does he do he doesn't even known anymore what is he supposed to do. ]

[conceded]

I'm coming now.

[demarcates]

ok

[conceded]

[ It occurs to him only after he's started on his way that he's not entirely sure of where Hijikata will be. The Shinsengumi have laid claim to some classrooms, so he decides to check there first, or at least hope that Hijikata may be in the general area. It takes him longer than he would have liked to get there, considering the Void had managed to do a number on him, but Kondou tries not to let it slow him down too much. ]

Toshi?

[demarcates]

[ that's exactly where he'd be. ]

I'm here.

[ over by one of the windows to be exact, and the only suggestion that he's moved from that spot at any part is his watch laying near the entrance.

he doesn't look to kondou, though, keeping his gaze out the window because he's trying so hard to formulate a way to do this—this is the first time he's heard kondou's voice and it's been days he realizes by now for the other but him it's been months and months of never hearing that voice again. but he doesn't even know how any of that matters right now other than everything feels so incredibly numb. right now, to him, this place is harboring ghosts and he just saw the only one left of them still alive be torture and murdered as a result of it.

what's left...? ]

[conceded]

[ Hijikata isn't looking at him. That isn't a good sign. None of this is good, Kondou realises, but he doesn't know how to do anything about it either. Standing by the door and watching him only makes Kondou feel even more ill at ease, somehow, like there's something utterly wrong. For once, he decides to follow his gut instinct, knowing that it couldn't possibly get too much worse than this.

Could it? ]

What happened?

[demarcates]

[ what didn't happen is what he wants to say, but hijikata is going to assume that he means why the fuck was he awol at a time when he wasn't supposed to be and why he wasn't there when they needed him most. ]

Entertaining Kazama Chikage, looks like he showed up here this go around.

[conceded]

[ ... say what, Hijikata. ]

I didn't see him at the station... How can this be possible?

[ It's a sign of his trust in Hijikata that he doesn't ask: why didn't you tell me? ]

[demarcates]

I don't know.

[ all he knows is it was definitely him. ]

I wasn't aware of it, either. I don't know if any of us saw him.

[ and good that he doesn't ask because he couldn't!!! ...that and he'd never tell kondou something like that anyway, not when he was in a situation that would make him do something stupid.

...and that's if he had had the heart to be able to talk to kondou in the first place. this week just... this week. ]

[conceded]

I doubt that either of us could have... After all, the others likely would have said something.

[ Truthfully, even Kondou isn't exactly sure how to approach this issue either. One step at a time, he thinks, that's the trick to this. ]

[demarcates]

...It doesn't really matter even if they did.

[ or, it does, but it's so hard to care, now. what is there to worry about if there's no one to protect, anyway. ]

Nothing would have changed.

[conceded]

... What did he do to you?

[ It's obvious that something has happened. ]

[demarcates]

[ he's so tempted to say nothing. tempted because it's true. for all the venom spitting for all the threats and taunts, he's not bleeding all over the floor or suffering injuries from that sword of his that he carries and he's in one piece and nothing's broken. ]

Nothing special. I watched what he wanted me to watch and he left.

[ watched as he couldn't do anything, wouldn't have been able to do anything even without kazama there because it wasn't kazama killing them but some different entity all together, but there was very much a heel dug in the entire time. and kazama knows about kondou's fate, as well, and that, too, did not go unspoken or unreminded (because how many people is he going to let be captured and executed for crimes they didn't commit? how many of them have to die before he gets it?) ]