Queen Momoko: Thank you very much! You'll just have to keep reading to find out the truth behind the asylum though. I
Silver Sniper: Thank you for your review, I have been trying to make Kirihara more in character, but I think he's coming off as nice ;;;
Alaena Flame Dragonstar: Thanks for the support! I hope this chapter helps explain some stuff.
Really Bad Eggs: Very few people have noticed that actually, good job!
Kloudy Reignfall: I had trouble keeping it serious, there's just so much you can do with the regulars in an insane asylum, so its perfectly understandable that some of the scenes still have a bit of humor in them. Thank you very much for your suggestion, I hope this chapter is easier to read.
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis; I am still working on Fuji's soul though
Kaidoh turned the corner and headed toward the main laboratory, not even remotely surprised to see the light was still on. He tapped on the door before entering to make sure Inui wouldn't drop something dangerous.
"Inui-sensei," he said, stepping into the room.
"Ah, Kaidoh, I am just finishing up, really," Inui smiled, "And there is no reason for you to call me 'sensei'."
"Pssssh," Kaidoh shook his head, "How long have you been working?"
"Uh . . . erm, well you see-"
"Go home," Kaidoh interrupted him, "You really should spend more time at home. Doesn't your family worry? Your wife?"
"I'm not married," Inui smiled, "I wouldn't dream of putting a woman through my long hours."
"Maybe if you didn't work so much you could get a girl," Kaidoh sat down on one of the counters.
"I highly doubt that," Inui shook his head and continued to pour chemicals.
"Why?" Kaidoh cocked his head as he watched the concoction bubble suddenly.
"I'm not the type girls like," Inui smiled, "They prefer the handsome guy with money and free time to spend on and with them."
"Not all of them," Kaidoh pointed out, "I'm sure you could find someone."
Inui shook his head, "What about you? You work later than I do."
"Pssssh," Kaidoh stared at the now pink liquid in the beaker Inui was holding, then, "I'm not married and I get enough rest."
"As do I," he laughed, "You do not need to worry about me, Kaoru."
"I'm not worried," Kaidoh said hurriedly, "You just make my job harder!"
Inui said nothing, merely stared at Kaidoh for a moment before returning his attention to the beaker in his hand.
"I...I didn't mean it like that! That came out wrong! I-"
"There is no need to apologize, Kaidoh," the sudden return to formality hit him like a physical blow.
"Inui . . . I didn't mean . . ."
"I will be done here soon, don't worry," Kaidoh could only watch mutely as Inui cleaned up and began packing his stuff away.
"Inui . . ."
"Have a nice night, officer," and with that he was gone.
"There are the same number of pads in this cell as there were in mine," Momo considered smacking his head against the wall before he remembered they were padded and it wouldn't make a difference.
"So?" he growled.
"So this cell is the same size as my old one," the other said.
"So?"
"So shouldn't they put two people in a bigger cell than one person?"
"No! They . . . what?" Momo blinked and sat up. The little runt had said something that made sense!
"I said, shouldn-"
"I know what you said, I was just . . . surprised. That's all," Momo ran a hand through his hair.
"Why? It makes sense," the boy said, frowning.
Exactly, he thought, out loud though he said, "Well, I just hadn't thought of it."
"Oh," the boy turned back to the ceiling, the only thing he could really look at while lying on his back.
"Isn't that uncomfortable?" Momo asked.
"What?" the boy turned his head so he could see his roommate.
"Lying like that," Momo explained.
"How would you suggest I lay?" Momo thought
"Why do you have a straight jacket anyway? Did you try to kill yourself or something?" he asked suddenly. The other boy glared at him.
"No I did not, they just put it on me," he shrugged.
"Well then take it off," Momo said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"How," Oh . . . well that put a kink in his plans.
"Er . . . well Houdini did it," he scratched the back of his head.
"Houdini also escaped a water chamber, would you like to attempt that while I get out of this?" the boy glared.
"Er . . . well . . .not really," He grimaced, "There's gotta be a way to get you out of that thing though."
Ryoma counted quickly to a hundred, "You could undo the straps yourself." He said through gritted teeth.
" . . . HEY! That's a good idea!" It was Ryoma's turn to realize the walls were padded and banging his head against them would do nothing.
Momo rolled Ryoma over without ceremony and proceeded to pull at a rope he found on the boy's back.
"YOUR TIGHTENING IT, BAKA," the boy yelled, his voice muffled by the padding his face was shoved in.
"Oops . . . how do you get it off?"
"Try the buckle, baka."
"I'm not a baka!"
"Baka."
"Do you want me to help you or not?"
" . . ."
"I thought so," Momo unbuckled the buckle at the back and released Ryoma's arms which made unzipping the back fairly easy.
"Thanks, baka," Momo hit him upside the head.
"Do you think the doctor will notice?" he asked suddenly.
"He'd have to be a baka like you not to," the boy pointed out. He smoothed down his much wrinkled Pro Tennis Tour shirt.
"Quit calling me a baka!"
"Baka."
Tezuka paused outside of room 13 before unlocking the door and entering, he was apprehensive about what today's visit would reveal about the mental stability of his patient.
On the one hand he wanted his patient to be sane, as would any doctor. On the other, he wanted to believe Doctor Kirihara. If this patient was sane then why had Kirihara admitted him to the asylum? It didn't make any sense no matter which angle he looked at it from. He should know; he had been considering the issue from every possible angle since his last visit.
He had lost sleep over it as well, Inui had noticed but didn't comment except to make sure he was still eating healthy and providing supplements in the form of bizarre juices he whipped up after hours. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen any of those juices since the day before last. It seemed as though Inui were clocking out on time actually. Tezuka made a mental note to check on that.
"Ah, Doctor Tezuka, how are you?" the patient greeted him with his usual smile, a smile Tezuka had never seen falter even on the surveillance video.
"I'm good, and how are you, 3KU5?" he asked politely.
"Saa, I am in good health, I suppose, but I am quite bored," the honey-haired man answered. "There is very little to do in a room such as this one, though I'm sure it has its uses, ne?"
"I could probably get you some mental stimulation," Tezuka thought, "Its often a part of therapy to have patients do simple then more complex puzzles so I'm sure I could arrange something." Tezuka made a note on his clipboard.
"That's all very nice, doctor, but what about physical stimulation?" the man smiled up at him.
Was it just him or was that smile wider? Tezuka blinked.
"Surely physical stimulation is just as important as mental stimulation for an active person," the patient said sweetly.
"Indeed," Tezuka shook his head clear; it was the same smile, surely. "I will look into using one of the exercise facilities, but I don't know if you will be granted permission to leave your cell."
"Saa, perhaps you could arrange something either way?"
Tezuka had no idea what he was talking about, so chose to ignore this last part. He had other patients to see, he had to be diligent if he expected Kirihara to give him extra time and liberties to run tests on a patient.
"I have to go now, but I will return at a later time," Tezuka informed him.
"Saa, alright. I suppose I don't really have a choice in the matter anyway, ne?" the patients smiled, "Have a nice day, Doctor Tezuka-kun."
"You would like what?" Kirihara leaned back in his chair to regard the doctor in front of him.
"Permission to runs some tests on one of the patients in my block," Tezuka repeated.
"What kind of tests do you wish to run? What do you hope to discover, Tezuka?"
Tezuka had carefully planned this out to have the highest possible success rate, or at least Inui had planned it out. "I wish to delve deeper into the patient's psyche," he explained, "The particular patient I would like to test one had a unique disorder that I believe studying would help us to understand other serious mental conditions that we don't have much information on."
"Oh? And what patient would this be?"
"Patient 3UK5-UUY5, sir."
"You do realize that that particular patient, though he appears almost sane, is deeply troubled and could possibly be severely damaged by too much meddling in his personal world?" Kirihara said coldly.
"I do, doctor," Tezuka said demurely, "I do not have any intention of trying to cure him, merely to study his capacity and in turn use the information to better diagnose patients suffering from similar ailments."
There was no way he was going to fall for this! Inui had been very meticulous in his writing of the script, but it simply didn't make sense. There were plenty of perfectly good ways of diagnosing patients; Kirihara was an expert at that. Surely he would tell Tezuka to research in books instead of using his patients as science experiments!
"All right, Tezuka, I will grant you said privileges on the grounds that you do not attempt to cure the patient and realize that he is, indeed, insane no matter what he may lead you to believe," See! There was no way he was going to allow . . . what?
"O . . . of course, Doctor Kirihara.," Tezuka bowed respectfully and let himself out. He owed Inui big time.