[LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

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Shinsei
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Shinsei » Thu Jun 04, 2020 1:07 pm

All the blackened dust and rock came free in a rush, complete with some other unpleasantness to ease the expulsion. The whole process looked and sounded about half as painful as it likely was, and lasted for nearly two full minutes before the convulsions finally ended and the man was able to gasp in clear, refreshing, painful air.

Shinsei slowly rolled onto his back once more and fixed Shinjo with a thankful, apologetic stare.

The look he gave Phi shortly after was far more pained and conflicted, mixed with confusion and gratitude and a number of unnamed feelings tossed in for good measure. Beneath it all, though he couldn't yet speak, he seemed relieved and happy to see her.
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Nozomi » Thu Jun 04, 2020 1:20 pm

"Idiot," she was sobbing as she smiled, her hands on either side of his face. "Just rest, you idiot... you're here. We're here. Don't you dare do this, or I'll send you to Meido myself, you hear me?" She was struggling and the tears were coming out, as she took the cloth off of her face and set it to the side. She closed her eyes and and shuddered, managing to laugh a little before she glanced over at Shinjo and managed to struggle out the words, shuddering.

"I came here looking for a place... apologize to your brother. I found it... someone... has to keep this fool from ever doing this again."
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Shinjo » Thu Jun 04, 2020 1:25 pm

Shinjo smiled a little and met Phi's eyes. "I think he'll understand."

She glanced at Shinsei. "As for you... if you weren't deeply, severely injured, I would slap you the way I slapped the Seidou woman the other day. Never do that again."
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Shinsei » Thu Jun 04, 2020 1:32 pm

Shinsei nodded, accepting the harsh threats against his ignorance, but also the soft admission Phi had just so openly stated. He wasn't feeling great, or even fully human at the moment. Really, he felt like a sack of savaged potatoes, but his stormy eyes were clear as he looked up, and his voice, though soft and croaking from weakness, somehow remained steady.

"If you would, please allow me to do the least idiotic thing I'll have done since beginning this journey."

A hand reached up, gently and weakly pressing against the base of Phi's neck, coaxing her down until the monk's lips, somewhat cracked and dry, managed to lightly brush up against hers.
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Shinjo » Thu Jun 04, 2020 1:35 pm

Shinjo suddenly found it very important to get up and go keep an eye on their surroundings so nothing strange jumps them.
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Nozomi » Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:40 pm

Shinsei wrote:
Thu Jun 04, 2020 1:32 pm
Shinsei nodded, accepting the harsh threats against his ignorance, but also the soft admission Phi had just so openly stated. He wasn't feeling great, or even fully human at the moment. Really, he felt like a sack of savaged potatoes, but his stormy eyes were clear as he looked up, and his voice, though soft and croaking from weakness, somehow remained steady.

"If you would, please allow me to do the least idiotic thing I'll have done since beginning this journey."

A hand reached up, gently and weakly pressing against the base of Phi's neck, coaxing her down until the monk's lips, somewhat cracked and dry, managed to lightly brush up against hers.
There was a thing about kisses. Some were full of passion and fire. Some were kind and sweet. And some were more of a desperate longing that came with the emotional exhaustion of having run from, or avoided the feelings. Attachment led to pain, and to be too close to a thing of this world meant that its loss could harm someone deep to their quick. To become attached was to risk being bound in chains to a thing of ningen-do, and yet there was a razor's edge. To completely divorce oneself from the world was to lose all sense of one's place within it and to know only the quiet serenity of detachment, never happiness or joy. There was, within all things a balance. Phi wasn't good at that balance, not yet.

She was getting attached, and she knew it. Salty water dripped down her cheeks as she lingered there, holding her lips to his and pulling upside down as they were, on the lower of his. She stayed a little longer than needed and finally after a moment, let him sink back. "You're going to be the death of me," she whispered affectionately, patting him on the cheek before she settled next to him.

She glanced over and noticed Shinjo was pointedly doing guard duty before smiling some. "I'm... just glad we got here in time. You need to rest. We'll deal with this soon, together."
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Shinsei » Fri Jun 05, 2020 12:32 am

Shinsei smiled weakly, turning his head so he could have a clearer view of Phi and Shinjo. There was was wisdom about mankind, and how one can go through many deaths and many births in the course of a single lifetime, how any death of the self that he or she might experience would lead to a new and better life down the road, but when he opened his mouth, he could only find the breath to croak out "me too." He hoped his eyes said the rest.

At the mention of rest, he nodded, knowing he was well beyond his limits already. His eyes fixed themselves on a point to the southeast hazily.

"That thing... my fault..."
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Nozomi » Fri Jun 05, 2020 2:08 am

She rested a hand very gently on his shoulder and shook her head. "Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. We can't deal with it right now. You need to rest, and we'll catch up to the rest of the people soon. Warn them. Take it on as a group. Carefully. Very carefully," she managed to get out. "But, save your strength, your voice. Tell us what you know in a little bit, when you've rested some. Unless it's coming back here tonight, it can wait."

She wanted to know, but she also was very concerned about him pushing himself too hard. There was a great deal of harm that had been done to him, and regardless of how close to the power of a kami he might have been, she was not willing to take the chance. She glanced at his chipped bracelet, making sure it contacted his skin, looking for signs of damage. Nothing yet... but she had to be mindful, had to remain vigilant. Clearly, they weren't at the pit now... but far too soon.

"I... am not ready to be your protector. But I will be. I won't take any foolish chances, I promise." Pause. "Other than riding the back of a goddess and charging into the middle of the tainted wilderness of the bowels of hell to find you when you risked certain death against an unnamed monster."
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Shinsei » Fri Jun 05, 2020 2:57 am

"Having you by my side is a strength I did not expect." Despite his injuries, Shinsei seemed to at least be recovering his breath with decent speed. One hand snuck its way towards hers and held onto it lightly.

He was silent for a few minutes, gathering his strength once more, needing to express the nature of the threat he'd unwittingly unleashed.

"That thing," he said, more strongly than before, "was born from my hubris. An ikiryo, a spirit created by intensely suppressed emotions. Not... the ones I have towards you, Phi. Those are...reciprocated, and not dangerous. These..."

He frowned deeply. "The war. I know something about it. Every thousand years it returns. Jigoku picks a champion, and the mortal realm picks theirs. Jigoku always picks one divine champion, and wishes Fu Leng to serve this role. I thought that we, in reaching him long before the cycle begins, might prevent the war." He sighed sadly. "I let the thought consume me, rule me for too long. I'm not sure when it became the spirit, but I was content in ignorance until Haka spoke to me of their potential. I was just starting to think I'd avoided making such a thing until we arrived here, and I felt it...I can even feel it now. Half of these wounds are the ones I inflicted on it myself."
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Shinjo » Fri Jun 05, 2020 3:02 am

Shinjo's ears perked at the discussion and she returned. "Half of the wounds you have are ones that were inflicted on the spirit? How are we to fight it, then, if doing so will harm you, as well?"
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Shinsei » Fri Jun 05, 2020 3:07 am

"The connection is imperfect, I receive only some of the injuries. Bruises over breaks, scrapes over cuts. Haka knows of no way to banish them effectively, but I think I know the way. It must be weakened, and I must return it to myself and master the feelings that created it. Then it should trouble others no more. But..."

He shook slightly, either by weakness or discomfort. "It looks like me, and bears no weakness to jade..."
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Nozomi » Fri Jun 05, 2020 4:41 am

She frowned. So. "So... this thing, not a gaki, not like the spirit that follows the blind girl arou... wait, is Haka the woman you're speaking of? The blind one who has a gaki following her around all the time? Sorry, I never got her name. She was so insistent on not being called it that I asked her if I could just call her blind girl. She... didn't seem to mind. Strange woman." She scratched at the back of her had, holding his hand gently while they talked. "So it is not a gaki... but a spirit, not a tainted monster, and it is a thing that is born out of a will, a wish. And therefore it is partly you, and we have to weaken it and you must bind it. Do I understand this correctly?"

And no jade, because it wasn't a spirit of hell.

"Also... what do you mean this happens every thousand years?" she muttered, looking down at him. "What do you mean a thousand years ago this came about? And if we rescue Fu Leng, it means there will still be another soon enough? So, even if we save him, and quite possibly save ourselves a truly awful enemy, we'll still have another fight to come?"

She didn't add that she was kind of glad that his feelings for her hadn't caused a horrible hell-spawn demon to come rising out of the earth because of the magic of human thought this close to hell, because wow... that would really have been the king of all mood killers.
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Shinsei » Fri Jun 05, 2020 4:55 am

"Yes, the blind one. She told me of the spirits after bringing her tent beside mine. Evidently she'd set hers up in a flood plain beforehand..."

Shinsei stretched a little experimentally, but winced all the same. "I did not mention it because the others would take too strongly to the prophecy, and likely set to fighting amongst themselves as they divided between saving Fu Leng and abandoning him to destiny. I still feel that saving him is worthwhile. But the spirit doesn't understand. It only wants to destroy anyone who might rise up and take arms in the war, regardless of the side, thinking that their deaths will prevent it."
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Nozomi » Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:55 am

"Which is probably a good chunk of the people in that camp. A literal who's who of the most important, boldest and powerful warriors in the empire, so it will come like a moth to a flame," she muttered. Deep down, she knew this was why he'd wanted her back. She'd been crazy enough to come down off the mountain and she was young. Of course she would...

Matsu.

Her stomach twisted in knots and she was never more glad that she hadn't been brought along. That child might very well be deeply important to a coming war, where her father would hopefully have retired by then. She breathed a sigh of relief. "I... understand," she said, not actually bringing that realization up. Another time. "As for the other, no. You're not wrong. Seems pretty obvious to me. If this happens every thousand years, and it needs a champion, it'll find one. We deny it the first choice, it gets to pick the second or third, which are probably, hopefully not as good. If it wants Fu Leng, we deny it Fu Leng."
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Shinjo » Fri Jun 05, 2020 7:20 am

Shinjo's eyes went wide at the revelation. "Jiyo-san was talking about a marker at one point. The Five Races engaged in this fight at one time, didn't they?"

"Do you have any idea how soon this might be coming?" He should have told at least her sooner, but that was in the past no use worrying about what should have been.
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Shinsei » Fri Jun 05, 2020 7:34 am

"I don't have a precise date, but before the end of the next hundred years, probably even before the next full generation. Heroes will rise within our lifetime that strike the world as if made of thunder. They will triumph over Jigoku, or fall before a thousand years of darkness."

As Shinsei quieted, he held Phi's hand more tightly, almost as if he were afraid. His face became slightly more drawn, and he drew in a tight breath. "I think I should rest now. Don't need the wife beating me the last two inches from my life." He smiled, obviously just trying to get a rise out of Phi before surrendering to sleep.
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Nozomi » Fri Jun 05, 2020 7:43 am

She blinked when he started to doze off. Wait, had he said wife? Was he even allowed to get... what the hell had he just? She sputtered a little and saw him starting to nod off and managed to get her composure and quip back. "You know... you're stealing me away from that oath I gave in front of Nanzi and the others. I am going to have to answer for that, so you'd better marry me," she got out right before settling herself so that he could rest his head in her lap and sighed, looking over at Shinjo.

"Thank you for this. Koyama... chose wisely, Shinjo. But we should probably all rest. The next couple days are not going to be easy, I think."

/scene?
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Re: [LA 11] - Ride Like the Wind

Post by Shinjo » Fri Jun 05, 2020 8:04 am

"Thank you..." Shinjo smiled a little and nodded. "Just resist the urge to kill the poor man in his sleep."

/scene
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