[D15 EN] - One Last Watch for the Hikaru (Expecting)

[Jiyo Sora]

"Lucky for you, there's an old monk to look after unwed mothers. I expect he'll help you raise Taka's child as best he can."

[Nozomi]

She started to wipe her tears and looked over at Koyama apologetically, coughing. "Sorry, we're shirking... need to pay attention or some bastard'll make lunchmeat of us, we've got a job to do soon enough," she managed, giving Sora a grateful nod. He'd keep the secret, and she hoped Koyama would buy the lie.

It'd be a harder lie to buy for some, all considered, but maybe she could find a certain courtly-concerned woman who would assist in spreading some malicious gossip. She didn't dare go to Bayushi for help. Bayushi... Bayushi was not safe, and she could not bring the child anywhere near him.

[Shinjo Koyama]

Koyama had been somewhere else mentally for the whole of their conversation, his gaze fixed at the direction where the Pit was. His hand was gripping the half-decayed jade ki-rin on his neck and his face was twitching irregularity, as if in some kind of slow motion seizure or a fitful dream he was failing to wake up from. The proximity to hell was apparently affecting him in some way.

[Nozomi]

Phi frowned, seeing the way he looked and slipped over to him, giving Koyama a punch in the arm. "Hey, old man. Back up. Don't let this place get in your head. It really really likes doing that," she said, having wiped the last tears away. It was hard not to worry about these guys, mostly because they were some of the last ties to home she still had anymore. And here, well... she could imagine some of the things Sora'd seen.

"You alright, Koyama?"

[Shinjo Koyama]

It took him a moment before he was pulled back to his senses, a process that resembled drawing someone out of the depths to the surface. His gaze seemed blurred when he blurted "What's gaun on?" in her direction.

[Jiyo Sora]

"Oh, the usual, she's been trying to charm her way into my pants and I've been resisting with might and main."

Jokes. Always the jokes when things were totally fucked.

[Shinjo Koyama]

"Wha? Ye?! Hoo?" He looked at Phi at utter confusion. At no point before had she noticed her being into Sora in any manner.

[Jiyo Sora]

"See, this place has driven her completely insane. Ruined her ability to have good taste in any matter."

[Nozomi]

"He wishes," she snapped back at Sora, giving him a grateful look when she actually looked at him. The joke was a helpful distraction. "Nothing yet, and hopefully nothing the rest of the night. You were mumbling to yourself. Probably this place getting to you a little. It's... been getting in all our damned heads. Sooner we're out of this shithole, the better. If I were the rats I wouldn't want it back."

She snickered at him. "Oh... and Sora's got terrible humor as always."

[Shinjo Koyama]

"Th' moment it gets better ah ken he's a bog hag or worse." Kozan was apparently getting his wits back, but with that came a grimmer recognition about the reason of his fit. "A'm feelin' lik' this steid wants tae split me."

[Jiyo Sora]

"Well. Remember what I told you. Ask your friends for help. Even if they're a couple of idjits like us."

[Nozomi]

"There's a lot of things that probably want to do us in around here. Long as you're still here, we can see about getting that head of yours unsplit when the shift's done," she said, not quite sure what was going on. he was still clutching jade and there wasn't a burn, so that was probably a good sign, right? "And yeah, we have to stick together, like Sora said."

[Shinjo Koyama]

"I dinnae ken if tis something that kin be helped. A've hud a sense o' a feeling... Nae unlike whit ye'v described in yer vision, Sora." He sighed. "Something kin happen tae me soon. Mibbie ah will pairt at mah seams."

[Jiyo Sora]

"This is why you need to chew your food, Kozan, I've told you that."

The joke didn't really sound heartfelt.

"I can't offer you pleasant bullshit about how everything will be fine. We all know better. But all the same..."

[Shinjo Koyama]

"Ye ur gaun doon intae hell, mah mukker. Yer richt nae tae huv a go reassuring bullcrap. Th'morra is a reckoning fur a' o' us. Tis ainlie fair if ah will meet mah own."

[Nozomi]

Phi... could relate. This place had been leeching into her head and into her bones for over a week now. Ever since that damned rock, and the dreams she'd had since, she'd been on edge and it only got worse by the day. "When we're out of this place," she said firmly, looking at him directly. "When we're back across that river, past the debris of what's left of this fortune's forsaken town, it won't be in your head nearly as bad. Nothing is certain. Nothing. It just wants you to believe it, both of you. It's been trying to get to me day after day, and we can't let it. We're Hikaru, damnit, and the three of you are getting out of this shithole with me. None of us are done with our destinies."

She wasn't one for destiny, but she was damned if this was going to be hers, scared as she might be.

[Jiyo Sora]

"When we make it back... drinks at the Imperial City are on me."

[Nozomi]

"Please, fortunes, tell me they have something sweeter than what the Seidou serve," Phi muttered, shaking her head. "Not one for that wheety crud, even if it does the job." In the back of her head, she was thinking maybe she didn't actually need a drink that bad, not if the way the midwives used to talk was any sign... but she'd worry about that later.

[Shinjo Koyama]

"Aye, Ah wull dram three barrels after a' this." Koyama reassured himself. "'n' then kip fur three days."

[Jiyo Sora]

"Good, that'll give us time to paint you blue and tell everyone you're some kind of unclean spirit..."