Finding the Source (D9EE)

[Seppun Chisei]

"Nadare..." Chisei frowned. "Oh yes, I remember. He treated the large fellow who'd been injured in the fight with the bandits. Very impressive work. I'm not surprised to hear that he's very clever. I shall seek him out."

Chisei shifted a little in the water, trying to keep warm. "I should very much like to meet your husband, I think. If he would like to meet me." He tilted his head. "I have heard that he is..." Chisei frowned, "-I'm not sure that shy is the right word. Reserved, perhaps?"

[Togashi Saruko]

Saruko giggled. "Reserved is about accurate, yes. He doesn't like to socialise just for the sake of socialising - a difference between him and his other siblings like Doji and Hantei."

"But he is always interested in philosophy and learning, and he's never turned people away for wishing to learn."

[Seppun Chisei]

Chisei studied Saruko for a few moments, smiling his gentle smile.

Crossing his arms over his chest, just below the surface of the water. "I've already asked what it is like being married to a god. But now I found myself wondering how the two of you met. How you, well, fell in love. Would you tell me a little bit about it?"

[Togashi Saruko]

She moved a bit back to find more shallow ground, so she could almost sit on her knees and still keep her head afloat.

"We met first time at the Kami's gathering in Seppun lands, five years ago. You know, when they had their tournament. It was during the feast. He was sitting a bit apart from his siblings, to watch the last snowfall. I was intrigued by him then, but that wasn't when I fell in love with him."

Saruko chuckled. "I won't deny it took me a while for me to admit it that I really felt that deeply about him. That I cared for him, I could tell early on, but... well, I was still young back then, I thought it was at first just a fascination or an infatuation with a mysterious and powerful god."

She paused to sigh wistfully. "But I found I missed being by his side when I wasn't there, and I always wanted to be there. Whenever I made him smile, or occassionally made him laugh, it meant so much to me. I realised I loved him. But it took some time before I admitted as much to him!" Now she laughed. "But, you know, I think he knew it long before I did! I suppose he was rather patient in letting me figure it out myself... and well, that is among the reasons why he is the sun in my life. It's... good to have someone who understands you well."

[Seppun Chisei]

Chisei waded back a bit too, instead settling into a half-floating crouch. He listened as she spoke, smiling gently all the while. Sometimes the smile grew, sometimes he chuckled softly, but it never faded away.

"I remember when I asked you about being married to a god, you said that you didn't have a basis for comparison, but that they do things much as we do. I did not doubt you before, but I believe you more, now, if that makes sense. That is a very human story of falling in love."

[Togashi Saruko]

"The Kami are very much like us, yet also very different. If that makes sense." She shook her head, realising how silly it probably sounded.

"But, why do you think it is that the Kami are so much like us humans? That they look like us, and can live like us, with us?"

[Seppun Chisei]

"Or, to turn the question around, why are we so much like them?" Even as he asked the question, Chisei frowned deeply. He was silent for a time, considering.

Finally, he spoke. "I cannot speak with certainty. Perhaps it is the influence of the realm. Would a human born in heaven, and never leaving it, be a god? Perhaps. Or perhaps we are closer to the divine then we realized."

Chisei smiled. "It is why I think the changes the Kami seek to make are worth trying. Perhaps, with time, we can become even more like them."

[Togashi Saruko]

"Hmmm... that's a good question. I never considered what the nature of a being would be in that case. If it would be born in Tengoku..." she crossed her arms over her chest as she thought about it for a good while.

"But, from what I've heard, humans were created by the Sun and Moon. Who are also the parents of the Kami. So there are certainly connections there." Saruko nodded, in a manner she imagined to be sagely. "I agree - I think it's a worthy pursuit to try to be more like them. Wiser, stronger, intelligent...er."

That wasn't really a word, and she was quite aware of it, judging by her small laugh.

[Seppun Chisei]

Chisei grinned. "Yes, I've heard that humans were created by the sun and the moon. Just as you've created the word intelligenter. Perhaps you've inherited a touch of divinity from your husband, hmmm?"

His expression grew more serious. He shifted around, finding his own spot to sit in the shallow water. "But that is a good connection to see, as usual, Saruko-sama." Chisei said, inclining his head respectfully. "The quest to better oneself is the work not just of one lifetime, but of many lifetimes. I wonder just how much more like them we might become."

[Togashi Saruko]

"I don't think I'm divine, but I hope some of that smartiness has rubbed off on me after five years." Now that she knew wasn't a word either, but she didn't care.

She thought a bit more, before looking at Chisei with open curiosity. "How do you want to be like them though? They all have different personalities."

[Seppun Chisei]

"In truth, I don't know much about how they are. Perhaps a word or two each." Chisei hesitated a moment, frowning. "In fact, I'm not sure I could even describe Hantei properly. Words seem insufficient."

He shifted in the water. "But I mean their other characteristics. Their capabilities. Their wisdom. Perhaps even their divine nature. I wonder if we might grow more like them in those regards, given enough time."

[Togashi Saruko]

"Hmmm..." once again Chisei made her think long and hard.

"I suppose the pursuit of enlightenment is something like that, no?"

[Seppun Chisei]

Slowly, Chisei nodded. "It may be exactly like that. As we improve ourselves, as the wheel turns, and as we become more perfect beings, do we become more like them? Or do we become something else?"

He leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs, even in the water. "That they seek to recreate their society here suggests the former. Only your husband and the Emperor seem to seek enlightenment, as we see it. Perhaps that suggests the later. I'm not sure."

[Togashi Saruko]

"Mm, not all of them seek to perfectly recreate Tengoku in Ningen-do. As you said, my husband, and Emperor Shiba being among those numbers. I don't think Ryoshun cares much for it either, but he has other... interests." And much less of a voice in the Empire. "Hida seems more to want to live as humans, only bigger and greater."

So that left Akodo, Hantei, Doji, and possibly Bayushi and Fu Leng.

"I wonder what Fu Leng will want to do in the Empire..."

[Seppun Chisei]

"Interests. Quite." Chisei said dryly. He switched from leaning forward to leaning back, resting his hands behind him. "Ryoshun brings up interesting questions about the dead. Perhaps it is more in the nature of a person living in one land being unconcerned about the affairs of another."

He pressed his lips together, a flicker of concern crossing his thoughtful expression. "Fu Leng is in a similar position. Except that he can return to this one. I hope that his concerns will not be too much those of his..." Chisei's lips pressed together again, "-involuntarily adopted realm."

[Togashi Saruko]

She nodded, sharing a similar concern.

"On the other hand, it might be interesting to see how the Spider will change when he finally joins them. His clan is the one that has formed with the least input from its patron Kami."

[Seppun Chisei]

"Interesting indeed." Chisei smiled gently. "I have no idea what Fu Leng is like, or what he will encourage, except for what Reiko has told me." The smile grew. "Unfortunately, that he is the handsomest and wisest does not really speak as to what sort of society he will encourage."

[Togashi Saruko]

Saruko chuckled. "Yeah, that's... not exactly something that says much when it comes to the Kami, considering how many of them are more beautiful than most of us have ever seen. From what I understand, he knows much about magic and the Realms though, which is something that the other Kami have claimed too, so that's not only her being blinded by love."

She shook her head a little. "Love is a good thing, but it can also become obsession. Desire, more than pure love."

[Seppun Chisei]

"Magic?" Chisei said, his eyebrows going up. "That has my attention. The other Kami don't really perform magic, at least not that I'm aware of..." He gave Saruko a look with raised eyebrow.

Clearing his throat, he went on. "I can't imagine the magic he would perform would be the same as ours, not at all. I wonder if it can be learned, whatever it is that he does? Or if he will even be able to use it, once he comes to this realm."

[Togashi Saruko]

"I don't know... there's much that the Kami can do that to us seem like magic, sometimes very powerful magic. But I don't know how it will affect him when he is freed from captivity, and he fully steps into the mortal realm."

She knew her husband understood magic, on a different level than most mystics and shamans she had known, but she wasn't sure if that was unique to him or something that all the Kami could do.