thenearshore | -Overflow- for 016

[ Continuing from here ]

[ Wait, what? ]

How can you switch your clan? [ Damn right he likes youkai. He's a total youkai fanboy, and everybody knows that you're born into a clan. ...Oh, unless... ] Didja get married?

Edited 2017-06-12 18:38 (UTC)

[Kid didn't answer his question but then maybe he shouldn't be too surprised about that. He tilts his head in thought, amused that Gojyo's mind would jump to marriage first. If only for such a happy reason.]

Nah, nothing like that.

[How to put this...]

But I guess it was a promise of loyalty in the end. I couldn't stay with my first clan. It's not an easy thing to explain though, sorry.

[Please stop asking about it, bro.]

Does this mean you can tell me more about you now? Fair's fair.

Edited 2017-06-12 20:52 (UTC)

[ He's not going to stop asking about it. He is, in fact, going to ask a lot more questions about it, because now he's suspicious. ]

I don't know anything about me. Somebody took my memories. [ And then leaping back onto the interesting and relevant part of the conversation: ] How come you couldn't stay with your clan?

[ Confirmed for A Very Bad Topic. Just great. Maybe next time he'll listen to Sharak and Hakkai when it comes to Gojyo. Maybe. It's so hard though - this isn't just some random shinki, like if it had been Sharak herself or even now that he's met Goku. There's plenty of stuff he can (probably) talk about with Goku that doesn't involve his past.

Gojyo not so much. ]

You have some memories, obviously, or you wouldn't have known I was a youkai. You're not even gonna ask my name before you go asking about clan politics?

[ If only he could pin the blame on something like politics, or some leader like his Prince that was far too eager far too often to get into honorable combats. ]

[ Gojyo folds his arms with a scowl, settling into his stance. God help all big brothers when faced with that stubborn glare. ]

I don't remember stuff, I just know stuff. Like I know that you're supposed to be loyal to your clan.

[ He sighs. ]

Yeah. You are. And if one clan member turns on another, then what?

[ That's vague enough, surely. ]

One guy in the clan tries to kill another, but it wasn't that second guy's fault. I tried to step in - to protect my clan brother.

[ Careful... He's trying not to get TOO heated. ]

A situation like that - it can't end well.

[ Gojyo's eyes go wide. This is worse than he'd expected! He'd been thinking that maybe this guy here had stolen something, or gotten into a fight with the wrong person and been kicked out... but murder? ]

What did...? Why'd he do that? Why were they fighting?

The worst kind of reason - blaming one clan member for the crimes of another. Those feelings of betrayal make a person turn on their own clan- [ Their own family, blood. ] Because they're looking for retribution. They want paid back. They want things back to normal. So they lash out at the easiest of targets.

[ Namely, a child, someone who couldn't possibly have changed what had happened. It wasn't Gojyo's fault and it never would be and that was what he always tried to remember when these memories came back to haunt him in less direct ways. ]

So the first guy wanted paid back. The second guy had no way to give back what he didn't take in the first place. "But someone has to pay." And instead of looking for help - looking to the clan for some way, anyway to get things back to some kinda normal... the first guy went after the second.

[ Oh if only it'd been a single incident, though. If only he'd had the fortitude to stop Mom the first time it'd happened or - as he'd pointed out - gone for help, looked to the elders, anything. But he too had ears and his suspicions that they wouldn't help a halfbreed kid either. He'd never know for sure though. He let things boil for too long, and that was his part of the blame. And by the time he was old enough to have some kind of respect among those people he'd have turned to... he had a new shame altogether he couldn't bare to admit. And so a private family quarrel stayed private, mostly. ]

I'd ask you if that makes sense, but I hope it doesn't. It shouldn't make sense because that was why I stepped in to try and stop them from fighting.

[ Judging by the expression on Gojyo's face, that doesn't make any kind of sense at all. ]

Wait, why was the one guy mad at the other guy? The other guy didn't do anything, but then the guy tried to hurt him? I don't understand why he did that.

[ It feels like a betrayal, and he didn't even know these people! ]

Edited 2017-06-13 22:34 (UTC)

I didn't either. That's why I stepped in. All I knew was that the other guy didn't deserve to die because of all that. Sounds like you get it too.

[ He's able to calm down a little since at least Gojyo appears to have latched onto his vague explanation of what had happened. Pulled back like this it makes even less sense but he's okay with that. Sure Mom had 'a reason' for her actions, but he never felt like it was a good reason. That's why he did what he did, and defended his actions to this day. ]

Point is - I got mixed up in all that, and I had to leave the clan because of it.

[ Okay, that part he understands. ]

But that's not fair! They shoulda thrown the other guy out, not you! The guy who was fighting in the first place.

[ This is beyond stressful. Gojyo fumbles his stolen pack of cigarettes out of his pocket -- there's only three in there, and they're pretty badly creased and twisted, but they're his and it makes him feel all grown up to have them.

He pulls one out, considers it, then offers the pack to Doku. ]

Here.

Edited 2017-06-13 22:50 (UTC)

[ Gojyo having cigarettes even at this age doesn't surprise him so much - the surprise is in being offered them. ]

What? You don't have to give me anything, even after everything I told you.

[ He pushes his hand against the pack, but more to get Gojyo's hand back towards himself. ]

That kinda stuff... I'm not gonna say it doesn't matter, but the clan's not here, so it's not like it can happen all over again either. Keep your stuff, man.

[ And just like that, the sad and somber mood is broken. ]

I wasn't givin' you one 'cause you told me that stuff! [ He stuffs the pack roughly back into his pocket, then jams his own unlit cigarette between his lips, effectively muffling himself. ] I was just sharin' to be nice!

[ Grown ups. Ugh. He lights his cigarette with barely a cough, and blows twin jets of annoyed smoke out of his nose in Doku's direction. So there. ]

[ He smirks a bit. That sort of huffy attitude is definitely preferable to somber stuff. ]

Sorry, sorry - I don't smoke a lot, so I don't know how that works.

[ But likewise, it's why he's not put out by the 'gift' being rescinded. ]

[ He sucks down a searing lungful and exhales it off to the side (from his throat this time -- too much blowing smoke out of his nose will give him a headache.) ]

You're not gonna tell me I'm too little? That it'll... [ What did the other people earlier today say? ] ...it'll make me stay short an' girls won't like me?

[ Doku shakes his head. Truth is that he didn't think there was any point giving Gojyo crap about it since he'd - eventually, hopefully - become an adult again, plus they could probably get away with plenty of things in Heaven that they couldn't before. ]

Nah. Rough enough you can't remember everything about yourself. I'm not gonna tell you what to do.

[ Just kinda watch and make sure it doesn't become something that could get him killed. A weird thought since Gojyo's treated as already dead by the Heavens, but he keeps hoping that's not true either. Maybe it's denial. He can't help it after all he's done. ]

[ The guy's being nice enough again, but Gojyo stiff huffs, letting himself feel momentarily sorry for himself. ]

I can't remember anything about myself, 'cept my name. I'm Sha Gojyo, an' I'm a human, an' I'm a kid... I'm a boy... [ Feeling less and less sorry for himself all the time, he's reaching for things that he knows. ] I can beat up other kids twice my size, an' I like octopus...

[ Oh, right. ] What's your name?

[ Human? Ah... yeah, about that... He really wants to clarify that but feels like he can't. If Gojyo doesn't know it, he can't possibly go down that road. And it's hardly the most sunshiney of topics either, so he ultimately decides to let it go.

He crosses his arms over his chest, but in a relaxed sort of mood mirroring Gojyo's calmer attitude. ]

Dokugakuji. Doku for short. But if it gets late and you don't have anywhere to stay, you can call me on these phones they gave us - it's just a different name on there. One I didn't pick - Ksitigarbha. Just look up the K's, it's the longest one on there.

[ He says not realizing yet that there's a Konohanasakuyahime. ]

[ That earns Doku a disdainful eyebrow. ]

We just met, [ --he says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Dude might be a cool youkai and all, but he's hardly going home with some strange man.

And wait, did he just say... ]

Shitty garbage? Your name is shitty garbage?

No, my name isn't shitty garbage. It's my title, get it right.

[ Just for that Gojyo gets a real hair ruffle. ]

And hey at least you'll remember it!

[ Just for that, Shitty Garbage gets his arm smacked away. But it doesn't stop Gojyo's laughing. ]

You must'a really pissed somebody off!

[ At least they're both laughing. ]

Only people who deserved it. No regrets.

[ Big dumb grin now. ]

I should go check on my shinki, but since you'll remember my title now - you know how to reach me.

-Overflow- for 016 | The Good Old Days

Gojyo & Jien

Re: Gojyo & Jien

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