thenearshore | 006 | High School Debut

Entry tags:

006 | High School Debut

Who: Everyone!
What: Substitute teaching
When: All day April 5
Where: A large public school in Tokyo
Summary: There are too many teachers sick and the Far Shore residents need to help fill in!

For some reason or another, many teachers have gotten sick just as the new school year is starting! In a panic, the school is seeking out every substitute teacher they can find, which is still not enough, and so the gods have to step in as reinforcements. And the Heavens are insisting on Far Shore residents helping strictly because this sickness seems so darn suspicious.

So anyone who looks old enough is being asked to step in as a substitute teacher and anyone who looks young enough is being asked to blend in as a new student, all to help the school and find out what exactly is causing this mysterious illness plaguing only the teachers of this school. There are many subjects open to teach and all Far Shore residents are expected to act as if they properly belong in this school while conducting their investigation. That means you'll have to teach properly or attend classes, depending on which role you've taken on.

Some gods might even find it useful to try and get information out of students by possessing one of their own, therefore guaranteeing the trust of the others around them. It's all up to you how you choose to investigate!

Newcomers will find the following note in their pockets as they are transferred to the school:

Greetings and apologies for the strange introduction.

I am sure you have many questions and concerns, but you have appeared at a very inconvenient time. Please attempt to help us, if you can, and we will reward you to the best of our abilities.

If you have any questions, you can seek out the counselor. Too many students underestimate what a good counselling session can do towards helping to alleviate their fears and uncertainties.

Kindest regards,
☼ Amaterasu ☼

Classes

Being a big school, there are dozens of different subjects available. As teachers, you can practically teach anything you would like to, and as students you are facing a constant stream of completely different kinds of information. Maybe the school needs to tone it down a bit on how many different subjects they offer...

Hallways

The hallways are always a great place to mingle and get to know the other students in the school. You'll see all sorts in the hallways, ranging from the beautiful girls being followed by their fanboys all the way to the delinquents who are promptly making their way away from the classrooms for the rest of the day. Hopefully somebody around here will be able to give you a heads up as to what's going on.

Lunch

Lunchtime is the easiest time to gather gossip and information. Whether you are staying in the classroom with a bento or heading to the cafeteria to wrestle for some bread or spending your lunch in the faculty room with the rest of the not-sick teachers, you will find that both the students and the faculty are more prone to chatting during lunch. And a lot of them talk about a curse laid on the school because of the late principal...

Counselling

Surprisingly enough, there is a white-robed shinki in the counselling office of the school, and the golden chrysanthemum of Amaterasu can be found on her tunic as well as on the door to her small personal office. Oddly, all of the other students and faculty keep passing the door by, but the counselling shinki simply continues to smile gently all the same.

FINAL BOSS

Turns out there is something causing the illness in the teachers, and it's an exceedingly large ayakashi, one so large that no single god could possibly take it down. You'll have to all work together to weaken it enough for the rending to work on it.

The battle for the FINAL BOSS will be posted on the OOC date of July 17, all threads involving destroying him should go there when it is posted. All other events leading up to the FINAL BOSS battle should slowly build to figuring out that an ayakashi is at work.

In Summary:

Blend in
Make sure to go to class
Don't forget lunch!
Investigate the illness
Seek counselling if you need it
Defeat the FINAL BOSS
Have fun~

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Surprising no one, the teacher's lounge is full of smoke thanks to a certain substitute Government Studies teacher taking full advantage of the free period in his schedule. He's leaning back in his chair and his eyes are closed as he lovingly sucks his way through what's clearly his tenth or eleventh cigarette -- the makeshift ashtray made out of a coffee cup on the table in front of him is filling up fast. Everyone else might be worrying about doing a good job, or whether the teachers' illnesses are something they should be concerned about, but Gojyo? Gojyo is just trying to get through the day without dying from boredom.

He doesn't bother looking up as the door opens. He's having downtime, let him have some goddamn downtime.

The smoke has Elsa coughing as soon as she walks into the room, and in no time she has marched across it and opened a window.

"Gojyo." Cough cough. She waves her hand in front of her face. Anything for a breath of clean air. "Smoking is not allowed on school grounds."

Okay, so she only knows that for a fact in her school back home, but she is going to take a stab in the dark and say it's the same here.

[ As soon as he hears her voice -- shit, it's Elsa! -- he's on his feet, the chair sliding back across the carpet and the table rocking as his hip slams into. Thankfully, the overfull cup of butts doesn't spill, but it's a near thing. ]

Shit. [ He glances at her apologetically, then turns his attention to the door. ] They're here too?

He's lucky she's too busy standing by the window for the sake of fresh air. Otherwise, she'd comment on his language. Talk however you want at home, but this is a school. Faculty and staff are supposed to set an example.

"No." Cough. "They're investigating other places. Or giving pop quizzes. Hakkai is a very strict teacher."

It's getting better in the room now, thank goodness, so she walks away from the window and over to the chair he'd been sitting in, placing her hands atop the back of it as she comes to a stop. "Have you found anything yet?"

As annoyed as he is by her attitude, he can't resist letting a bit of a soft smile slip through at the thought of Hakkai terrorizing a whole classroom full of kids. Pop quizzes. Damn, Hakkai, why not just assign them all fat research papers while you're at it?

"I found th'room with no students in it," he shrugs, stabbing out his cigarette in the overflowing coffee cup, keeping the table between the two of them. He knows now how to trigger his power, and there's no risk of it accidentally going off again, but he still feels safer with some space between them. "I'm countin' that as a personal win for the day."

If it's the two of them, it's okay to talk about them. There's no risk to Gojyo's life, after all.

And thank goodness he's putting out his cigarette. Elsa does him the courtesy of not wrinkling her nose. At least he's had the good sense to keep the ashes and cigarette butts contained. "Of course you would." She sighs. "That's more than I've run into. I haven't so much as overheard anything interesting beyond the principal stinking up the break room with brussels sprouts."

Now that's an odd thing to say. "You think there's something interesting going on here?" he asks, leaning back from the table and folding his arms in thought. "I thought they all just got sick from bad fish or somethin', and we're here in answer because somebody prayed for it." They get tasked to babysit and walk dogs and all kinds of other dumb errands because some mortals prays for it, right? Why should filling in for a bunch of sick teachers be any different?

"I haven't seen a single..." He glances around the room briefly, but they're alone. "...one of those things since I got here. The place is clean."

Gojyo...

"If all of us are sent out for a single task, it's because it's a big problem." Even if he hadn't listened to the briefing speech, he could've at least assumed this much? "Ayakashi can be sneaky." Or they can be hidden, like in the chocolates. "We wouldn't have been sent here if all those teachers had only gotten food poisoning." Not that food poisoning isn't terrible, but still. It doesn't require divine intervention. "They could be anywhere."

She sighs, loosening her grip on the back of the chair, and concedes, "But I haven't seen any either."

Gojyo just shrugs at her chiding. So it's probably an ayakashi, okay. He's still stuck pretending like he knows anything about how the government changed some hundred or so years ago, and he still can't smoke in the classrooms, and whatever was in that lunch he stole from the break room fridge really isn't sitting well with him. He's feeling all twitchy and kinda ill.

"If there's really ayakashi here, then why don't we just come back after all the kids are gone and douse th'place in holy water?" he suggests, fidgeting with his lighter. Another cigarette might soothe his stomach, but it also might make Elsa yell at him some more. Decisions decisions. "Makin' us pretend to teach these kids isn't gonna help us find the thing any faster."

"They still need teachers." It's a good thing to do, even if it does seem a little counterproductive to put easily forgettable people in front of a classroom to try and control a group of teenagers. "Besides, if we do see any aykashi around, it's better to kill them before they decide to go home with some of the students."

The last time she saw ayakashi take a ride on somoene's shoulder, they took them to their death.

Frowning, she crosses her arms and looks away. It won't do to leave the room right now, not with Gojyo likely to start smoking again the minute she's gone, and not when it's possible there's something here that neither of them has found. But gosh does she want to go away and walk around for a while. Maybe that will help settle her nerves. (Why is she even anxious? She is doing her real job for the sake of her new job. This is nothing new to her.)

"Besides. Maybe there's one lurking in a classroom. What are you even teaching?" Please don't try to pass smoking or drinking as science.

He's really not feeling well. Nauseated, a little shaky, sweaty... if he didn't know any better he'd say that he was scared shitless, but that's just silly. What the hell was in that takeout?

"Uh..." He has to think about that for a second. "Government. I gave 'em a free period," he beams, but his aren't-I-terrible smile isn't quite as bright as usual. He rubs the back of his neck, willing the discomfort to fade. "Is it hot in here?"

Elsa is about to ask if he's all right when it becomes very evident that he's not all right. "No." Though she is starting to feel a bit dizzy and nauseous. "Must be from all the smoke you were inhaling." And that you mdae her inhale when she came in here.

When she turns to look at him (as if gazing out the window will actually help her breathe any better), her eyes fly open. Why is he rubbing the back of his neck? "Did you get blighted?"

"Huh? No?" He pauses, though, checking his hand with a concerned frown. His fingers aren't the slightest bit purple, though, and he sighs in relief. Well. Sort of relief -- he still feels like shit. "It's not blight or anything. I just don't feel good."

He can't resist putting on a flirtatious smile at that. "Thank you for bein' concerned," he purrs. When in doubt? Flirt!

Ah, a moment of potential friendship, ruined by that tone.

She goes on as if he hadn't just said that, her voice flat and stern, "Then you must be feeling whatever your shinki is feeling." She pauses, wrinkling her nose. "And so am I." Who knew so many shinki would feel uncomfortable at a Near Shore school? They seem fine at her school in Takamagahara.

"This is going to make things a lot easier here." When in doubt, sass.

But that does make any sense. "My shinki? But he's not..." Really even alive, he wants to say, thinking of Banri's ghost. The man -- if he can even call the thing that -- doesn't get angry or frustrated or laugh or anything. He barely eats and sleeps. There's no way he's feeling this kind of unsettling... what is this, panic? Pre-fight jitters?

But then it hits him. Banri's ghost isn't his own shinki anymore, is he? He looks up at Elsa, wide-eyed -- she's feeling it too, isn't she? Sanzo's in some deep shit.

"Where's the last place you saw Sanzo?" he asks, all pretense of flirting gone, his tone dark and urgent. If he was just feeling something like... like sadness, or frustration, he'd leave Elsa to deal with that. But this kind of heart-pounding confusion? That feels like something he should go check out. "Is he teaching?"

She's about to answer his first question with of course when the look on his face turns serious. What, was his shinki not here? Had he left him behind? (What a fool, coming to the Near Shore unarmed.)

And then--

"Why are you asking about Sanzo?" Hakkai could just as easily be the one feeling all of this discomfort, this tension and stress. It isn't like him -- he's a natural at teaching, so in his element -- but it still could be. Sanzo... Elsa doesn't know Sanzo well enough yet to judge why he may be upset. Sure, he's grumpy all the time, but that barely registers with her.

She doesn't answer to Gojyo, though. Not about her shinki, and not when she's starting to realize that both she and Gojyo are feeling a shinki's discomfort at the same time. It couldn't be. It couldn't be.

No. It could.

This is what it's like to have a shinki. A real shinki. Gojyo pushes back from the table, moving with exaggerated care, and just as carefully sticks his hands into his pockets. He's not going to risk a repeat of the last time they were together -- it's fine, he's in control of his powers, there's no danger on that front, but the physical reminder of that might help keep things calm all around.

Sanzo's upset. Outside of actual combat, Sanzo doesn't get upset, not like this. Sanzo gets mad, or... well, mad. Sad, when it's raining, but that's it. "Why do you think? I'm feeling it too," he snaps out, Sanzo's mood coloring his own. "Something's really wrong, so tell me where he is."

It could be, and it was.

"You-- You named Sanzo? You made him a nora?" These are things she has to ask before she replies to his demand (how rude). Sanzo was entrusted to her. She's supposed to keep him safe. And now Gojyo ges and makes him a nora!

"I don't know where he is. I don't have a tracker on him, for goodness's sake! Last I saw him was when we all got here and split up. Look, just--" She bites her lips and squeezes her eyes shut, forcing her thoughts to get themselves in order so she can say what she needs to. "Tell me you didn't force him to let you name him."

Gojyo made Sanzo a nora. Gojyo, who knew Sanzo before they came here. Gojyo, who said he'd stay away from them. If Elsa hadn't been feeling ill before, she certainly is now.

She doesn't know where he is, Fine. That's fine, he's never needed much to find an angry (scared) Sanzo before. He'll just head through the main hallway and listen for the sound of gunfire and he's sure he'll...

Did you force him, Elsa says, and this time the sinking feeling in his gut and the knot in his throat are all his.

"No!" How could she even think that?! He'd fucked up with her and his stupid magic stick, sure, but that had been an accident. How could somebody even force Sanzo of all people to do something like that? He'd have shot Gojyo in the face for even trying!

"I was being attacked, and he saved me! I didn't even know how to..." He gestures lamely, one hand at the other. "To name him." What little fight might have been in him is drained out -- he looks like he's going to be sick. "He had to tell me how... And he's not a nora," he corrects her quietly. "He's a genki. That's the new name I gave him."

Well. That's something. Elsa lets out a sigh that does nothing to loosen the grip nausea has on her. It's just like she told Sheryl: Gojyo cares about Sanzo and Hakkai. There's no way he wants to hurt them. And if it happened in a life or death situation, then... well, does it even matter what she thinks? It's done, and there's nothing she can do about it. It's not as if she would've forbidden Sanzo if she'd been there. He's free to do what he wants, and if he saved Gojyo's life, if he had to tell Gojyo how to name him, then it was his choice.

"As long as it was his choice." Because she needs to say it, needs to hear the words aloud. She grips the back of the chair again, steadying herself. Then, thinking on the rest of what Gojyo has told her, she adds, "A shinki who's named by more than one god is called a nora. A stray. They're looked down upon. I heard there are gods who will immediately banish a shinki if they discover they were a nora. I don't know why they're so hated. Because they serve so many gods? That seems... I don't like it. If a shinki wants it, why shouldn't they be allowed to do it? Gods don't own shinki. Shinki aren't things."

Saying so much takes strength she shouldn't be expending, so she stops there and lowers her head, leaning heavily on the chair. What she means to say is that she isn't angry, that she knows Gojyo cares enough to fight for Sanzo's safety if it comes to it.

"We need to find him."

Shinki aren't things, she says, but isn't that exactly what they are? Isn't that exactly what they've been brought here to be? The gods, whether or not they're actually gods, are at being treated like people. They've been given houses -- big, luxurious, ridiculous places -- and new powers that they can use at their whims. (Some of those powers suck, but that's not the point.)

Shinki, on the other hand, have their memories pulled out, get assigned to serve a god, and have to turn into tools for their gods to use, beating monsters literally with their own transformed bodies. It's horrifying, and Gojyo can't believe he did that to Sanzo. It was funny at the time, but there's nothing funny about it now. Shinki are slaves, and he did that to Sanzo. At least Elsa's shinki were assigned -- she might be their owner, but she didn't go looking for anyone to make her servant. Not like Gojyo did.

He just nods, jerkily, and heads for the door. They have to find Sanzo, and they can worry about what it means that he's a nora for Gojyo later. "He's probably been smoking," he suggests through the hair falling like a curtain on either side of his face. "I'm gonna go check the roof and work down from there."

Shinki aren't things. Elsa would die for that, if it came to it. When Mesogog made her his servant, he changed everything about her, did everything short of turning her body into a weapon. She lost her memories, her freedom to choose (was brainwashed so completely that she thought everything she did was really what she wanted to do), even her wardrobe, hair, and makeup. But in the midst of all of that, she had still been there, and the Rangers never tried to kill her. (She thinks they would have tried to free her if they'd found out sooner that she'd been a civillian before, but even in that, Mesogog had taken control. Only once he'd reverted her to her real self did the truth come out, and by then, she'd already been rescued.) Now that she's here, with two shinki in her care and enemies that really do try to kill, she will do everything she can to stop those monsters from hurting them, and give Hakkai and Sanzo all the freedom she can.

"Go on ahead," she says to Gojyo, her gaze on the table as she takes slow, deliberate breaths. "I need a minute, and then I'll start looking outside."

Gojyo turns back at the door, concern sketched broadly over his face. She really doesn't look well -- she looks about as bad as he feels, honestly. But if this really is Sanzo's emotions bleeding through into them, then the only way to get it to stop is to go find the monk.

"I'll find him," he promises her, gritting his teeth and refusing to show how affected he still is. He has a job to do, and giving in to how crap he feels isn't going to make that job any easier. "You take your time."

She seems nice enough, but in the end he doesn't know her, and she's got too much power over both Sanzo and Hakkai. He wants to trust her, he really does... but he knows better than to rely on anyone but himself.

Edited 2016-07-23 17:33 (UTC)

She doesn't say anything as he goes, too busy trying to keep Sanzo's emotions from overcoming her more than they already have. It's going to take her much, much longer than a minute, but she trusts Gojyo to find Sanzo by the time she feels well enough to even start looking. That's the one thing she feels she can trust him with -- protecting Hakkai and Sanzo where she can't, where she would fail. And she could fail. She has.

Whether those thoughts would've come to her on their own or they've been brought out by Sanzo's feelings, she doesn't know, but it doesn't matter. Ten or so minutes later, the worst of it passes, and she heads outside to search, hoping the fresh air will clear the rest of this away.

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006 | High School Debut

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