Ooooh, child, things are gonna get easier

[erogappa]

Who: Gojyo and Sharak and Hakkai and guns and the rooster
What: Reunion shenanigans
When: /shrug
Where: Temple Aditi
Warnings: Violence, threats, poor life choices, probably graphic descriptions of amputation


Mind made up, Gojyo finds a temple and transports himself back to heaven.

It's been a chaotic couple of days, that's for damn sure. He holds his right arm -- or what's left of it -- carefully against his side. The end of the stump has been professional sutured and heavily bandaged, but he's still cautious about anything or anyone touching it. It hurts. A lot. The doc had tried to give him pain killers -- fat white pills in mismatched bottles, at least one of which had had a horse silhouette on the label -- but he'd refused. He needed to be sober while dealing with the mess in Japan, and he sure as hell wants to be sober when dealing with the mess here.

There's no goddamn way he's going to be loopy when facing Sharak.

Rounding the bend in the road, the temple slowly comes into view, and something in his chest eases. He'd called this place home back a thousand years ago, and it's still true. Home is where you go when you've got nowhere else to turn, home is where they yell at you because they care for you. Home is where your responsibilities lie.

His step gets lighter -- it's the middle of the night, he's exhausted and in pain, but things are about to get better -- and he mentally begins rehearsing what he'll tell Sharak. Assuming she lets him get a word in edgewise, he mentally chuckles. She might just chew him out, and that'll be fine. He deserves it. But once she's done being mad, he can't wait to talk to her about his new plan. About his new path.

They have the ability to make life better for so many people out in the living world, and not just in the way heaven wants them to. Ayakashi are bad, sure, but so are so many humans -- they can really make a difference, if they want to. And he wants to. He'll tell her about the kids he met, and the men who were making their living forcing the kids to steal and fight and worse things. Those men are dead now, but there's thousands of men like them still out there. Together, they can fix that.

Things are going to be okay.

Comments

[bussounoshima]

[That would be about when Sharak teleports backwards to slam her elbow into Gojyo's jaw. Then she grabs him by the shoulder and gives him a shove outside.]

Try again.

[erogappa]

[ Ow. He stumbles back, instinctively raising his severed arm to wipe his mouth. The reminder of his injury just sours his mood even further.

He spits instead, leaving a pink-tinged mess on her pretty carpeting as he heads out into the sunshine.

Did you lie to me about my brother, too?

[ He raises the spade end again -- without his memories, he favors that end over the seemingly delicate crescent blade -- with the staff held across his body like a baseball bat. ]

Can I trust anything you've told me?

[ Without giving her a chance to answer he's on the attack again, swinging the staff in a broad figure-8. ]

[bussounoshima]

I've never lied to you.

[Sharak blocks the staff with her forearm, ducking down and deflecting it over her head with a grunt. That's going to leave a bruise. She darts forward to punch him, figuring staying close is her best bet for avoiding shakujo's range. She's a ranged fighter herself, typically, but her hand-to-hand is still pretty impressive. And she's not holding back.]

About any of them.

[Not unless she had to.]

[erogappa]

[ Staying close is a good tactic. He coughs with her punch, bringing up a knee to try and trip her, but with the weight of the metal staff in his hand, he's unbalanced. He can either fight with the staff, or fight with his one remaining hand -- he's not good enough yet to quickly vanish and return his staff in order to do both.

Or is he?

He charges at her again with the staff swinging, but vanishes it just before it would contact her. Instead, he twists to the side and kicks out. ]

[bussounoshima]

[The kick gets her side and knocks Sharak off her balance. Rather than try to regain it, she lets herself fall and roll down the hill a few times before jumping back up to her feet. She's spent enough time perfecting her divine powers that she doesn't have any problem regaining her footing on the uneven ground, at least.

Besides, she won't be there long. She vanishes for less than a second before she's back in Gojyo's space, punching, kicking and brawling like a pro. Occasionally her hits are reinforced by the handle of her gun. When the flow of battle puts some space between them she resorts to quick, short spells that knock Gojyo back even further or trip him up with roots sprouting from the ground. Actual bullets- at least ones that hit their target- aren't being involved and neither is the Kouten Sutra, but all other stops have been pulled.

She can't expect Gojyo to go all out if she doesn't as well, after all. The bruises and cuts she gets are no worse than she's had before.]

[erogappa]

[ He can't keep up. He tries -- he meets every punch she throws with one of his own, and the staff is a blur as he summons it, swings it, and banishes it over and over. But he's unbalanced without his arm, unbalanced and overpowered. And that's not even getting into how unfair it is that she's got magic and all he can manage it a borderline.

Eventually he goes down, and doesn't get right back up. He's breathing too hard, limbs too sore, head swimming. There's blood soaking through his bandage and staining his shift sleeve, he's dripping with sweat, and his mood's gone to absolute shit.

His foot slips on the grass as he tries to stand, but he doesn't quit. Barely standing, he summons his staff again and points it at Sharak. ]

Had enough?

[bussounoshima]

[She may have magic, but he has a ridiculous staff and she's (kind of) unarmed. It balances out.

Sharak stands steady, staring Gojyo down. There's a nasty gash across her nose and cheek from when his staff blade got a little too close and she's bleeding elsewhere, judging from the stains on her robe. Not using Kouten is a rather stupid handicap to give oneself. She's also sweating and out of breath but isn't faltering yet. Neither is Gojyo. Sharak glares at him, eyes serious and ready to kill...

Then she sighs and falls down onto the grass with a heavy thud and the faint trace of a smile on her lips.] Yeah, all right.

[She's had enough.]

[erogappa]

[ He wouldn't falter even if he died, come on. But that doesn't mean he's not thoroughly wiped.

There's the briefest moment of concern as Sharak drops onto the grass -- he didn't hurt her that badly, did he? -- before he remembers that a) she's stronger than he is, and b) he doesn't fucking care. ]

Good.

[ What the hell was the point of all of that? Was he really just proving to her that he's strong enough to survive on his own? Goddamn gods and their goddamn layered actions. If he wanted to solve a puzzle, he'd grab a crossword. Why can't things even be simple? ]

No more gods. It's time I stood on my own. [ He slaps his thigh, over his invisible mark. ] Take this damn thing off me.

[bussounoshima]

... I can't argue with that.

[Going without a god will make Gojyo vulnerable to ayakashi. It'll be harder for her to keep an eye on him. But clearly this just isn't working for him. Sharak raises her hand and gestures at Gojyo without looking at him.]

I release you, Shaki.

[erogappa]

[ He doesn't feel any different.

He feels completely alone.

The world just got a lot bigger and more ominous. But at least any mistakes from this point on will be his own.

Really, he should have guessed something was wrong when he first transformed into a broken sword. This relationship was never going to work out.

With a nod, he turns back toward the temple. ]

I'm gonna grab my stuff, then I'll be out of your hair.

[bussounoshima]

[Sharak feels it. The empty space inside of her feels enormous, even with Celty still there- damn, it's like when Kainé vanished all over again. Her hand hovers over her heart briefly before dropping to the ground.]

... You don't have to leave right away. [God knows no one needs a name from her to stay at Aditi's temple.] Now we've dealt with that, can we talk properly for a minute?

[Not as god and shinki but as two unrelated people.]

[erogappa]

No.

[ But he stops anyway, swaying slightly in the doorway of the temple. ]

...What?

[bussounoshima]

You don't want a name and that's fine. [This shinki crap is bullshit anyway.] But if you ever need it, this temple is open to you. At anytime. The same goes for if you need anything from myself.

[Just establishing that. Gojyo can go fuck off if he wants to, but he should know that Sharak is still here.]

Other than that... I told you Hakkai died, because he did and I would have wanted to know if I were in your position. [Coming back would have been no excuse, if it had been the person she loved.] He came back. He might have not. I wanted you to deal with the response you had anyway because of that.

[She pauses for a second, still not quite looking at Gojyo.]

... Odds are, next time he won't. You can't keep running from how you feel.

[Her methods may be flawed, but she did what she did because she cares about him.]

[erogappa]

[ He's stupidly grateful to her in that moment that she unnamed him. She can't feel his feelings anymore. Finally, he can lie, too. ]

Watch me.

[ No, that was too abrupt. He needs to make her understand. ]

The Sha Gojyo you knew, the one who couldn't stop thinking about some batshit crazy baby killer? He drank himself to death. [ That might not be the way Sha Gojyo, God had gone, but from what he's heard, it's as feasible as anything. ] Every choice he made was a bad one, and now he's gone.

[ He slaps a hand to his chest. ]

I'm stuck here draggin' his corpse around, and I'm tired of it. These feelings aren't mine, and I don't want 'em.

I'm better than that.

[bussounoshima]

[Yes, Gojyo. Very convincing.]

... I rather liked him. Him and his choices.

[For what it's worth. Sharak slowly gets to her feet, looking like she'd rather just take a nap right there on the grass.]

But very well. Just remember what I said about the temple.

[erogappa]

[ He stares at her a long moment, and finally shakes his head. ]

Sure.

[ And with that, he vanishes into the depths of the temple. He doesn't have much -- some clothes and toiletries, his heaven-issued phone -- and it all fits neatly into a pillowcase.

He doesn't need anything else. ]