thenearshore | [closed] so that it goes on, so that it never fades

Entry tags:

[closed] so that it goes on, so that it never fades

Who: Shun and Izuku, Shun and Lavi
When: September 21st, September 23rd
Where: Fujisaki Corporation HQ, Far Shore Central District
What: Mission 27 and Mission 30

[Closed to Izuku]
[Texting Izuku takes Shun a lot longer than he expected it to.

Picking up his phone only to notice the god name of Aidos missing was one thing. Scrolling further down the list to find the name Midoriya Izuku in it instead was another one entirely, and Shun's thankful for at least the fact that his temple walls are sturdy enough to take a good hard punch.

Still, it's Izuku. Shun doubts he won't want to help, and it's not exactly something he needs Izuku to have knowledge of what happened for. Wording exactly how to call him out to the location makes up the rest of the far too long it takes him to compose the message, but eventually, he manages to put together something that doesn't sound too suspicious. Probably.]

I need someone to help with an investigation. There's a temple built in a hill in Central District - go there if you want to talk more about it.

--

[Closed to Lavi]
[There's a lot of people Shun imagines would have been only too ready to volunteer to find out what the hell was going on with that kid on the night of the moon viewing, but considering the white-robed shinki combing Central District, Shun needs someone who knows how to be discreet. Or at least how to talk to people better than he does. And thankfully, he knows at least one person who has the potential to be both.

After contacting Lavi about it, he waits for him on one of the large rocks on the outskirts of his temple grounds. One of the white-robed shinki passing by spares him a glance and seems to discount him as merely feeding the congregation of vultures around him before moving on.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[ There's no way that's not a suspicious text. It somehow sounds like a weird kidnapping letter... But he thinks he can defend himself and the fact is, if somebody needs help, he should give it.

So he goes.]

Hello?

[There's a rustling sound from the mouth of the garden at his greeting, and wings shuffle in the trees. Several extremely large vultures rearrange themselves to observe him, though their temperament doesn't seem threatening. On the contrary, a few of them are cocking their heads towards him, as if trying to recognise him.

Another shape entirely comes out from the garden itself, though, that of a boy slightly older than Izuku. His billowing, ragged coat lends somewhat of an intimidating air to his presence, but as he watches the other boy, his eyes tighten a little with something that's definitely pain more than it is anything malicious.

He doesn't let it seep into his speech, though, which is brusque and direct.] I was wondering if you'd come. When did you wake up like this?

[He doesn't know whether Izuku's aware he was previously a god, so he's stepping somewhat carefully here. He's heard shinki can at least safely learn of their previous time here, but he's not going to make that gamble until he knows it's safe.]

[Unfortunately for everyone involved, Izuku tends to be perceptive. So he notes the vultures and the way that Shun's gaze seems to tighten.

... He guesses it's just hard to deal with dead people, but he doesn't know for sure.]

If somebody's asking for help, I can't ignore that. [That's part of being a hero! Not that he can really remember.]

Are you asking about when I arrived? It was the morning of the 20th.

[Shun's jaw tightens a bit at that, but if Izuku doesn't already know, then he's not going to let on the fact that it's not when he really arrived here. He feels it should probably be suspicious enough that someone texted him off-hand when he thinks he only arrived yesterday, so he's not going to push it.

Given that, he moves on to the issue of helping people, skipping out on the part where he'd suspected that would be what Izuku would say.] I'm looking into something that happened a few weeks ago. A department store on the Near Shore was sabotaged and then burnt to the ground. It was caused by magic, but nobody ever found the source. Have you heard anything about that?

[Probably not, considering he thinks he's only been here a day, but he might as well check.]

[ Even without his memories, Izuku is still Izuku and he still has that bone deep need to help people. ]

No, this is the first time I've heard about that.

[ That isn't really surprising, considering how hectic yesterday was. ]

Where are we looking... And um... What's your name?

[There it is again - the tightening around Shun's eyes when he's asked for his name. And the way he doesn't let it affect the matter at hand.] Kurosaki Shun. And we're going back to the company to try and find the people who were working with that store.

[Whether they were involved with the construction or actually working there - they're bound to get information one way or another.]

[ He wonders if it's rude to ask if this guy knows him. The fact that he asked for Izuku's help, the strain in his eyes... It all adds up to some sort of relationship that he's forgotten.

Later maybe. After they get this settled. ]

Nice to meet you, Kurosaki.

A company must have a payroll. We can start from there and work our way down the list.

[Since it seems clear enough that they're doing this, Shun starts to head back into the garden, since that's where his shrine is anyway.] I found one or two names while I was searching the place before it burnt. I'd like to track those people down in particular, but they should be on that kind of record as well.

[In the garden, there are...even more vultures. Also observing the proceedings and generally being very large.]

[ He'll easily follow Shun out to the gardens, looking around and taking in all the vultures. ]

Then we should start there, but if they don't give any leads we have more people to check in on.

[He passes the shinki and greets them with an amiable smile as he makes his way over to Shun.

When he’s sure the other shinki is gone, he turns to the god with a raised eyebrow.]

What’s up?

Right. It'd be more useful to find those names, but it's not going to be pointless if we don't.

[The rest of the garden is much more peaceful than the vultures - it's surrounded by trees and blooming flowers, things like roses and lilies and chrysanthemums, often in white but occasionally in other colours as well. Two long pools flank the path down the middle, and there are gaps in the hedge wall at the other end that seem to indicate the garden goes on further, but Shun stops at the very small shrine at the end of the path, shaped like a tiny house.

Without much fanfare, he holds out a hand to touch Izuku's shoulder.]

I'll need to be in contact with you so I can get us to the building after we cross to the Near Shore. [He doesn't know if whoever Izuku's god is has taken him anywhere yet, so he figures he might as well explain to be sure.]

[Throwing the last bit of jerky in his hands to the vultures, Shun drops the pretense of feeding them and points to where the shinki just walked out of sight.]

Them. They've been crawling all over Central District and the main Heavens for the last few days. I've tried eavesdropping on them, but I haven't managed to get any useful information from it yet.

[Lavi glances over his shoulder at the disappeared shinki.]

It's a bit odd that they did seem to pop up after the moon viewing party.

[Shifting a bit, he looks back at Shun.]

Think we should stalk them then?

[It's nice here. He thinks there's something about Shouto's temple he prefers, but there's something strangely calming about Shun's garden in the heavens. Maybe the heavens is part of it, he has no idea.

This is new, but it's information he'll file away for later.]

Got it. This is fine.

Let's go find the people.

They seem to be looking for someone, so it's even more suspicious. [Shun's had the same thought. To his knowledge, nobody actually at the party managed to catch the kid, and he and the ones he told couldn't be the only ones who figured out he was responsible.]

That or ask any who look open to it. You're better at talking to people than I am anyway. [The true reason Lavi got invited, predictably enough.]

[Once Shun touches Izuku, they seem to blink through two places. One, only visible for a fraction of a second, is a small park, with another slightly larger shrine that's covered in flower arrangements. The next is a large building in the depths of the city, sign declaring it to be Fujisaki Corporation.

Letting go of Izuku's shoulder, Shun heads towards the door.]

Come on. As long as we don't draw attention to ourselves, we'll be able to get around fine.

[He blinks to steady himself... He thinks he should probably be noxious after the irregularity of teleportation, but maybe it's just something his shinki body is designed for. It's hard to know without doing some tests on himself but--

No, they have something to do. That can definitely wait for later.]

Really? We don't really look old enough to be in a building like that.

[But he still follows.]

Near Shore people don't notice us unless we go out of their way to make them. So ideally we want to get the information we need and then go see these people somewhere outside of here so it looks less out of place.

[At the very least, they could throw out some kind of excuse about a school newspaper or journalism internship or whatever else would get someone to talk to them. Or maybe a sob story about someone they know getting hurt in the accident would work better.

In any case, Shun goes through and starts heading across the lobby. Sure enough, the receptionists only glance up at the door opening, and frown slightly in confusion as if wondering why it did. Their gazes gloss right over the two teenagers on the way through.]

Oh... I see.

[Something about that is uncomfortable, but he doesn't want to dwell on it for too long. It's better than people seeing them and hating that they exist, at least.

He looks at the receptionist and shuffles along so he's at Shun's side.]

Do we follow them until they go out to lunch?

Not all of them are going to be here. If they have a payroll, they should have addresses, and the people we most need to look into are the ones directly involved with that store.

[Talking to a higher-up or two wouldn't be bad, but the people lower down the rungs are definitely more likely to actually give them the information they need without trouble. Shun's method of getting information out of stubborn people probably isn't going to be the best idea here.

Since Shun imagines the lift is keycarded, he goes for the stairs instead. That door also has a keycard lock, but he lays his fingers on the metal for a few moments and focuses. There's a faint grinding sound from within it, and the door swings open with rusted residue sliding out from the lock.

There's a floor guide on the wall just inside, and Shun glances at it as he starts to head up.] Fifth floor looks most likely.

[Just how much trouble is Shun expecting to make here? They just need to talk to some people and get information out of them... actually, that's probably harder than-] -it seems. Neither of us look old enough to be looking into this. So they probably won't want to talk to us. And it's not like it'll be easy to gain their trust either. If we looked older, we could say something about being part of an insurance company. There was a fire, so they're probably trying to get some sort of reimbursement from somewhere-

[The mumbling continues as he starts up the stairs.]

The kid maybe? [Although, he's not sure if anyone can really find the person responsible. Lavi allowed it to slip from his mind when he left Shun to search for Cardia.

He looks bemused.] Which is why you really asked me to come.

[Not that he's complaining, but...It's obvious enough, anyway.]

[...And here's the mumbling. Shun's only heard Izuku do this a few times before, but he lets him run himself down for a while before interrupting.]

They probably won't give us the full story if we say we're writing something, so I figure the best chance of us getting something out of them is claiming we have friends or family who were injured in the incident and we just want to understand what happened. Sympathy makes people easier to handle.

[It's an awfully pragmatic way of looking at it, but at least Shun doesn't sound dismissive of the fact, he's just being blunt about it.]

[He doesn't particularly enjoy lying, but Shun is right. This is probably the most likely way they're going to get the answers they're looking for.

And if they can get those answers then maybe another building won't be burned down...

He's silent for a moment.]

Go with family. They're more likely to tell more to a family member than a concerned friend. The closer you are to a victim, the more information they're likely to give. Do you have one in mind to claim a relationship with?

If I just wanted to stalk them, it would be easier to do that myself. [He shrugs. Sorry, not sorry.

As the vultures start to move off back towards the garden given the lack of food, Shun gets up and hops off the rock, heading in the direction the shinki left in.] They seem to have set patrol shifts, so a few of them should be around here until they hand over to the next group.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 5

[closed] so that it goes on, so that it never fades

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject