thenearshore | February Training

February Training

Who: Everyone
What: Information and Training
When: October 15th
Where: Meeting Hall, the Far Shore
Summary: Training and informational sessions for newly arrived gods and shinki

Gods and shinki arriving at heaven's meeting hall are, should they allow it, guided to the Meeting Hall, where a reception area and a traditionally styled dojo and training ground have been made available for the day. The gods and shinki are free to take their time during this day to learn about the details of their new life from Amaterasu's shinki or from the many veteran new god and shinki volunteers.

God Training

the basics of proper god behavior

Shinki Training

informational pamphlets

borderline

Physical Training

Rest and Refreshments

Instead of snacks being served at the training session, this week, white-robed shinki with little flags are conducting groups of newcomers and volunteers down to the Tokyo Daijingu shrine and into a street festival currently being held in Tokyo. Traditional dance troupes are performing on street corners, and vendors have every kind of fall street foods, from barbecue to takoyaki, chocolate-dipped bananas and red-bean pancakes. New arrivals will get a white-and-gold envelope with spending money for the fair, although gods and shinki who have had some time to settle in will have to handle their own lunch expenses.

In Summary:

Get all the information you can handle
Veteran new gods and shinki are welcome to volunteer showing the ropes
Get in some training
Go to a festival
Spectate if you want
Have fun~

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Ah...

[He finishes the shake, then takes his hand back, gesturing to each of them in turn, the man first and then the woman.]

This is Meji, and this is Masaji. Unfortunately they don't really communicate verbally, but they're hard workers that were taking care of my temple when I woke up there. They're shinki of mine as well, but... I guess they're pretty different from someone like you. That's why I'm glad to have someone like you around the temple as well. They didn't get to pick their vessel names, they had them when I woke up, but we can discuss yours if you'd like. It's the name I call to ask for help, like so...

[He opens one palm towards the lady.]

Kanki.

[And a lantern settles into that hand. Next he turns to the man.]

Mokki.

[And that hand carries a sword with an eye emblazoned on it.]

[Reading about things like vessel names and changing shape is one thing, and even hearing someone talk about it is a whole different experience from watching it actually happen. Shinji's eyes widen slightly in surprise, he wasn't entirely sure just how literally to take it all, but...]

That's amazing.

[Kind of weird, too, but he's mostly awe-struck with just the thought that something similar would be happening to him.]

I... really don't know what kind of name would be good, though. How do you even chose something like that?

[He shakes his head.]

I wouldn't know either. At this point I'm more amused than anything that our names all end with the same character, -ji. That's where the similarities begin and end, though.

[Sure, Ma and Me are similar, but that doesn't unify with his name at all, though.]

Then again...

[He thinks about when Kougaiji brought him in and gave him his name.]

You could always choose a name you aspire to. I know that's a hard thing to ask of a shinki, but a word that makes you inspired rather than depressed would be a start. I have to call this name when I need your help fighting off creatures that would hurt innocent people, so think of it as a rallying cry?

That's a pretty interesting coincidence. [It's interesting enough to get a small tug at the corner of his mouth, the tiniest smile you can imagine.

But, something to aspire to... It does sound like the best way to go about picking something as important as a name out, though he does have a point with it being, perhaps, a bit of a tall order for a fresh new shinki. The time he's spent waiting for Dokugakuji to show up hasn't been particularly helpful in finding out much about himself, though that much isn't supposed to be easy by design, so he can only feel so self-conscious over that fact.

A name for when he's being relied upon for help, huh...?]

I'm... kind of worried that I won't be much help in a fight. [It's a feeling he can't really put his finger on why, other than a solid gut-feeling, and as much as it is an upfront admission of his own concerns, he can't help but wonder if it would be some kind of place to start when it comes to narrowing down a suitable name.] Making it sort of like a rallying cry is probably for the best.

The good news is you don't have to go it alone.

[ He remembers that much from having fought using Meji's sword form in that lone memory of his pre-death argument with Gojyo. ]

I call your name and you'll turn into a vessel form, making us a team fighting together. Shinki turn into all kinds of vessels I hear - clothing, shoes, watches... a lantern, apparently. Oh and animals too. For all we know you'll be a pair of gloves and all we have to do is punch the monsters to knock 'em out.

[He gives Shinji a thumbs-up.]

Don't sweat it. After I name you, we'll practice a little bit with these dummies to get you used to the idea.

[Really, he's a little more worried about his general presence being something of a hindrance when it comes to the fighting, but Dokugakuji's confidence that it wouldn't be a problem is genuinely kind of uplifting. He can't really bring himself to protest over it too much with that sort of encouragement, at least for now.

Which really leaves them with the just problem of picking out a name to tackle for the moment. The rest... will probably be figured out as they go. Still, something to aspire to...]

I guess I could use a little more... courage? Or bravery? [Especially given his last comment, his own worries, all that good nonsense. Admitting it feels a little silly, and he sounds a bit hesitant for it, but at least he's being honest about it.]

[ Dokugakuji nods - he certainly could use some self-confidence and feed into a courageous sprit that way. ]

Alright then - I think I've got one for ya!

'Spirit, you are lost and adrift
You have nowhere to go and nowhere to return to
Thus I grant you a place to belong!
My name is Ksitigarbha!'

That was when, instead of random swirls, Dokugakuji started to draw the character between himself and Shinji, roughly the size of Shinji himself. It shone bright orange and yellow as Dokugakuji painted it in midair.

'Bearing two names you shall remain here
With these names I make thee my servant
With these names I use my life to make thee a regalia fit to be wielded by a god
Thou art Shinji!
As Regalia, Yuu!
Come... Yuuki!'

[He's wholly unprepared for the specifics of what the naming process entails, and this is definitely... a lot more than he would have expected. Still, he's sure the best course of action on his part is to trust that the god knows what he's doing, and wait out the spell to see what will happen.

The character he draws out, '勇', moves through the air toward Shinji upon completion, affixing itself to his throat. At his call, the name activates, swallowing the boy up in light as his form shifts and zips into Dokugakuji's hand.

Upon contact, of course, comes the standard fare of witnessing the shinki's final moments in life. For naming Shinji, the view he's treated to begins with the boy sitting in a nondescript hallway, curled up on himself underneath a set of metal stairs, with only he faintest sounds of panic and gunfire echoing through the space from a great distance. A noise of a gunshot rings out, much, much closer, and followed immediately by the pang of a bullet ricocheting off one of the steps above him. Shinji curls up a little tighter on himself in response, now ducking his head down and burying his face in his arms as three armed soldiers come up upon him, surrounding him and blocking off any chance of escape he might have had.]

We've located the Third Child, [One of them speaks into a walkie-talkie, while his associates set their aim on said child.] Commencing termination.

[With that, a gun is pressed up against Shinji's head, while the boy himself makes no efforts to resist.]

Sorry, kid. Nothing personal.

[Another shot is fired, though a final shot at such close range means any sound heard would be cut off abruptly, and at that, the vision is over.]

Is... that everything?

[It's Shinji's voice that speaks up now, bewildered and a little uncertain if there's more to this that he should still be expecting after all of that fanfare. But, hey, enjoy your brand new weapon (regular person-sized version), Doku!]

[Doku can't help it. His eyes go wide and he gasps out...]

Hol...y...shit...

[He doesn't know to fake it against stuff like that, and it didn't happen with the Soulless Shinki, so he definitely wasn't expecting it. On top of that, a "kid" getting killed with a gun. Teenager, sure, whatever, but a young person getting killed. He feels like that bullet is still ricocheting around in his heart somewhere.

Finally he licks his lips, trying to catch his breath.]

Yeah... that's everything.

[His fist holding the knife is shaking a little.]

... You sound like you're doing fine, huh Shinji?

[He's a little bewildered if that's true.]

[Not having any idea of what Doku just experienced, Shinji feels a quick spike of nerves at the first words out of his mouth. Did something go wrong, or maybe his vessel form was just... that unexpected?

Even after he continues, Shinji doesn't seem to really relax, but at least it doesn't seem like there's some kind of big problem he should be aware of... Whatever happened on Dokugakuji's end seems to have gone completely unnoticed by Shinji.]

I... I think so. It's weird, but, I think I'm okay. ['Fine' is probably the best way of putting it, at least.]

[ Dokugakuji nods, assuming that somehow Shinji can 'see' that he's doing that. ]

Good... Good. I've never done this before either.

[ That he remembers, anyway. ]

Since you're already, uh... changed... interested in practicing for a bit? I can show you this spell they told me about that the other shinki can do too. 'Rend' if you heard about it?

[For someone who's never done it before, he sure seems to know what he's doing well enough. Maybe it's just something that comes naturally to gods...? It's interesting, whatever the case may be, and he's more than willing to take his word for it.]

Oh, there was something about that in the pamphlet they gave us in the beginning. [The only way to finish off an ayakashi for good, right? It'd be good to at least have some kind of practice with it under his belt.] We can do that, sure.

Great. We'll use one of those dummies.

[ Doku moves toward those dummies and flips the weapon in his hand with a flick of the wrist, starting to get a feel for it. ]

I'm not sure how it'll work either, since I heard this spell works best on ayakashi. What'll happen even if we get this right, but it's still the wrong opponent. Guess we'll find out.

[ He levels the weapon at a dummy. ]

What else did your pamphlet say about what you have to do, before I just shout this command at your blindly?

Nothing in particular, just that it's how a god and shinki finish off an ayakashi for good.

[So, no specifics, really, but... hopefully they should be able to figure it out with some practice? Otherwise, there do seem to be an awful lot of helpful people around willing to give out advice if needed.]

I'm willing to work on it to figure it out as long as you are, though.

That's about it. I only know the command.

[ So they get to find out together. Dokugakuji grips the hilt tight, the way he would a much longer blade at first with both hands, before relaxing the grip down to just one hand. He raises the blade to the dummy and pushes his foreign God power to the forefront as much as he can, concentrating on it. It's not much, but with a long time to build it up like a static charge...

Then he's able to feel comfortable enough to bring the spell out: ]

REND!

[Shinji, still wholly unsure of what exactly he needs to be doing, simply puts as much of a tense focus as he can on the target in front of them. It's... difficult to try and envision the dummy as an actual threat, but his desires to try and get this down right in the face of not really having much of an idea of what he's doing mean he's trying his best to take this as seriously as he can.

With their powers combined, Shinji's vessel form and Dokugakuji's focus on the spell, there's no reason it shouldn't work in some capacity. Without an actual ayakashi to defeat in front of them, however, what are the chances that will will do something other than flash and fizzle out...?]

[ It does flash and fizzle, but that doesn't matter to Dokugakuji. He felt that concentration and surge of power. He smiles and nods. ]

Good job!

[ He's happy to praise Shinji for the effort. ]

That's the kind of feeling to latch onto when we're up against a real ayakashi.

[ He flicks the blade around a bit in his wrist once more before completing that bit of training for today: ]

Revert, Shinji.

[He'll have to remember that feeling, so he can call up on it again when they need it. It seemed like such a natural thing, but keeping it fresh in his mind, just in case it isn't as easy under pressure, that strikes him as a smart move.

He's called back, and... that's probably going to take about as much getting used to as shifting to vessel form.]

That was... [He's not really sure what he would have expected it to be like, really, so maybe just...] Surprising?

I can imagine.

[ He has to imagine, in fact, since he's never felt anything remotely close to being scooped up and his soul tossed in a different body like that. ]

Surprising we can handle and train for. But if it were uncomfortable or painful in some way, then I'd let you go no problem.

[ Although it seems like that won't be the case, he just wants to keep offering it early on so Shinji doesn't feel stifled. ]

If you can handle it, then I'll make sure we're a good team.

[That's... reassuring in its own way, but does raise the question on whether or not it's possible that it could be painful. He might have to keep that in mind and possibly ask another shinki if the opportunity arises.

Still, his god can't be the only one working toward making the partnership work -] I'll make sure, too. If there's ever anything I can do to help... let me know, okay?

[He wants to make sure he's making himself useful if they're going to be relying on each other, after all.]

You got it, kiddo.

[ He pats Shinji twice on the shoulder, grateful to have reached an agreement. He thinks that his prince would be proud. ]

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February Training

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I lost this tag, sorry

No worries friend!

<3

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Wrap!