thenearshore | [open] we're closed to the earth until further notice

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[open] we're closed to the earth until further notice

Who: Cho Hakkai and you
When: Oct 15-17
Where: Around the Near and Far Shores
What: The best way to deal with stress is to stay so busy that there's no time to think about it, right? No flaws in this plan.
Warnings: Ayakashi-fighting violence in the Oct. 16 PM prompt, probable mention of illness/death in the Oct. 16 AM prompt, mention of suicide in Gojyo thread

Oct. 15 - Gardening, Temple of Li Tieguai

[Mid-morning finds Hakkai in old clothes and rubber gardening clogs at the front of his temple, where bright yellow chrysanthemums have bloomed all around the outside wall. He has a stack of cheap plastic pots, a trowel, and a wheelbarrow half full of pots filled with freshly uprooted flowers, and he's leaving a long series of sad little pits in the turf behind him.

It's not that he minds flowers, of course. Flowers are fine.

It's just that he's noticed the way these particular flowers seem to be influencing his mood, and he doesn't like it at all.

He sits back on his heels as someone approaches, and wipes sweat off his forehead with the back of one hand, leaving a long streak of mud there instead.]

Good morning! Would you like a potted plant?

Oct. 16 (AM) - Prayers, around Tokyo

[Tokyo's crowded on Sunday mornings, even on a gray and rainy day like this one, where the first gold and orange leaves of fall have been beaten down from the trees and are fading to soggy brown in the gutters and the canals. Hakkai slips through the crowds like a shadow, messenger bag over one shoulder as he scrolls through his phone calendar and snuggles his transparent umbrella closer down over his head. It's not doing much to keep the water off; he keeps having to dry his phone screen on his sleeve, to the annoyance of the small white dragon snuggled down on his scarf.

Chirps of complaint trail in his wake, and he looks up from his phone to murmur to the dragon quietly.

Unfortunately, that means he's not looking where he's going anymore, and in a crowd like this, if anyone's standing still--

-- well, they've just been run into by a man, a dragon, an umbrella, and a very heavy bag.]

Oct. 16 (PM) - Leech Treatment, Ikebukuro

[Hakkai hadn't really planned to wind up doing any fighting today. He has a long list of followers he needs to visit. He's busy, damn it, but a bloated purple leech-thing had detached itself from the neck of a glazed-over pachinko player as he brushed past and lunged for his face.

He hadn't had a choice, which he plans to point out to Chikusa if this gets him in trouble, considering that he also hadn't brought any of his shinki.

The leech is determinedly crawling towards him across the concrete. He aims a kick at it, and it dodges with surprising speed and bites at his toe, leaving an ugly, deep scar across the leather of his shoe. Jeep, reluctantly, lifts off his shoulder and circles up above the umbrella as Hakkai considers the stubborn ayakashi.

This is not the afternoon he'd planned on.]

Oct. 17 - Morning Classes, Abandoned Temple School - Mingle

[Hakkai doesn't always show up for the morning shinki spell practice sessions, but he's here today, sitting towards the side of the courtyard and taking notes in a battered memo book in between circulating to help with borderline or Bind spells. He'll occasionally stop, too, to listen in if anyone's talking about other spells. He'd only bothered to learn Bind himself, after all. It might help to learn a few extra....]

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[Hakkai's pause, in return, lasts a second or two before he smiles and hefts the basket.]

Please, come inside -- I should put this in the kitchen, and I can make tea while you're here.

What sort of trouble have you had?

[Ayumu stands, leaving the flowers where they are; she'll fetch them on her way out. Once they're inside, she speaks softly.]

Somebody killed Buddy and left him for Gojyo to find.

[It'd been horrifying to see such a sweet dog come to an awful end. But seeing Gojyo in tears over it had been haunting, to say the least. She'd comforted him the best she could, even going so far to aid him with his reconnaissance and raid. And she's still hard at work for her friend, even now.]

... "Buddy"? [Hakkai's tone is blank. It's not the sort of thing he'd expect to be a human name. A pet? Had Gojyo had a pet?

Even though he's the one who'd decided it would be better to keep clear, for Gojyo's sake, the realization that he hadn't known even something so simple as that cuts unexpectedly deep.

And someone had killed the pet. Gojyo must have been heartbroken. He gets too attached.]

[She's a little surprised by that. Given how knowledgeable Hakkai seemed to be about the bar, she'd just automatically assumed he'd known about Buddy, too. For a moment, she looks almost sheepish before continuing.]

There was this dog that hung around the bar. He was really sweet and his name was Buddy. I don't know if he was a stray or Gojyo's but... Someone decided to leave a message.

[And she'd helped Gojyo send one right back but she's hesitant to reveal her friend's direct involvement.]

I've been busy looking for the people that did it. And making sure they don't do it again.

I see. [The tone is mild as he toes open the front door, but as he steps back to hold it for her, there's a moment of distant ice visible on his face.

Killing someone's dog to send a message. That's low.

(Killing Gojyo's dog, when he's so distanced from so many of his friends...)]

Someone who would do a thing like that certainly does need to be taught better.

I agree. They deserved to be punished.

[A tiny slip, perhaps accidental. Perhaps deliberate. Normally, she would have handled all of this business with far more subtlety but considering what that dog had mean to Gojyo, she'd been loathe to do anything but support him. In hindsight, perhaps she should have tried harder to talk him down but while it's a challenging situation, it's not an impossible one to get out of.]

But there's other concerns now.

[Past tense does suggest that the immediate concern has been taken care of. Hakkai toes off his dirty clogs just inside the door, and pads barefoot towards the kitchen.]

Ah. A matter of revenge for revenge, then?

[He sets the basket down on the counter, and washes the mud from his hands before filling the kettle, although he hasn't noticed the mud streak on his forehead yet.]

Yes. These are people without honor or empathy for those outside their fold.

[From what information Ayumu's managed to glean, anyway. To groom children for a life of violence and crime, to harm the helpless and innocent for no reason other than selfish gain... Taking their lives in penance for their transgressions isn't something she'll regret.]

I'm worried they will target us again. More got away than I would have preferred.

[But they'd been outnumbered and there's only so much two shinki can do against so many men on their own.]

It may come back to haunt us. I have a few ideas of how to handle the situation though.

[The intelligence they'd gathered for the operation had proven useful in more ways than one.]

There are far too many people like that to kill them all. Still -- you may have a chance to escape their notice, if you stay vigilant and avoid reminding them of who you are.

Mortals' memory of us does tend to fade.

[A few of his followers have managed to remember him, from visit to visit: the oldest and most frail, and the youngest, sometimes.

One old woman only remembers him about half of the time, but her cat has started begging him for treats every time he drops by with arthritis medication.]

[He makes a good point. If it was just herself in this mess, laying low until they faded from memory would be an easy enough task. Gojyo, on the other hand, isn't nearly so subtle or disciplined. She sighs, rummaging around her pocket for the note he'd left behind, holding it out to him.]

It's not myself I'm concerned about. I found this at work. Apparently, Gojyo's decided to take off on his own. He seemed fine when I saw him last but...

[She trails off a bit, uncertainly.]

I'm trying to find him but it's difficult. I'm still learning my way around this world. I thought that perhaps Ken might be able to track his scent.

[He turns away from the oven to take the note, and looks down at it, expression blank as he thoughtfully smooths the creases with the edge of his thumb.

It takes much longer for him to respond than it does for him to read it.]

Ken might be able to, yes.

The other person who may be able to help you is Hajime. She can track souls she's met.

Hajime?

[That sounds like someone useful to know. And given how sensitive Gojyo can be when it comes to anyone having something to do with Hakkai, perhaps seeking aid from someone a little more distant would be wiser.]

Do you have her contact information? Once I know his location, I can move forward with my plan.

[Hakkai's right. There are too many of these men to simply kill but maybe there's other ways of dealing with them.]

Ichinose Hajime. She's a goddess. [He finds his memo book, and scratches out a quick map and a goddess name - Neith - before tearing the page out and handing it over.]

It might be easier to distract them if you give them a more memorable target, too. Perhaps they could be turned against each other?

[It'd be hard to wipe a bloody massacre out of their minds, but when they can't quite remember the perpetrators, perhaps a rival gang could be blamed.]

That's the plan, actually.

[Ayumu takes the paper, glances over it, and tucks it away in her pocket. Being so forgettable has its advantages.]

There's bodies but if the trail of blood can be made to lead to someone else, they'll forget about us sooner. If certain parties can be found and contained long enough for events to run their course... With a little luck, they'll thin each other's ranks, reducing the threat.

That's not a bad thought. Although the collateral damage could be difficult to contain.

[Depending on the anger level of the gangs involved-- well, if there are enough bodies, the anger level is going to be high. Hakkai isn't wasting grief on them, but he's not entirely sure that starting a gang war is really the ideal outcome.

It's better than a gang war targeting Ayumu and Gojyo, of course, and that might make it the best possible result now.]

I agree. Damage control will be crucial from that point on. If too many innocents get caught in the crossfire, then we're no better than the men we've been trying to stop.

[Ayumu leans against the counter, going quiet while she thinks. She's too much of a realist to believe that they'd be able to escape this without casualties. But sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good. Saving her friends from future fallout would be nice but cleaning up the neighborhood benefits more than just them.]

This plan would work best with a third party in place. Striking quickly while both sides are distracted and weakened by their conflict with each other would be a prime opportunity for a new influence in its place. A more positive, less harmful one.

[She sighs.]

Of course, they'd need the strength maintain order. I doubt the others would let go of their domain too easily.

It might be easiest to involve the mortal authorities. Beings of the Far Shore can't easily maintain authority among mortals, I suspect. Visibility is too important, and we're too forgettable.

Should the others cause the kind of trouble that it sounds like they may be willing to cause, I think it would overcome any sort of deal that they may have made to keep their illegal activity unbothered by police.

You think so?

[This is part of why she came to him for advice though. Hakkai understands how this world works better than she does. Most of what she knows about this situation comes through the intelligence she's gathered recently and what she's learned from Gojyo. Ayumu might be a quick study but she still has her limits.]

If the authorities took action, that would be best...

[He makes a lot of good points and what he'd just said about visibility gives her an idea of something that might benefit her goddess. That's a different matter though and one she'll put aside for now.]

Setting up a situation that forces them to break whatever agreements they have and then contacting them seems like it could work.

Ha ha, perhaps I'm being too cynical to think that they must have an agreement with the authorities!

[Perhaps they're just good at keeping their criminal activity secret, and the police aren't corrupt at all.

Perhaps pigs will fly.]

But if they don't, it'll be even easier to set them up for arrest.

[Cynical? To Ayumu, that just sounds like realistic consideration. Whether it's true or not, it's a good possibility to be aware of.]

Hopefully. Though it might be better to assume there's an arrangement and plan accordingly. Just to be thorough.

[When in doubt, err on the side of caution. Or what passes for caution in a violent extremist like Ayumu.]

Mhm. I doubt that any agreement would go so far as to cover murder and blood in the streets. Particularly if the press were to report on it.

[Bad publicity: always a powerful force against corrupt authorities.]

[She mulls that over for a few moments. It makes sense. Political pressure can be a powerful tool when applied correctly and with enough force.]

That's a good point. The additional pressure would help push them in the right direction.

[She looks thoughtful, some tension in her shoulders and neck dissipating a bit. Between this conversation and the flowers, this task isn't weighing quite so heavily on her mind now.]

Thank you, Hakkai. This has been a big help.

It's the least I can do.

[The lid of the kettle rattles with steam, and he fusses for a moment with teapot and one of his better grades of loose green tea before handing her one steaming cup. Kishi strolls in through the kitchen door, chirruping curiously at them.]

[Ayumu's eye lights up the way it always does when she sees the cats. She bends down to give Kishi's head a quick pet before straightening to take the cup.]

Still, I appreciate it.

[Without really thinking about it, she moves to sit in her old chair but catches herself, hand resting on its back. She's a guest now and doesn't live here anymore. Maybe she should ask first before sitting down.]

Mind if I have a seat?

Of course I don't mind. [Hakkai smiles at her attention to the little cat; Kishi, meanwhile, purrs ecstatically and weaves around her ankles. Hakkai suspects he's missed her attention, or, at least, her treats.]

Please, consider yourself at home here.

[He hopes she won't take that too seriously -- he'd prefer to be warned before walking in to find her here -- but when it comes to how she should behave, it's serious enough.

He settles into his own chair, hands folded around his cup, and blinks down at it. The steam fogs his glasses immediately, and he half-smiles, reluctantly letting his cup go so that he can take them off, dry them on his sleeve, and leave them folded on the table.]

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