thenearshore | 34 - Love is in the Air

34 - Love is in the Air

Who: Everyone!
What: An enterprising pair of shinki is trying to spread love throughout the Far Shore with exciting blind dates.
When: February 14
Where: Hot romantic spots throughout Tokyo
Summary: Blind dates on Valentine's Day? Sounds like fun (or possibly a disaster, but everyone needs some good disaster stories.) That's not all that's going on, though. Ayakashi are looking to chow down on the negative emotions that a romantic holiday can generate, and those who aren't busy with their own dates might be sucked into helping out followers who need help to make the day go well.

The Dates

Blind Date Matchups

Date One: The Romantic Brunch.
Couples will find themselves with reservations (and pre-paid coupons for the prix fixe menu) at a swanky French restaurant with a wide balcony overlooking the lake in a central Tokyo park. They can dine on dainty pastries, sweet milk coffees, bowls of grapes and hothouse strawberries, and a selection of fancy chocolates and petit-fours-- plus, some of the trees in the park are blooming in holiday-appropriate red and white!

Date Two: The Aquarium.
Couples scheduled for this date have tickets to a rooftop aquarium in Ikebukuro: brightly colored fish, animals including penguins, seals and pelicans, a small petting zoo and plenty of shadowy, secluded nooks to cuddle in make for a fun lunchtime date. The tickets even include admission to the one o'clock penguin and seal show!

Date Three: The Amusement Park.
This date sends couples to spend the evening enjoying themselves at a seaside amusement park. Ride the roller coasters! Take selfies with the costumed attendants! Share an overpriced ice cream cone while you watch the fireworks after sunset, then wind up the night with a ride on the colorfully lit Ferris wheel with a romantic view of the Tokyo skyline.

Ayakashi Menace

dove

shadow

teddy bear

need

Praying for Love

Wild Card

In Summary:

Enjoy your dates
Fight some ayakashi
Make sure to answer prayers for a good Valentine's Day
Have fun~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Hakkai checks his watch, looks up and around for the server, shrugs slightly, and tosses a crumpled few bills on the table. It's too much, but they can come back once they've checked Votelli's shrine.]

Let's. Where is it?

[His smile is a little sharp-edged as he adds:]

As soon as we're sure she has a few other followers, we can do something about that 'Sensei.'

[ Gojyo's mouth goes dry, and he makes a mental note to find other excuses to get Hakkai to smile like that. Maybe they don't need to cuddle much. Maybe they can just kill people. ]

It's next to that big gardening store, on the north side of town. [ He's not really dressed for this adventure, but at least his coat is warm! ] You know where that is?

[ Can we teleport instead of taking the bus? is the real question there. ]

I think I do. [He knows of a big gardening store on the north side of town, at least. He steps around the edge of the table and offers Gojyo a hand. They can teleport-- which means, if this doesn't take too long, they might even get back in time to finish dinner.]

Shall we?

[ Hakkai holds out his hand so casually, and Gojyo takes it without hesitation. It's just so they can teleport, he knows. No need to make a big thing about it. ]

Let's do it.

[ The gardening store Hakkai was thinking of is the right one -- it's big, big enough to carry small trees and pallets of brick and stone, and not just the little houseplants and bug traps that some of the other shops in the area offer. Big enough to have its own parking lot. Around the side of the building, where the parking lot wraps around, is one of those heavy plastic gardening sheds, just big enough for a person to stand inside, and it's this shed that Gojyo had turned into a shrine.

To his amazement, it's still intact. There's the bell that he stole from Kali's shrine, the carefully painted TORIMOTO down the inside of the doors, a scrap of curtain across the back. There's even water -- the shrine is pushed up against the wall where a spigot juts out, and there's a hole cut in the plastic back of the box to let it poke through, over a (thankfully empty) basin. The donation box is missing, of course, but that's to be expected. The body of the shrine is still here, and maybe that's enough. ]

[It's in one piece, at least; and it looks like a real shrine. The bell, the name, the water basin, the name written down the shrine doors--

Bird forest? Hakkai blinks at it.]

Where did you get the name?

[He takes out a tissue, running it lightly over the top edge of the empty basin, and checks. There's a smudge of dirt visible against the tissue, but not too much.]

-- I think someone must be coming in here.

[ After an initial and very brief once over of the shrine, Gojyo's instead been watching the streets around them. There's plenty of people out, but they're all on the street, driving up and down. Nobody's paying attention to a box store that's closed for the night, and that's a good thing. Gojyo's just going to keep an eye out and make sure it stays that way. ]

She suggested it. The name. [ Although, would he even know if they were being watched? If one of Amaterasu's shinki stumbled out from behind a tree, maybe, but she's not that sloppy. ] Can you tell if it's been working?

[He nods, and continues wiping down the basin as he looks over the shrine. His own shrine has a certain atmosphere, something that even his chi training can't help him parse out but that he's learned to recognize; he hasn't felt it in other shrines, though, and he doesn't feel it here.

Which doesn't mean it's not working.]

If people are visiting it, then they're doing something. I don't see any offerings, though...

[After a moment, still frowning, he shakes his head.]

I think we'd have to ask her.

[ Gojyo glances over his shoulder briefly, frowning at Hakkai. What's he doing? Wiping out the bowl? Why? Why the bowl, and not any of the rest of it? ]

I figured any offerings would get stolen, but I didn't know if it mattered, so long as they'd been offered. [ The book hadn't been clear about that. The book hadn't been clear about a lot of things -- fuck but he wishes he could have just asked somebody, instead of having to figure all this out on his own! ] Guess I'm not very good at magic stuff.

[The bowl first, and he's folding the tissue to reveal a clean side as he moves on to wiping down the rest of the little shrine. Name first, then the bell, which is a bit less dusty, it seems.]

If humans are coming here, you've done something right.

[He glances up, the curious frown shading into a small smile.]

I don't know nearly enough about metaphysics to guess what, that's all.

[ Oh. So he's just cleaning it from the bottom up, okay. Gojyo shrugs it off, attention going back to their surroundings and any potential threats. Hakkai likes to clean -- that's nothing unusual. ]

I've tried to find her. A couple times, now. [ Now that he knows she leaves the forest sometimes with Sensei, that makes more sense -- and it's certainly a nicer thought than the idea that the shrine didn't work and she's dead. ] How long ago did you say you saw her on that video?

The footage was from a little over a month ago, but I didn't find it until recently.

[He quirks a brief smile, and adds, apologetic:]

There was a lot to cover.

I suppose the forest's rather large, too. I'll help you look for her.

[ A month. She was alive a month ago. That's something.

That's also not that long after he'd set the shrine up here. Gojyo doesn't turn around, keeping his eyes on the road, but his voice drops low like he's speaking right into Hakkai's ear. ]

A messed up shrine wouldn't hurt a god, would it?

[ What if tying her name to a shrine that was set up incorrectly somehow drained her magic, instead of recharging it? What if using another god's shrine parts meant that the prayers went to that other god? What if? ]

[Hakkai glances up -- well, yes, of course. He hadn't been able to find her in the last few times he'd visited the forest; of course he's worrying.]

I can't imagine how it could.

[He folds the soiled tissue and tucks it into his pocket, since there's nowhere to throw it away here, and he's not going to litter Votelli's shrine, small as it is. Hands free again, he straightens up, and puts a hand, lightly, on Gojyo's shoulder.]

The worst that might happen is that it doesn't work.

[With a different name on it, far away from where she stays, it wouldn't even provide much of a clue if the Heavens found it; there's no way she could have been hurt by Gojyo's efforts.]

[ The touch is unexpected -- Gojyo's shoulder jumps beneath Hakkai's hand, but there's no mistaking the relief in that smile. ]

Okay. [ Hakkai doesn't know as much about shrines as Gojyo wishes he did, but if he says that the shrine didn't hurt Votelli, Gojyo's going to believe that until proven otherwise. He takes a deep breath, his breath fogging in the chill air. ] Okay, so let's go find her.

[ Not right this second, obviously. ]

Tomorrow?

[Hakkai returns his smile; it's embarrassing how much better he feels to be trusted enough to see this little handmade shrine.]

Tomorrow. I'll meet you at noon.

Ah, if you'd like, we can probably get back to the restaurant in time to finish dinner...

[If they're lucky, the waitress won't have noticed their table and cleared it. He's not particularly hungry, but the food had been good, and they'd barely had time to start eating after their fight and before leaving the table. He offers Gojyo a tiny quirk of a smile.]

[ I'd like to spend more time with you, says Hakkai, and Gojyo can feel his mood lifting.

(Not just his mood, to be honest... although with how tight his pants are there isn't room for much lift.) ]

I'm not gonna say no! [ Little smiles, private meals, working together to overthrow the people in power. This is okay. This is better than okay. Maybe Hakkai's right, maybe sex would just get in the way.

He's got his memories. That'll be enough.

He meets Hakkai's tiny smile with a broad one of his own, and holds out his hand. ]

I'm starving.

[Hakkai's smile widens, just a little, in response, and he folds his hand around Gojyo's to take them both back to the street just outside the restaurant.

He doesn't release Gojyo's hand immediately; it's warm in his, and the mid-February breeze is brisk.]

So am I.

[He lets go, and steps inside. There's a plate of sliced meats ready on their table -- the main course, good -- and the waitress is standing next to it, counting the money he'd left, looking confused.

Perfect timing.]

[ She looks so confused, poor lady. Confused, and when she spots them, guilty. Does she think they think she's stealing from them?

Well, that's easily fixed. ]

Don't mind us. [ He shrugs out of his jacket and drapes it over the back of his chair, casual as anything. ] Just stepped out for a smoke, and didn't want you thinkin' we'd bailed on the tab. [ He nods at the cash, favoring her with his smoothest, flirtiest grin. The grin is actually for Hakkai, of course. ] Don't think we're done yet, though.

[ Things get a little squeezed as he slides into his seat, but it's a good reminder to keep his mind out of his pants. His palm still holds a ghost of the heat from Hakkai's hand, and he rubs it casually across his mouth, breathing in the faint scent of Hakkai's soap. ]

Think we could get some tea?

Yes, please, tea would be appreciated.

[Gojyo has the situation well in hand, sprawling down into his chair and grinning at her with his familiar charm. He's in a good mood again, it seems, without the tension he'd had when Hakkai arrived but with plenty of cheer, and Hakkai finds himself watching Gojyo charm the waitress with an affectionate smile of his own before she bustles off to settle their bill and get their tea. He ducks his head and reaches for one of the plates to fill with some of the grilled meats on their sample platter.]

[ He's watching Hakkai out of the corner of his eye the entire time, a subtle observation that becomes blatant once the waitress leaves. He got Hakkai to smile again -- that's more smiles than he'd counted in the whole previous month. How can he make that happen again?

Talking. Hakkai likes talking. Gojyo opens his mouth, then thinks better of the first thing that comes to mind... and the second... and he has to laugh and look away for a moment, shaking his head. This is harder than he thought it'd be. What's safe to talk about? ]

I think it's your turn to pick th'topic. [ It's not cowardly, he tells himself. It's fair. He brought up Votelli, and now it's Hakkai's turn to fumble through this awkward silence. He fills his own plate, the suit's seams creaking audibly with every movement. ] You'd better speak up though, 'cause this getup's getting louder all the time.

Fashion is suffering. [Hakkai makes his tone as stuffy and solemn as he can, shooting Gojyo an amused look -- the suit really is a little tight on him, despite how comfortable the coat looks.

A new topic -- hm.]

Have you seen the school lately? All of the ash from the volcano seems to have turned the yard into a garden.

[Dryly, he adds:] Without collapsing the roof, which I was grateful for.

[ He honestly can't remember the last time he went by the school. Maybe he should fix that? If it's something Hakkai's interested in, then it should be something he's interested in, too.

But what the hell part of a school would a guy like him find interesting? ]

Oh yeah? That's good. You were lucky!

[ Maybe that boulder that he and the magical princess horse blocked was one that was destined for the school roof? That's a nice thought, but that mountainside was absolute chaos -- the fact that the school survived really can't be anything other than luck. ]

So what're you growin'? Flowers?

Actually, yes. They've all sprouted on their own. [It's, well, it looks like a fairyland more than anything else.]

If I'd had my way it would mostly be vegetables, but I have to admit it's prettier like this.

Perhaps if I took some pictures they'd work for advertising.

[ Now he's got a mental image of Hakkai strolling through a flower bed, on a warm sunny day, looking a little ragged and dirty from working in the garden, cheeks flushed, leaning over to sniff a rose...

God he's an idiot.

Quickly, he stuffs a hunk of meat into his face before he can say anything stupid. ]

Advertising?

[ Damn. You know, he's glad they came back -- this meal is fantastic! How'd they get the meat so tender? ]

I thought there were a bunch of kids there takin' classes already. [ ...Oh, wait. His brow crinkles into a frown. ] Shit, don't tell me they've all disappeared.

No, not all of them. But some of them, and we haven't gotten as many newcomers...

He picks out a piece of meat himself, taking a bite, and his eyebrows go up in surprised approval. Slow-cooked, he thinks, with a quick sear at the end for flavor: he'll have to try that himself, and see if he can match this.]

Ah, this is good, isn't it? In any case, I thought it would be a good idea to get a bit of publicity.

[A line deepens at the corner of his mouth. Publicity, as if his stay will be indefinite, as if the school does any good other than helping him maintain the framework of his days. It does at least do that; losing himself in working in the stillroom would be as easy, but perhaps less good for him, in the long run. It's also good to have a place to help out the newcomers and keep an eye on the lost children who find themselves trapped here, of course.

After a moment, perhaps too honestly, he adds:] Maybe it's just habit that keeps me teaching them.

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