thenearshore | A Chance Encounter

Entry tags:

A Chance Encounter

Who: Dust and Kairi
When: March 14
Where: The streets of the Far Shore
What: Kairi is wandering; Dust is training.

All Dust really did any more was train.

Which he knew was pointless, honestly. At his level, training didn't make much difference. There were no foes he'd face in which a shred more of strength or speed would distinguish victory and defeat. But it was what he knew, what he did, how he functioned.

So the afternoon found Dust jogging down the streets of the Far Shore at a quick clip, almost but not quite a run, as if he had somewhere to get with a purpose and needed to now. Nothing could be further from the truth, though.

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"Hmm, where is it..." Kairi's riding around on Nimbus looking for her new temple when she realizes she's just not been up this high in awhile. So many temples have come and gone that most of her old landmarks are gone with them. She starts to circle lower and lower to try and actually find where she is... and then finds herself floating down a street with a familiar person's back up ahead.

"Dust!" She slows up until she can match his speed, floating along next to him. "Hey Dust, where are you going?"

Dust glanced over his shoulder -- then slowed, because what? Only when Kairi dropped down to her level did he figure it out and relax, a bit sheepishly.

"Hi, Kairi. I'm not going anywhere." He was surprised, honestly, that she was still here -- so many other people had vanished, and it had been a while --

Except, he remembered in a rush, that Forrest had left. He practically jerked with the realization, and hurried to ask, "How are you getting by?"

"Ah... you heard, huh?" He hadn't responded to her BBS post about it, so she wouldn't have been surprised if Dust didn't even know about it. He was hardly alone in ignoring the BBS; plenty of gods and shinki alike who arrived unfamiliar with phones and computers tended to ignore it. Then there were the weeks in the wake of losing both of her gods where she'd ignored it as well.

"I'm doing better, thank you. I have a new temple, at least. I waited a long time before, so I'm hoping it goes better this time." She's thinking entirely about Hajime at this point, not Forrest. She tries not to focus on that loss in public.

He... had nothing to say. He can't be helpful or useful right now. He has nothing to offer, not when a number of other people can offer their consolations and support a hundred times better than he can. Why waste her time, when she needed real help and support and not -- him?

"I'm glad to hear you found a place. If you ever need anything..."

Not that he can offer anything but ineffectual sword strikes, but it's the thought that counts, right?

She stares at Dust, blinking. It's not that she thinks it uncharacteristic of him to offer the help, it's just that she feels that gap between them - because he has offered. Several times, in fact. They've discussed previously his feelings of being nothing but a weapon. And she's never given him any kind of suggestion as to how to help her.

"Well, actually I became a sword again - Leo's my god, though, and he uses magic a lot. We could do some practice moves that might help me be a better shinki for him...?"

But she's not sure if leaning into his strengths is a better idea than, say, asking to do some crafts with him and be willing to teach him.

"Sure, I'd be -- oh, that reminds me."

Dust drew his sword -- a new sword, one Kairi hadn't seen before. Not like the katana he'd gotten from Takumi, but a broad and powerful weapon, with runes on the blade that glowed with their own light.

"Kairi, meet Ahrah. Ahrah, this is Kairi. She's helped me out here, a lot."

The runes flickered, and from the blade came a calm and faintly resonant voice. "Dust has mentioned you."

"Ahrah-?"

All she can get out is that name before the voice comes out of the sword. She's understandably shocked because, if the runed blade had been a vessel for a shinki, a Soulless shinki even, then Kairi wouldn't have been able to hear that voice.

"Oh my gosh..." Kairi jumps down from Nimbus and comes closer to the sword now that Dust has it out for her to see. "Dust, what's- I'm sorry. Ahrah, wasn't it? It's uh nice to meet you."

Perhaps ironically, that was Dust's shinki form. The Blade of Ahrah resonated strongly enough with Dust that he'd assumed its form for both his gods, the two times he'd been invoked.

"To answer your question, I appeared her abruptly a short time ago. I do not know by what means. Dust tells me this has happened to others as well."

"Along with a number of memories," Dust added. "Crazy times, I guess."

Edited 2019-01-05 23:36 (UTC)

"Oh wow!" It's the closest thing Dust's had to someone from his own world, Kairi's pretty sure. She's never seen Dust's vessel form before now, so she has no idea about that connection, but she's pretty sure from the evidence that the blade isn't about to be a person that could be Dust's former best friend, or something like that. ... And yet. She's still happy for him.

Wait-

"Memories too!?" She's not sure if they're good or bad or neutral, but he'd been frustrated about that aspect more than most shinki. "Before training - we could sit somewhere and you could tell me about them, if you want?" Unless they're too private, which she supposes could be possible... but this is Dust, and she's unashamedly confident that she's one of his best friends, even if he's never called her that to her face. "Because that happened when I got my sword too, but mine doesn't talk." There, another point of comparison.

"They're not all that interesting, honestly." Definitely not interesting to a teenage girl with things like friendship and romance and life problems and interests, not when they involved a lot of fighting. "It's -- I remembered Ahrah, mostly. Which means I remember the two people who were with me all my life... and I think I remember everything there is that means anything, about me, because of that."

She looks incredibly confused. Those were all words, but putting them together don't quite mean anything to her. Ahrah is two people? He remembered everything when he remembered his sword?

"Dust, I don't care if they're interesting. They're important to you. That makes them significant to me - whether you want to share them or not, that's your call, but it doesn't change how I feel about them. And you. You're my friend."

Dust let out a low breath when she said that, turning slightly away even though it wasn't as if he'd ever made eye contact to begin with.

"...Sorry. I'm... not the best company right now. I didn't mean to make it sound like you wouldn't care."

She sighs a little, for his sake and not in frustration for herself. "Then just say that, Dust."

She takes two steps to put a hand on his shoulder. "Why hide that from me?" She's seen him at low points before. Surely he hasn't forgotten that? "You just said that I care, so 'If you ever need anything'. That's my feeling too. Sometimes it's possible to help each other when we're both not great company."

"It's... hard to imagine you not being great company," he said with a reluctant little smile. It didn't last long.

"...Celty's gone." Kairi had to have known her, they'd both been here as long as he could remember. "The Far Shore's running low on friends."

"Oh Dust..."

He understands why Celty would hit Dust a little harder than most. Even if they weren't the best of friends - and they might have been, by the sounds of it - she wasn't human. Very visibly wasn't human, like Dust.

"... I'd hug you if it would help." But she's pretty sure she's offered that before and last time he wasn't interested.

"I'm starting to think... I should avoid stuff like that." Not out of habit or preference, but out of necessity. Getting close to people, opening up, feeling things? That just led to pain. For him, anyway. He knew it worked for others, but he wasn't others.

At his side, his hand tightened a little around Ahrah's hilt. "I'd feel better if I could just make a difference. Kill some ayakashi, help some people, you know? But we shinki can't even do that."

"You've never let me do it even once," Kairi mutters. If she'd done it and it didn't help that would be one thing, but she feels like it'd be worth a shot. Still...

She looks confused again. "What do you mean we can't make a difference? Of course we can! Are you talking about answering prayers where an ayakashi are involved? There's always things like that we can help out with."

"The last meaningful thing I did... was help clean up that hot spring hotel, with everyone." He'd tried to help with the volcano, but hadn't achieved anything he considered noteworthy. "Before that, it was helping Orihime win her position back. Before that... Maria helped me get a girl to notice a guy?"

Dust shrugged very slightly, shaking his head.

"I've barely done anything, Kairi, in all the months I've been here. Maybe it's different for you."

"It's... a little more complicated for me, I guess. There were weeks and months at a time there where I didn't have a god at all. Still..." She returns her gaze to Dust. "Just because that's how it's been doesn't mean that's how it has to stay- I mean, who's your god now? Do I know them?"

Because if so, she can fix THIS particular issue of Dust's right now. Or at least give him a good jolt by answering a prayer with him - today.

The half of his face visible tightened slightly.

"It's still Marinette. At least, the name she gave me is still on me."

"But you said...." Kairi was confused, but she shook her head. "Never mind. I'll talk to her later."

She resolves to contact Marinette about why she wouldn't answer the prayers of her followers, supposing it possible that Marinette feels a bit like Kairi used to - that as a young person from a semi-modern world, it was a little bit scary to take it all on. But if she has Dust at her side, she'll be just fine.

"Actually, since it's Marinette, we should be okay-- to answer one of her follower's prayers by ourselves. If you don't want to, I can ask Leo instead."

"I don't think she'll mind. I don't think she'll notice. We haven't exchanged two words since the New Year shrine visits... not that I can blame her."

Resolutely convinced that he was a bad shinki and bad for Marinette, how could he blame her? At this point she'd be better off with literally anyone else, in his opinion.

Kairi frowns at that. "That's... unfortunate, Dust. I'll have a word with her on my own. But for now... let's go back to her temple here in the Far Shore. Then we'll go down to the Near Shore and find a prayer at her shrine. I'm sure we'll find something the two of us can handle."

Preferably with an ayakashi involved. For Dust's sake.

But they couldn't handle an ayakashi. That was the problem Dust struggled with. He was useless on his own.

"Don't worry about Marinette. I can't blame her... I haven't been a good shinki to her at all. But I would feel better if I could do something."

With a slight gesture, he invited her to walk with him back to the temple. Unless she preferred to fly, in which case he'd run.

She quietly notes to leave the issue of Marinette for now. For all she knows, Marinette just doesn't understand Dust as well as Kairi does. Marinette's love of clothes and fashion are something that helped the two girls and Forrest bond just fine, but that also made Kairi sure that Marinette came from a world similar to parts of what she remembers. Maybe Marinette can fight and just doesn't feel the need to... like Dust does.

But that will be for later.

"Then we'll work on the 'something'!" She walks alongside him, hands tucked at her back. "Once we're down in the Near Shore, if the city with her shrine is big enough... unfortunately they're bound to have problems, and at least one of them is sure to be caused by an ayakashi."

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