thenearshore | [Closed] Trouble ahead, trouble behind

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[Closed] Trouble ahead, trouble behind

Who: Chris Yukine, Ginia, and Tsubasa Kazanari
When: March 18th, evening
Where: At a ~~Denny's~~ Steven's somewhere in Tokyo
What: Ginia meets her god and her god's friend for dinner.

Ginia leans casually in the booth, waving as she spots the server leading Chris and Tsubasa in. The booth is toward the back of the restaurant in the middle of the row, good views of the doors, away from the window, easy to haul out if needed. She's not as jumpy as she is these days, but given what's in the backpack at her side, it's a good day for caution.

"Glad you two could make it. I ordered some appetizers and got drink bars for both of you too. Order whatever you want off the menu, my treat." Ginia's phone plays the pre-typed message as she gives a casual smile. Across the table are several small plates of food; fries, fried chicken, fried shrimp, potato salad, roast beef, Ginia didn't quite order one of everything on the appetizer menu, but it's close. If they're going to settle in and talk about the mask and plans going forward, might as well have a good meal out of it.

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Tsubasa actually notes the location Ginia has chosen in the restaurant. It stands out to her anyway, in her years of training as a soldier and warrior, and having been partly trained by an assassin at that.

She is... tired. Extremely tired. Enough that she'd drained her Phonic Gain to a great degree and her Symphogear had actually shut itself off. Not often that really happens. Turns out constantly replicating your Armed Gear like she had been could really wear you out. Normally her fights are short enough, barring an apocalypse or two, that isn't a problem. Not being able to just strike down these monsters so simply, she's going to have to learn how to pace herself.

She was a bit surprised at the invitation, though given some things she'd seen she wanted to speak with Ginia anyhow. She's not expecting her to foot the bill but - well. It wasn't like she had much money yet, anyway.

She smiles and takes a seat, even as her eyes look extremely heavy.

"Ah, thank you. Hm. This almost feels like home."

Which, well. It is still Tokyo, Tsubasa.

"I would say you needn't go through the trouble, but... I'll admit my pockets are a little empty."

Chris? Is also incredibly exhausted. She sits down on the same side of the table as Tsubasa... and pretty much immediately goes for one of the appetizers. In moments, a chicken wing is divested of its meat, with little crumbs of breading and skin lingering at the corners of her mouth.

"Thanks for this Ginia," she manages to say. "This isn't seafood, but it's definitely going to be just as good."

A pause as she picks up the menu and starts looking through it. Her own eyes are heavy too, but she's eyeing it with interest, like she found an oasis in the desert. But even as she looks through it...

"But is this just a victory party, or did you want to talk about something?"

"I have plenty of money to spare, trust me."

A million yen a month is a hefty salary, especially considering there's no need to pay for rent, food, or taxes. It's substantial pay to balance out the sheer amount of work the temple does, and with little need to spend on herself (save for her new addiction to mobile gacha games), it's best to spend on everyone else.

Ginia glances over them, noticing how tired they are. She's pretty exhausted too, though she wears it well. It helps she's had a chance to sit and catch her breath. It also helps her nanotech keeps her well=balanced and energized.

However, the full spread of food is as much for their sake as it is for hers. The joys of never feeling full.

"I figured we could all celebrate surviving today with a good meal, but I have things to talk about too. Let's get orders going first. There's a good seafood menu here, by the way."

No jellyfish or anything else tentacled, but the fish hot pot sounds good.

"Well, thank you for that, at least. I..."

She watches nonplussed as Chris just inhales the chicken wing. Then a thought occurs to her, and her eyes dart around.

"What... time is it?" she asks, desperately searching for a clock. Which reads well past 9PM and actually closer to morning than that time. Her face pales a bit. "Ah, well... I guess I lost track of time, I do not normally--"

She's interrupted.

By her stomach grumbling.

Why no, she hadn't eaten since before the parade. She actually manages to sink into her seat slightly.

"I'll- I'll have just a salad..."

Chris ends up ordering the seafood pasta and a soft drink. There's something cathartic about that. Accompanying it is a large side of fries.

Once their orders are taken, Chris nudges Tsubasa with her elbow. "Senpai, you can't burn the candle at both ends. I know you're an idol, but take care of yourself."

She pushes a few of the apps her way. "At least eat some of these."

Tsubasa eyes the appetizer warily, but sighs, shoulders slumping.

"Very well, but I would like to not make this a habit on my part," she murmurs, before gingerly picking up a fry and eating it. Somewhat dejectedly. Like she's suffered some great, personal defeat.

It's been a long day. Most of her polish and resolve has been worn away. "I will still have the salad, though. And water."

Chris smirked. "Sure senpai. But there's cheese and ketchup if you wanna dip those in anything."

As if to demonstrate, she picked up two fries of her own, and proceeded to double dip them in serving cups of both, before stuffing them into her mouth.

There were untainted ones for both her and Ginia still, of course, but it was the principle of the matter.

Ginia assumes Tsubasa's reluctance to eat is a diet thing. Some of the coworkers are very strict about not eating after a certain hour for their healthy and beauty regiment. Which is maybe a bit strange since shinki are dead and their bodies don't follow the laws of the living. She judges not. More fries for her.

Her own order is the sirloin steak set with an additional smoked salmon salad. Once their orders are in, Ginia helps herself to some of the fried chicken before Chris can inhale the rest of it. She eats fast, the kind of wolfing down done by someone used to eating on the go. It's far tidier and more dignified though.

Once she's done, Ginia wipes off her fingers and unzips her backpack. There's a flash of white inside the pack, the object obvious as she pulls out the mask the ayakashi was wearing and sets it on the table. A little chipped and scuffed from the fight, but otherwise intact. It's a smooth clay mask, the black eye sharp against the stark white.

Tsubasa for her part continues to quietly nurse the fries that Chris has not contaminated, giving her a dull, annoyed look in the process. She doesn't say much until after the orders are in and...

Then nearly chokes on the fry in her mouth.

A drink of water and a couple slaps on her chest later, she clears her throat. "Well, that covers what I was going to ask you about, but I did not anticipate it to be on your person..."

Chris, meanwhile, is in the middle of snarfing down a bunch of noodles she did not cut up, and ends up staring at the mask as it's set before her.

She slurps it up, getting a bit of alfredo sauce all over her face, before speaking.

"What the hell, Ginia!? Give us a warning next time!"

Sometimes you need to get right into the meat of the conversation. Ginia hands Chris a few napkins. Thankfully, none of the sauce splattered onto the mask. She looks at the mask again, a small twist of worry briefly clouding her mood.

A lot of people were hurt today because of this mask. A lot of people were hurt because of the cult. A lot of people died because of the masks.

"For the record, Ebisu is aware I have the mask. I spoke with him and others from our temple about it."

Her fingers drum against the tabletop as she chooses her next words.

"I'll be hiding the mask on the Near Shore for the time being. The mask absolutely cannot be connected to Ebisu or any of you."

"I spoke with a young man during the fight, he controlled... birds?" It comes out as almost a question, because they seemed kind of mechanical. "He was fairly informative about what that mask was, at least as much as he could be given the situation..."

She crosses her arms, leaning back in the seat. She squints at it for a moment.

"Of course, it can't be. But... why, then? Did you take it off the ayakashi?" There's a definite edge of concern on her face, which is saying a lot, because it's more than she'd usually let show.

Edited 2019-01-27 07:08 (UTC)

Chris frowned. "I'm kind of behind everyone else then, because I'm not sure what the masks have to do with anything. I thought they were just part of their look."

She sighed. "I think I need this explained to me before I'm gonna get any of this."

There's only one person Tsubasa's description fits and it happens he's one of the few others who knows the full implications of the masks. That makes it easy, though she'll still have to start from the beginning.

"That was Shun Kurosaki. Nekhbet, one of the new God of Fortunes. He's a friend of mine. I trust him a lot." One of the few people she trusts for that matter. Funny how he inadvertently set him on the path her life ended up taking.

The mask goes back into her backpack. Even without any of Amaterasu's shinki around, even with the restaurant empty as it is, the risks of the wrong person noticing is too high.

"That is a mask that can control ayakashi. It's been seen a few times before, though all before my arrival.

What have you two heard about the old gods? Specifically, Ebisu."

Ah, it being someone Ginia trusts only improves her opinion then. She's even more glad she ran across him in that fight. "Well, that's good to know..."

She eyes the mask warily until it's removed from sight, and she breathes another sigh of relief. The last thing she wants is for all of them to get wrongfully accused of doing something when she's only been here a couple of weeks.

It does raise some concerns, but... she tables those in her head for the moment.

"Mostly? What you've told me. I seem to have met him, in fact." She tilts her head a bit, reaching for another fry. "What you did not tell me is what he looks like."

Kind of surprising to find someone she spoke so highly of to look like a small boy.

"I know Shun," she said, more to Tsubasa than Ginia, who already knew. "He and I met at the festival a while back. He's a good guy."

The mask being removed causes her to breathe a sigh of relief. "I don't know much about the old gods, and all I know about Ebisu is what you've told me. But these masks... the idea ayakashi could be controlled so easily..."

She makes a face, as she grips the edges of the table. Her hands shake, and Tsubasa might recognize her expression from the many times she's thought and talked about Solomon's Cane.

Time to start from the beginning then. It's open knowledge. There's nothing wrong with sharing what she's about to write. It still feels like an intrusion on something very private and personal. Ebisu's temple has suffered enough and she doesn't want to bring more trouble to them.

As she hunts down the cult.

As Ebisu offered protection to Sotero and Kimi let himself be named by the rogue god.

As they have the mask.

Sigh.

"When a new god dies, if they return, they return without any changes. Sometimes their memory is lost, but not always. Some have also returned as shinki. If a new shinki dies, sometimes they return as a god, sometimes they return as a shinki, their memories may or may not be intact.

When an old god dies, they are only reincarnated if their followers believe in them strongly enough. If the belief is there, they reincarnate as a child without any memories. Old shinki do not come back to life."

Tsubasa looks down and picks up her water to take a sip. She listens intently, and gives a nod when she's finished.

"That would... explain why he is a young boy, then."

There's a lot loaded in there she's not going to ask her to elaborate on. That explanation tells her enough. She looks up, though.

"New gods and shinki can effectively go back and forth, though? That's... hrm." She sighs. It makes a few particular thoughts run through her head, but she pushes them aside. "It is not something I am in a hurry to test, but it is good to know."

The implications of what Ginia is saying aren't lost on Chris either, and her face is alight with concern for her shinki.

"I can understand why this is making you approach all of this like you are, Ginia. Does... does Ebisu know about all of this? What happened... to him and everything else?"

She isn't sure how to get her point across without being overt, so once she finds the words, she doesn't try.

It seems far more likely for a shinki to turn god than a god a shinki, but Ginia can think of examples. Maria is the one that stands out, though with her gone now, it seems a bit cruel to bring up. Then there was Ayumu, who began a god, became a shinki, and became a god again after death.

They are truly a strange generation, one that breaks all the rules. Before they separate, Ginia makes a mental note to mention some of the other differences between the generations.

For now, there's more about Ebisu and his temple to talk about.

"Ebisu knows he was reincarnated, yes." More than once, though that's a far more private matter. Ginia pauses again, typing out her words a little slower, pausing again before she presses play.

"What you need to understand are the circumstances of Ebisu's death. He was executed by Heaven. They believed he was controlling ayakashi with masks based on circumstantial evidence. His shinki were tortured and murdered to find his location."

Truth be told, Maria is exactly who Tsubasa is thinking of. It puts a couple pieces together in her head that she didn't have before. But, she can't really bring that up, as Ginia goes on, and... Well. Tsubasa's eyes dart from her, to the bag, and back to her.

"So," she starts slowly, choosing her words carefully. She glances to Chris briefly, before going on. "This seems like a good time to ask, considering that, why you took and are carrying around that mask. Because I cannot think of more circumstantial evidence than that, to be entirely honest."

Chris feels the anger boiling up inside of her. It's hard to imagine Ebisu as anything other than a child, so her natural protective instincts have taken root.

But Maria is on her mind as well. She scowls, sadly, before sighing.

"Yeah, I... I'm kind of worried that's like painting a target on your back, Ginia. What do you have to gain from this?"

It's a consideration Ginia, Ebisu, and everyone else at the temple is aware of. Heaven barely needs an excuse to do what they consider "Right" and "Just" and the mere sight alone would bring an execution order with no hesitation. It's why she's keeping the mask on the Near Shore.

Still a risk though. As is everything else she does.

"Before I arrived, there was a vice-principal using ayakashi to drain energy from school children. He summoned a demon using a cup with the same symbol on the mask. When I questioned him a few months ago, he said he was given a summoning book that also disappeared.

There was also talk of a sorcerer controlling ayakashi. A few old gods believe Ebisu was blamed for his actions. I've wondered for awhile if he was connected to the cult, same with the vice-principal. After today, coupled with a confirmed sighting of a known cult member, it feels more definitive.

I can't bring back the dead. I doubt Heaven would even care if I gave them proof they were wrong. But if the mask can lead me to the bastard behind everything, if the cult can finally be stopped, if I can give my temple some closure, it's worth the risk."

Tsubasa focuses on this for several long moments before finally speaking up. It raises a number of concerns, but...

"I understand. Completely, truly. I do not think in the same situation I would be doing much differently. If there is any way that we could help to stop those responsible, I would like to think we'd do what we can."

An uncomfortable beat.

"However." She sighs. "None of us will be good dead. I hope it is not out of line, and I will admit this is a personal bias as her friend, but..." She eyes that bag again. "It does give me pause for some concern given you are also sworn to Yukine."

Chris can understand unfinished business; that was what led to her trying to put an end to Solomon's Cane.

She just hoped Ginia avoided the kinds of mistakes she did.

"I mean, I don't want Ginia to die either, senpai," she said. "And yeah, we've talked about what kinds of risks she's facing coming back on me. So... I want to stress again, that you have to be smart about this, Ginia. And I sure as hell don't want to have what happened to Ebisu happen to me."

She made a face. "I'm not going to release you or anything, but. If you're getting in over your head, get help. Don't do this alone. Obviously, if things get too bad, we'll do what has to be done... but working together means it'll be that much harder to get to that point."

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