thenearshore | [closed]

Who: Ebisu, Aomi, and various out-temple workers
What: Time for a relaxing trip to Kanagawa, before the next thing blows up.
Where: Kanagawa
When: Sometime after that compound mess

Kanagawa Prefecture has a lot of good points. There's an opening to the ocean, a lake for touring, beautiful views of Mt. Fuji wherever you look, and all sorts of interesting museums or temples. Aomi, the organizer of this little trip, agrees for everyone to meet at Iiyama Kannon an hour or two before noon. An easy famous place that people hopefully won't get lost going to, and all. Until then, well, people are free to go wherever they like. They don't even have to stay in Atsugi, where the meeting area is supposed to be. There are beaches not that far off, zoos to enjoy various animals, parks where carefully cultivated flowers are in gleeful bloom, a bustling Chinatown, and even the little island of Enoshima.

When the time comes to meet up, however, Aomi can be found alongside Ebisu with a bulging backpack and he does a quick headcount to make sure everyone is there before continuing on. The ultimate destination isn't any of the many tourist attractions in Kanagawa, but rather he leads away from the cities and towards the forests of the prefecture. Aomi would have made sure to remind everyone that morning over text to wear hiking boots.... so hopefully they all remember to do that, because the path chosen is one that has no actual path at all. Hopefully no one gets hurt, although it shouldn't be too hard.

What's the destination? That much becomes obvious once they hit some more even land, where a small stone monument has been placed at the base of a fully blossoming Japanese wisteria. Here, Aomi will let everyone know it's fine to take a break, and settle down. It's here that he'll help spread out some various picnic blankets and begin unpacking from his enormous backpack. He's been courteous enough to pack lunch for just about everyone, and a good variety in case any one dish doesn't suit someone. There's delectably spicy yokosuka curry, juicy shirokoro horumon, rare to get shonan pork sausages, and a variety of sushi that takes full advantage of being from a seaside prefecture. Everyone is free to relax beneath the wisteria blossoms and enjoy the view peeking out from the trees.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's immensely flattering. Ginia looks upward and tilts her head away, hiding the faint blush beginning to warm her cheeks. She remembers Chris mentioning not getting along with Luger on the first post they spoke to each other on. Did Luger even have a name at that point or was he simply the soulless shinki in her care?

Ginia personally doesn't feel like she did anything to help. She knows by seniority, she's technically Chris's exemplar, but it's not anything they've talked about either. Frankly, D2 is better suited for the role. She's more trouble than any kind of guidepost or leader.

Luger also has no reason to lie. Can soulless shinki even lie?

"I know not everyone is comfortable with soulless shinki. I don't think I did anything, but I'm glad you two get along. Honestly, I think you're more dependable for her than I am."

As it turns out, Luger didn't have a name then. It was speaking to Ginia and Kairi that got them to talk to each other that evening, as it turned out.

"You don't have to feel like you did anything. You were disconnected from it all, and not close to Chris at the time being. But. It mattered to us in the long run."

He laughed. "It's not really a contest, you realize. You've got more going on than I do. Honestly, I'm not sure I understand all the work you do, Lady Ginia, or the risks you tend to take. All I really know how to do is to be of service."

"All my work is in service of my gods, the same as you."

Ginia looks upward at the wisteria framing all of them, planted centuries ago by the shinki seated not too far from them. While their generation certainly breaks things by not fitting within a role, gods and shinki rely on each other.

"Ebisu and Chris aren't all that different. Their methods may be different, but at the root, they both want to protect and help the people around them and make a better world. It's what I want too so it works out."

Sometimes it's slaying ayakashi, sometimes it's handing out flyers, sometimes it's entering information into databases for hours on end, and sometimes it's acting against Heaven's orders in search of knowledge.

"You know, you can just call me Ginia."

"That may be true," he said. "But you know things beyond work. Beyond service. I sit here right now and I feel as though I should be doing something. I know that this is beautiful, that this is fun, but... well. I'm not sure it's quite the same as it is for you."

He said that all with the same, simple smile on his face.

"But a better world. That's definitely worth working towards. And very well, I shall call you Ginia, if that's what you prefer."

"I didn't always know what to do beyond work."

The wisteria stir lightly from a soft breeze, a few petals drifting down. When she first arrived, she would have felt antsy sitting here, doing nothing, unable to enjoy the peace of things and simply be. For awhile, she wondered if it was a cosmic mistake she wasn't a soulless shinki.

"It took awhile finding things to be interested in, to shake off the feeling I should be working or doing anything else. And I guess most of my hobbies began around being useful, but I enjoy them too."

She sighs softly and looks over to where Chris is.

"Honestly, Chris and I met at a good time. A few months earlier and I was a complete mess."

"Perhaps. But you did say 'always'. I'm rather sure this is always the case for me. Other shinki want more, but... I'm fine with this."

He looked past her, looking almost wistfully at the leaves. For a moment, you might wonder if there's something more complex about him, something yearning for more than the life of a soulless shinki.

But then it becomes clear he was just focusing as they landed, and he looks back at her, his simple expression returning.

"I'm sorry that was the case for you. If you ever need to talk about your problems... well, I suppose I'm your shinki too, yes?"

Shinki are rooted in humanity, but can the same be said for soulless shinki? Their name is a contradiction as shinki are souls. So if soulless shinki are then a construct made to serve, can they be more than what their nature dictates? Can anyone be more than what they were meant to be?

Ginia mulls on that as she looks at Luger, feeling too limited to come up with a solid answer. Her gut says yes, but Ginia knows it's because she wants to be more than what she thinks she is. She needs to be more than what she knows, has to be.

"Most of it has passed. Joining Ebisu's temple was a heavy change but one I'm ultimately happy for. It's one of the best things to have happened to me."

There's no denying the effect having a stable temple and constant company has had on someone with a tendency to withdraw into herself.

"But thank you for the offer, Luger, I'll keep that in mind. Allow me to take care of you too."

"I see. Well then, I am glad that Lord Ebisu has been so graceful to and so helpful for you."

He smiled yet again. That same innocent, but somehow shallow-looking smile he always made.

"There's not much that I need, but I am thankful nonetheless, Lady... I mean. I am thankful, Ginia."

"It was him and his shinki."

In some ways, more his shinki as there are so many of them and he is only the one. Funny how she'd expected to disappear into work and become one of many and found the exact opposite happening. Ebisu's shinki are many in number and they watch out for each other. She needed care and someone to watch out for her and she found it then.

"Ebisu is my fourth god, Chris my fifth. I have a long history for six months."

"... I see. That feels incomprehensible to comprehend. I have only existed for a short time, and it already feels like an eternity. To me, six months seems like an entire lifetime."

And yet, through saying all of that, he didn't break his smile.

"But either way. The place you're at now, it can't be a bad thing, can it?"

"And some shinki in the temple have lived for over a thousand years."

Scale is all relative. She'll consider it some success if she can survive a year when so few have made it past that. And with a year, may there be another and another. Will she eventually stop counting, the decades passing by without much thought?

"No, it isn't. I couldn't be happier. I hope you can be as happy with Chris."

But she knows what his answer is already. Would he say the asme if he were with anyone else?

"Time is truly relative, is it not?"

Strange mins think alike, Ginia.

"I am, trust me. But I am happy that you are happy as well. I hope you can continue to be so. You deserve it, I think."

Does she? It's a thought she can't justify, but it hangs in her mind and gnaws on her. A shinki forgets their life so they can't envy the living. A shinki forgets their life so they can have a second chance. But they are not like normal shinki in any regard.

Ginia shoves away the doubt before it can consume her. It's a good day. Why ruin it for herself?

"Thank you, Luger. You do as well."

"I will take your word for it," he replies, before sitting back on his arms and staring up at the sky with the same, simple smile he always has.

It's all he's capable of, really.

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