thenearshore | The Rogue Shinki

Entry tags:

The Rogue Shinki

Who: Zero and Open.
What: Random
When: End of April
Where: Around
Warnings: None

i. The Bench

Surprisingly, the rogue shinki can often be seen occupying a bench in the park. He spends a lot of time in the Near Shore, feeling a pull to the world he no longer belongs in. He sits there for quite a while, watching the living go through their day. It relaxes him, allowing him to focus on something else aside from his lost memories.

When someone sits beside him, Zero turns to look at them when a ball unexpectedly hits his foot drawing his attention away from the newcomer and towards the toddler heading his way. Zero nudges the ball to him and the kid bends down, almost loses his balance, and picks it up before oh so carefully standing back up again. Those small eyes look up at him and Zero stares back wondering if he-- Someone calls the child's name and the toddler obediently turns around heading back to his play area.

"Do you think he saw...?"

ii. Learning Curves

A gust of wind brings the scent of blood in the air stopping him in his tracks. He stills and looks around.

"Who's there?"

Still unaware of his powers, he doesn't realize the source is far off from his location. So he follows the trail, thinking someone's injured nearby. He tracks the scent further until he can feel the pinpricks of pain shooting through the tattoo that mars his neck. He clutches his neck, but keeps moving. It's not so bad yet, and if someone really is---He catches the heartbeat of another close by and quickly veers off toward them before suddenly coming into their peripheral and--

"Are you bleeding?"

Hello stranger. He doesn't wait for a response before he's halfway to you.

iii. The Prayer

"I'm not your scratching post."

He's all glowers and a slanted mouth. Yet, he's carrying the cat with gentle ease, which the feline uses to its advantage in its next prison break but Zero knows her ploy by now and doesn't let go, which is when the cat employs a new tactic and suddenly switches from wiggling in his grasp like a snake to going utterly still and making a long crying noise. The sudden change has Zero immediately loosening his grip thinking he's hurt her which is when the kitty turns traitor and scratches him a third time before kicking out of his grasp and landing on the ground at a running pace.

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Itachi was quick to scoop it up. The cat seemed to almost run into his arms, and he had no problem in taking it into his arms. It almost looked as if the two fit well together. If that was the case, he couldn't be happier.

Instead, he spotted a familiar face. At first, he thought maybe he had dreamed the entire thing, sitting under a tree with the smell of cherry blossoms and soft conversation, but he found that to not be the case. The cat shifted in his arms, mewling. Red eyes glanced down to it, then back up at Zero.

"...Fancy seeing you here," Was the reply.

His eyes narrow on the cat, and he's about to chase him down a third time when his feet come to an immediate stop when it suddenly gets scooped up by a pair of hands. His eyes snap up and his brows furrow. He remembered him, from the festival. But no sooner does he recall the memory than he see's the damn cat settle down, not struggling even an inch!

"........."

Was he really---

"Traitor."

Edited 2016-09-24 23:41 (UTC)

The cat mewled again, looking at Zero before rolling onto it's back for Itachi, inviting the other shinki to pet him. The shinobi looked down, gently stratching at the top of the cat's head.

"Is he yours?"

The moment he rolls onto his back for Itachi, Zero just stares at them both.

"........"

Damn Cat!

Edited 2016-09-24 23:51 (UTC)

"No."

A rough response, not at all impressed by its sudden allegiance wi--with... he never got his name.

"A prayer. He's the wish." A glower. "For some reason."

"A prayer?" Sorry, he's not 100% filled into much of anything yet. But he walked over a little closer to Zero, looking up at the taller man. His hand still stroked the top of the cat's head.

"Oh." A bit of a look over. He stills in petting the creature. "You were scratched."

"We fulfill prayers left by people. It's our duty."

He explains, as he walks over to him. His eyes fall on the cat who begins to move again the instant it got closer to him. Zero narrows his eyes. It wasn't the first animal that seemed to dislike him.

The question catches him off guard, and he looks up at him. "It's fine. It's not that bad." He pulls down on the sleeve of a white shirt, hiding his wrist from view where the damn thing clawed him. It was fine though. It'd heal... like the last one. The cat had marked his face twice but both marks were all but gone now.

Edited 2016-09-25 00:21 (UTC)

He nods his head. Zero was right, it didn't look that bad, just a scratch, so he didn't question it any further. He looked down at the struggling cat, who wasn't trying to get out of Itachi's arms, but more bury itself into him.

"Was the cat lost?" He inquired. He shifted his arms to better accommodate the now wiggling creature. He could feel the tiny pinpricks of claws that were beginning to bury into his shoulder, but made no comment.

Zero saw what it was doing and backed up two paces. "A few days now."

It settled down.

"The little boy seemed worried." Which is why he took it in the first place.

"That's kind of you."

He had to pry the cat out of his shoulder. He held the cat out towards Zero. "Here, you sho--"

RAAAAAAAAAAAAWR!!! And the cat struggled again, letting out a loud yowl that almost made Itachi drop it. The cat scrambled out of his hands, into Itachi's shoulder again. He held it against his chest again.

"...Looks like it's not thrilled about seeing you, Zero-san." A pause. "...You must have chased it with a lot of vigor."

The moment the damn cat goes crazy Zero backs off again.

"Fine! I'll stay over here!"

Zero tells the cat, looking not quite so angry but upset. He expected it to hiss at him or something but this...

Edited 2016-09-25 00:46 (UTC)

The cat settled down. Itachi's eyes, which had been eyeing the rowdy animal, looked back up to Zero. He was silent for a spell, one of slight awkwardness, before--

"If you're taking the cat back to the boy, I'll come with you," He offered.

Zero nods, his eyes on the cat before shifting them up to---

"I didn't get your name."

He fell asleep soon after, and Zero only stayed long enough to make sure he didn't wake up alone then silently nodded at him before heading out of the cherry blossom grove.

...That's right. He had fallen asleep and never gave it. The dark-haired man glanced down to the cat, who had gone back to reclining normally. His gaze drifted back upwards.

"Itachi," He stated, eyes on the other. "...Like the animal."

Weasel.

A nod. "Zero."

He looks at the cat doting in his arms and turns. "The house is a ways away."

"I remember." Now he just felt rude; the other had told him his name before but he hadn't. Great.

At mentioning the boy was a bit far out, Itachi nodded. "That's fine." It wasn't as if anyone was expecting him. He wasted no time in following the other, keeping pace but at a small distance. With Zero's back turned, however, the cat didn't seem to mind the other as much.

He started looking around the area. This was his first time venturing to the Near Shore, but even so, everything was incredibly... different than he expected it to be. The buildings and houses looked more... sleek and efficient than what his own memory could recall. The tall buildings in the distance looked foreign.

The opposite proved true with Zero. The easy neighborhoods that sprawled before them were similar enough to his world for his mind to process them with ease. And the tall buildings that spiraled up in the distance marking the inner city were even more familiar to the Hunter. To him, this was normal, which was why he spent so much time in the Near Shore. It soothed something in him that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

Turning to see if he ventured too far ahead, Zero turned back to see Itachi take in the sight with a sort of...

"We're almost out of the park." And true to his words, a few minutes later they stepped into the pavement of the local neighborhood.

"He lives closer to the city," meaning they'd need to walk quite a bit. "It'd be faster if we had a car."

He looked up towards Zero when he spoke again, dragging him out of his thoughts. He took a few quicker paces towards him. The cat was beginning to lull off.

"Car?" Was that slang for... "Do you mean 'carriage'?"

They had carriages in his world too. A mix of old world and tech that locked seamlessly into place, which is why his correction didn't arouse any quandaries in him.

"No, I don't think neighborhoods like these would have carriages." Those were more popular among the aristocracy. The rich with their isolated homes filled with endless empty rooms.

"There," he gestures toward a car that turned into the street to drive past them.

Itachi watched as the car drove past. He was slowly catching up to Zero as they walked, but opted to remain just slightly behind him, off to the side. He watched the vehicle drive away. "I see...

"I've never seen anything like it." He had noticed odd gaps in technology. A car seemed to be in line with the same technology as a television, but he knew of them but not of a car? Strange. He couldn't piece together where he must have come from... an odd mix of things. Shrines and apartments stacked together were familiar, but suburban homes like the ones they were passing seemed out of place, at least in looks.

That line caused Zero to stop in place and turn back at him to look at him, really look at him.

"...."

How did he not know...

"What else looks out of place?"

"I saw someone use something called a 'smartphone'..." He replied as he paused. He shifted the sleeping cat in his arms. "I've never seen them before, either.

"These houses look odd," He stated, looking around at them, before back to Zero. "And this," His foot tapped on the concrete sidewalk. "Is odd, carriages are on dirt and cobblestone, not slabs of hard rock.

"The tall towers in the distance... they look as if they're made of stone and glass." His red-eyed gaze looked towards them. "...It's all unfamiliar.

"The shrines I've seen around here are the closest things to... feeling familiar."

Something inside tipped to the side on seeing the uncommon red of his eyes. It was different from his but... was he....

His eyes blinked, catching half his words, but then he didn't need too. He understood.

"When I first arrived, someone told me the shinki and gods were taken from different worlds. Maybe your world," he looks at the not so unfamiliar setting, "is different from this."

"Different worlds..." That felt right. It felt as if he had been completely taken from a different world than this one... not that he knew very much. It more felt as if he could see shadows of places but nothing he could pinpoint, such as specific cities or anything like that. None of the names here, such as this place, Japan, were familiar either. "That would explain things, if that were the case.

"So a world like this is where you come from." And he looked around again. "I've just been wandering around since I last saw you. I figured I may as well get to know this new world I've been thrown into.

"Perhaps I should try to answer prayers as well, if I am going to be around."

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