thenearshore | Two sides to every story. [closed]

Hakkai starts as the ringing of his phone interrupts him mid-chapter, and sets his book down to pull it out of his pocket and check the number. It's unfamiliar. That's interesting, he thinks, and answers.

"Hello, Cho Hakkai speaking?"

A beat as Suijin mentally sighs- she rather wishes that the new shinki would introduce themselves properly. But it is a small matter for now.

"Good afternoon, shinki Cho Hakkai. I am called Suijin. I am calling to request a moment of your time."

"Ah. Please forgive me, I didn't recognize the number," Hakkai says, affecting a deferential tone. Suijin. He remembers her, although the memory isn't clear; he'd been half-conscious at best. "I believe I owe you a debt of thanks. How can I help you?"

Ah, so he had heard Fuujin say her name, and perhaps then realized that she'd been the one to initially ease his pain. Good, that smooths the way for her.

"I would like to speak with you in person about that very incident. Are you available now?"

"Yes." There's a muffled sound of movement audible over the phone as he extracts himself from the sofa, leaving his book on the coffee table, and starts towards the door. He should probably receive her as an honored guest and break out the good tea. On the other hand, he doesn't want to associate Gojyo too closely with his interactions with Amaterasu's counselors.

It's possible they've already punished Elsa for her actions, after all.

"I can meet you outside near the temple of Dionysus, if you wish," he offers politely.

"Very well." A brief pause as she teleports then, "I shall meet you here. I believe I am near the entrance."

It is a good thing that she had the phone connection with Hakkai, or she might very well have overshot the unfamiliar location. Why are there foreign gods in Japan's heaven... another mystery with all the others.

After stepping closer to the entrance she stands facing the door, the phone still pressed to her ear through the veil of her hat. Behind Suijin stands one of her shinki in attendance. Although Suijin herself is tall for a woman, this young man is a head and shoulders taller still. He quietly watches everything around them.

Teleportation, as usual, is faster than even walking to the door, and Hakkai winces to reach the front door and find Suijin there already. He inclines his head to her, stepping outside and shutting the door. Well: this makes it too late to disassociate himself entirely from Gojyo in her eyes, doesn't it? And she's brought backup. His gaze flicks towards the tall young shinki behind her, evaluating him. He doesn't seem like too much of a potential threat; his goddess, and her unknown powers, is the greater one.

"Please join me in the courtyard?" he offers, glancing back to Suijin and gesturing to the side of the temple. It's something of a compromise. He's already feeling less in control of this situation than he would strictly prefer to be.

She is suspicious for a moment when he closes the door behind himself, but at the invitation to go to the courtyard, she can understand.

“Certainly. It is fine weather, isn’t it. And your god has a temple that seems to lend itself to that very well.” Or even, is it her or is it more sunny here?
She did not miss his glance at her shinki, however, and continues to speak as she follows Hakkai.

“Allow me to introduce you. This is my shinki Kayo. His vessel name is Tsuki and I call him Kayonaga.” She then makes a small gesture from Kayonaga towards Hakkai. “Kayonaga, this is Hakkai. His vessel name is… I do not know. May we have your full introduction?” This last is politely addressed towards Hakkai.

"Full introduction," Hakkai repeated, eyebrows rising. Character, vessel name, daily name: interesting. Gods do like having all the information they could need to overpower a shinki with magic, don't they?

Perhaps that's why nora are so shocking. One introduction isn't enough.

"My name is Hatsu, vessel name Hachiki and called Hakkai," he offers, with a polite inclination of his head. "I apologize. This is the first time I've been asked to introduce myself that way; you see, our new gods haven't been tutored in Heavenly etiquette either."

There is a low stone table with benches around it in the courtyard. He gestures towards it. "Please make yourself comfortable."

[[If she could read his mind, he would think him quite suspicious for immediately thinking of a reason like that. (Although he may not be entirely wrong to think so.)
However, alas, no mind readers here.]]

"For it being the first time introducing yourself like that, you did it quite smoothly." Her voice applauds him.

While Suijin moves forward to take a seat on a bench in the sun, Kayonaga stays where he is. Once Suijin is settled, he moves well out of earshot of the volume of normal conversation.

"The more gods and shinki I speak to, the more I am made aware of how much of a gap in knowledge there is. It is unfortunate but perhaps inevitable that etiquette would fall to the wayside. But, putting that aside for now, I would speak to you of the matter that brought me here."

Although the veil effectively hides her face, her tone and posture clearly shows that she is down to business.

"Please tell me of your meeting with Fuujin at the sakura viewing two days ago. I will hear out your viewpoint without bias, so take your time to recount the story fully."

So that was the incident she was here about after all. Hakkai takes a seat across from her, folding his hands on the table, and gazes thoughtfully at the indistinct features behind her veil.

"Let's see." Honesty, or dissembling... well, she's almost certainly gotten Fuujin's side already, and Hakkai has no idea how much he might have said. "I first greeted him without recognizing who he was; he told me I should have been executed for my actions with Elsa. Of which I'm sure you're also aware."

He lifted his chin slightly, considering her again. "I asked if Elsa's disappearance was the result of a Heavenly judgement, although he didn't give me a straight answer. Was it?"

She doesn’t nod, but she is indeed aware of this shinki’s actions when he stormed the palace with his god Menrva.

And then, she is suddenly being addressed with a question herself.

“Being in the role of a listener at the moment, I would ask that you finish your telling before I address that.”

"As it's been difficult for me to get a clear answer in the past, I'd like one before I continue the story," Hakkai replies, matching her imperturbable tone. It's challenging to match the imperturbability of her face when she's veiled, but his smile is as stony as any mask's.

It may be that she sees this as a formality or a favor to him rather than information she really wants. Still -- holding the story hostage for answers is as close as he can get to having leverage. He'll just have to see how effective it proves.

"I do not wish your recounting to be clouded by new information." She pauses a moment, considering the alternatives in her mind. He is not human, nor spirit. Impassiveness and a stone-like smile look all together different on him.

"But if you believe you can recount the event the same either way, then I have a question first. Whom have you asked for an answer from in the past?"

That more than anything, even her own will, will determine her answer.

"I assure you that I can," Hakkai says coolly, and folds his hands. "Fuujin, so far, is the only one I've had a chance to speak to. His reaction didn't encourage me to approach any of Amaterasu's other advisers yesterday."

It weakens his argument, of course, but he has the feeling lying to her would be a terrible idea.

She lets out a long breath. From Fuujin's perspective, nothing had been wrong with his reaction, even that he had not quite meant to almost-kill Hakkai.

However with that answered, she replies in a lighter tone,

"I see. I hope that our conversation thus far has proven that we are not all like Fuujin in temperament. The god Menrva's disappearance was not the result of a judgement from heaven."

There: a clear answer. He can likely infer on his own that it was then more likely the 'usual' mysterious disappearance that took the new gods and shinki on occasion.

She then shifts her posture, ready to continue listening to him.

"Now, please continue." Further details, if they are hers to give, will wait until after.

"Thank you." He's not sure if he can trust the reassurance or not, but it's an answer, he thinks, and smiles faintly. "When I asked, Fuujin told me I didn't want to know, and asked what value a shinki was if he couldn't protect his god. I responded that it was the same value as an adviser who couldn't protect his lady."

He clears his throat politely, gaze flicking up to her veiled face. "I'm afraid I was a little angry."

Although she had assured him that she would be impartial while listening, she appreciates his show of deference.

She does not allow to acknowledge it for now though, and simply waits for him to continue.

"That's all," he adds after a moment, when she remains silent. "At that point, he attacked me, and I think I must have lost consciousness for a few minutes."

However long it had been, she'd been there at some point in the mess; he recalls her voice. It's very distinctive, now that he hears it again in the cold light of day.

[She is silent a moment longer, then once it is clear he has nothing more to add her posture shifts to seem more at ease.]
Thank you for taking the time to tell me what happened.

[Standing to her feet with the faint sound of wooden geta, she nods at him.]
I shall not keep you from your recuperating rest any longer.

Hakkai gets to his feet in turn, breathing through a stab of pain from his ribs at the shift of position, and inclines his head politely to her, and her silent shinki, second. He'd wonder if Kayonaga were merely polite or if he were another of the shinki whose minds had been somehow damaged, except that there's more understanding in his quiet gaze than Hakkai has ever seen from Asshole.

"It's been an honor to have you here, Suijin. Kayonaga."

So she's not going to say any more, after all, he thinks. It is a good thing that he demanded an answer to his question up front.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?"

As soon as Suijin had rose to her feet Kayonaga had started approaching. At being addressed, the shinki nods towards Hakkai.

"Thank you for having us." (Polite, and of few words.)

"And on such short notice," Suijin adds.

She looks at him steadily as he asks his question- certainly not the question she might have expected from him.
Ah, and the offer within that pleasantry. How much does he mean it?

"I can think of many things I would ask of you, shinki Cho Hakkai, should you be so willing."

"Without knowing the questions, I can't promise to answer, but you're certainly welcome to ask," he replies lightly, folding his hands in front of him.

She should know -- it's clear, from the way older shinki act -- that his first loyalty is to his god. Gods, now. It's irrelevant that his second and third loyalties aren't to Heaven at all.

She can't help but smile slightly and think that their roles have reversed for a moment- it sounds like something she might have said if he had asked if he could ask her questions.

Her expression and posture becoming fully serious once more, one hand slowly runs down the sleeve of her kimono as if searching for wayward folds before freezing in place.

"You are not human and not spirit. What do you call yourself?"

Even the gods don't know? If Hakkai hadn't already believed that some of them could come from different worlds, this would confirm it.

"Youkai. It surprises me that so few people seem to recognize it," he adds, watching her veiled face curiously for a reaction. "To me, it feels like being youkai should be as normal as being human."

That's not quite true. Almost as normal, perhaps.

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