thenearshore | [closed]

[Tsuzuki barely takes the time to text back -- Ok -- before he teleports over to Ukoku's temple.

This time, he doesn't do the polite appearing outside and knocking thing. He doesn't know if anything's going to go wrong, and if it does... maybe it'll be better if no one knows he's over here. He shows up at the edge of the atrium, a few inches off the ground, in his usual shabby black trenchcoat and suit. His smile's missing, in favor of a more serious look than usual, and he nods at Ukoku.

Tsuzuki's not as sensitive to spiritual energy as some shinigami -- Hisoka's got it all over him in that department -- but he'd have to be deaf and dumb to miss the sizzle of power from the scroll in Ukoku's hands. His eyebrows climb, and he looks around. The writing is everywhere, elegant and strange in the same way Sho's graffiti work was: there's a little that rings familiar, and much more that just raises the hair on the back of his neck.]

Hey. I'm ready.

[Belatedly, he quirks a little smile onto his face, and rubs the back of his neck.]

So, uh, just in case this thing winds up sending me up in smoke, let my shinki know I disappeared, okay?

[ Ukoku pauses when he just appears—it's weirdly abrupt, not that he minds, but he wouldn't have guessed Tsuzuki for an abrupt kind of person—and returns a belated smile of his own. ]

We're not going to disappear. We'll be fine! That said, who's your shinki? [ A beat. ] I'm just kidding. Let's go.

[ He flops down at the side of the pool in a lazy half-lotus. ]

Lilka Eleniak.

[You know, just in case. He pauses at the edge of the pool, and looks down at Ukoku.]

So, I don't recognize enough of this to know where you need me to stand. Point me to the right spot?

And let me know if there's any part of this I'm gonna need to cast, too.

[He waves a hand around vaguely at the elaborate sigil.]

[ Is there?? That's a good question. Magic definitely happens, somehow. Everyone involved is competent and it's great.

Ukoku leans forward when it's cast, peering over the edge of the pool. So far, so good: the only difference is a vague, fuzzy black hole in the center of the floor. The water seems to be ignoring its presence; if it weren't for the complete absence of light, it might not seem like a hole at all. It doesn't help that there's no detectable energy coming from it. ]

Want to try one of those summon spells, first? [ Bring in the sacrifice. ]

[The presence of that weird hole buzzes on the edge of Tsuzuki's perceptions like a live wire humming way too close to skin. It's making his teeth hurt.

So: maybe Ukoku's right. He pulls out one of his spare ofuda, flicking it up into the air as he calls the activating word and the paper flings out misty wings.]

Tell us what's in there!

[He points at the strange black spot, and the dove wheels, winging its way down towards the darkness. It's swallowed.]

[ Ukoku watches intently, following the white spot in the darkness for all of the few seconds it's visible. It's undeniably a space, not an illusion, and the basic laws of physics seem to apply—or at least the dove flew out of the small visible area instead of being instantly annihilated.

He gets to his feet, without preamble, and hops over the edge of the pool. The darkness swallows him just as it did the dove.

His hand splashes back out of the water, beckoning Tsuzuki.

The space under the pool is pitch black. There are no walls, no ground, no sky, no features visible anywhere; only the hole above provides light, and even Ukoku, a foot below it, is shadowed and obscure. The ground, such as it is, is strange and soundless, like solid air.

The energy of conscious things echoes here, everywhere. ]

[Tsuzuki's dove is fluttering away into the darkness, and Tsuzuki steps in after Ukoku. He fumbles for his phone, trying to activate the screen, pull up the flashlight -- but the screen won't light, and after a few seconds of tapping uselessly at the buttons he stuffs it back into his pocket and clears his throat awkwardly.]

... Dark down here, huh?

[He can't see, except from the light filtering down through the hole above them, and that's not enough for even Tsuzuki's generally decent night vision to make out more than Ukoku's outline.

Even the psychic trace of his dove is hard to follow under the hum of energy.

Tsuzuki takes a step back, letting his eyes fall closed, and turns in a circle as he stretches his senses to the utmost. He's never been the most sensitive to magic; Hisoka's better. Tsuzuki can hold a reanimated corpse in his arms and not realize she's not human.

It's impossible to miss the power here, but he doesn't have the sensitivity to pick out any variations in it. His voice falls flat in the space, without echoing from floor or walls anywhere around them.]

Hey, have you got a lighter?

[ Somewhere between jumping into the pool and the present moment, Ukoku's sutra unfurled over his shoulders. He's looking off into the darkness, listening for something beyond Tsuzuki's voice. ]

Do I? [ He pats his empty sleeves. ] That might—

[ He stops, suddenly, on realizing that the distance between himself and Tsuzuki is slowly but steadily growing. He hasn't taken a step. ]

[Slowly but surely, the light above them seems to dim. Tsuzuki tenses, and brings a hand to his mouth, whistling loudly to call back the long-gone white dove. Is it really getting darker, or is the entrance just getting further away?

He looks around again, and notices, eyes widening, that Ni's farther away. His outline's barely visible against the darkness now, and Tsuzuki turns to hasten to his side.]

Where are you going?

[It must be Ni moving; Tsuzuki's not.]

We've got to stick together! If we get separated down here--

[Actually, he has no idea what'll happen if they get separated down here. The only thing he's sure of is that it can't possibly be a good idea.]

I'm not moving. [ There's a theatrical suspense in his voice, a ghost-story hush. He loops an arm around Tsuzuki's as soon as he's close enough. ]

This is scarier than I thought it'd be! Maybe we should bring in somebody who can do things with light.

[ A thin cracking sound answers from somewhere below them, like hundreds of twigs crushed into the ground by something massive, and then stops abruptly. ]

[Tsuzuki jumps at the cracking noise, clutching Ukoku's arm close. The bird isn't coming any closer; he can feel its distance, and he whistles through his fingers again, trying to encourage it --

It's gone, winking out with startling suddenness. He swallows.]

My shikigami's gone.

[He frees his arm from Ukoku's grip, and takes a hold of the other man's wrist to keep him close as he crouches to touch the ground. It gives strangely under his hand, fast at first and then slower and slower, as though it's all just a dense mist that grows somehow dense enough to support his weight.

He looks up at the light. It's further still. Maybe the mist isn't really supporting them after all.]

-- Can you sense anything in here? There's too much -- [He waves an aimless hand, then realizes Ukoku almost certainly can't see him in the darkness, and straightens back up.] -- too much static for me.

Yeah, but it's hard to tell where it is. [ Or "they are," more accurately. ] There's a little distortion.

[ In general. He looks up at the light for a moment, gauging distance, and takes an experimental couple of steps. It's as if he's walking on a floating sphere: his feet leave the ground, and now he's standing perpendicular to Tsuzuki, anchored to some invisible wall, with his arm outstretched. Every step took him minutely farther away. ]

Whoa! Whoa, be careful, don't get too far away.

[He grabs frantically for Ukoku's arm again, trying to find his hand by touch in the dark.] If we get separated we might be in here forever. Look, I'll go with you, okay?

[He hurries towards Ukoku, but his feet stay locked to the ground, as though he can't quite get up onto that horizontal... is that a wall? He can't see. He waves an arm towards Ukoku's feet, but it passes without interruption through ... whatever he's standing on.]

... Uh, how'd you get up there?

I don't know! I only moved a little bit.

[ He's absolutely not taking this seriously enough. But Tsuzuki isn't necessarily wrong—wouldn't it be funny, fitting, if Sho's dimension had been built to make sure its inhabitants could only move away from an exit? It'd be a sensible way to prevent problems if he needed to throw something else in (or a mean joke, at the very least).

He closes his hand around Tsuzuki's in a way that may not be very reassuring, given the circumstances—and the cracking sound comes again, this time quicker to end, almost more subtle, more careful. ]

[It's close enough to reassuring for Tsuzuki, who squeezes Ukoku's hand in return with white-knuckled determination, and casts another look up at the distant circle of light.]

Let's... let's see if we can get back to the exit, okay?

[And then maybe come back, only with a rope. He swallows, eyes the darkness by Ukoku's feet, and makes a determined jump for it. His feet come down sideways, and he sways wildly, tightening his grip in a last-minute attempt to keep his balance.]

Okay! Uh -- okay. We can... we can go that way?

[He points ahead, and a little up, at the light again, hoping that there's enough light still for Ukoku to pick him out in the darkening gloom.]

You'd think so.

[ He takes a step, lifting Tsuzuki's hand a little to indicate that he should walk with him, and all of the space seems to bend to accommodate that step. The light shifts—with a few more steps, it might be entirely out of sight.

The sound comes again, and this time it repeats, vast footsteps made by brittle snapping bones, gaining speed. ]

There's something in here with us.

[That's not just ice cracking or strange sounds in the darkness. It's something big, and although Tsuzuki takes a step to match his, it seems to bend and drag them away from each other. Suddenly, he's at arm's length from Ukoku, his shoulder protesting the stretch as he hangs desperately onto the other man's hand. He swallows, and fumbles out an ofuda from his coat with his other hand. It's far too dark to read the calligraphy on any of the paper slips, but his fingers know the sizzle of magic along each one. This is an attack summons.]

[ The whisper of paper is almost lost in the stumbling, uneven noise, but Ukoku catches it.

Good.

His voice is low, hushed: ]

You do that, and I'll try and get us closer to home, okay? [ And then they'll find out if the thing will follow dangling bait all the way into the light. ]

Got it. [Tsuzuki's voice is soft, pitched to carry no further than Ukoku's ears. He's not sure what the other man's doing, but he's not letting go unless he's told to. He can activate the ofuda one-handed, and he does, casting it up into the air as the crashing and snapping footsteps grow closer. Louder, and closer.]

On!

[The paper boils up into a wave of misty wolves, barely visible except as flickers and faint gleams of fang and eye in the stygian gloom.]

[ Ukoku is still with interest, for a moment. When the spell is cast he teleports both of them, calling on the sutra, though his ability as a god might have worked (and maybe does work) as well.

It gets them to the relatively safe position of just under the light, where they came in, Ukoku still holding Tsuzuki's hand. He squints back toward the wolves and the bone-crunching sound, not so loud or close, now, but close enough for a clear pause between footsteps that might have meant the thing was caught off-guard. ]

Well—what do you think?

[Tsuzuki almost loses his balance as they land -- teleporting under another god's power is something he is not used to, if that's what they did at all. It feels different, somehow, from teleporting on his own.

He lets out a shaky breath, looking up at the light just above them. He can feel the energy of his temporary summons failing under some greater force. Flickering out. The distant, strange footsteps are off-rhythm.

And the summons dies with a flicker. Tsuzuki swallows, straightening up.]

I think if anyone got stashed here when they disappeared, they'd remember it.

[ He makes a distracted noise, still staring into the darkness. It's silent.

Ukoku turns, about to ask if he can tell what happened, just in time to see a huge flesh-colored blur barreling toward them. He shakes Tsuzuki's arm urgently. ] Jump! [ He might be grinning, but as soon as he says it he's gone, back through the gate. ]

[With a panicked yell, Tsuzuki flings himself after Ukoku, the leap faster and more graceful than anyone who'd seen his usual carefree bumbling would expect. Getting out of the way of a really large supernatural threat is something he might not have had to practice too recently -- he stays clear of ayakashi -- but he's been doing it for a long time.

And whatever that was, it's none of the missing gods or ayakashi. He hits the stone floor of Ukoku's temple hard, and rolls to his feet, breathing heavily as he reaches towards his coat pocket again.

The hole where Ukoku's pond had been is... just a hole. Dark and impenetrable as ever. Whatever's down there, Tsuzuki can't see it. Yet.

His voice shakes a little as he inquires:]

You can close it, right?

[ Maybe—or maybe they've torn a hole in Heaven. It's fine. Ukoku's still on the floor, picking himself up, examining a bloody scrape on the side of his hand. ]

Yeah. It's the sigil that makes it work, so we just have to—

[ His former plan is irrelevant, suddenly, because a thick arm shoots up from the hole, trying to find purchase on the stone floor. In the light its color is a sickly green, like a bruise, and a second hand, partially formed and misplaced above the elbow, grasps vainly at the air with short, stubby fingers. ]

Never mind. Could you stand back?

[ He heads back over to the hole, just out of reach of that grasping arm, too far away to lean over and see what's trying to follow it. Not so early, friend, sorry. ]

Careful!

[Tsuzuki jerks a step forward as Ukoku strolls back towards the strange two-handed arm, then swallows and steps deliberately back. If he's going to use something against the creature, the last thing Tsuzuki wants is to get in the way and stop him from employing the ... spell? Power? Whatever he's planning on.

He still pulls out one of his warding ofuda, though, and speaks, his voice strung tight with worry.]

... Yell if you need my help.

[ Oh, he's cute.

Ukoku doesn't respond, and gives no other warning. The sutra explodes in an uneven sphere around him, with the unnatural hollow sound of time and space collapsing on each other, a flurry of white around a void not unlike the hole itself.

Then it settles back on his shoulders, just paper.

Smooth chunks have been scraped out of the floor, as if with a giant razor blade. Pieces of the sigil are gone; the pool and everything around it is gone. There's a dip in the stone like a crater. ]

Well, that wasn't ideal.

[At the sudden explosion of magical energy, Tsuzuki stumbles backwards, tripping again and winding up sitting on the floor as the sutra flutters around a void deeper than the void of the portal. It settles. The room is terribly silent until Ni speaks, his voice mild and casual.

Tsuzuki, after a few seconds, remembers to close his mouth, and swallows. His voice is half an octave higher than usual.]

Yeah that's gonna be a lot of work to put back together!

[He swallows again, bringing his voice back down to something a little bit closer to its normal range.]

... What was that?

[It's not the twisted monstrous arm that's worrying him, here, although that's legitimately worrisome. It's not whatever might be lurking behind Sho's dimensional pocket's door. It's the overwhelming, destructive energy of the plain-looking inscribed scroll hanging on Ni's shoulders that has him still on the ground gaping.]

[ Ukoku turns to look at him like he forgot he was there, for a moment, and crosses the room swiftly, his bleeding hand outstretched to help Tsuzuki up. His voice is friendly again, concerned. ]

Sorry! I didn't mean to startle you. That was a backup-backup plan. It looks scarier than it is. It's just magic.

[Tsuzuki takes Ukoku's hand, and frowns worriedly at the scrape before glancing up at him.

So he doesn't have the sensitivity to magic that some people have, but if Hisoka had been in this room, he'd be unconscious after that blast of power. Even Tsuzuki can tell just how much magic was in that "just magic."]

You know, I think it looked exactly as scary as it was. I wouldn't've worried if I'd known you had something like that tucked away....

[He glances dubiously at the innocent-looking scroll laid across the other man's shoulders. You wouldn't guess, to look at it now, but damn.]

... Anyway, it's going to be hard to sense much down there. [Once the spell's re-built. If Ni wants to rebuild it.] I could send in some small summons to look, but if they can't get back to the entrance, they won't do any good.

[ He makes a noncommittal noise as he takes his hand back, examining the bloodied side. ]

Whoops. I should've offered the other one, sorry.—I'd love to know how deep it goes, and everything, but the gate itself works, and that's what matters. For now, I think, I just want to leave it alone. [ He pauses, eyeing Tsuzuki. ] Unless you want to go back.

I don't... I'm not sure. [He swallows, looking at the cavity where the pool had once been.]

I'm still not sure there's not anybody down there. But if we're gonna keep looking, we've got to have a working plan for how to look, right? And how to get back out.

[He glances at Ukoku's hand again, and offers:] I can heal that for you.

Can you? [ He holds it out, pushing his sleeve out of the way. ]

I think it might be best, next time, for us to stay up here, watch the gate, and try something remote. Maybe a sonar system.

Sonar? Huh. Yeah, something like that might work.

[He hadn't thought about technology: it's still kind of a mystery to him, the kind of thing he laughed and left up to Watari and the Gushoshin back home. He can type his reports and follow directions, more or less, and he's basically okay at using the fancy new cell phone he'd gotten here. It's just not the first thing that leaps to mind.

He glances down at his own hand: the edge of it had hit the stone pretty hard, coming up out of the portal, and while the scrape'd healed almost as fast as it formed there's a little pebble still embedded. He pries it free with a fingernail, catching the bead of blood that wells up on his fingertip, and reaches out to smooth the blood across Ukoku's hand.]

[ Ukoku watches with rapt attention. It wasn't what he expected, going by what little Yamato said, and the implications—

He brings his hand up to his face, examining the unbroken skin. ]

That's really something. How does that work, do you know? Or maybe I should say 'why.'

I don't know. -- I mean, it didn't work before I got here, so it's got something to do with my divine power, I think. [He holds up his hand, with the little bleeding welt gone as if it'd never been there, except for a tiny trace of dried blood in the creases of his palm.] My body heals fast because I was a god of death, but it never made a difference to anyone else's injuries before.

[His healing goes back even further than his own death, to his mortal body's resistance to injury and deprivation... but Ukoku doesn't need to know about that and Tsuzuki turns his own thoughts away from that time with the ease of long, long practice.]

Wow. Lucky; that's a good power to get.

[ He claps a hand on Tsuzuki's arm briefly. ]

I keep forgetting about the god of death thing. You look too friendly!

[Tsuzuki's laugh is a little uncomfortable. Hey, at least it's a compliment, right?]

Well, you know, we're not all grim skeletons wandering around in robes or anything like that!

[Sure, there's all those old horror scroll illustrations, but either fashions have really changed in the Summons Department or somebody was taking some creative liberties with the whole "dead" thing.]

I'm just as glad to be out of that job, though.

[ Ukoku pats his empty sleeves again, absently, and hums in wordless agreement. There are cigarettes stashed around here, somewhere. ]

Well, I'll work on some kind of a system later. I think I'm gonna go ahead and forget I was down there for a little while.

Yeah... that sounds like a good idea.

[Tsuzuki shudders, and looks around at the scraped and sliced floor. It looks like some kind of huge creature attacked the sigil, clawing away whole sections right out of the stone.]

Uh, need any help cleaning up in here before I head out?

Oh, no, that's all right. Half the sigil won't do anything, so I'll just leave it.

[ And leave the hole in the floor. It's fine. He pauses, staring at it. ]

For now.

[ Putting it on something portable would be convenient… He turns back to Tsuzuki with a little smile. ]

Let me know if you hear anything you think might be important, okay?

You bet. Let me know if you do either, huh?

[Tsuzuki grins at him, straightening up. Yeah, okay. They both got out of that in one piece, no mysterious monsters were released on the heavens, it's fine. It's all fine.]

... Or if you need any help painting another sigil!

[ A fun friendship-building activity!! Alcohol will be provided. ]

I'd appreciate that! As soon as I have a good surface for it, all right?

[ Arts and crafts time. ]

Sure!

[Alcohol and dangerous magical incantations! Man, that sounds like exactly Tsuzuki's kind of afternoon. He grins, nodding at Ukoku, and then lets the smile slip away again as he raises a hand to wave, and turns to go.]

[closed]

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