The seed-at-zero shall not storm|That town of ghosts[OPEN]
Characters: Gau Meguro (justice_by_coma) and Anyone who's in Steamdrab and wants to break in on him. (Especially any of you newfound woods-homies. He'll at least recognize the people who "nearly got killed" with him...JUMP THE NERD!)
Setting/Location: Steamdrab (lurking and trying to find a house to hide in because boy doesn't know what to do with his junogram ( Read more... )
Stumbling around to find his way from the caravan to the street, it took a little longer than he would have liked to admit, what, after passing through a few people's rooms in his attempts at finding the exit and all, poor eye sight was starting to become a pain in the neck when finding his way around, maybe it was for the best if he just stayed behind in this town? It wasn't as if anyone was actually going to miss him.
There was that sensation again, the one he normally got when Miharu was near, it was stronger coming from the direction of what he thought was a house? It could have been anything knowing Yoite's eyesight, but it was worth a try. Placing his gloved hand to the door handle and giving a weak little rattle. No luck, but brute force was not Yoite's best means of approach at the moment, not with how weak he was, so in favour of saving what little energy he had, Yoite was willing to risk a fraction of that fleeting life.
taking aim with his pointer finger as he let loose with a blast of Kira. The door exploding into little fragments that fluttered around the room in a plume of dust and splinters. Covering his mouth and nose with the inner side of his arm, coughing as the technique was possibly not the best idea.
"... M-Miharu?..."
He coughed through the sleeve of his coat, the large bow fluttering in the aftermath of his Kira.
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The would-be ninja swallowed again, trying not to move a muscle.
Chances were, the thief would move on, or go for the window. Gau started calculating and planning-
The door exploded, raining splinters into the back of Gau's neck. he froze immediately.
A bomb?! Who used bombs to raid houses?! Outrageous!
The dark-coated villainous shape staggered forward. (Probably on DRUGS. Such delinquincy!) It broke into coughing partway through the door. (Tuberculosis! From living in poverty and shame due to poor decisions and overall mental squalor!)
RIGHT. He'd just about had it with getting attacked by things today. And blowing up a door wasn't fair at all! He was plotting the best way to jam his kunai into the back of the bundled neck already. (Wasting away! Anorexia due to crack cocaine and sundries! How else could one wear a coat like that in the middle of summer?!)
A cracked, rasping voice amidst the coughing hit his ears, a name he hadn't expected to hear, jolting clear through him. Surreal. As much as before, but for it's absurd familiarity when everything else had been knocked off its hinges--
The finger under his chin when he'd awakened. The finger of death indeed.
There was no mistake. He could see the black coat with the belt taken in so sparingly the it had been tied up in the back...skeletal thinness, and the hat...
There was someone who routinely bundled up like a crack addict even during the summertime. Someone he knew.
Gau's body slumped back against the wall, and the knife slipped from his hand.
"...Yoite-kun?" He whispered, not daring to believe it.
it was just too...
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Squinting faded lapis lazuli hues as he loomed forwards, his giraffe-like height over the smaller shinobi's form. Dry pale blue lips parted and that breath of ammonia and death would have passed over Gau's face had he been standing a little closer.
The confusion was clean in his face as tears welled up in the corners of his eyes. No, Gau couldn't be here too? that just ... it just wasn't fair! why did he have to be here? lost and frightened by the feel of his aura. Yoite pressed a hand to his chest as the other caught himself from tumbling over, really, he should have known better than to use Kira so thoughtlessly.
Exhaling in a displaced sigh as he slumped to the floor before his fellow ninja, his hat slipping from his head as all that long flowing thin and dying hair fell free to cascade down over his shoulders and chest. "Miharu? ... Miharu is with Gau? " He was so sure that's how he was able to feel Gau there.
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"Yeah." Gau said in a low undertone, eyeing the street beyond just in case other people decided to spot them. Yoite looked like a black puddle, kahaki dust and splinters settling on his coat. He'd probably pass for a shadow, Gau decided reluctantly. He didn't dare try to touch him to move him. Bad idea, with Yoite.
Yoite had to have been in that forest, too. Good thing he wasn't injured...but using the forbidden kira technique in a place like this with that giant person and the moving city of who-knew-what...
Well it wasn't very subtle. That slothful slob Yukimi had always been negligent with Yoite, though, Gau noted grimly in his mind.
Never mind all that, though. it was Yoite. Yoite who'd saved his life. Yoite, who'd been moved by the Kairoushu chief's goals just the same as him, even if he was...odd about it.
It was bizzare, but...well he was here, now, and that counted for something. And come to think of it, kira technique, even if it came at a dreadful price would probably give them an edge on those creatures in the woods.
Gau shook his head, sinking into a crouch to pick up his knife and make them less obvious to anyone looking. "I haven't seen Rokujo-kun. Or anyone else I know." He muttered. "Have you seen anyone? That mr. Chickenhead? Or..." he licked his lips, hoping, hoping harder than he'd ever want anyone to know. "Raikou-san?"
He was already trying to calculate how best to carry water for all the group members, including Yoite now... "If you're here, then maybe...maybe they're still in the forest, too."
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Questions already? Yoite forgot what Gau was like in his time away from him, but more to the point Gau hadn't seen Miharu, that meant Yoite had to force himself to his feet to keep looking for the boy. "No, Yoite hasn't seen anyone, only Miharu, but Miharu vanished ..." It was clear that this fact distressed Yoite, that was apparent in his expression.
Franticly feeling for Gau as his breathing accelerated for a moment or two before he managed to grab a part of Gau. Gripping him tight to say he had no strength.
"If Miharu is not in the town, he might still be on the caravan ... Yoite has to look for Miharu..." Shaking, his limbs shook as he tried to use Gau as a lever to hoist himself back to his feet, already looking over his shoulder at the shadow of the great giant dragging the moving caravan behind him.
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he grumbled a little under his breath. then his mind stopped griping long enough internally to take into account that Yoite was actually staggering out the door towards the giant thing and its moving city of doom.
"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!" He exclaimed, dashing after him.
All things considered, it was probably a good thing (unbeknownst to Gau) that Yoite was losing his hearing, too...
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Stopping as Gau shouted at him. Turning to face the angry ninja with a puzzled picture over his normally so deadpan'd face. " Yes, Yoite is very serious about finding Miharu ... Gau-kun should be looking for his friends." He didn't mean to offend at all (If he did that is) he simply meant for Gau to come with him ... perhaps he should say exactly what he means instead of saying the first thing that came to mind.
Shuffling out the door, falling into a coughing fit once more as the clear air hit his decaying lungs, (and people said fresh air was good for you?) Spluttering into a tissue Gau had given him some time back, it was stained with spots of blood already, black and red from the different patches he'd coughed up over his time at the Caravan, Gau would no doubt have a fit over the sheer amount of germs collecting and spreading in that fabric.
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"Even with Iga's Kira, you're not going to be any match for that in your condition! Even if Rokujo-kun's its prisoner!" He lowered his arms, looking around for people. He could see shapes in the distance, and grimaced.
"I woke up with a group of people in the woods. Robot-san at least would probably help. We need a plan if you want to attack that thing!"
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probably the most conversation Gau was going to get from Yoite for a long time. He stopped as the smaller male came to stand in front of him, catching the last half of what Gau said. " Yoite doesn't want to attack the caravan, Yoite has a room on it." Pointing up at the huge building in the near distance. Surely this showed that Yoite was in face from the caravan and not the group from the forest?.
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He didn't realize all the questions he was asking. Yoite seemd tired, but Yoite was always tired, and it annoyed him the way he didn't talk much. He needed information, and Yoite was going to be the only person he knew from the sounds of things.
But...if these people were from...
Gau sighed, and re-wrapped up his kunai. Well...he probably wouldn't need that, then.
So...that was a friendly giant? The thought of letting Yoite hide on your stomach probably proved that. Maybe the giant didn't count as a "person" in Yoite's mind, and therefore he didn't mind...
"Where does that...moving city go? And how did you get here? I know you don't like to talk, but you need to tell me at least a little. I need to know why we might be here while the others aren't."
Poor Raikou...eating alone again... The thought filled him with more sorrow than he wanted to admit.
Gau's eyes lit on the handkerchief in Yoite's hands, and he shuddered, gulping. Blood? Then he paused, paling.
That looked just like his...
Couldn't be...
"Or...have I been here before?" Gau asked, trying to keep himself from getting dizzy. This was so...bizzare...
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"Its going to take us home, maybe Mihari made it home already? " Dragging Gau in a slow pull as he missed practically all else of what Gau said in favour of concentrating on finding his way over to the huge shadow before it moved out of sight.
Yoite didn't think Gau had been there before, maybe it was a handkerchief he'd loaned off of Gau in the past and just never gotten around to cleaning and giving back? "I don't think you've been here at all ... Yoite would be able to tell."
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He blanched. walking around in front of people, with Yoite holding his hand like a little kid or worse really wasn't a notion that appealed to him. At ALL. When it came down to it, he barely knew him.
Granted, you heard a lot about Yoite. Talented. And dangerous. Master of the forbidden technique that broke your life to use it against other people. Who knew why a person would choose to do something they knew would kill them.
At first he'd thought it was easy and hated the loophole. If Yoite was sane, then he'd just stop using the technique, and he'd be fine. It used life each time, so he'd just know it for emergencies.
Wrong.
Why someone would willing go through learning something they knew would break their life and let it leak out constantly, stealing their senses, and drying them up until they died as dust...
Well...he really didn't know whether to call Yoite sane or not. He'd saved his life. Yoite's life had jump-started his own. And...he hadn't even been kind to him before that. He couldn't stand his talent, his silence, the fact Raikou expressed admiration for him...
And now, here Yoite was, fumblign around, coughing blood into a handkerchief, and dragging him along by the hand.
He didn't know what to think about that.
He honestly didn't.
He gritted his teeth.
"If that...caravan is the only way home, then how could Rokujo have found another way? Because of the shinrabanshou, maybe?" he paused. "I thought he would have taken you with him, though. You two always seem...close."
Erm. Yes. Close. And Yoite was holding his hand.
Thin prickles of cold sweat beaded on the back of Gau's neck again.
Yoite...wasn't going to...?
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There was also nothing sinister about Yoite's motivation to hold Gau's hand, he knew nothing of the boys past, or his issues or feelings about this kind of act, yet again he was simply moving and not thinking, running on the basis that finding Miharu was somehow going to make everything that was going wrong right - after all; non of this would even matter if Miharu could erase it all now would it?
"I don't know ... " Stopping as it hit him, a fraction of his own lonely feelings hit him when the idea that Miharu had left Yoite behind on purpose hit him like a tone weight. Yoite came to a halt, let go of Gau's hand and held his head at the sides as it ached.
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Even Gau could read that blatant body language. He wiped his hand on his pants withotu really thinking about it. "...If he was taken away, it's safe to say it was against his will. And for something to be powerful enough to take in or leave people, even the shinrabansho weilder..."
He frowned, and tried a different thread of proof. "It's not a dream, or I would have brought Raikou-san here, and I'm not that creative. This whole..." he gestured at the distant, looming figure of the...giant...ogre...something.
"I wouldn't have done it. And I know it's not someone else's dream because I'm thinking, and things don't work that way. If it's real, then there's a reason we're here, and...Rokujo-kun isn't."
Gau frowned deeply along the parallel lines already starting to form in his forehead. He wanted to reference his notebook, but that wasn't a good idea while walking at high speed. "If this is the only way home, then fine. If it's something else, or we can get out faster, then we should." He scowled straight ahead adding with dark bluntness:
"I don't want to be away from Raikou-san's side a minute longer than I have to. And I can't do anything to change the world for the chief's sake without the world of Nabari and the shinrabansho. If this is the only way, then I'll take it and do whatever I can along the way, but if there's a faster route, I'll take it no matter what the cost to me is."
He turned his grim-set face to Yoite. "It's the same as you and Rokujo-kun."
He curled his hands into fists. "I know you don't like to talk, but...I'm going to need to know. If I don't have any information, I can't plan a way out for both of us, and anyone else who needs to get back fast."
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Turning and facing Gau, it was an effort for him to communicate, seeing as how he spent most of his time trying to avoid contact with people, but Gau was all he had here, he couldn't leave him in the dark, Yoite could share what little he knew.
Sitting himself down, knees pulled up to his chest and arms wrapped tight around them, in that way he often sat. Gau would have to sit close though, if he wanted to hear anything Yoite wanted to say?. "We're all lost. Yoite doesn't know why, but that giant? he's taking us all home. Stopping in towns and villages, letting people off, letting people on." He stopped to cough and wheeze, nuzzling down into his own arms and scarf. "Mihari can't be home or Yoite and Gau wouldn't be here ..."
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"Giants aren't usually that smart, are they? Someone has to be running your caravan. And it's really unlikely they're doing it just to help a bunch of people in need. Running something like that woudl be expensive and difficult. And just happening to have a giant caravan like that on hand? The whole thing sounds weird."
With that, Gau pulled out his notebook, and a pen, turning to a free page. "We can't assume anything, or trust anybody unless they prove themselves!" He declared rather loftily. "Here's what we do know, though: Rokujo-kun wouldn't leave you if he was leaving by choice. That apathetic gloomy devil-kun doesn't have any reason to if you're here." He scowled a little. "Even if he is under the same ideals I am, I know he's there for you, too. If Hattori-san let him use the shinrabansho, I don't doubt he'd use it to save Yoite-kun's life, first. Hattori-san would probably let him do it, too, because Yoite-kun has done such fine work for the organization. It would be proof of the shinrabansho's power, too."
He scribbled out on the page, rapidly in his cramped, all-caps writing, holding up the page after, though Yoite likely couldn't see the tiny letters.
ROKUJO-KUN'S WILL
Gau swelled irritably. He was building up steam. "Also, you said you were supposed to stop at villages. This one's been abandoned for a while, and those monsters in the woods were hard to kill, so that might have something to do with it. We don't have any certainty your caravan will really get us home--even though I will be coming with you, of course. Your caravan might be part of a settlement idea. Or people might be calling us from other places into a completely different world for some other hideous purpose. We could just be going to some other place to set up a village of people." He scribbled another note, and held it up.
FRONTIERS
"Also, there's this. I found this in my bag, and it doesn't belong to me." he added, pulling out the junogram. "Have you seen something like this before? I've been trying to get cell service and keep getting nothing. I turned off my phone to save the power, even." He held it out in front of him, waiting until the brim of Yoite's hat rose. "It could be important. We should take every clue we can that can get us home. And the other people here, too. Nobody in my group from the woods seemed to be from this place, either. If we're being held prisoner, then we need to find that out."
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