thebastion | [Day 196 and 197] Seconds march into the past [OPEN

"Tell him to stop, then," Seimei answered distractedly from further down the corridor, trying not to move his eyes from where he had seen the glimmer. "Its just a ghost, Kaoru, it can't hurt you," he added, attempting to be reassuring while being too busy thinking of something else to make a real effort.

The skull clattered softly again, scraping along the stone floor, other bones scritching and scratching along, clattering together like brittle bits of kindling inside of while a small animal might have been rummaging. There were no tendons, no muscles or flesh - it couldn't do anything or go anywhere on its own, but Kaoru's presence made the spirit curious.

"Actually, would you mind bringing him over here?" Seimei asked suddenly. "He might know what I'm looking for and directions would be useful. I am certain he can appreciate my desire to preserve what is left of Izumo."

Just a ghost. Just a ghost? Really helpful, Seimei. Ghosts didn't exist in Kaoru's world. They were not a natural part of his life before he came to the Bastion. They were just tricks - not real.

So he was a bit scared of trying to interact with them like normal now, and more than a little uncertain about whether or not to take Seimei's advice. What if the skull actually obeyed?

"Bring him?" Kaoru echoed, glancing between the pile of bones and Seimei's back. "...all of him? Or is it just his skull I'm bringing over?"

"Ah? Oh, just the skull is enough. I have no intention of putting him together and carrying him anywhere. If we do anything with the rest it will simply be burying it near his wife, if he pleases. Come on now, it is nothing to be afraid of - right Genkaku?" he asked, looking over his shoulder and arching a brow.

The skull and other bones fell still, teeth clacking together noisily enough to echo in the chamber. Evidently that was warning enough.

Jeez, Seimei. The things Kaoru does for you.

He turned and looked down at the pile of bones and took a deep breath. Right then.

"Looks like I'm taking you on a trip, Genkaku." ...and that's a skull in his hands. A human skull. A real one. He would try not to think too much of that as he took the step down and started to join Seimei.

The skull and its owner didn't seem terribly put off by being moved. When Kaoru came bearing his passenger, Seimei reached out and took the bony bit, turning it over in his hands and raising it face to face.

"Well, old friend, curious how the tables turn. I must say, I did not expect to see you here, even in this condition. Bear with me," the onmyoji murmured, holding the skull in one hand and pulling out one of his shikigami dolls. He could have used a simpler spell, simply given the man the power of speech, but he was feeling generous and chose to press the doll against the forehead of the skull.

A whispered word and Seimei stepped back, the skull floating in the air on its own before being enveloped with a thin mist that spread to the ground, coalescing into a human form with actual solid mass.

A moment later and Kaoru was looking at Genkaku himself in all his former glory - such as it was.

"Seimei..." the man murmured, drawing his chin up. The onmyoji simply smiled.

"A pleasure to see you again. Genkaku-san, may I introduce Hitachiin no Kaoru."

"...Mm." the older man murmured, bowing politely to Kaoru before casting a bland look Seimei's way.

"Oh do not look at me so. You should be pleased - you got your wish. All the world is gone and Izumo still stands. Poetic, I think," Seimei drawled, folding his hands into his sleeves. Genkaku frowned slightly before nodding his head.

"No one to appreciate it but you, though. Small surprise."

"Ah yes, and I thank you for the luxury," the onmyoji replied with a fox-faced smile. Genkaku simply sighed, casting his weary gaze on Kaoru again with idle curiosity. After all, the boy was certainly not the sort of person Genkaku would be familiar with, much like Seimei had not been.

Well.

Kaoru had always known Seimei was good. But he didn't know he was that good.

"...a pleasure to meet you too." He hoped Seimei would forgive the lack of intonation in his voice - it was taking everything he had not to reach out a hand and see if it went right through. Feeling up a stranger would be the height to rudeness.

He looked solid enough, but looks could be deceiving.

"So. Where are we going?"

Come on Kaoru, have more faith in the man. He might be diminished but he's hardly obsolete.

"That depends on your intentions," Genkaku answered, earning a raised brow from Seimei who then inclined his head and gestured to the side.

"Izumo is crumbling, all of our country is gone. I intend to collect everything I can and take it back to the Bastion - a haven where the last of us survive."

"I know of it," the elder murmured, reaching up and touching his forehead lightly where the paper doll had been. "Your shikigami is swift with details."

"I imagine so. You are already dead, so secrets are hardly worth keeping from you. Do you approve, Genkaku-san?"

The older man inhaled deeply and blew a long sigh, turning his head to regard the chamber behind them, riddled with cracks and caked with dust of the ages. Eventually he nodded, shaking his sleeves back and touching a beaded bracelet that matched one around the wrist of his corpse.

"The emperor moved several artifacts here, years later. It was restored to the status of a holy place. It would be for the best if these things were not lost. You have my blessing, Abe no Seimei. Come."

Waving them on, Genkaku led the two down the corridor to a spacious chamber with rotted wood trellis gates and several chests around a pedestal. The chests were easy enough to open and contained little more than scrolls and books but the pedestal held Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, one of the three Imperial Regalia.

"Where are the other pieces?" Seimei asked, lifting the sword carefully.

"I cannot tell you. If they are meant to be found, they will be."

"Of course," Seimei murmured, adjusting his bindings to accommodate the weapon at his hip. "And the remains?"

"Forget them. I will leave with the others when you take the spirit of Izumo with you. You, child..." Genkaku murmured, turning to Kaoru thoughtfully. "While Seimei scavenges the ruins, will you attend me for a time?" he asked, to which Seimei looked at Kaoru and nodded slightly, indicating it was his choice to go or not.

Hey now. Kaoru's doubts were mostly due to him still not knowing how Seimei's powers or his shikigami work. He couldn't help it.

He couldn't help but puff up a little indignantly, not so much at the call to be attended (he was close friends with Tamaki, after all) but more at being called a child. As far as he was concerned, he wasn't one though... he relatively speaking, he supposed, it was the case.

Eventually he dipped his head in consent, glancing at Seimei.

"Fine. Call if you need me?"

"Of course," Seimei replied, fingertips sliding along the hilt of the sword in reverence as much as anything as he turned away and began going through the vault.

To Genkaku, everyone was a child, and he meant no offense by it, walking off and expecting Kaoru to follow. He had the same sort of presence as Seimei, elegant and refined with an odd mix of arrogance and humility. He lead them back to the main chamber, standing over his other remains for a time, gazing idly upon them and saying nothing.

"Are you Abe no Seimei's pupil?" he asked, not looking up from his bones as he addressed Kaoru.

He watched Seimei a moment, before turning to follow. Back to the bones. Great. Wonderful, even. But at least Kaoru managed not to let his excitement overwhelm him and went obediently after Genkaku.

Kind of rude, not to look at the person you're talking to, but he supposed some concessions could be made, given that the man was standing in front of his own skeleton.

"His lover." He didn't see any point in skirting around it and wasn't about to. He clasped his hands behind his back, feeling a little underdressed - it was hard not to, surrounded by both Genkaku and Seimei in their layers and layers of robes.

"Ah. I suppose I should not be surprised," he murmured, nodding slowly and crouching by his bones, turning them over slowly until he found his prayer bead bracelet. Rising, he turned, holding it out slowly.

"Take these. There are other treasures here as well that you are welcome to, but this one is from me. I have a feeling you could use them, in the near future," the elder man murmured, tilting his head slightly without readable expression. What he meant was Kaoru's guess, but it was a fairly notable offer in that it was a historical relic, a piece of a ruined culture and a powerful priest's own possession. Not to mention the novelty of being gifted anything by a dead person in the first place.

"You have a twin..." he said after a moment, obviously enlightened by the shikigami acting as his transportation. "...Red-haired twins. Abe no Seimei is truly blessed by the Gods in everything he does," he sighed, sniffing softly. "There is another bracelet similar to this one laying around somewhere...ah. Over there, under the fallen brazier. Go and fetch it. It would be more auspicious for you both to have one."

"…yes. His name is Hikaru."

He hesitated, before accepting the bracelet with both hands and raising it briefly with a murmured "Thank you," even though Genkaku's words gave him a chill. The other man's words seemed strangely prophetic and he couldn't help but wonder what it was he was to pray for.

A slight bow as he slipped the bracelet onto his own wrist and moved to one of the braziers marking the eight points on the platform, crouching to shift one to the side to find the second bracelet as promised, bringing it back.

"…are you sure it's all right for me to take them?" He wasn't trying to refuse Genkaku's generosity, and he knew the dead would have no use for them. But he felt almost guilty all the same. "This isn't my time. And it isn't my place. Is it really okay…?"

"For all you or anyone else knows, you could be a Child of Izumo," Genkaku replied, folding his arms slowly and regarding the boy with a sober, cool expression. Seimei was old and wise in his way, certainly, but there was a gravity to Genkaku that the onmyoji never affected. A bitter, weary edge to his wisdom.

"The people who died here were not the only people of Izumo. There were others who did not live in the village, who married elsewhere, who traveled, who ran, who survived. The time and the place never matters when you carry an inalienable truth in your heart. It took me a long time to understand that," he admitted, pacing around the chamber and gazing at the stone walls and their paintings.

"I would rather the memory of Izumo lived on, carried by thoughts of peace and generosity. Those were the people of the Izumo I lost. Abe no Seimei is carrying Izumo out of this place, and so shall you. Twin boys with hair like fire and the son of Kuzunoha? Ha, I should be honored to have such people create a new Izumo. The paintings your people will eventually make of you will be quite exciting, I am certain."

Although Kaoru was uncertain, he nodded anyway. He knew his family could trace their heritage back to the old capital, but beyond that…? They had no military distinction to speak of. Rather, it was their art that had made the Hitachiin family, and a peculiar quirk of their line that the family name descended not through the first born sons, but the first born daughters. With so little of his early family history known, he could not be sure of Genkaku's words either way.

"…I will be sure to give it to him." He slipped the bracelet onto his left wrist. "…we will carry on that legacy for you."

"Better you three than myself. I made terrible choices that cost us everything," the elder replied, sighing softly to himself and trailing quietly around the chamber, touching the rock faces here and there, tracing the paintings.

"So long as people from our country survive, Izumo may live on. I am certain Seimei would wish to preserve more of our time but if Izumo is all that lives, I am not terribly burdened by grief. I had no love for the capitol. Still...I do hope you all find more as time goes on. It is enough that I will now rest in peace. I wonder if there is a place to go for souls like mine, now," he mused aloud, turning slowly to regard Kaoru.

"What do you plan to do, now that the world has crumbled away to dust?" came the curious remark as Seimei returned from the small vault, jingling softly. He held an elaborate necklace in one hand, head tilting with interest.

"Lady Aone's necklace and a few other pieces of interest. Who was responsible for storing these things?"

"Is it not obvious?"

Seimei's face fell slowly before he covered the expression with one of his usual smiles, bowed politely and returned to the vault wordlessly. Genkaku turned to Kaoru and clarified.

"Minamoto no Hiromasa."

"…we were told that nothing of our old worlds survived. That the only things left were our own selves." He returned to the brazier in an effort to set it upright again. "But then they gradually started finding small pieces of our old worlds out here and... I'm glad. I'm glad I got to see… if not Seimei's home, then at least where he came from. Somewhere important to him. You have to understand this - all of this - is very distant to me. The place I came from is very different."

He couldn't help his smile a Seimei returned - even if it was just to wander in and back out again.

Hiromasa again?

"He seems involved in everything, this Hiromasa." Of course, he shouldn't have been surprised, and really wasn't, after all Seimei had told him. But he couldn't help shaking his head.

"He became quite an important man in his own right. He was always trusted, however his position might not have been so important had he never encountered Abe no Seimei. I believe the onmyoji regrets his involvement with the man," the old man mused, looking off down the hallway.

"Not because he wanted nothing to do with Hiromasa, but because it was the only person in his life he had to lose. Had they never become friends, Seimei would not have to feel anything on the matter."

He fell into silent thought for a time, watching Seimei, gaze occasionally drifting to Kaoru in turn.

"I am glad the spirit of Izumo survived, and I am grateful that he valued this land enough to seek it. I hope you can learn from this and appreciate the tragedy, despite your youth."

"…he regrets losing him." This, Kaoru knew; had lived himself. For all the times he had regretted his involvement with Tamaki, wondered at the expanse of his idiocy, questioned repeatedly why he had anything to do with the ridiculous blonde, the times that he stood amazed and thankful - at their Lord's capacity for kindness and understanding, for the world that he had spread out open for the two of them - although fewer, outweighed all of his regrets and his questions.

He was sure that Seimei had looked - still looked - on Hiromasa the same way; sure that his regrets melted away beneath his thanks. They had a lot to be grateful for, after all. Granted, the Calamity had played a big part but if not for a pair of bumbling idiots who had a tendency to see locked doors and then barge right through them, Kaoru and Seimei might never have approached each other in the first place.

The old Kaoru would have rebuked him pretty harshly. Right from the get-go, probably. That in itself was a scary thought - thank god he was a different person now.

"It was a terrible thing that happened here. But it is his history - our country's history. I never knew of it - it was never written but… I want to understand it." He turned on the spot, looking over the murals on the walls, one hand curling around the beads on his wrist.

"…it's important to remember, now more than ever. We will remember you."

The elderly man nodded slowly, accepting Kaoru's statements without argument. He too understood the importance of such people in one's life. Lives without people like Tamaki or Hiromasa tended to be crippled in some way; they were not just anchors to their friends, they were humbling lessons.

Genkaku often wondered how different his life might have been with someone like that in it.

"That is all anyone can ask: remember us and do not repeat the same mistakes". That is enough," the elder man remarked, bowing his head slightly.

"Thank you for being kind enough to join me for this time, but I believe I would like to rest now. If I may?" he asked, gesturing lightly to his bones. "My wife is near here."

Speaking with Genkaku so normally, Kaoru had forgotten for a moment that he was speaking to a dead man. Realising it again was a little jarring, to say the least.

He managed a stiff sort of bow.

"Of... of course. I should..." ...what should he do? What was he supposed to do - just go? "Should I...?"

"I understand that it is a lot to ask, but would you be kind enough to bring my remains and lay them to rest beside my wife's? She is gone...I would like to go as well. There will not be anything to watch over soon and I should like the rest," he remarked, sniffing softly and looking over everything else.

"Ah. I do not know if you have an appreciating for the biwa, but there is no point in mine going to waste. If you or anyone else you know has interest in the instrument," he gestures vaguely to the dusty thing not far from the remains, "I encourage you to take it. It is not cursed or any other nonsense and I will not be attached to it, so please, anything here in the ruins of Izumo, take to your haven and preserve it. I will thank you for it."

He nodded in understanding, and yet he still hesitated - and it was not the thought of touching human bones that made him halt. There was a very specific order when it came to the picking up and placement of bones after all and Kaoru had never known the sorrow of having to bury a relative.

What if he messed up? What if he did something terribly disrespectful?

"...you won't get mad at me if I mess up, right?"

He was hardly going to throw them around higgledy-piggledy, but he hoped that Genkaku would forgive him if he didn't manage it perfectly.

The old man chuckled softly, watching the expressions on Kaoru's face with amusement before shaking his head.

"Those bones have been in a pile for age, fallen into complete disarray. No one else saw fit to move them, but I am giving you permission. I will not judge you for any misplacement, child. I will not be staying housed within them any longer," he explained, shaking his head slowly once more.

"Follow me and leave them however you wish. Afterwards, worry not. I have no intention of haunting you or this place."

A small, brisk nod. Genkaku was counting on him. Or, if not counting, then at least requesting politely. It would be bad form of Kaoru to deny his request just because he was - all right, yes, he would admit it to himself - perhaps a tiny bit freaked out over the bones after all.

But aside from an apologetic glance before he knelt he didn't let it show. The biwa was set to one side carefully and the bones gathered into his arms, taking great pains not to drop any as he stood to follow.

"Outside?"

"Outside," the old man agreed with a nod, leading the way. They walked a short distance, stopping by a scattered pile of dark bones. Genkaku stared down at them with a complicated expression before looking to Kaoru and nodding once.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, child. And good to see Seimei. I wish you both the very best in your future. Your compassion will not be forgotten," he murmured, closing his eyes and seeming to evaporate from the feet up until just the skull hovered there. The shikigami inside abandoned the bones and drifted off, presumably returning to Seimei. Without the magic possessing it, the skull dropped unceremoniously to the ground, clattering against the other bones.

Seimei had exited the cave as well, following quietly at a polite distance, a bag of things recovered held at his side. He said nothing, only watching as Kaoru did whatever he intended, waiting patiently to be needed or wanted.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject