IC Inbox | Rin Okumura

[satanslash]

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Rin Okumura ⬤ Ao no Exorcist
residential district ⬤ Level 2
moonblessing ⬤ Cordis

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[satanslash]

Cait sidh. Erm. Nekomata? ... cat. He's a cat.

[He would keep the silkworms safe from other creatures.]

[chichichi]

[ If it looks like some of the color is draining out of her face, that's because it is. A cat? Of course it's a cat. It had to be a cat. Why's it always cats? They're so -- so -- she can't quite finish the thought. The hair at the back of her neck is literally standing on end. Did she just swallow? Quietly. ]

Ah.

[ Yes, "ah". Very eloquent, Setsura. Very dignified, a real confident response. ]

And he likes to sit on your head. [ That's... ]

[satanslash]

[...]

Eehh? Wass'at? Somethin' wrong with cats?

[He noticed.

He's a dumb boy, but she basically broadcast that reaction loud and clear to him.

He's grinning at her toothily, his fangs not too dissimilar from a feline's, and his fluffy tail also close to one.]

1/2

[chichichi]

[ What is that?? ]

2/2

[chichichi]

[ Oh hell no.

It takes a good measure of self-control not to jerk the phone back as far from her face as possible as though he might come through the screen and pounce on her. No, she keeps it together, slow her heart rate because the way he's looking at her is -- it's making her nervous. It makes her want force the wings she can't and immediately take to a tree and that look suggests he knows it.

He's not, right? He can't be. ]

You mean besides the fact that the majority of them are arrogant little furballs who think they can do whatever they please like some kind of insufferably fuzzy loose cannon?

[satanslash]

[Rin tries, tries to keep it together, but within seconds he's snorting followed by absolute cackling.

He's not sure why it's so damn funny to him but it is and he damn near falls over with how hard he's laughing.]

[chichichi]

[ She watches him for a moment, then quietly folds her arms under her chest, the image shifting a bit for the turn of the camera before she focuses it on herself again. Pull it together? She's pulled it together with that laughter of his, head tilted up and eyes away because there's nothing funny about this... or that clinging nervousness she's shoved down, down, down, her wondering.

He's not a cat, right? He's messing with her. More importantly -- ]

Are you done?

[satanslash]

[There is so much funny about this. Her idea of cats is so skewed...

But he's not actually a cat, no. Whatever traits he does have are only loosely related to any real world animals.

He catches his breath, brushing a tear from his eye.]

Y-yeah... I'm done...

[chichichi]

Are you sure, Okumura-kun?

[ She leans slightly forward. ]

There's nothing you maybe want to tell me?

[satanslash]

[He snickers a few more seconds before shaking his head.]

I'm not a cat, if that's what you mean. I can't shapeshift like Mephisto either, so you're safe. And Kuro ain't here. Don't expect him to show up.

[Though boy, would he love all the attention he could possibly get.]

[chichichi]

Who said anything about me being in danger? You're a thousand years too early for something like that, you know.

[ Even if he was a cat, she's survived seventy-three, almost seventy- four years against the feline menace and thrived in the face of all manner of beings, not that she goes around broadcasting that for all that it might be inferred from the blade she keep at her side. That name gives her pause, though. ]

Mephisto? [ More importantly -- ] That's how people wind up showing up, you know. Speak of the devil and he appears. You trying to curse me?

[satanslash]

Am I? You're the one who wanted to bolt at the mention of cats. I think I'm right on time!

[She may have survived but that didn't make her reactions any less obvious.]

Uuugh. Don't say it like that.

[Speaking of obvious reactions - Rin is suddering visibly.]

Mephisto showin' up would be way more of a curse on me.

[chichichi]

I was talking about Kuro-chan.

[ But that reaction is about as obvious as hers was as unintentional as that was. She needs to be more careful about that. Carelessness is its own kind of demon. ]

You're the one who likes like he wants to bolt right now. So, who's this Mephisto person?

[satanslash]

Yeah, yeah...

[About that...]

He's uh. He's a lotta things. Demon King of Time, Headmaster of True Cross Academy... basically my guardian, though I doubt he takes that seriously at all.

[A beat, then, with some vitrol-]

A fuckin' clown who makes my life more difficult than it needs to be.

[chichichi]

[ Setsura blinks. Did he just say...? Of course he did. If she trusts nothing else in this world or any other, she trusts her hearing. Still, it sounds strange, very unusual to her. If her cheek wasn't already in her palm, it would be now. In Okumura's world, a demon king of Time -- yes, "a" because she doubts demons from any realm would absolutely settle on a single entity among them as being the sole holder of such a prestigious title -- and is Time his dominion? it sounds like an official title, but that name with it doesn't sound right -- heads an institution of learning for exorcists and is the guardian of a half-demon training to become an exorcist. That's --

No, that's strange, unusual if she compares it to things in her own world. Crosses are usually associated with certain faiths that are typically staunchly against demonic anything and zealous about it. But given what Rin's told her, what he had to state when they first met, then he came to be under this Mephisto's guardianship after... something difficult. She doesn't want to assume too much, but the way he's talking about that person, there's clearly issues, not that she would expect being under the guardianship of a person like that to be any sort of easy thing.

Why, even? She's missing things, she knows it, and it stirs up her curiosity finely, but not so finely as to forget Okumura's tone, the way he's speaking about all this. ]

It sounds like he likes to play around a lot.

[ Has she missed that he means a literal clown? Possibly. ]

[satanslash]

[Rin can tell some wheels are turning pretty hard in her head by her expression alone, but all he gives for it is a frown. If she had questions she would be asking them.

He's not a literal clown anyway, just dresses like one and makes Rin's life hell in other ways.]

If that's what you wanna call it...

[chichichi]

If that's what it is, that's what I'd call it.

[ But that's not exactly her priority at the moment. That expression on his face -- ]

Do you want to talk about it?

[ He'd said the guy makes his life more difficult than it should be, after all. ]

[satanslash]

[A sigh, fingers tapping on his leg.

Does he want to talk about Mephisto?

Eh...]

There's not much to say? I didn't really get a say in who was gonna be my guardian after Dad died...

[chichichi]

Most don't.

[ It's a soft statement and she's cognizant of that, but that's all she gives. Wonders if she should press this today. She finally drops her palm from her cheek, though. It looks like someone's finally remembered what she was up to and she's moving to look through some notebooks. Hmm. ]

You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I'll admit I'm surprised. It sounds like you lead quite an interesting life, Okumura-kun.

[satanslash]

[If she wants to ask about Mephisto directly, he can answer what he's able to, but with the stipulation that he is still very much a dumbass who doesn't know nearly as much as he should.]

Not... really? I mean, I didn't. Before Dad died. It wasn't a great life and people were assholes to me for stupid reasons when I was younger, but I was still... human.

[chichichi]

[ She keeps moving around, but his words do give her a moment of mental pause. Strike a bit of a chord that she's careful to mind, but that curiosity of hers is stirred that much more finely by his wording. It's too deliberate, stark. She wants to know, so she'll ask. ]

What do you mean "still human"?

[satanslash]

[He holds up a finger and moves off screen for a moment, returning with something in his hand.

He lifts the blue sheathed sword horizontally, tassels hanging from the scabbard.]

My heart - my demon heart - is sealed in here. It was sealed when I was a baby. Dad-- ... Shiro Fujimoto raised me like I was human. I still had problems bein' too strong for my own good and havin' a bad temper, but to everyone around me I was just a really angry kid.

The seal started to fail when I was about fifteen.

[He lowered it then, resting it out of view on his lap.]

That's when Dad died. I... tried to save him and pulled the sword even though he told me not to. I'm still half human, but the other half came out that day.

[Hence the tail and other traits, plus his powers.]

[chichichi]

[ Alright. Hold the fucking phone.

That first statement alone is monumental in her ears and she sharpens them acutely in listening quietly, attentively as he continues to speak. The questions bubble up one after the other, sometimes two at a time and she hushes them, checks that growing impulse to simply start turning things over and over, trying to connect the dots, the pieces because there's so many here that become him and his entire situation and she wants to understand.

Even after listening to his full explanation, many of those questions sit at the forefront of her mind. Why seal a half breed's heart? And why in that sort of vessel? Why raise him as a human, and from the sounds of it, unaware of his heritage at all when those sorts of problems were all but guaranteed?

She should know. At seventy-three, and as close to a full-grown hanyoukai as she's going to get with any speed, it's more critical than ever that she be mindful of her strength, especially when it comes to humans with their contradicting resilience and fragility.

Was Rin Dormant, then? Could he not see? Because of the seal... and what sort of seal? What sort of seal would a person use to seal the demon heart of a half-breed? Who would? Why? What... what was he trying to save his father from?

This is a lot and the questions keep coming. For every answer, there's another question. For every question, there's another question. She's missing so much, so many pieces that she isn't entirely sure where she should start. The usual answer in such a case is to pick a point and just drive it. She doesn't like being uncertain for long periods of time and she can usually work through it however she needs. Forward, backwards -- she trusts herself to move and move things appropriately. This board is complicated, but it isn't beyond her. ]

Why?

[ That's the question that hangs heaviest, the question that draws everything up in itself and unites everything. She focuses on that. ]

Why seal your demon heart? What's so -- [ think, feel it out, turn it over and around ] -- so special about you that anyone would go to such lengths to conceal -- [ conceal? From Rin, yes -- from... others?? if people think he's just an angry kid, then what...? ] -- your heritage?

[ Why would this Fujimoto person...? And after that, this Mephisto...?? Why? That's the question. ]

[satanslash]

[He had a feeling that was coming. She knows more than anyone else. She's a demon herself, preemptively informed even without being from the exact same version of Assiah.

She knows and yet she doesn't.

And that makes the next part the hardest.

His hands tighten around the scabbard enough that, though it can't be seen, the old wood creaking can be heard. He looks away, eyes distant, dark...

tired.

He's so tired, Sets.]

My father... is Satan. My power comes from him. The night I was born... they... they call it Blue Night. A lotta people died. A lotta people in the Order blame me. And... Yukio thinks... said Shiro was raisin' us to be weapons...

[There's so much he still doesn't know. So many things that were left hanging in the air at the worst possible time thanks to him being dragged away from home to that damned village.

He doesn't believe Yukio.

Not entirely.

But sometimes...]

[chichichi]

[ Her ears aren't the only thing about her that are sharp. Those eyes of hers are gifted with the night sparrow's keen vision. She listens. She looks, watches him turn his head away, seeks and reads blue, her peripheral actively employed in reading his body language. He is tired and it's hardly a wonder why when he speaks that first statement.

Setsura pauses with the utterance of that name. No, it would be more accurate to say that she slows, stops. Lets herself drop gently onto the sofa, but she holds the device just the same. Doesn't turn her eyes away, doesn't lift a hand to her mouth or any such dramatic thing. She simply continues to listen, to watch, her expression shifting into something... different, more difficult to grasp and read, like wind, so much water.

Because that's a big name. It's a name good and well outside of her specialization -- and she specializes in Japan and Asia per her locality, the tier at which she operates as a Hand, a preternatural mercenary -- but it's known to her. That demon -- she doesn't have to think hard about it, how people could take issue with a half breed with that parentage, power. People take issue with half breeds with lesser parentage all the time. She knows better than anyone. She's lived it, had to work through it, past it, but -- and her eyes drop for a second -- what she isn't quite expecting is -- no, it's all of this on some level. How suddenly, violently her heart wrenches in her chest because there's something about this that sounds so familiar.

It takes her back to the ruins of a certain village at the base of a particular mountain. Drums up memories of the stench of burnt leaves mingling with decay, so many black birds screaming, hateful eyes, tongues lashing with accusations --

She closes her eyes for a moment. Breathes in, out quietly and opens them again.

Of course he's tired.

And there's questions that linger, more questions that shoot to the surface even as certain pieces fall into place. Is he the same? Is Rin...? Satan...? So very many demons walk between the dimensions and she's still missing pieces and pieces and pieces.

Her gazed drops, her eyes moving rapidly behind fluttering eyelids. Black strands spill into her face with the haphazard feather here and there. There's more to this, but what does she do with this, him? Them, now? She can't reach him from here. If she could, then she isn't entirely sure what she'd do. Something. Anything seems better than sitting where she is, where they are. ]

Okumura-kun.

[ She beckons him back from that distant, dark place. It's a simple utterance, just his name, but she puts herself into it and extends that hand of hers.

Take it and come back, Rin. That's enough for today. ]