IC Inbox | Rin Okumura

[satanslash]

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

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[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. ]

[satanslash]

[Memories flooded Rin's mind, voices and settings seeming to pull at the current world around him and drown out any sense of belonging and stability. Her reaction was decidedly less negative than many others had been, yet just saying it to someone who knew the name, recognized the weight of it made his heart want to beat right out of his chest.

He barely knew Setsura. They were still somewhat strangers in the relative scheme of meeting new people on a new planet, though she had felt enough of connection to check on him after one ill fated game together.

Despite the newness of the friendship it led him to a dark place, a fear gripping him with thoughts of her hating him, denouncing him for his parentage, part of him even waiting for a shriek of anger and upset that he kept something like that from her.

All irrational thoughts, clearly, but irrational born of everything he had ever dealt with before and after learning the truth of his existence.

And then she speaks and there's no vitriol. Nothing raised, nothing loud. Just a calm, quiet, reassuring utterance of his name. His head snapped up, corners of his eyes burning. It was all he could do to keep the tears from falling, the hand not holding his phone rubbing at his face with a sniffle.]

'm... I'm okay...

[chichichi]

[ He isn't. The state of his human heart is a mess. It tugs at hers in a way few can and that's to say nothing of his demon heart sealed in that sword. Their connection is infantile; and yet, his had called her attention on several occasions after their meeting when the realms of the living and the dead had overlapped throughout Lunatia. She wouldn't ascribe it to any preternatural force. There's no spell at work here, not in what most would consider the traditional sense, but hearts, they're powerful things. When piqued with interest, they pace in their cages, speak Binding the likes of which not even they can break with any sort of easy measure. In minutes, his had spoke to hers and hers had coupled with her mind and brought them here into these revelations perhaps a little early.

But they would have arrived here eventually because she would have appeared before him absolutely. It's a comfortable truth that she grasps and accepts because she knows what sort of being she is.

Most people faced with this situation would try to make a break. Most people would look at this young man and simply see the son of Satan, an abominable half demon whose existence shouldn't have been permitted, who brought about unforgivable suffering by virtue of his very birth. Setsura is not most people and this story, it's familiar in a way. She thinks her heart was stronger than his when she struck out in search of the path, though. She was older and her 'parent' hadn't borne such fame. Hadn't cast so large a spotlight on her beyond their locality.

The weights they bore, that they bear, they're similar, but they aren't the same. What sits on his shoulders and presses him down is larger than the two of them put together. Those tears he's holding, how long has he been holding them?

She puts the pieces down. ]

Where are you?

[satanslash]

[Too long, and not long enough. He had broken down a few times before, in front of Kohaku, in front of Karou. Spilled his heart and his fears and all that he knew he had to deal with whenever he finally, finally made it back home.

But all of that was an outside situation and had nothing to do with what his very existence did to him.

"Idiots can only move forward" Shura had once said about him, and that was exactly what he did. He didn't have the capacity to deal with it all. All he could do was put one foot in front of the other and put other people's problems with him in his rear view.

But that wasn't exactly coping, was it?

Accepting his flames, calling them his own instead of Satan's had been actual progress, but trauma doesn't recover over night.]

Home.

[Another sniffle and he sends his address her way as they had yet to trade that information.]

[chichichi]

[ At any other time, she might have paused to consider how strange it is to hear another Moonblessed use that word about any location in this foreign world, but she's nothing if not focused right now and the oddities of adaptation are not her at the forefront of her mind. As soon as that address hits her device, she's pushing herself up and moving with discipline to pluck Girimaru from his shrine, the barrierette from the table by the door.

There's the almost musical sound of fluttering wings going out ahead of her as she opens the door. She is quick and quiet, door locked and she's headed for the stairwell.

This is no time for the elevator. ]

Sit tight.

[ She say it calmly, not quite coolly, but reassuringly. Doesn't cut the feed, though, even when she drops in navigating the stairs to cut time down. If there was any question as to the nature of her heritage, it should be good and gone by the time she drops to the bottom most level and hurries through the door.

He'll have company, a firm knock at his door, very shortly. ]

[satanslash]

[To Rin, this is the closest thing to "home" he's had in a while. He lives with his girlfriend, he has power and food, and nothing is falling apart by being looked at funny.

It's good enough.

His brows furrow at those two words, but he does as she asked and stays where he is. Not that he was intending on going anywhere else. Kohaku was gone for the time being and the apartment was just a little too quiet anyway.

He does get up from the couch long enough to turn some soft music on at least, watching her continued feed curiously but without any commentary until she knocks.

There's a look at the door, back at his phone, at the door again before he finally turns it off and goes to answer, eyes still a little red but otherwise calm.]

Hey...

[chichichi]

[ When the feed is disconnected, Setsura pockets her device. And when the door opens, she looks up him because -- of course -- he's taller than her.

But that's not important right now. What's important is the second in which deep violet eyes meet reddened blue. In that second, her mind is made up and she steps forward without a single word to wrap her arms around him in a hug that isn't for her.

It's no church hug either. No hesitation, no awkwardly light patpatpleasedon'tcryonme, none of that nonsense. It's big for all that she's small and solid and warm and real, the kind of hug that speaks its own language.

Yeah, that's her, "hey". It's as close as he's going to get right now from one heart to another. ]

[satanslash]

[There's a faint grunt more out of surprise than being uncomfortable. She is... a lot smaller than he would have guessed, but that was the sort of presence she had, wasn't it?

It doesn't make the hug any less comforting, though. Being in the middle of the doorway is awkward, but who the fuck even cares anymore.

He needed this.]

[chichichi]

[ She knows. Doesn't rightly care who sees them because this hug isn't for anyone but Rin. She's not in any hurry to break it either. As long as he needs it, she's here and she says as much in that quiet language with a little squeeze, firm and reassuring. ]

[satanslash]

[She might not mind, but Rin is a little more self conscious about these things. No one else was around but someone could easily come around the corner.

He quietly pulled away, rubbing at his face again.]

You wanna come in? Kohaku ain't gonna be back for a while...

[And he could really use company after all that.]

[chichichi]

[ He pulls away and she lets him, tucking her hands quietly into her pockets. There's four walls with a great deal of largely empty space between them to return to. Given that, his question, she's not exactly in a rush to head back.

No, this sounds better. ]

If I wouldn't be imposing.

[ A little humor in diffusion? She did just make a little trek and spring herself on him, after all. ]