jigokulogs | [open] no strings attached

[ When Majima picks up his head a little, it's more obvious that it's been.. a while... Good eye slit like a serpent, a pale layer of scales his face and hands. If he shifts, his tail will uncurl from where it's wound up along his other hip. ]

Dunno, hard t'keep track of time in Hakagemachi. Been a while.

We're very happy, exorcist, no need for you.

[ Happy might be an overstatement but they have an agreement if nothing else. ]

[Natori knows a few humans who have cat-eye pupils like that naturally-- the very powerful ones, basically-- but the scales are pretty definitive, once he takes a few steps closer to properly make them out.]

Well, like you pointed out, there's not much I could do about it if you weren't. [He sarcastically dangles the sad little receipt by his thumb and forefinger before stuffing it in his pocket (littering is bad, even in hell). There's a passive-aggressive edge in his voice when he talks directly to the uwabami that leaves when he turns back to Majima.] I was actually aiming for whatever's haunting the grove, though. Sorry for prying into your personal life.

S'fine... they got me too.

[ Chijoku likes to laugh at him when he lies like he's all right, but the snake doesn't sit around trying to make him melt down. He's not very useful to his passenger when he's like that, his energy low and weak and barely even worth feeding off of. And on this point the snake is pointedly quiet. ]

Guess I better get outta here while they think yer serious.

Edited (lil typo) 2022-04-03 08:33 (UTC)

Ha, it's kind of you to say they might be taking me seriously. I don't know how likely that was even before... [He hesitates for the briefest of moments as he tries to decide how to refer to the uwabami-- "your shiki" isn't correct, but saying "the thing that's possessing you" seems a little rude. Eventually he settles for an irony-laden] your friend called my bluff.

[Natori isn't very good at offering comfort to close friends, much less to strangers he just met. His instincts say not to draw attention to it; that whatever this man is dealing with in response to the ayakashi haunting the cherry blossoms, he'd just put his foot in it if he tried to get involved on an emotional level. He's good at chasing off youkai, and now he can't even do that. Best to play it safe.]

But between me and them, [a brief gesture at the trees] we've managed to ruin your late-night flower viewing. If we're both leaving, should we leave together? Two heads are better than one. [And after a moment, as if for the youkai's benefit] Or three than two.

[ Majima doesn't know what he'd call Chijoku either. He mostly just ends up calling him the snake, as if that explains anything. Friend isn't quite right either. Maybe they're just companions in the world who need each other, so that neither of them crumble. Chijoku keeps something in Majima together and has allowed him to fight back in a magical realm he's not equipped for. Majima keeps the snake from disintegrating. They are a knot of scales and mutual, if antagonistic, support.

Majima looks up at Natori, still looking dour and mournful. After a moment though, he drags himself up to his feet. He slaps dirt and grass off his pant legs, avoidant. ]

Sure. Wasn't really lookin' at th'flowers anyway.

Maybe you should have been.

[Dour, mournful, avoidant, and with a criticizing ayakashi in his head to boot. Natori stands at something of an angle to Majima, his poor attempt at giving him the illusion of privacy by pretending to be preoccupied by looking down the path of the cherry blossom grove. He's no good with the more sincere emotions, but he can at least relate to picky spirits who feel the need to weigh in on everything, and maybe distracting conversation is the best he can offer. He rolls his eyes exaggeratedly, accompanied by a brief shrug of his shoulders.]

Mine back home tell me to brush my teeth and put my clothes away, [he offers conspiratorially.] I've got three. I can't fully relate-- they're not possessions, just ayakashi who have agreed to work with me-- but still.

I guess ya'd be good with th'things.

[ He puts his hands in his pockets, shoulders sloped in uncomfortably. ]

Wasn't sure they were even real, 'fore Joku snatched me outta Sotenbori. Now we been t'Hakagemachi an' this place, guess that's just how it's gonna be now.

[ In Hakagemachi all he had wanted was to get back to his regular old Japan to finish all the business he had left undone. Instead he's in Hell and so tied up with this snake he isn't sure they can be separated without killing one of them. They've agreed that isn't a valid proposition, despite what the onmyouji had wanted. ]

He's annoyin', but it coulda been worse.

[ Could have eaten him by now, but then he would have just needed another when his strength waned again. Majima ambles along down the walking path, a little too worn out and distracted to want to make a run from here. ]

Mm, I think most people are in the same situation if they're not born able to see them. Most people I know certainly think they're just fiction. [And it had taken him a while to learn the difference between the sort of creatures everyone could see and the ones that only he could. He had a difficult time with it growing up, but it occurs to him how suddenly coming across them as an adult would be its own struggle. Maybe not necessarily harder, but different.] ...Hakagemachi, you said that before...

[His brow briefly furrows before he places it.] There's a few people from that place here, right? It was some other city like this one in the ayakashi realm?

[ He makes a little noise of agreement. ]

Yeah, was more of a country town. Out in th'woods, th'mountains. Somethin' happened to it... like it got broken off from everywhere, even time was all broken.

[ He fishes a cigarette out of his pocket, puts it to his lips and then digs fro the lighter. ]

Somethin' happened to th'local gods, they were all weak or corrupted or crazy. We were tryin' t'fix it but... Dunno, don't think we did. Think th'Lake Spirit was gonna drown all of us, 'fore we ended up here.

[ To qualify, ]

Th'yokai brought us there as their hosts, they were all dyin' out an' disappearin' from whatever was goin' on.

[He nods as he listens, and finds himself taking in the facts like he would any other exorcist job. It's easier to fall into the old habit when so many of the circumstances match up with his expectations from his work. A more rural town, far more secluded than the unnatural, human-like city of Jigoku-chou. Corrupted or weakening gods, and a diminishing population of youkai making one last-ditch stab to change their fates. Even what Majima said about having a hard time knowing how much time had passed made sense; time didn't move the same way in the ayakashi realm, and moreso if the town was its own self-contained bubble within it. It's all very familiar-- not an everyday sort of job, but he can absolutely see an emergency exorcist assembly getting called to sort something like that out.]

I see. I'm sorry. I know that's a pretty flippant thing for me to say, but I do mean it. I can't imagine what it's like, getting pulled into something like that, and especially given...

[He trails off, because he doesn't want to say 'especially given that you seemed to have failed if so many of you ended up here.']

Given how unfamiliar it must have been to you.

[ He flicks his lighter to life, inhaling on the cigarette with his chin tucked down. ]

Nah it's... [ The words escape him for a moment. ] Hakagemachi was a bad place. Anybody'd have been sorry t'be there.

[ It was a nightmare of a place, even when it wasn't physically dangerous it was psychologically crushing. Time and space broken, nightmares and madness and anxiety being exuded off of mysterious beings far more powerful than any of the possessed trapped there. ]

Be dead a couple times over without th'snake. Not that... that always meant ya were dead. Think that fucked some of 'em up too.

[ He remembers something about Yuya telling him he had to watch the same brutal murder over and over and over and over again. Majima shivers; he was really easy pickings for the spirits in this grove. ]

Mm. [He doesn't know the specifics, but... the ayakashi realm was not a good place to be regardless. Add in the circumstances of their arrival, the length of time they were stuck there, the need to partner with ayakashi for survival when they hadn't even believed in them before... He's not going to need much convincing.]

Ayakashi are attracted to the weaknesses in people's hearts. What you're describing... [It sounds like the perfect way to revitalize struggling gods: bring in a food source, keep them miserable, and thrive off of that. Both the humans and the lower level spirits suffer off of it. It's no wonder they had to team up.] ...I've heard of spirits doing something along those lines before, but never at that scale. Invite a bunch of low-rank youkai to pledge themselves to a larger ayakashi for protection, then lock the doors and sacrifice the guests. A one night sort of deal.

...What do you mean, about the dead? Did the ghosts remain behind?

[ He doesn't want to think about the weakness in his heart. It's been shoved in his face many times by the spirits of Hakagemachi, especially the mirror yokai that accompanied the Lake Spirit. He'd been trapped under the water where he could either look it all right in the face or he could drown and drowning had sounded fine. ]

Could never tell what th'onmyouji wanted, us dead or if they just hated th'yokai that much.

[ A numb shrug. The occultists had only talked in riddles and curses. He'd tried to get his hands on one to beat the answers out of them, but his fists were never much use in the yokai town. ]

Time didn't work right. Ya could get caught in these loops. Die a thousand times an' still walk out on th'main road like ya were never gone. Anythin' could happen t'ya, really. Wasn't no place for us.

[He huffs out a breath of amusement at that, too sardonic to be a laugh. He might only have that offhand description, but if the onmyouji in that place were anything like the spellcasters he was used to-- and he's including himself in that, he knows he's as insufferable as the rest of them-- Majima's assessment was probably right.] I can't help but feel like I should apologize on their behalf. It could very possibly be both.

[With a quiet, sticky slithering sound, the youkai that lives on his skin crawls out from under the collar of his shirt, scurrying up his neck to rest on his jaw. It's a solid black shadow shaped like a lizard, flat against his body like a moving tattoo. In a bit of private self-pity, Natori can't help but compare it to Majima and his unwilling snake partner: at least Majima seems to have gotten some protection out of his.]

...It must have been a deeply powerful place. I'd like to say at least you're out, but... [But there's no guaranteeing they're not also in a difficult situation here, and letting go of the past wasn't as easy as moving to the city from the countryside, or to hell from some quixotic pocket dimension for that matter.] ...So did you all know each other, those of you who've made it here?

More or less, wasn't a big town. We all drifted into th'bar at one point or another. Only place t'get together an' talk about things.

[ His head turns at the flash of movement, but he mostly just looks with a frown. Maybe it just doesn't shock him that an exorcist has their own little thing crawling around under their skin. ]

Think we all agree we'd rather be here.

Mm. As strange as it might be to say 'welcome to hell,' it sounds like an improvement. [A part of him is curious about what happens after-- whether returning back to where they came from was part of their contract payments, if they knew where they were going afterwards-- but contracts were a deeply personal, and about dead last on his list of small talk topics.

Natori's long since gotten used to everyone here being able to see the lizard-- it was hardly a surprise that it'd be visible within the ayakashi realm, and doubly so for someone who looks like Majima does. He gives Majima a small, resigned smile and taps his jaw, right on top of it; the lizard doesn't react to his finger.] It's not the same as your situation. Mine's quieter, for one.

[ He frowns behind his cigarette for a moment. ]

What is it?

Who knows. [He shrugs, sticking his hands in his jacket pockets. His voice is light, as if it doesn't matter. Just some idle small talk.] It's some sort of ayakashi, but beyond that... And yes, before your friend says anything, it's very funny that I'm an exorcist and I can't identify it.

[Since he can't side-eye Chijoku directly to cut him off, he shoots Majima a conspiratorial look out of the corner of his eye, like they're both in on the joke. Easier to point it out and make fun of the sore spot than leave the low-hanging fruit out there.]

It doesn't do anything. It just crawls around. I don't think it can even perceive the things around me.

It is very funny.

[ Chijoku agrees cheerfully. ]

Shut up, Joku.

[ The snake just chuckles, a whispery sound like paper. Majima refocuses on Natori, still frowning thoughtfully. ]

Where'd ya pick it up, then?

[Natori just raises his eyebrow, as if to say "case in point."]

I don't know. I might've been born with it, or else it showed up when I was too young to remember how it got there. It's just always been somewhere on my body.

Ah, though do you want to hear something creepy? It's never once gone on my left leg.

No parents t'tell ya, one way or th'other?

[ Not a shocking thought to Majima who was born to the usual miserable, poor family that wasn't really equipped to raise him and thus didn't. He ended up on the streets early, he was always going to be yakuza and that's the only family he required. ]

What's so creepy 'bout it? Got some cursed limb ya ain't coppin' to?

[ This has humor to it, a weary and mellow sort. ]

Ah, well. No one else in my family can see them. [Which isn't to say that his family didn't believe him, at least not eventually. It just probably would have been easier for him if they hadn't.] My ancestors were exorcists a long time ago, but it's been generations since they lost the ability to see ayakashi and quit the business. I didn't meet another human being who could see this until I was in high school.

[He gestures again towards his face, where the lizard has scurried a little further up onto his cheek.]

Seems like it, right? There's a betting pool going on whether I'm going to lose that leg. [He says this just as cheerfully, like it's just a running joke among the exorcist community. Like he hasn't spent years of his life obsessing over it. It's fine.]

Huh.

[ It makes him ask, not for the first time, if there had been yokai and exorcists mucking around in his Tokyo too, just out of his sight and awareness. He doesn't know what to make of it but doesn't find it worth wallowing over. This is his life now, for certain. All the yokai and exorcists he can shake a stick at. ]

Guess ya might. You'll live, probably.

[ Majima's making it without that eye. It's a fucking trial and it changes your whole life losing a part of yourself... but you can keep limping on. ]

...Yeah. I guess so.

[It's not as if Natori's been unaware that Majima is wearing an eyepatch, but he's used to that not necessarily meaning the same thing it might in the human world. Between Majima's snakelike features and the fact that Natori spends a fair bit of time with a man who wears an eyepatch to ward off future danger rather than to cover a past injury, it's hard for Natori to remember that the most straightforward explanation is probably the correct one: that Majima is missing an eye. That last comment, of Natori being able to live with it, is like a reminder that he's being self-centered. Wallowing over what-ifs is bad enough, but it's worse to do so in front of someone who's actually gone through it.

He glances away for a moment, looking up at the path ahead of them as if he's just checking out the scenery.]

Sorry. I'm going on like this when you probably just wanted a quiet night. There's not much I can do for now, but if you ever do find yourself in need of an exorcist... I'm Natori.

Quiet wasn't doin' me no good anyway.

[ He's prone to wallowing in his own self-pity himself. He's not over the loss of his eye, he's not over the year of torture, he's not over Hakagemachi. Really, Jigoku-cho seems to just rub salt in his wounds: a town just like home that still isn't home and he's not really who he used to be either. ]

M'Majima. Ain't an exorcist, but I'm pretty good in a fight.

[ He considers it to be his only real skill, but it undersells all that he knows and is. ]

[open] no strings attached

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