🌸 | Event

[lovebreathing]

Who ⬤ Mitsuri Kanroji
What ⬤ Beach / Blood Rain
When ⬤ June 2022
Content Warnings ⬤ body horror ? hallucinated loss of a limb


🏖️ lifeguard / beach

[ mitsuri is dutifully watching the beach, one of shinobu's floaties held around her waist. she'd ran out at the last minute to buy a bathing suit and had settled on a simple, plain black bikini. it was nothing special,
and a little snug, but seemed to be much better than the leftover options being given out.

as far as she's concerned, 2 hours of work was a very small price to pay for such a fun occassion, and she's more than content to sit and watch people playing games or swim for a while... especially since she can sit and graze on free treats from the stalls. among the food, she'd also decided to indulge in a bit of alchohol. it definitely wasn't her usual fare, but she'd turned 20 on the first of the month and been curious, deciding to try it at least once. ]

🍉 watermelon

[ breaking open watermelons was a summer staple! mitsuri was more than happy to participate in the game, and she carries the remnants of her watermelon with her, approaching others to try and share. in particular, she's prone to approaching those that seem shy: stragglers or people hiding beneath the shade. ]

Hi!! Do you want some? There was a lot leftover!

[ the worst they can probably do, as far as she thinks, is say no. ]

🩸 blood rain (tw)

"Please, come this way!"

[ there's a hitch to her words as she rushes forwards, directing stragglers inside. it was getting hard to breathe, somehow, with all of this rain -- and the smell. although even if she weren't in enma, mitsuri still would have thrown herself into this, frantic to try and redirect as many people as possible from this horrible situation.

trying to weather a night like this isn't the easiest thing to do in the first place, but as time stretches on she finds herself growing more and more unsettled: more jumpy at the sight of wavering shadows, more on-edge from the constant downpour. the scent of blood had long churned her stomach, and she tries her best to keep her vision clear, continually wiping blood away from her face.

but it was hard -- too much -- and mitsuri eventually begins to fall to her own hallucinations: her fingers begin to unravel before her very eyes, skin peeling away and dissolving in the rain. mitsuri's breath stills from the sight of it, from the steady exposure of tendon and bone -- the loss of her entire right arm. everything suddenly sounds far away, the rain splatters a backdrop to the beat of her heart, as she realizes she's losing more of herself.

with her arm goes portions of her face, skin fraying to expose the muscles of her cheek, her ear slowly dissolving too. she traces these open wounds with the fingers of her remaining hand, all of the marks she could see, the scratches and bruises -- all more than familiar for her.

This was how she'd died.

she doesn't notice the people around her anymore, whether they approach or stop altogether, whether or not they could see what she does. for the moment, she's completely shocked, staring aimlessly down at where her right hand should have had been. ]

Comments

[lovebreathing]

[ The sound of her name slithers towards her, quietly weaving among the raindrops — and for a second, her heart races. That voice, it sounded so much like … ]

Iguro-san…—?

[ For a moment she thinks she sees him: a flash of a striped haori, gashes across his face, the faint hiss of a snake … but then she blinks and it’s over, and she’s looking instead at megumi, her friend. ]

Oh… Sorry, Fushiguro-san. I thought I saw someone else. [ she tries to smile, but she’s still shaken, distracted. the nudge against her leg is what helps her to focus, and she glances down to see this poor doggy in the rain. ]

Eh?? A dog? Is this yours? [ She reaches out habitually with her right hand, before pausing and switching to her left, holding it out for the dog to sniff. megumi said the loss of her arm wasn’t ‘real’… and he wasn’t reacting to it, but it still looked very real to mitsuri. ]

[mahoraga]

[ It doesn't surprise him too much that she had mistaken him for someone else, given the dazed state she appeared to be in. Mitsuri appears to recover quickly though, even if he doesn't know if she's still seeing whatever it was she was seeing. He does wonder if there's someone similar to himself in her life. He might ask in curiousity at some point.

The sudden switch from right hand to left does not escape his notice. How peculiar.

The white dog sniffs her hand, sitting down in front of her in a welcoming fashion. The black dog stays behind Megumi, keeping watch of the surroundings. ]

My shikigami. [ That's all he says about them u_u

He considers for a second if he should ask. Then, he decides to go ahead, since it might help him understand what's happening. ] What's wrong with your hand?

[lovebreathing]

I love animals! [ she pets the wolf, smoothing her hand over its fur. it, too, was getting covered in blood and a part of her feels bad for it.

at the mention of her hand, mitsuri moves almost instinctively, twisting just slightly to hide her right shoulder before realizing: if there was something wrong, megumi would have noticed it in the first place. there was no way he couldn’t see something like that, with her wearing only a swimsuit. ]

… Nothing is wrong with it? [ she says it more like a guess, a question, than a statement. ] I just can’t see it… but I think finding shelter for everyone is probably a little more important. That includes you too, Fushiguro-san!

[ why was he still out here anyway ]

[mahoraga]

[ Megumi's not too bothered about his dog getting dirty, given that they reset once he releases his technique (and that these dogs often spend their days brutally mauling curses).

He is also not perceiving the swimsuit and only looking at her face. Thanks. ]

We can work on that. [ But he has a hunch she'll have a hard time focusing with whatever she's going through right now, so he would like to know what's going on. ] What are you seeing in place of your hand?

[lovebreathing]

[ while she wouldn’t say it aloud, she appreciates his directness —- especially in the face of all of this mess, and of her own anxieties. it was endearing, somehow, that he was so serious and to the point. ]

I’m … not seeing anything. My hand is gone. [ she sighs. part of her wants to mention why, but she isn’t really sure if she should. ] It’s okay, though. I’m probably just tired, or … I don’t know.

[ she pats his dog again, idly, wondering about it all — about how she’d thought she saw iguro-san, too. despite her best efforts, she can’t make herself as cheery as she would be normally. ] Sorry. I know it’s strange, right? Seeing things — or not seeing them… it’s getting in the way of things.

[ and here they were, just standing here, talking, while things continued to go awry: blood rain still falling, haniwa popping up all over… she can’t help feeling guilty. ]

But I still need to help get people inside, though. So I mean, not seeing my hand isn’t the end of the world… There’s still things I have to do, regardless. [ like a true, stubborn hashira: she’s resolute in that. why should she let a hallucination stop her from saving people? ]

[mahoraga]

No, I've heard it happen to others as well. [ The hallucinations that invited paranoia in some. The nightmares that manifested into reality. He's had a few encounters with them so far as he wandered about searching for his friend, and he's got a decent grasp on the situation. These visions are usually rooted in memory, like the Haniwa is using that as the basis for their apparitions. The fact that she's run into a very specific scenario of not being able to see her right hand ... is a concerning fact. He wonders if he should ask if this has any significance. ]

Slow down for a second. How are you going to fight when you don't know where your hand is? I think you should wait until the hallucination wears off.

[ Even if she fights one-handed, that lack of awareness of her hand in space would make it difficult for her to evade any attacks directed at that hand. There's a sternness in his voice, like he's serious about wanting her to stay put. ]