jigokulogs | [OPEN] The end of the storm

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[OPEN] The end of the storm

Who ⬤ The team members and ANYONE!
What ⬤ The mission was a success! Time to face the music from friends and family.
When ⬤ Just after the tower expedition
Where ⬤ Outside Kaigo no Bou, probably moving around
Content Warnings ⬤ References to violence and horror imagery

All at once, the rains cease.

The damage remains, both to the city and to her inhabitants, but reality reasserts itself, and the ill wind that's blown through Jigoku-cho has—for now—come to an end.

Emergency services have borne away the injured, including the Daitengu and the freed Enma, leaving a gaggle of people emerging into the night.

[This is an OPEN IC MINGLE. Go forth and icly rubberneck or speculate or collect your friends back home to get some rest or yell at said friends for taking risks without telling them they were chosen for this mission out of some misguided attempt to get them to not worry. Who would do something so stupid, anyway.]

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[The whole time, as events wind down after the shadowy being says its parting words—"They cannot save you"—picking up the pieces in the wreckage of the Enma's sanctum, trying to formally shake hands with Billy and Hu Tao and instead getting caught in a tight-but-not-unwelcome hug from Cain, then the long, long ride down the restored elevator... the whole thing begins to take an unreal sheen. By the time they hit the lobby, the only thing stopping Minato from falling asleep on his feet are the nagging bruises all over from being thrown across the room.]

[Well. That and the glimpse of the being's face. Its smile is going to be haunting his dreams for some time. He doesn't want to think about that part.]

[There's another whirlwind of activity as they hit ground level. Faction leaders are hustled away by medical staff, Toraguma is yelling about something but Minato has gotten to a point where Toraguma yelling can bleed safely into comforting background noise. He's going to sit at a bench in the lobby, cradling the camera in his lap like a cat, and for the first time since midnight, catch his breath.]

[ It had taken him a bit to get down to Kaigo no Bou, and even longer to work out what the safest distance to wait was- Tama was far from the only person who had thought to do this, but he certainly had looked the most chaotic. He'd crammed the colorful bobbypins he'd bought in to his hair to pin back his unruly, frizzing bangs, he hadn't even grabbed a hakama and felt underdressed as a result, but he'd snagged their umbrella, and was rapidly worrying the prayer beads wrapped in triplicate around his bony wrist-

And then, the sky...cleared. Really cleared, completely and totally, making him peer curiously out from under his umbrella at the sky like he'd never seen it before. It was all anyone could do, bursting in to Kaigo right then, not just the worried well-wishers but the Enma's agents as well, people bustling about and carrying away the wounded (the wounded?) and he felt a little lost, still feverish but forcibly keeping himself grounded through sheer stubbornness. Seeing Minakami sitting down, rumpled but alive, exhausted but alive, it's impossible to not rush over instantly. There were many people he'd been worried about entering this nightmare tower, but it stood to reason that his best friend would take precedent in all things, surely. So, what was it...yell at said friends for taking risks without telling them they were chosen for this mission out of some misguided attempt to get them to not worry? Why, don't mind if he does! ]

M...Minakami. [ Well. Yelling had been the plan. The thing keeping him warm and alive and present in the moment, an increasingly-difficult task given he was slightly woozy on his feet. But he smiled, a little shakily, instead of losing his temper, or sulking, or throwing a manic tantrum. ] Sorry, I'm not good at waiting, I guess...

[The increased sounds of activity, both in the lobby and spilling in from the exterior doors, wash over him unmoving. It can all wait til later. Or... it could. He's not sure how he knows to wake up from his half-doze, even before Tama calls his name, the sounds of his approach should be fully drowned out by everything else, but he looks up.]

[His friend's there: hair in disarray, half-dressed, face flushed and eyes bright from a fever -- but they're alert and present. It's a far cry from how Minakami saw him last, or more accurately didn't. It's a good thing he's sitting down; that last awful week where he was going through the motions at the Arena, trying to do what he could without dwelling on what he heard during that phonecall. It had nearly all been brought to the surface again, when he'd seen an apparition of that man's face in the bird's remains, but he'd had to push past it. But now, weak with relief and out of immediate danger...]

Tamamori? [That comes out sounding more lost than he wants.] How did you get here?

Honestly, it was kind of a blur. [ Haha. Get it. Because he has a fever and also I haven't threaded that part out yet.

Tama wasted very little time in shuffling over to the bench, flopping down next to Minakami with some confusing mix of exhaustion and energy, stretching his legs out. Maybe it was secretly good he hadn't wore his hakama actually, given it would have just gotten bloodied up and surely the washing machines back at the apartments were going to become exhausted tsukougami by the end of the month alone, and... ]

Uehara-san sent me a message, and helped me get here. [ Sorry, Kamui of the present, for tattling on your tattling. But the loop is now complete. ] If you went, went back to the start of the blood...d'you think it'd be when it started falling, or when it was first made? [ He's trying hard not to lean too close, partly to keep his feelings at bay as well as some attempted consideration for both of them being a little out of sorts, but it's painfully obvious he doesn't want to. ] Maybe...it fell down here from Yomi. I don't imagine the Enma and Yomo-tsu Okami would get along.

[He glances over at Tama as he sits down, about to say something, but the closer look at the state he's in makes the words briefly die in his throat. Instead he looks down at the ground -- Tama's shoes, in better condition than any other clothes his friend owned, as usual, and his now-permanently-stained geta.]

Is that so? [The terse conversation he'd had with Kamui felt like forever ago. He'd deliberated on whether to ask the man at all, it felt like too much of a burden on a near-stranger. Still, he can't feel too upset at Kamui for telling Tama, not when his friend's presence now feels like a lifeline. At the same time, he sinks in his seat a little.] I'm sorry... all I do is apologize, isn't it?

[He's quiet at the seeming non-sequitur about the blood rain. The memory of the basement room in the Suizenji's inn with its endless shelves of ceramic jars, not sake but stored rainwater, neatly dated and marked. He doesn't want to ask why going back was on Tama's mind; he can guess.] No, I suppose not. Royalty of rival territories rarely do. Then again... maybe petitioning her for aid in this could have helped. Who can say?

...ah, I see you found them. [He hadn't missed the rattle of beads when Tama sat down.] I hope they helped.

[Fukuda is not the first on the scene to greet those emerging from the tower, which probably is partly because of the contraption he's lugging behind him. He's attached a volleyball net to a boogie board, which allows him to drag the net along the ground more smoothly. He's using the gathered net like a bag, which for some reason is full of towels (half of which already have bloodstains), a watermelon, a first aid kits, and an assortment of leftover snacks and drinks from the beach party.

Is this helpful at the point he actually gets here? Hard to say.]

Ah, I wasn't sure what state everyone would be in, so I just grabbed anything I thought people might need!
[He's trying his best... ?]

[ The sound of the bike's engine cut through the quiet of the square outside the tower as Lio cut his way through to the entrance, killing the motor and peeling off his helmet as he dashed inside.

He was mainly there for two reasons; check in on Minato and his boss, and check in on Cain. Most other things were secondary, but it wasn't like he wouldn't recognize everyone else.

The building was still starkly dark, with the power out, but everyone had enough lights that he found them fairly easily. ]

Boss! Minato! Cain!

[In the meantime, Billy went ahead and snuck away to enjoy a night on the town. Preferably one that was quiet and calm. He found it in a small grill and bar restaurant. Tucked away in some quiet part of the city near the edge of the Tamamo territory. It was early in the evening now as he sat himself down at the bar. This was meant as a form of celebration for him. Both for having done his own part in the tower, and for his recent promotion.

The latter of which came with a handy bonus.

There was also the matter of actually grabbing something to eat. Following the whole blood rain thing he hadn't eaten since the beach. It was difficult to with the stress of, well, everything.

Leaning back in his chair, stomach grumbling loudly in abject impatience to be fueled, he scrolled through his phone in idle boredom.]

[He was coming out, exhausted but alive. Truthfully he wasn't sure what was going to be waiting for him when he got outside, but even before he could check if the rain had stopped, he heard a voice calling his name.]

Huh? Hello? Is someone there??

[The group was handling the Daitengu well enough without him, and Aurora had already pointed himself towards the voice, trotting over to in front of the shorter man. He followed the wolf until he was in front of where he assumed the other would be.]

Is that...Lio?

[Some parts of his uniform and hair were singed and he looked utterly exhausted, but otherwise was fine.]

[It hadn't been long after Cain made it outside that he basically collapsed in the streets and was readily tucked away at his new apartment with roommates and the white wolf in tow. Having realized he still had dregs of his magic power, he'd used it all in straight up tanking the entity at the top of the tower.

He was spending a fair amount of time in bed, but as long as Megumi let them in, he was more than happy to recieve visitors. Aurora too was sitting on the bed, alert and tail slowly wagging.

Once he was fully rested, however, nothing was stopping him from being a complete and utter menace as he burst into the hospital and other places, trying to catch up on everyone he needed to.]

...you don't even need to apologize, this time. I looked online. It wasn't like you signed up or anything. [

] You got asked to do it because you're always...you always want to help. [ He shakes his head, still half-smiling. ] That's always what happens, isn't it? [ Helping by getting out of Tama's life for good. Helping by not rocking the boat with Kawase and his downward spiral. Yes, at the point that Minakami was at it had become running away, but...only someone without a guilty heart could cast aspersions about that. He'd pushed away first. ]

...how many times have you had to tell me about us? [ It almost sounds like an idle thought, as he runs his thumb over the prayer beads, but of course it's the reverse. A shocking confirmation he hadn't forgotten what they'd said across the phone, that he'd held on to the information instead of discarding everything they'd said under such dire circumstances. ] There must have been hundreds of times I didn't believe you, or listen to you. A hundred more where I did, but I was still a useless, stubborn idiot. [ His smile is stranger when he picks his head up, tilting it at Minakami. ] You got your arm cut off once, y'know. It was terrifying...but you were trying so hard to help. [ He finally lets himself bump his shoulder in to Mina's arm, as his head turns to look back out at the room. ] My head's too full of stuff I don't want you to see. The future, because of him. But I should have trusted you more, because we're the same.

[ of course shylock's coming in after the blood rain broke, and he's not about to let a couple of human kids stop him either -- but it's all right. he gets the apprehension, seeing how much the people who went on the raid had went through, but shylock comes in good faith. ]

I wonder how your fellow Central wizards would react upon seeing you like this.

[ a chuckle as he hovers over cain's bedraggled self, setting down a beautiful bouquet of roses and, naturally, a bottle of red wine with a cute bow attached to it. ]

Reckless as always... If Lord Figaro were here, he would have healed you up right away like last time.

[The roar of the bike cuts through Minato's semi-sleepwalking state in the lobby. He's trying to keep out of the way of emergency services (after one of the medical staff sniffed him over, in case he had worse than bruises and superficial cuts all over from being ragdolled around, then waved him off with orders for bedrest), but the -- to him -- unfamiliar sound of of a motorcycle wakes him back up.]

Lio?... Toraguma left with the ambulances, you just missed him...

[Minato emerges from the tower, looking scuffed and mostly like he fell down a few flights of stairs, which isn't like. great. but pretty good considering the circumstances.]

[That's -- isn't that the Enma employee he escorted out of the turf war territory last month? He'd never gotten his name, but Minato quite literally never forgets a face.]

Hello...?

[.........]

Where did you get all this?

[Shylock found Cain looking like he'd just woken up from a decades long nap; which he almost quite literally had. He wasn't expecting visitors here, but clearly lit up when he saw the west wizard.

Aurora, Megumi's white wolf had also perked up his head when Shylock approached, seeming to regard the man. Well, it seemed like this person was no threat to Megumi and a friend of Cain's, so the wolf just settled back on his place on the end of the bed.]

Didn't Figaro say he can't heal stupidity? Or at least when you exhaust all your mana...

[He made a face though, at the suggestion of the other Central wizards. Honestly, Megumi and Yuuji (and Fukuda and Lio) hovering was bad enough.]

Please don't remind me of Oz's disappointed stare...I'm sure Arthur and Riquet would lecture me for hours too....

[He's just going to focus on the gifts because they were so pretty! And Shylock always had excellent taste.

He'll save the drinks for later, though.]

I honestly didn't realize I still had some of my magic until the last minute. And I apparently used a ton of it resisting the influence of whatever that was at the top of the tower.

[He doesn't raise his head.]

My mother used to tell me, how my father changed after I was born. He'd work too long, he'd take too much on himself, he'd push himself to do things he wouldn't before. She said he calmed down after a few years, that it was like he was re-learning what was 'allowed'. [Allowed without a spirit watching through his eyes.] ...I'm taking longer than him to learn, aren't I?

[Ah. Minakami wasn't sure which outcome he was more afraid of: This, or coming back to find that his confession had been lost in the week of delirium. He's too fatigued to go to pieces over this again, not after that genuine moment of thinking he was about to die. Instead he shifts the camera onto the other side of the bench (where his sword is sitting next to one of the Hihi'irokane daggers, cocooned in about four or five layers of fabric). There's too many people still rushing around in and out of the building to actually reach for Tama's hand, but he leans sideways into him, as well.]

... Not that many. [That didn't mean anything, given the scale of time. ] I didn't want to tell you. Even if you believed it -- I don't want this to be because you thought you didn't have a choice. [As it is, for the last couple of years, he'd been sure Tama had made his choice clear.] ...I wish... you wouldn't say that about yourself. Every time I've known you-- [even if it wasn't for long] --my life was better for it.

[At the mention of that injury from some unknown timeline, he reflexively moves to grab his own arm, the same one that had gotten bloodied while fighting smugglers.]

Is the future so frightening?

[Very funny that he's actually spoken to Fukuda twice before now, he just doesn't know Fukuda is "333" on the network. Almost tempted to shoot for this conversation to end without him getting a name, for comedy.]

From the beach! That's what we've, the Department I mean, has been using as a home base since Kaigo no Bou was, well, you know.

[ Cain would get Lio in his vision a moment later from, of all things, a hug... a hug he was going to pretend didn't happen aftwards, sure, but it was sincere in that moment. ]

Holy shit, you're okay! M-mostly...

The ambulance? How bad off was he?

[ Lio, of course, assuming the worse and not realizing Toraguma was accompanying Cloud there or anything but he was also still very much in panic mode. Give him a moment. ]

[It takes him a moment to absorb how that must have sounded. oh gods he's tired.]

No no no, not like that! He was harrying them to get someone on his team to the hospital. I didn't get a good look before they left, but he was shouting up a storm, you know how he is... [that literally means less than nothing for Toraguma.]

...it must have been bad. I don't think even he's sounded that mad before.

[listen if you're committed to the bit then I am obligated to follow it through with you to the bitter, stupid end]

[Minato blinks slowly, once, twice.]

I see? That's, that's very thoughtful of you, given...

[What time even is it. He lost track at some point. If it isn't getting on daybreak soon he'd be amazed.]

...why the watermelon?

[Hey! No need to sound so surprised, Lio! Even if he was a dumb meathead of a himbo. And he wanted to acknowledge the hug, but..well, the expression on Lio's face told him no.]

I am, yeah. Our team is pretty much all okay...The Daitengu and the Enma are both pretty beat up but we honestly came out a lot better than I was expecting for some of it.

Is everything okay outside? Are YOU good??

[ The future was...

Without the nightmares to bleed the truth of his fears in to reality, he lets his mind unfurl and catastrophize as it wants to. The memories don't bleed out in to reality, the edges are too cleanly defined after so long of feeling at the mercy of the world, but the way he's staring off in to space makes it easy to know he's not quite there on the bench. ]

You don't seem to mind not having a choice, yourself. [ There's a little whine to that, like he's taking it personally that Mina would be so eager to burden himself. ] If you want me to be nicer to Tamamori, then you need to be nicer to Minakami. That's the [ A hesitation, nearly a full stop, and he swallows to push through it. ] only way I can keep trying to improve. [ His voice lowers, uncomfortable and a little shy, despite the unknowable years between them. ] I didn't save you so you could be sorry. Saving you was making my choice. And I won't accept anything less.

[ He could let it rest there, and indeed he quietly soaked in the shoulder contact instead of continuing right away- even if the turning of the wheel felt visible in the distance for him, it didn't mean he could recall those lives enough to really know if Minakami was telling the truth. If Tama had brought Minakami more headaches and pain, maybe he could believe that...there was a reason that they kept finding one another, despite it. Maybe he really could be worth that much to someone. ]

Well that...

[ Didn't sound surprising. ]

I guess that makes sense. What about you?

[ He didn't look that beat up, but they'd just been in the heart of the beast, for lack of any better descriptor. ]

The hell did you see up there?

[ Yeah just... Let him adjust his jacket and calm himself down a bit. ]

Y-yeah, I'm fine. I peeled over here as soon as I saw the sky clear up.

[ Which was pretty reckless on his own part, since that certainly wasn't a guarantee that the area was safe. ]

It looks like everything about that curse is just... gone.

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[OPEN] The end of the storm

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i am going to dismantle you into individual atoms

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this is the best threat ive ever recieved, i hope you know that

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