“My mom wanted to lock me up….” Nino sighed. “She had lived through the attack… along with my dad…. Just barely…. She wanted to lock me up in a jail or something… and I would have full heartedly agreed with her…. But the Shaman Council and their damn rules said I was innocent…. For not being able to have control… for simply succumbing to something I wasn’t ready for… damn idiots…” Nino swore harshly and shook his head. “And after that I went to funeral after funeral and each one all I could say I was sorry for killing them… I couldn’t even say it out loud…I couldn‘t even see their ghosts… they all had left for the spirit world…...” His body as tense, but Nino didn’t stop talking. “And back then… they told me it was just a ghost… I got possessed by ‘just a ghost’ …. saying that too a kid… as if … it made anything better…. I wanted away from them… everyone of them that said it was ok… said that it was fine that I was a murderer…..so as soon as I turned fifteen… I left it all and started traveling…and Matsu… I can‘t even figure how he couldn‘t hate me… but he didn‘t… he simply just… came with me… as if .. As if we were still friends…and he stayed…” Nino breathed out a puff of smoke into the air and watched as it gathered on the ceiling above him. “And come to find out… after all this time… her essence…her power… her being… simply chose a body to inhabit… you, Emiko.” Nino breathed in his cigarette. “You’re a vessel… because Aoi died and could no longer be one… because Aoi like your soul… or some reason….” he breathed out again. “I recognized it the minute on the twister board…that you had the same ability as me… the same fluid…. Being.”
The sound of the door being unlocked caused Nino to look up as Matsujun entered carrying a bag of what appeared to be groceries. The white haired man smiled as he came in but stopped a moment looking at both Nino and Emiko. Blinking before he forced a smile, the white haired man set the bag on the table not too far off. “Well hello, Miss Emko,” Matsu smiled. “And how are you today?”
Emiko looked a mix between surprised and unsure of what to say. The white haired man simply took this as being some serious conversation of some sorts and left it to his own mind to imagine what was being talked about. It wasn’t hard to guess from the look on Nino’s face. The dark haired man could try to hide it, but the light haired man had known his friend too long not to be able to distinguish the face of what was being talked about.
“Matsu….” Nino sighed outwards as the white haired man turned his head and viewed the dark haired man with a smile. “Did you get all of the groceries?”
“Well… I only had two hands shesh and getting around without a car is pretty hard, so no,” Matsu said sticking his tongue out at Nino. “I only got enough for me.” Directly after he said this, the white haired man burst out laughing as if he had said some secret joke that he expected Nino to get. “Anyways… where did Aiba go?” Matsu blinked.
“He left a note saying he was going around town,” Nino said straightening up on the couch. “So it means he’s lost around town again.”
Matsu laughed lightly shaking his head. “Oh dear… well… he does know the apartment number… so it can’t be too bad… hopefully…..Anyways….I’m guessing we’re talking about spirits and shamans and things?” Matsu left the topic broad despite the fact that he internally knew that Nino had been talking about Aoi. “Well…” he said. “Shamans need to eat that is for sure… I’m going to make some fried rice.. How does that sound? Emiko? Care to stay for lunch?” Emiko appeared completely caught off guard by Matsu’s question… as if her thoughts had been completely elsewhere at that present moment in time. Matsu simply laughed back and nodded all but causing Emiko to nod as well. “Good good, I’ll make for four incase Aiba comes back any time soon,” Matsu stated as he began to walk back into the kitchen.
“D-do you need any help in there?” Emiko asked as if trying to change on the conversation. Matsu looked up reading her face on this before shaking his head. “It’s fine… and besides I can participate in the conversation from here…. Anyways… so I’m guessing Nino talked about shamans and vessels correct?” The white haired man looked down at the cutting board he had placed before himself and then picked up a knife and started cutting the fresh vegetables. “Sorry to steal your thunder, Nino…” Matsu sighed.
Nino had not said anything for nearly five minutes, but as Matsu gave back the wording of things, the dark haired man sighed outwards a fraction. Emiko appeared to turn her head back to the dark haired man. “So then….” Emiko started. “If I‘m… a vessel….”
“As was said before… you’re now a vessel… Asa’s vessel… and your powers as a shaman will change from what you previously knew your abilities to be….” Nino answered back. Emiko strangely seemed to scrunch up as if irritated that Nino had taken her words without letting her finish.
The sound of Matsu’s knife on the cutting board made for somewhat of a strange rhythm. The white haired man picked up the carrots he had just sliced and threw them on the side before stopping and setting up the rice on the frying pan. The white haired man had a methodical way of doing certain things, and this was one of those things. “You’ll probably hear a voice if you haven’t already…. Which is basically your vessel spirit….” he broke off a fraction remembering that only that morning he had woken up to find that his own had managed to control him… it was strange… yet…. Shaking his head, Nino continued. “It has a mind of its own and works solely to awaken fully when you are near your paralleled demon lord….”
Nino found himself half relaxing at giving the general information.. It was less personal… less…. Painful…. “However, it will sometimes aid you if you are fighting demons in general,” he continued. “You’ll also form one of these…” Nino held his hand outwards as the spirit gun formed in his hand. “They take the form of the personality of the shaman….. Apparently mine is because I’m distant. Matsu’s is probably because he’s a dork.” The sound of Matsu’s laughter echoed in the apartment for half a second, and a smirk appeared on Nino’s face. The joke had proved to be harmless. “Or because he’s got an out going short form personality. Either way, once it takes its true form… you will be able to manipulate it from there and turn it into different things…” he sighed outwards closing his hand as the gun suddenly shifted into what could only be described as a long black whip. The whip then turned to form a sword.
“How do I form it?’ Emiko asked suddenly as if trying to distract herself from something. Nino looked at her not pleased that she had broken his speech. However, a light laugh came out of Matsu followed by a series of sharp cutting sounds as the white haired man sliced up the tomatoes.
“You have to find an emotion.. Something strong enough to want to form it…. Most will say you have to want to protect something, but it doesn’t work like that really… you just have to feel something…”
Emiko raised her eyebrow a fraction before looking down at her hand again as if trying to stir something in her to call forth the weapon… Her face suddenly became mildly animated in nature causing Nino to blink as she focused more and more to the point Emiko was all but standing up and trying to form it.
“You won’t get it off the bat, you know. It takes mediation and training,” Nino sighed moving his eyes away and sighing outwards. Turning flush, Emiko appeared to look up at Nino with a challenge in her eye as if she was now focusing on trying to prove him wrong. Nino just stared back watching as the red haired girl looked down at her hand and appeared to be trying to focus on something or another. However, nothing came. Nino didn’t bother to laugh and neither did Matsu. Turning his head, Nino sighed outwards.
“Alright… fine… I’ll meditate and train and then form it… “ Emiko sighed outwards appearing to realize there was still much to ask and discuss. “What about the angels then?” she began. “Do the shamans work with them?”
“No,” the word had not come from Nino but Matsu instead. His voice has a strange note in it that leveled on irritation. “We do not work with the angels…. There has been too much conflict with them before….” he sighed outwards continuing to cut up and dump vegetables into the frying pan. “Seeing as they view the making of vessels as demonic in nature to begin with. They simply wage war on earth making it a battle ground not caring if anyone gets hurt.” A silence followed, and the only sound that could be heard was Matsu cutting up the last remainders of vegetables and the sizzling of the frying pan. Matsu stared down at his cutting board and then looked at the frying pan silently beginning to stir his rice.
Nino looked form where Matsu stood and then back to Emiko who had leaned over her own shoulder in confusion for a moment before turning back. “Ah….” Emiko answered after a moment appearing not able to find any other word to say that would make any more sense in the context of things. “So then….” she looked down at her hands as if trying to find up another question. “Do I even get a choice in this?” she asked quietly after a moment.
“N….” Nino started to say no when Matsu cut in again.
“There is always a choice,” Matsu answered back. “You could walk away right now and go back to everything you know…. But even then, there would be consequences of things. Don’t ever think there is not a choice to be made.”
~*~
Aiba walked around confused. Oh crap I'm lost again...... was all that managed to go through his mind.
__________________________________________________________
X_X brain is fried now..... that's all I can think on... if anyone wants to bump into Aiba since he's still lost... feel free.
