NIKKARI;

[crashout]

Comments

[uncleanse]

"Part of being human"...

[ while his body continues to follow junpei, his mind seems to be elsewhere for the time being. if, for some reason, junpei stops at any time, nikkari will bump into him with a little "ah," and a bit of a startle. ]

[crashout]

[? He gives Nikkari a look like he's unsure what to say or why Nikkari's repeating him, but there's a fleeting smile as he wanders. They approach the shelf, but yeah. Junpei stops, Nikkari startles into him, and Junpei blinks as he looks at two white flower hair ornaments resting on a shelf.]

...seem out of place, don't they? [But the tone says he absolutely recognizes them, voice catching in his throat as his hand moves to pick them up. And that's about when the barrier begins to close in on them. Farewell.]

[uncleanse]

Ah, sorry... I seem to have—

[ whatever he was going to say is cut off as the barrier traps them where they stand.

junpei will suddenly find himself seeing through nikkari's eyes in the midst of a battle in an open field. bloodied bodies litter the ground all around him, but it's hard to get a decent look at them when he's currently engaged in battle, the sound and sensation of blades clanging against each other and occasionally slicing through flesh and arteries alike. he slices through enemy after enemy with a surprising grace, almost as if he's performing a dance. he and his blade are onee, after all.

amidst the chaos, a fatally injured man approaches him, clutching a bundle he desperately thrusts into nikkari's arms with a choked "please, my child...!"

and before nikkari has the chance to respond, either with his words or his blade, the man is slain before his eyes and the assassins turn to him next. he has no idea what just happened, but as the adrenaline kicks in, he knows one thing for sure: he needs to protect this child. and so, with swaddled infant in his off arm, he continues to fight until he comes across another person dressed noticeably differently from the rest of the soldiers. it's almost inappropriate how casually he asks the other man "what should i do with this child?" as he continues to thrust his sword into the foes trying their best to kill him.

the other man glares at him through intense yellow eyes, and gruffly reminds him, "this is a battlefield, nikkari aoe!"

and that's that. ]

[crashout]

[Well that's bad! That's bad, and he stops as he watches, the adrenaline sharp enough that it feels like his own as he tries to see everything in front of him. He doesn't know battle the way Nikkari does and while he's living in this moment, his own surprise and wariness creeps up over him.

It's clear that Nikkari's good at what he does. It's also clear that he has a conscience, something that tries to do the right thing, but as the memory ends he blinks rapidly to clear the vision, unaware that his hand has grabbed onto Nikkari's wrist.]

...what was that?

[uncleanse]

[ nikkari's eyes are hazy as the vision subsides and he's brought back to the real world, looking down at his hand and flexing his fingers a couple of times before turning his attention back to junpei and that grip on his wrist.

hm.

weirdly enough, he doesn't seem too concerned about it as he calmly explains, ]

You once told me you didn't know much about Japanese history, correct? Haha... the baby I had been tasked with protecting would eventually grow up to become Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, the final period of the feudal era before Japan's unification.

[crashout]

Before the Meiji Restoration. [He knows that much, more or less, given he's still blinking like he's trying to wrap his head around this.] I...didn't realize you were a parent.

[Sometimes Junpei says stupid things. And sometimes Junpei says really stupid things, which will become obvious when Nikkari finds himself in a memory. Novelization takes care of descriptions of his feelings for me.]

[uncleanse]

[ before nikkari can even commend junpei's piece of trivia, he's immersed in junpei's memory instead. over the course of this increasingly cringeworthy exchange, he suddenly Understands why junpei's been drawn to him since their very first conversation.

and when it's over, he's just. snickering. ]

[crashout]

[...he just turns bright red, drops Nikkari's wrist, and speedwalks away and almost directly into a bookshelf goodbye.]

[uncleanse]

[ for a moment, he considers calling after him with a teasing "jumpy," but...

hm. he probably shouldn't do that. so, instead, he simply says, ]

Jun~pei.

[crashout]

[That's probably good because he'd cry but also this time he hears Nikkari and he does bump into a bookcase? And apologizes with a quick "gah, sorry!" before sidestepping and...turning to face Nikkari.]

Nikkari? [He's trying to sound firm and cross with him but. Failing. A lot.]

[uncleanse]

[ this is the tag ]

[crashout]

[A VERY LOUD GROAN.]

Shut. Up.

[uncleanse]

We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to.

[ he ain't forgettin it tho ]

[crashout]

[Even though Nikkari's making fun of him, he doesn't have an answer. He sort of blinks in response and just...shrugs.]

I'm not really sure what to say anyway. [Also, haha.]

[uncleanse]

Haha... I could tell.

[ he teases! because he likes!! ]

Besides, I'm sure you have far more questions for me than I do for you.

[crashout]

[Rude. But yeah, let's move away from his fiancee and back to something else...]

Yeah, I do. Such as when you became a father and why? I thought you couldn't meddle with history and stuff.

[uncleanse]

Haha... I wouldn't necessarily call myself a "father," but I can see why you would think as much.

That is exactly why my comrades and I had been dispatched to that era in the first place. Our enemies had already laid the groundwork for disrupting history by slaughtering the Matsudaira clan and their retainers. Thus, we took on the identities of the fallen and raised Lord Ieyasu in their place.

It helped that one of my peers was one of Lord Ieyasu's most prized blades—his extensive and intimate knowledge of Lord Ieyasu's lifetime helped us greatly in ensuring that the major events of those years stayed intact.

[crashout]

So...because you knew how the past went, you were able to recreate someone's future in the present. [Back to this bullshit again, because, haha, that's kind of very familiar. He's still highkey humiliated about what Nikkari saw and a little flutter of "want" beats in his chest for someone not even here, but he's stepping away from the bookcase to approach him.]

How many of you were there raising this kid?

[uncleanse]

Mm. There were six of us in total. Incidentally, Tonbo-san was also one—he was, perhaps, the closest thing our lord had to a true father figure.

[crashout]

[...a laugh.] I can kind of see that, actually. He gives off that sort of appearance.

[...wait.] He also told me he was good with children and now I feel kind of stupid for not thinking a little harder on that.

[uncleanse]

Haha... did you just accept it for what it was?

[crashout]

It was the first day, what else was I supposed to do?

[uncleanse]

Fair enough, I suppose.

Curious about anything else?

[crashout]

I'm always curious about you guys. [He can openly admit that.] But...so what, after he was grown up, the mission was over and you went back to the citadel? You had to pose as human for a long time, didn't you?

[uncleanse]

[ he just flashes another smile at that, though this one is subtly... subdued, compared to the usual. ]

Mm... not quite. You see, one of the men we acted as, Hattori Hanzo, played an important part in Lord Ieyasu's life. He would become one of our lord's most trusted allies, even going as far as to help raise his son, Nobuyasu...

And would later kill him once he'd been accused of treason against his father.