Shinju's Not-So-Unique Room

[Lethe]

“Ballad of Gales,” Shinju whispered quietly, her back growing warmer as it softly glowed green beneath her ashen clothing. The wind drifting between each corridor – Shinju leaned back on a column and cocked her head to the side to listen to their whispers, taking in the images that they had to offer.

Ah, no wonder it’s so quiet today – almost everybody’s gone on a mission. Shinju contemplated with herself just before breaking contact. She shivered involuntarily and frowned a little.

The one problem with listening to the wind was that once you went too deep, certain ‘unwanted’ conversations will start buzzing in your ear. Ranging from the cries of the damned to the murmurs of the perverted – she, for one, never did like eavesdropping nor the chains of gossip, much less adding onto it.

Shinju pushed herself up, picked up her backpack, and began walking down the corridor.

What to attend to first… She had just gotten back from her wanderings and was quite invigorated at the moment. But at the same time, she was also rather indecisive. I could always stop by the kitchen and wander around this place afterwards. Or I could go hang out with Serenade. No, wait… He said that he had something to take care of, so chances are he’ll be pretty busy. Shinju crossed her arms and frowned a little.

Decisions, decisions, decisions…

Before she knew what she was doing, she was already in front a dark-colored door with her name carved into it. Grasping the knob, she gently pushed inward, cringing slightly when the door creaked and slammed behind. Note to self: get some oil for the hinges.

Looking around, Shinju sighed. The room was just how she had left it: a single black bed, a blank bookshelf, a desk and a lamp. Nothing had budged an inch out of its usual placement – it was the same as the day she had arrived. It took her a minute to remember that because she traveled around so much she thought that she wouldn’t really have to “personalize” this room, but now…

Shinju dropped her backpack by the edge of the bed and plopped down on the mattress to stare up at the walls.

Something wasn’t right about all of this. She could sense it and the turmoil beginning to boil within.

But what is it? She shook her head to clear her thoughts, which only gave her a headache.

All of the sudden the energy that she had before was completely drained from her body, leaving her tired and aching. Could it be her Innocence’s doing?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Closing her eyes, Shinju decided to investigate into that matter later, but for now…

Her consciousness began drifting away.

[Lethe]

Shinju came awake with a ragged breath, a drenched face, and… Serenade?
The young man sat on the edge of the bed, just inches away from her body.
She wiped away the cold sweat with her sleeves and tried to sit up, but when her strength failed, Serenade gave her a hand.

“So…,” she started, “When’d you get in here?”

“Just now,” he replied, studying her face. “Memories bothering you again?”

“Something like that…” Shinju grinned at the concern he showed for her.

They were one hell of an awkward couple.
He was more than a foot taller than she was, and their preferences and appearances more than slightly contrasted each other.

But she really was thankful for his thoughtfulness.

For the sense of security that he gave to her whenever he was around.

For his efforts in releasing her from her past…

No word in this world could do justice for what she felt towards him.

She reached out to give Serenade a small hug.

Serenade blinked in surprise at how cold her body was. When he first walked into the room, he swore it was at least 70 degrees, but touching her skin made it seem 10 degrees less.
Weird...

Shinju shivered a little. Serenade simply rubbed her back and held her closer.

“We can postpone going to the missions if you’d like,” he suggested. He was supposed to be passing on an order, a summoning from one of the higher ups, but deep down he knew that she wasn’t ready to get back into the action just yet, and quite frankly he didn’t want to push her too much. But knowing her personality—

“Nah,” she sighed, “we’ve been gone for quite some time now. It wouldn’t really be fair to the others.”

—she’d go for it anyway. Serenade ruffled his hair in defeat.

“If that’s the case, you should go see Komui. From what I hear, you’re going to be pretty busy.”

Again, she gave him a soft grin just before breaking their embrace. “I’ll see you later, then.”

“Will do.” Serenade slipped outside, leaving the door ajar.

Shinju looked around the blank room, remembering what she had felt before her nap.

It was then that she realized how much the place reminded her of her home back in Japan, except this room was missing that one sense of belonging.
She was actually feeling the room’s frustration towards her for leaving it in its current state. And its loneliness – something that she could easily sympathize with.
Shinju closed her eyes in acknowledgement.

A second home, huh?…

Shinju reached for her backpack by the bed, rummaging through it until she pulled out two metal nails from its bottom, and two framed pictures: one of a grand, white dragon, the other of a beautiful, sleek black dragon. Both were painted by her Dad and given to her as a gift from the last time she came and visited. Poking around a different compartment, she also pulled out one of her daggers: the Dragon Caesar.

Using the butt of the dagger, she quickly got the nails in and both frames up on the wall beside her bed. It’s a start, she thought. I’ll bring some more things as soon as I have the time – I promise.
Already she could feel the air changing in the room.

Getting up, she stretched her aching limbs and changed into her Exorcist uniform.

Strapping the Dragon Caesar and Cass underneath her clothing and onto her legs, and the Kandine to her arm, Shinju placed the Liu Bei Dagger, Maple Wagner, and Dragon’s Tail into a lighter backpack and began heading on out.

[Lethe]

Shinju yawned again for the tenth time that day as she sat Indian-style on top of her bed.

Apparently after losing her balance, latching onto the second railing and then pulling herself up, there was another bump in the boat ride. With her numb fingers, she couldn’t repeat the maneuver and ended up falling into the cold ocean while they were still miles off of their destination.
Even after calling out to her comrades on the boat, the other Exorcists had failed to notice so she was left behind. Again.

Discouraged by that fact, she had called up her Innocence to make her shield-shaped charm almost as big as she was, and knowing its powers, she was able to make it into a crude boat by using its powers to keep her afloat – having done this countless times during her travels made it all so much easier in keeping her power usage to a minimum.

Somehow she ended up on a nearby island where was able to eat and rest, but by the time she arrived on the mainland, her mission was already over.
Everything was already over.

After telling Serenade that story upon getting back, he couldn’t stop laughing for a whole five minutes, but just when he had calmed down, the whole Rave incident thing happened.

And now here she was. Again. Alone.

Shifting her legs so that she wouldn’t get too cramped, Shinju sighed.

She stared at the wall, lost in the deep dark seas that were her thoughts.

[Ryuzaki]

((This is Reever btw))

Walking past her room, Reever, along with the many papers that he had on him saw Shinju in the room and decided to have a quick conversation.

"Oi, Shinju, how's it been lately? I heard that you've just got back from one of Komui's suicidal missions... I hope everything, you know, turned out the ay you guys planned it." I rubbed his ear and tried to balance the papers from falling, again.

[Lethe]

Reever’s voice instantly jolted Shinju out of her trance, but it took her another few seconds to recollect herself, and another to notice that there was somebody at the door. A certain somebody with incredibly spiky hair.

“Ah, hello there, Reever-san!” She replied. Shinju pushed herself up and off the bed… just before stumbling and planting her face in the wall.
After sitting in that position for so long, it was no surprise that her legs had fallen asleep.

Rubbing her forehead, she merely grinned at her clumsiness, shrugging it off good-naturedly.

“As for the mission…” she continued, “all that I can really tell you is that it was a major pain in the rear.” It was to her, anyway. To be honest, she had almost no clue as to what really occurred, and she was far too frustrated at herself to inquire the other battered Exorcists upon her late arrival.
She could have asked the wind, but… Things happen, some of which are beyond our control. The sooner one accepts that…well, it doesn’t really make life that much easier. Never has, never will.

Shinju made her way towards Reever to take half of the stack of papers off his hands.

“You really shouldn’t carry too much,” she pointed out, quickly moving past the guy and into the hallway, waiting for him to lead the way towards wherever he was supposed to go.

[Ryuzaki]

"Oi Shinju! I've just got word that the Exorcists in Nepal need some back up catching the Fugitive Abraham. People have vanished into thin air because of him, but we still need to see if it really was him.. and also it appears from the current battle with Jacques, that he is indeed, an Exorcist...." He then ran off to his next assignment leaving Shinju behind.

"I'm sorry I have to go though bye!"

[Lethe]

Nani?

Shinju just stood there, her head cocked to the side and her hands were still occupied by the stack of papers, watching as Reever suddenly just sped off.

Another mission? And so suddenly, too.

“Um…” What should I do with these papers? Shinju frowned. Well, I guess I could just drop them off by the science department before I leave to… wherever he just said. Nepal, was it?

Moving to close her room’s door, she began making her way though the hallway with a head bustling with so many question marks that it felt as though it was going to explode.

[Lethe]

Serenade reached out and was about to nudge the napping Shinju, but somehow even in her sleep she had already known that he was there.

Her eyes still closed, she caressed his hand with palms of velvet, noting every crevice upon his rough hands.

Grinning, he sat down on his usual spot – by the edge of the bed.

“What are you thinking, my little Gataki?”

“It is nothing of great importance,” she replied.
He and he alone was the only one whom she had ever allowed to call her by that name.
At everyone else she would simply become irritated, if not by just a little.

Serenade brought her hand up to lay a gentle kiss upon its back.
Shinju grinned and opened her eyes… only to reveal that they were red from bouts of emotion.
She sat up, though before she knew it, she was already caught in between his hard arms in a warm embrace.

Little by little, she released all of the pent up tension that was in her head.

“It is very hard being a human,” she said at last.

“How do they cope with all of this?
So much in so little time… whereas we have had eternities and still we do not understand what exactly these emotions really are.
Not to mention this ‘experiencing it through their eyes’ is becoming far more problematic than I had originally thought…”

“Not everything is meant to be understood.” He drew back and ruffled her hair playfully.
“You know that, I know that, and every creature on this planet will eventually come to understand that as well, if not already.”

“Mmm…” She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.
“I think that I am beginning to miss my old job.”

“Oh?” Serenade’s smirk grew wider.

She laughed at his implied remark. “Don’t even start on that.”

He shrugged. “If you say so.”

Shinju crossed her legs. “Anywho… What brings you here today?”

“Well,” he started, “seeing how we didn’t get that much action out of the last mission either, I came here to ask if you would like to accompany me to Venice.”

She cocked her head to the side, looking at Serenade suspiciously.
“What type of mission is it this time?”

“Retrieve and kick ass,” he replied, his eyes glinting mischievously.

She grinned.

“In that case, count me in.”


[Flashback]

Akuma scattering, Noah retreating, and a multi-colored barrier…
Shinju quietly observed from the shadows of the trees.

Most of the Akuma that had passed by her and attacked were quickly eliminated.
The ones that were smart enough to continue their escape were left physically unharmed.

To attack upon being attacked was her way of battle, after all.

As for the rest, she cared not.

For a while she sat there, observing the man that the Akuma called Xavier.
Judging by his wounds, the man had been—without a doubt—fighting with the supposedly arrogant Exorcist that she and her companion had come across in the mountains.

Another interesting character that Rave was…
She honestly wanted to play around with him a bit more and see how much she could find out about him without the use of her Ballad of Gales.
A child’s game, really, but she did have a notable amount of respect for the guy and the blade that he carried.
Shinju sighed.

Putting all of that aside and back to the current situation, there was something else that was really bugging her, something that one such as her cannot simply ignore…

After the group of Akuma did a hit-and-run, Shinju thought about approaching the Noah across broken grounds.

She thought about attending to his wounds. She thought about asking a few questions to satisfy her own curiosity.
Heck, she even thought of maybe getting a conversation out of the guy.

Shinju thought of many other things unheard of from Exorcists.

But then again, she wasn’t exactly an Exorcist herself…

Moving towards the edge of the forest, she stood there patiently waiting yet constantly studying.


I am the Seeker, the Tracker, and the Watcher.
I am the Gentle, the Kind, and the Laughter.

I am the Dismal, the Mistreated, and the Broken.
I am the Just, the Defiant, and the Independent.

I am Shinju of the Takaras –
Mercenary, the Silent Guardian, and servant to no one.

May these gentle Winds unfold a tale
That shall forever echo throughout the History of this World…