RP done through PMs, due to the Kami moving on. Just a back log.
"Tenkai Matsumoto": Black "Lightning_of_the_Night": Purple
"Really, now?" said Tenkai. "Curious of us? There's no need to be." If she had the scent for it, she would be able to tell Tenkai was human. Such thoughts were often comforting to those who were curious of places as mysterious as the Kami. "My name is Tenkai Matsumoto."
She couldn't tell. She considered herself a mere mortal human, the five senses included, however with recent changes... Visibly, she shook her head; not in answer though.
"Pleasure, I'm sure..." Visibly uncomfortable at being caught, she couldn't help the questions. "Ah- Mm... I know little about the Towers, and those in them... And whats with the obvious discomfort lately... What is the problem? It's like a charge in the atmosphere..." Her lips shut tightly. Pale as they were, they only went lighter. She obviously wasn't going to say any more.
"You are on the mark," said Tenkai with a sigh. "The Kami is has come upon troubled times. If you can see to the north, there is a black tower erected far away from the Kami, looming over us. As I speak, dark forces are congregating by that tower, waiting to step forth and destroy the Kami. We are taking all the actions necessary to prepare ourselves for attack. However, as it currently stands, the Kami is not safe."
She looked out the window. A tiny, quick glance. As if she was keeping an eye on the time.
"I see... Do they only wish to destroy the Kami?" She was becoming calmer with the talk, and as time moved on, she began to look around the room in ernest curiosity.
"I'm sure that the Kami is simply their first target," said Tenkai, "Or, more importantly, their biggest obstacle. The forces are no doubt being led by Hariel Rhann, the leader of the Water Tower. He has recently become possessed by many dark entities through the power of an evil sword, and only his cunning mind and noble heart has kept him from being fully overtaken. Even now I suspect he is planning something against his captors, but I myself cannot sit around and do nothing to assist him."
Hariel had obviously left Tenkai clues...clues that would mean the key to whatever was going on within him regarding that sword and his past origins. That was what Tenkai was focused on finding out...the reason for Tenkai's seclusion.
"Hmm... You realise... I am an ordinary citizen of the Kami. Are you supposed to be telling me such things?" Her voice was quiet. She'd seen the papers on his desk; they intrigued her. It just seemed to scream 'read me!' To her. He didn't seem angry at her... Ryke stepped to one side so that she was closer to the papers.
"Yet if he is captive, how can he get to his captors? What do you mean by not assisting him though? I have not meet any Tower leaders. Only the chef in the Central Tower..."
"You should also realise I am not an ordinary tower leader," said Tenkai, looking at the books upon the shelves behind his desk. "What I do is not something I need to hold in discretion, and the information I have given you would not entirely benefit you if you were my enemy."
He then turned to face her, "That, and if you were my enemy, I would not have told you as much."
"It's nothing, though," said Tenkai. "Don't worry about it. Leave the concern towards Hariel for me and the other tower leaders."
At such words, she turned side on to him and, obviously, scanned her eyes over the work on the desk top, tilting her head slightly to ease an ache in the jaw. Information is good. Timing is crucial.
"No information will benefit someone unless they take into consideration how they received it. Digging for gold. As some put it..."
Looking back over her shoulder at the man, she smiled. Of course, by now, she should have realised what the aching jaw meant. Her smile only partially showed white teeth, but the elongated canines were easy to spot. "I am no more your enemy, then you are mine. I hope it stays that way..." She turned back to the notes and mumbled;
"So leaving things to the Tower leaders alone... Isn't that what got you into the mess..?"
Tenkai took note of her smile, and her canines. It only summed up what he could sense when she walked through the door. She was definately a vampire. Tenkai had slain enough to know that well, but he wouldn't trouble her with that information. As both of them had said, they were not enemies.
"What got us into this mess is something I want to find out more about," said Tenkai. He was talking about how Hariel's seeking of power in order to assist in stopping Trinity caused this whole debacle with his possession. Now, with Trinity freed of her demons, it was as if all of this could have been avoided if Hariel didn't go off on his own.
Tenkai wasn't trying to leave it to the tower leaders. The tower leaders just acted of their own volition, with or without Tenkai's regards.
She was skimming the notes of course, but little made sense to her. At present. Later she might figure it all out. She hadn't realised, and even reaching up to rub her jaw didn't quite make that click. She was too preoccupied with the present situation.
"So... You know only bits and pieces of the story? And... You are doing this all on your own because...?" Nosey, yes. Blunt, yes. Maybe a few other things too, but that was her nature at times.
"You know, it is always good to have someone on the outside..." A hint or not, it was obvious.
Tenkai closed his eyes and smiled.
"If you came here wanting to assist me out of your own interest, you could be more direct with me."
Tenkai, however, was only doing his own investigating on his own. When it would eventually come down to going against Hariel's forced, Tenkai would be fighting alongside the others in the Kami.
"If you have services you wish to offer, then I welcome them. All you need to do is tell me."
"Iie (No)." She had stopped her reading, her posture, as if in a way, snobbing. Her face turned side so as to see him, with her back still to the man.
"It was merely a question that was forced from my lips at the time." He might've been able to tell - some things, while she liked to say blunt; others, she liked to play around with the idea a bit.
"You probably have everything under control on your end. Not so sure about the rest of the Kami. We'll see when the day finally comes to pass."
So, while the questions and answers were truthful, it was not the real reason she was there. She wanted to know what was safe. If there was a medicle team around. Maybe someone with knowledge on her subject. Vampirism.
She just couldn't ask outright.
With those questions settled, Tenkai would calmly ask her a few of his own.
"For a vampire, you don't appear to dislike humans as much as your brethren," he said. "Otherwise you would have been more direct with your questions. Why is that?"
She flinched. She couldn't help that. Hearing the word? She disliked it. Her hands moved before her, so that when they clenched so hard as to make the knuckles white, he wouldn't see.
"I'm fighting it." Simple response. Tiny voice. She still considered herself a human, although at times it was as if she had a completely different personality.
"You have a strong will," said Tenkai, "Either that, or your sire was not very powerful. Then again, that usually just results in creating a more mindless form of vampire if those that bite them are not of a higher breed in their generation. It's hard to say which, but very few humans are able to resist vampirism once it takes hold of their body. It is very unique. Perhaps you have a close ancestor that was a holy man...just like I did."
Silence; a knife could have cut the air and been as loud as a tearing heart.
Ryke was still. Shocked in a way. Him? He didn't seem like the...
"It happened against my will, so I will fight it..." She knew the man had been powerful, so knowing she had a strong Will gave her more strength.
"My blood boils. It burns!" Her voice had grown hard, more defined in the room. Turning on her toes, her eyes seemed to snap to Tenkai's direction. Sharp. If not a little alluring. "I want it to stop..." No, that was not a pleading tone. A harsh one; a demanding one.
"Reversing vampirism is not the easiest of tasks," said Tenkai. "In fact, I'm not even sure how possible it is depending on who was able to turn you. In some cases, it is easier for a vampire to transcend their need for blood and control themselves such so that they do not lose their souls to their bloodlust. But even that is a myth. What you are asking of me would take a lot of research."
For a moment, her Will dropped. Never...? Her eyes showed her dissapointment, and dropped towards the floor almost immediately.
"I don't know who... It happened during the invasion the past year." What was she doing, talking about this... This so easily? She could rack her brain for hours, but knew she'd be unable to find an answer.
"I'm not asking anything from you. Merely... Talking." Ryke's eyes did not rise from the floorboards.
"If you are so determined, I will help you," said Tenkai. "But in return, I want you to help defend the innocent people that are being threatened by that dark tower. Do this, and I will see to it that your vampirism is treated."
And Tenkai knew just the person who could help.
Unless his eyes were quick, he would not have seen that she'd dropped to crouch with her arms around her legs untill a second had passed. She was thinking. And cowering. For the night had grown long, the moon high. The deeper the night became, the more hungry the other personality became.
"I have killed four in this Kami, already. I could have had more, and I could have had none. Can you not see my answer already to your question?" Of course it would be a yes. She knew the layouts of the Kami like a map drawn precisely upon her retinas. She knew she could use her abilities - even if only a little. If she had to, she would use her hands to defend those innocent.
"If you feel so much guilt for the lives that you have taken, then you can atone for it by saving a thousand times more lives than those you have killed," he said, drawing closer to her. He was not afraid of the urges she had to fight, even though coming closer would probably cause her vampiric senses to tingle. "Your abilities have come from the darkness, but your body is still your own if you have the will to control it."
The only signal showing that she had to fight more, as he came closer, was the tightening of her arms around her legs. "...I would try to help them, even if it meant taking my own at the time." Her shoulders would lightly rise, then fall, in a shrug. Death meant nothing if there was no life.
"You have my answer. I will help you. Do you need to know anything of what I can do?"
"All you need to do now...is relax," said Tenkai. As he spoke, he raised his left hand up to her, his middle and index fingers pointing to her forehead. Then, with some strange jerk of his left hand, something would wash over her body, as if the vampiric energies she was struggling with were washed out of her body and down back to where they were, calming her such so that she would feel rather tired.
Her guard had been up for so long, that with the sudden lack of something to compete with, she did feel exhusted. The energy used to fight with, having no where to go, merely seemed to drop from existence in her. She didn't reply to him.
Not for a little while. She was shocked.
Having been in a crouch, she dropped onto her behind. Her arms still loosely resting around her legs.
"What... Did you do?" She was extremely bad at sensing Energies, unless they were in motion, or a very strong pulse. Every energy had a different feel to it.
Thus, she knew he'd done something. She still didn't look up; she had no idea what had just occured.
"Relax..." he said calmly as the pulse went through her body, intending to lull her to sleep. Tenkai had sent his spiritual pressure through his left arm, which had something hidden upon it by the gauze wrapped around it. When focused through his left arm, his spiritual pressure took on a holy property. He only used enough to calm her urges and lull her to sleep so that she would not lose herself to her own darkness. Once she had rested, she would be able to think clearly. Once she did that, she would be able to help defend the Kami with a clear mind and heart.
She didn't wish to relax, but what the man was doing, was surely working. She could feel her eye lids growing heavy, before they began to slide closed over her eyes. Sight always went first. Then sound, then touch. Her head dropped slowly, bobbing, before ending up resting on the knees of her drawn up legs. Her arms sliding to her sides.
She was a quiet sleeper; almost as if a statue. Even in such a state, her mind ticked over the things that had occured. For awhile anyway.
Had she done the right thing?
Once she was out cold, two Water Tower guards would lift her up and take her to a bedroom to rest in. Once she had woken up, she would be in a much clearer state of mind, and thus able to defend the Kami better once the moment arised. Tenkai lowered his head and lifted up his right hand in a silent Buddhist prayer before heading back to his desk. It seemed that there would be more for him to take care of once he had set Hariel free.
