Welcome to Gaia! ::

The impromptu meal-and-conversation with the assortment of strangers that had shown up on Setsushi's lawn at all roughly the same time had been intriguing. And now they were....more-or-less NOT-strangers anymore. Hitsuga, though outwardly he had taken it in stride and remained pleasant, breathed an inward sigh of relief as they had begun to thin out, however.

The number had dwindled until it was only himself, Rika, and Setsushi, and even then Master Setsushi had departed shortly after the dishes had been finished to attend his "other job", leaving just himself and Rika in the house.

Hitsu seems to be more at-ease now as the two of them remain at the now-cleared table inside, the flighty edge of nerves absent from his expression for the moment. He is not much of a social creature, but even being in the company of his own race is more security than he's felt in the last span of days.

Hitsuga takes a deep breath, considering his answer before giving it. He feels a bit overwhelmed, he admits. Things are roughly the same here, but different enough that he has to rethink how he does them all.

But he's getting his bearings, he thinks. He hopes. He gives Rika a sheepish sort of smile, supposing it takes practice. Supposing it would likely be the same for one of Gaia's people were they to, somehow, find themselves in the Golden World.

And herself, he inquires?

He cocks his head a bit, thinking back over the last few days. Aside from his anxiety attack upon arriving, and the resulting fit, he can't really think of any other oddness. Oddness aside from, perhaps, an upset stomach due to trying to indulge Madame Phaerna as she'd shared some of Gaia's foodstuffs with him.

As long as he prepares his own food, and with ingredients he is familiar with, however, he seems to be fine.

At her mention, again, of travelling here, he feels intrigue spark itself, backed by apprehension. He, of course, does not wish to pry, but he is curious...has Rika theorized anything further on why, to him, he was only gone for a night, but to the others he has been missing for weeks...?

The politely amiable expression eases away into one of contemplation as he replays what he can recall of his last night seeing things as he knew them over in his head.

His eyes flick between his lap and Rika several times in quiet debate with himself as to whether he ought to divulge what had happened or not. The stranger had said nothing about it being kept in confidence....all the same, however, it isn't something he is particularly comfortable sharing.

Not even if she might be able to shed light on it...? a nagging voice in his head inquires.

No.

....probably not.

.....maybe.

The alternative was letting himself speculate, and letting his imagination have free reign. Which never ended well. Six years of punishing himself for what may, or may not, have been was evidence enough of that.

His eyes, at last, settle on Rika more squarely. Tentatively, he inquires if she is familiar with the Sorcerers of Kokoku....

Sent...? Not quite.

Another moment of hesitation and hasty debate (also making one last sweep of the house with his eyes to ensure they were, in fact, alone), and he begins to share with her. Reluctant pieces at first, though the mental string begins to thicken and pick up in its rapidity of projection as he allows himself to prop open the thick door of the vault that is his mind.

He tells her of the stranger that approached him while he was closing shop for the night. He tells her of the "medicine" that was offered for his sickness. He tells her of the cryptic deal that was made if he were to take said medicine....of someday curing them, as they would cure him.

Lastly he tells her of the final outcome....of sitting at his desk with the odd substance, and letting his artistic sense slip ahead of his logic in a bad lapse of judgment, as he'd inhaled the bottle's scent deeply....

....and then woken up in the state he'd arrived to this house in.

He flushes a bit at the question. No. Not to treat fits. Something.....else.

Hitsuga finds himself mildly surprised. At her implication of knowing Baikou, he had assumed she was well-informed on what had transpired between them. ....but then if everything was left up to his assumptions, he would also assume that she had cursed every drop of blood in his body to every deity that would listen. He would also assume he deserved it.

He leaves that particular train of private thought open-ended, though, abandoning it in favor of listening to what she says.

Other disappearances...? He then, inquires, what may have made them suspicious?

There may as well be an audible slam as a wall erects itself in his mind instinctively at her question. It is accompanied with an involuntary projection of deep-seated anxiety. Baikou HADN'T told her, then...? Or had she?

Before he'd made the decision to follow Kitsuo to Rinkoku, he'd been unsure of who, exactly, had been fanning the news of his failed marriage. Eikou had made a heroic attempt at playing damage control for him, but even so, he'd become uncomfortable with the looks he would receive (or at least, thought he'd received) occasionally from people he didn't even know. He'd assumed that, if it had not been his grandmother's doing, it may have been Baikou's.

......To mend a broken bond, he allows at last. And hopes to leave it at that, though the scrutinizing eye, magnified beneath her monocle, silently warns him that he may not get off that easily.

He flinches noticeably, averting his eyes from hers to look squarely at the tabletop. Hitsuga forcibly quells the fluttering in his chest, promising himself he is NOT going to fall to pieces in front of her again.

Its.....difficult, he tells her. It was a stupid, stupid, decision he had made years ago. One that he's never forgiven himself for, and one he does not expect others involved to forgive him for either.

It is why, in fact, he had moved from his birthplace to somewhere he was relatively unknown, and why he is surprised that his absence had been noticed at all.