Welcome to Gaia! ::

[ And that spoon was in honor of Druken .. and his fondness of spoons. ]

All was fun up until that point. He had situated himself at the table, although his manner was less than traditional. He allowed himself to fall roughly onto his bum as his legs crossed in an Indian-like fashion. Why did he have to kneel when it was most comfortable to sit in the manner he was?

Oh, but those piercing eyes never left Elexial once up until that scream. He watched as he struggled to remain strong, and then took in the second show as his mentality began to crumble from the very hollow's of his existence that were supposed to be long dead. Yet, he seemed to care not - that's the way things had always been in the shrine for the students of alternate teachings, especially in the recent times when the Shrine of the Heavens was not there to step in during abuse. At least, that was the conclusion that he had reached.

Slowly, his hands began to work with eachother at freeing those digits and accompanying hands of their leather confines. Those lips, they begun to hum yet again as he worked without a care in the world. It wasn't long until those leather gloves were exchanged for a pack of cigarettes, and a lighter. Considering his appearance, perhaps it was the lighter that was the most amazing thing one would see. An old, scratched, barely full, transparent, '10 cent' lighter.

It was with a flick of his hand the pack of death sticks had been opened, and lifted to his mouth. Those plump tiers wrapped about one of those cancer inducing, yet oh so delicious and stress relieving sticks and removed it. It was just a moment longer, a few flicks of the lighter - even a frustrated mutter - and a flame later that the cigarette was lit. It was the same moment the young male screamed that all the objects were placed back inside of his inner breast pocket.

It was from that point those piercing chocolate orbs fell upon Elexial once more. Perhaps that was the most terrifying thing about Sai'gare in the end, hm? He was truly himself, someone who had built up such a level of respect in the shrine without having to stoop to such tactics such as completly altering one's mental state. He was Sai'gare, no one else - and no inner personality ruled over him at any given time. He was completly conscious of the descisions he made, and faced them without remorse or guilt.

Perhaps a bit of paranoia, however.

Those orbs were only scanning the upset elder student up and down, his brow arched. One thing that Sai'gare made his own was his mastery over psychology. While the other students spent their lives trying to alter their mind into a lunatic form, it was Sai'gare's mind that fed on their's. Alazing, scanning, taking in data and learning how to disrupt, and take apart the mind he was facing.

Oh, but there was no need for such antics here, right? Sai'gare already knew what had happened. With a sigh he slowly sat up from his relaxed posture as Yuuri made her return, expecting tea yet seeing none as she tended to the boy. Sai'gare soon exhaled, deeply, the toxins from the cigarette betwixt his lips before removing it and waving it through the air. "Don't worry about him." he uttered calmly. "I could be mistaken, but I think he just died."

It was very easy to see this, as well. Sai'gare had taken in the abrupt change in his 'companion's personality. The way he began to silently weep in a manner that he was most accustomed to. The way he slowly began to break down within the dining hall. These were often symptons of the mental break down of one componet of his personality.

It was even up until this point he was oblivious to the arrival of Tsukeichi Hinoe. His eyes fell upon a younger student who had approached, seated himself at their table, and made an offering. Sai'gare stared at the paper doll for a moment, his eyes blinking lightly. It was very rare for such a youth to exist within the walls of the shrine. Needless to say it brought a smile to his lips.

Why? Sai'gare wasn't too sure. Perhaps it was just the gesture itself, but perhaps it was the fact that it appeared to be an ancient art form that was rarely practiced in the modern days. Art form? Perhaps it should be considered more a spell. Perhaps, perhaps Sai'gare was just completly misguided.

Those porcelain digits soon picked up the paper doll delicately, taking care not to smudge the still drying ink and blood, and needless to say his fingers soaked up the blood as they were stained crimson. "This is what you call a shikigami right?" he questioned the youth, a smile playing across his lips, which had by that point taken in the cigarette once more.

* Shikigami: typically a summoning spell from a paper doll. Pretty much the same as a wizard's familiar in a sense. It has it's roots that date as far back into Japanese myth to the stories of the sorcerer Abe no Semei.

He couldn't help but flash the male a smile, and it wasn't until an unexpected noise startled Sai'gare. Now, one would think that the scream would have been the one to make Sai'gare s**t his pants - to be crude. No, that was something he was expecing, even if it was only slightly. But the bucket falling, the water splashing, and the yelling of the head chef?

Caught him completly off guard to the point he was forced to slam his hand down upon the table top to keep himself from crying out. ..What a pathetic excuse for a Mikaboshi student he was, if one only looked at his faults. However, in the end he caused quite the ruckus himself. With the cigarette in his mouth he was forced to end up in a fit of coughs, and hacks. (HAX!!11)

Now, he needed the tea. Slowly, but surely, Sai'gare rose to his feet coughing now and again as he did so. "If you don't mind, I'll go get the tea now." He stated, as calmly as he could. Those long strides swiftly took him to the kitchen, where one might order the tea and such. Oh, but it was there he was greeted with quite the surprise. There she stood.

Now, all considering, Tsukeichi would have been impossible to see in Hinoe -but that was only for the normal person who had not stared at her with such desire as Sai'gare. Instantly he could reconize her, and just how you might ask? The lips were the first thing that struck him. Their particular plumpness that only Tsukeichi posessed - that he had come so close to tasting a second time.

The eyes nabbed him next. Those amber orbs which almost seemed to glow. Which did indeed glow just a few weeks ago in the depths of the cave near the Shrine of the Heavens. That was no little girl sent to be an offering, that was Tsukeichi!

NO AMMOUNT OF BINDING COULD HIDE HER BREASTS ********!" he snapped quietly to himself as that cigarette was thrown from his lips and to the floor. ..Which, of course, he took care to stamp out when he realied the danger of it burning the shrine down. It didn't take long for him to saunter his way around to the inner kitchen, a smile plastered across his face. Although, for once, his irritatio was more the evident.

"Okay, old man. Calm down, don't have a heart attack. I'll get her out of your way!" Why? He didn't know. What use would he have for her? He didn't have an excuse! Oh, but through it all it was Tsukeichi that had remained the most calm and collected. Sai'gare was about to have a heart attack himself!

"Ahahaha. 'Kay!" It was without another word he had scooped up Hinoe in his arm and took off running. No, no.. He was sprinting! Out of the dining hall, down the hall, nearly tripping and falling off the steps which would lead them to the dead grass of the outside shrine. It was something that didn't occur to Sai'gare, something that he wa oblivious to. For the moment, she was mute!

"Just what in the hell are you doing here!?" Arm left flailed upward, arm right flailed downward, as he attempted to catch his breath. Oh, but things were happening too quickly. Had he been sucked into an alternate universe? Had Izanami finally sucked him into Yomi and was now torturing his mind!? Why was Tsukeichi there of all places?!

Poor Sai'gare, blowing things way out of proportion.

((THERE. Replied to everyone. xd ))

Elexial grew calm at Yuuri's touch as his body went momentarily limp and then re-stabalized. Then he was sitting normally and turned his head ever-so-slightly towards Yuuri. Gone from his expression was that lurid smile or hollow compassion. If it were possible, he seemed even more human somehow in that moment. Yet at the same time, it was the last shred of his humanity that had been destroyed. Elexial, in that moment, had finally understood the esoteric truth that would set him free.

Elexial slipped out of Yuuri's hands and stood very slowly. His gaze paned about the room. For the first time since he had donned the blindfold he saw things as they truely were.

He saw nothing.

It were as if he were no longer a mortal being. His mind had become enlightened, though every expression of this was made apparent in his behavior now. The last week of his life had been culminating into this moment, and now he saw the void with such clarity and focus that there no longer existed any aspect of himself that was not one with the ebb and flow of chaos. He could feel the aether that composes all things growing denser where it became consciousness, and he could see those densitys and their auras.

He could see them.

He looked at Yuuri, and he could see the shape of her consciousness. Every breath, word, and expression on her behalf revealed her aura to him, and he could both see and feel it.

Within his mind, he reached down to his katana at his belt and time began to slow. Sound began to dampen. Sense data faded away. There was the sword, and there was nothing else. It floated in the void, a metaphor incarnate. He pulled it from its black sheath and saw the greatest density in the room - his blade. He turned, holding it in his right hand, and the sheath in his left, and looked at a wooden beam near him.

He could see its density, the weaknesses in its aether. He could see the path his blade would take to dissect it along that weakness. And so he did. Effortlessly. In one smooth stroke applying almost no effort or strength at all, Elexial let his blade pass through the crack in its shape and divided the beam in two.

But it did not divide. The beam remained as one piece, though his sword had passed through it. He had cut through it as if it were made of tissue paper, and yet - it remained whole. It remained whole because Elexial could see many flaws in its design. He had chosen the slightest one.

He sheathed his sword in perfect precision and time resumed. He stepped back into the physical universe. Reality unfolded itself in its absent splendor, and he turned to Yuuri. Still holding the sword in its scabbard in his right hand behind him, he extended his bandaged left hand and touched her cheek. He saw where his own energy field blended into her energy field. He could see where his aura mixed with her aura like colorful paint swirling together to form a tone. He let his fingertips just slightly trace down her skin to her neck, and he could see every meridian of her body like veins of spiritual force. They glowed brightly in rivers of energy that formed a latticework within her. As he touched one of them now, it re-directed the flow of many of these meridians, causing them to bend like electrical currents under the power of a magnet. They warped closer to his touch, and he wondered if she could feel it. Was she that aware?

He let his fingers drift away, and their auras unfold, seperating themselves from one another. The compassion she felt for him made her aura cling to his and resist this seperation and it extended itself out to him like welcoming warmth and safety. He felt that energy as it resonated with his own aura.

Elexial stepped back and bowed softly.

"I must speak with my mentor. It is time."

He hesitated a moment longer, for that compassionate warmth felt very soothing.

"I will come back, and we can share more time together," he added.

And then he smiled, genuinely. His aura shifted patterns and rippled as he smiled, projecting feelings of love and harmony towards her.

"This is the true nature of chaos," Elexial thought. "Chaos is not simply evil. Chaos is also goodness. Chaos is everything, and sometimes...Chaos is nothing."

"The Order of Chaos..."

The words echoed in his mind as he rose from his bow and smiled once more at Yuuri before slipping away like a shadow in darkness.

Yes, yes... The girl nodded in response to her little undercover gist. Then again, she was going to be in a lot worse trouble if she'd come to visit as a student of Konohana and member of the Shrine of the Heavens. It would have been an all-out war, now that the shrines considered themselves enemies. At least this way, she could see him, be with him... and save countless troubles for her people. If she got cought, she would be honest and divulger her own selfish reasons.


At his little 'horny' comment, the girl couldn't help but snicker soundlessly and couple that with the rolling of her eyes. She could see it now, Tsukei'chi strewn on the floor, battered, bruised, still focusing energy in case of another attack. She'd be question by the head priestess and then she'd reply with : 'Well, Sai'gare was horny and.. well.. um.. I.. came.. to.. um.. satisfy?' Yeah, as if anyone would believe that.

Sai'gare had the reputation of a filthy, philandering male-whore pervert while she had the reputation of a violent, prudish b***h and possible butch. Hell, the possibility of there even being anything beyond friendship was still...dumbfouding, even for Tsukei'chi Hinoe.

Hinoe blinked and pulled back, instantaneously smacking that invading fingertip. Her brows furrowed as she pouted, then let her mouth open in dismay. Surely he was jesting -- Surely Sai'gare knew it was her! Frustrated, Hinoe threw a glance over her shoulders before slamming a fist against his stomach in a light, though firm punch. 'Yes, its me you ******** tard!' she seemed to be saying.

By the heavens above and hells further, this was going to be one helluva difficult visit!

Hinoe sighed, tilting her head back to the heavens, slack jawed. A moment later she'd taken the note book and pencil in hand only to write in it furiously. Hinoe wrote.. and wrote... and wrote...and wrote, then scribbled, wrote and eventually tore the paper away. Yes, this was going to be difficult alright.

Tucking the notebook and pencil into her bosom, Hinoe moved, reached for his hand and shoved the paper into it. "Fujin, Hinoe." It read simply, with whatever she had said before and after scratched off in fury. Toward the bottom, crossed out once, then circled twice were the words "So, what was it you wanted to say?"

Well, there couldn't be any other way around it, now could there be? Without her voice, Hinoe had to be blunt and precise, her wit reduced to almost nothigness.

Hinoe stared at him in horror, eyes wide, mouth parted. One would believe he just about told her he'd eaten her puppy alive or something equally revolting/disgusting. Then again, this was Tsukei'chi, queen of misinterpretation and assumption. It was the main reason why she had a volatile personality and quick temper -- a week within the darker Shrine and she'd managed to hold back. Was this the moment that sent the 'silent, subdued, obedient' Hinoe snap?

Oh, Konohana, how mistaken she'd been! Risking tooth,limb and salvation to rendezvous with a man who didn't give a rat's a** about her! Kiku had been right, Sai'gare didn't care about anyone but himself -- she was a nobody in his eyes and all the things he said a lie in an effort to get into her pants. And now, now she was trapped under the ever-watchful eye of His'ame's priestess who, for some odd reason, had taken an unhealthy fascination with the mute Hinoe.

Hinoe made a fist, those digits curling in the blackened obscurity of her sleeves. At her feet, however, the earth crumbled as if a hoe had been shoved into its surface as to irrigate the soil before planting, the small crater about the size of a palm. The girl huffed, that bronzed jaw set into a stern line whilst those lips pursed in an annoyed pout. One could only guess how hard the youth was biting into her cheek.

Already those eyes began to sting with the urge to cry, but as it was in her nature, Hinoe refused to let that happen. Two could play his game, even if her safety was at hand. He wanted to pretend nothing happened, she could to. At least try harder this time, as she'd been dumb enough and throw herself at him the last time... stupid enough to voice her feelings.... idiotic enough to come here, of all places.

She inhaled deeply and gathered her skirts then turned, careful to avoid her mark on the ground. Without hesitation, her steps quickened to a fast walk and her eyes darted to her surroundings. Where the hell was she? Hinoe didn't know.... but it wouldn't take long to find someone who'd direct her to the appropriate shrine....

Yes, she was a blunt woman who got to the bottom of things but when it came to Sai'gare, it simply didn't work out very well. He was far too complicated of a subject for her to understand. He took her words and twisted them, made them mean more than they ever did. It was why she was so vocal with him, because it took a thousand tries with a thousand variations to get him to understand that when she meant "red" she really meant "red", not fuschia or pink...


He was the one who relied too much on psychology to understand simple questions! Had he forgotten that he was about to say something that day when Kiku jumped between them? Did he forget how hard it was for Tsukei'chi to be even remotely open, drunk or sober? She wasn't the one who liked to play games and ******** with people's mind, that was his thing, not hers.

Hinoe squirmed, fingertips attempting to make him release his hold on her. But with every attempt on her part, he simply latched on tighter. Oh, how she would love to pummel him -- to make him fall and cry for mercy but then, her cover would be blown for sure. Frustrated, Hinoe sighed and stopped struggling.

She'd already thrown herself at him, told him how she felt point blank -- how more blunt did Hinoe have to be for Sai'gare to understand that she needed to know how *he* felt, for once. All he did was beat around the bush, dance to his little tune, drop hints then do opposite. Even when Sai'gare had said their dating was a good idea, he had yet to answer, point blank, if he cared.

As far as Hinoe was concerned, she didn't know if he was just being the best friend he'd always been -- gently letting her down as to spare her feelings.

That night in the sunflowers -- hadn't she been the one to who was left behind on the ground, confused at his abrupt departure? The evening in the cave, his actions had been mixed, clinging, but pushing. Didn't he leave her, drunk, confused, an a sobbing mess? What else did he want from her? What more could she do?

For the love of the Gods, didn't she even go as far as to infiltrate his shrine to see him?! Friends didn't go to such lengths if they wanted to remain friends!


How could Sai'gare not know that she wanted the same out of him-- that same level of honesty?

Hinoe hung her head, nodding faintly before turning her face opposite of where his lay upon her shoulder.