Evening Out | Open

This is an interesting occurrence which details the meeting of an oddity by Matou Shin. It was approximately 6:30 PM and Shin had woken up from an excess of sleep. He had slept, in fact, for a totaly of eighteen hours, and had just gotten up with a feeling akin to a bear waking up from hibernation. He needed that sleep, because his job often entailed him to go a week without a proper night's rest. So today was the first day he would be able to wake up without the requirement of coffee, or caffeine pills. 

Rolling himself off of his bed and into his bathroom, he shoved his face into the sink filled with water, brushed his teeth, fell asleep in the shower, dressed himself with the first pair of shorts and shirt that he could find, and stumbled his way out of the apartment to meander around. In all honesty, he could have chosen to stay a shut in and browse reddit for the rest of the night, but he was kind of tired of ordering pizza and playing video games, so he did the other thing that made him feel relatively associated with the rest of the world: wander aimlessly across Tokyo.

"Living in the sunlight, dancing in the moonlight, having a wonderful time hoho~~blegh..." He mumbled half drearily to himself. He wandered, and wandered, and wandered, and before he knew it he was in Shinjuku Gyoen. The place was unmistakably quaint, and most of all, it had a spiritual aura around it that soothed his nerves and allowed him to collect his thoughts. The scenery was beautiful, but it had a certain spiritual affinity to it that most would not be able to detect, being trained in oddity slaying however, he was able to detect this energy consciously... and noticed there was something different about it.

Curious. curious curious curious. He was no official monk, he had training, but had bastardized it for profit as a bodyguard. Well, in this case, he was going to investigate just for the fun of it. He found that most oddities did not intend any harm on individuals,  but it wouldn't hurt to see if anything was stirring up. 

The trace had lead him to an albino lady in a longcoat. Although he did not know what force drove him to prod this lady, due to his general tenacity for being introverted and generally unapproachable, he nontheless closed the difference between the two of them. Shin walked into talking difference, and stopped in front of her, his eyes deadpan and somewhat dull. 

Then he poked her stomach with a finger. 

...

"Oooh, you have physical form that's cool..." He stated, with a somewhat undecided tone. He slid his hands into his pocket, regardless of his uncharacteristic proactivity in talking to this oddity, he was not the best at talking to people. "Can I share a smoke?"

And just as uncharacterically fast that he approached the girl, it had gone away,reverting him to his socially awkward conversational self. "Well no... most people have physical forms I guess..." He was trying to avoid eye contact, primarily because he was not entirely used to talking to females, pretty ones especially. Having to look her in the eye would probably impede his capability to talk, well, worse than what he had currently. "Oh, I don't have any smokes. I wish I did though." He stared towards the ground, towards the trees, the lake, at pretty much any surface that justified that it wasn't a girl.

"Your quite the curious one, aren't you?" Shin attempted to talk, but honestly words were not coming out of his mouth. Partially because he was paralyzed by anxiety, and partially because he had nothing to say about that at the start. So after seemingly opening his mouth to swallow air for a few moments, he remained quiet. Thankfully, either by picking up on his awkwardness or on his inability to answer, the lady had decided to speak again. 

"Most people wouldn't have even known that I was here. Not to mention, this is no small park.... Yet, you managed to find me, despite the many shadows and distance. Why is that, I wonder?"

"O-oh, that... that's because I smelled you."

A moment's pause. Then Shin realized what he had implied in his conversation. "Oh... umm, I mean your spiritual aura, I can 'smell' it." Well, now that he had embarassed himself, he felt slightly better about talking to her. His eyes met hers, and then he scratched the back of his head. "S-sorry... I mean I can-- sense your oddity... so I followed you here... you also have very pretty silver hair... which is uncommon... I guess."

"I know that some people struggle to... understand their afflictions, I was taught to exorcise some things... but I'm not a very good student." He had forgotten to mention something, what was it. What did he not remember to say- oh! "My name is Shin, Matou Shin, by the way. Hajimemashite."

"Oh okay..." Silver hair was not characteristic of normal human beings, genetic defects aside, he had the assumption that her hair and eyes were byproducts of her oddity. There wasn't too much he could say about that. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Shin-san. Rei Sagara, but just call me Rei." "Mmm... mmm... okay Rei." He felt relatively comfortable without using honorifics.

His eyes moved towards her pocket as she revealed a box of chocolate stick biscuits. "They're not smokes, but they still taste pretty good." "Ooooh, Pocky." He briefly took the stick in his hand and slowly nibbled his way until the stick was in pieces in his mouth. "I was forbidden from eating any form of sweets when I trained in the monastery. They say sugar is addictive... I'm pretty glad I left." He spoke partially through munching the stick. 

"So.... does this mean that your going to try to exorcise me?" His eyes briefly looked towards her at the mention of exorcism. And it was only then did he realize that she was somewhat uncomfortable with his presence. He had kind of expected that, but he assumed that this kind of discomfort came from the fact that he had revealed himself as a person capable of exorcism. She was doing very well to hold her composure, however, he could tell that much.

"Oh... usually monks are given payment for such things... I dropped out though... so don't worry, I'm not obligated to do anything... and you seem nice... you gave me Pocky."

He smiled, as much as he could without seeming relatively creepy. His expression never changed much, so a smile would seem forced, even if genuine. "Not all oddities are inherently evil, some are like parasites that drain humanity and life for their existence... some are symbiotic beings... the difference a monk must distinguish is which ones are threats to humans... and which ones are not."

He briefly closed his eyes, stuck his nose into the air, and took a deep breath. "Mmm... you may wish to be careful... there are many dangerous people who hunt oddities... and there are also evil oddities that seek to consume existing oddities... especially in a spiritual places such as Shinjuku Gyoen." 

Shin stared at Rei, beginning to circle around her. He was actually checking for any signs of the curse apparent on Rei's body, but doing so without explanation would probably have weirded out any normal person. "Do you know what kind of oddity cursed you? I could be able to discern if it's bad or good for you."

"I believe the word monk has many meanings that are not attributed to holiness..." Shin raised his thumb and index finger to his chin staring down at the ground in thought. "You have those who seek to openly act against oddities which are malevolent... such as executors, exorcists, paladins... but you also have those who work in accordance with nature, such as druids and witch-doctors... they must make a living somehow, without being funded by a powerfully backed organisation such as the catholic church."

Fox spirits were troublesome creatures to be sure, when he heard of the kitsune, he had to be sure of which type it was. But it seemed that this particular fox oddity did not give any malevolent intentions that he could detect. He watched his eyes briefly turning from deadpan to a moment of surprise as her fingers snapped a blue white flame.

"Mmm... kitsune tend to be attracted to female hosts, primarily because men are so easy to prey on. if you ever have a desire to feast on human livers... please warn me beforehand."

He nodded to himself as if he had given some form of sagely advice, but despite this, his words were semi-serious. While the kitsune was not an inherently malevolent spirit, it has been known to consume people in the past. So this would make the second encounter with a potential human eating oddity this past month. Regardless, he had no intention of either halting or starting events that unfold.

"Oh, this reminds me... since you are supernatural, I can show you a place where you can find some supplies for defense against supernatural occurrences... since there are a lot of spirits who are attracted to oddities. If you're interested, feel free to follow me..." 

Shin then gestured towards a general direction. And began to walk. 

Yamajii's Pawn Shop was a small, dingy but relatively warm looking shop in the corner of Tokyo's  Kabukicho. The smell of incense, the colors of brown wood and red tapestry immediately hit any potential customer that walked through the doors of his shop. Rows upon rows of strange trinkets, items, dolls and talismans dotted his shop in a highly organized fashion. "Shitsure..." Shin commented, opening the door. 

The proprietor of the shop was a relatively small and frail looking old man, with too much beard and not enough hair. "Welcome." Was the only word that he said as they would enter. "This is a place where they sell blessed items... they are quite costly however... if money is an issue."