Still strolling through the shadows, part I

[Shin]

"Ah yes. Well I am sorry about that." Shin said sincerely to Mimi, scratching the back of his head as he spoke. "I haven't been quit myself lately."

He then looked over to Isac, a cheerful smile played across his face. By now his hand had been removed from his weapon and were left calmly loose at his side showing he had no interest at fighting. Shins attitude had taken a complete 180 degree turn in the matter of seconds. A moment ago he had been ready to stick his sword through Isac's spine and now he was talking about traveling with them.

"Yes I am traveling with you. For several reasons actually. First because I am positive that the weapon you are holding belongs to a good friends of mine. Second because I owe it to Mimi after treating her so badly and third ....well... it's just safer to travel in groups."

It was an issue that was not up for debate. Shin was going with them he decided and his cheery disposition would only last as long as things went smoothly. Shin Shiden was fast becoming a nut case, he was becoming unstable and unpredictable but for the moment he seemed calm enough.

"Where are we headed?" He asked Isac after a moment of silence, taking the time to pull the hood of his coat back up over his features and once again look the part of an Enigma.

[Nayt]

To Shin's half-hearted apology, Mimi folded her arms over her chest and stuck her nose up, giving a high pitched, audible, "Humph!"

Almost everything she did was lively and with excessive movement and/or vocalization, excepting acts of curiosity. Mimik was simply a very animated person, personally lively, and considering her high pitched voice, bird-like coos, and youthful form, it was physically impossible to take her seriously, but next to impossible to label her as anything other than "cute," and perhaps even greatly difficult to be intentionally cruel to her! One had to have a heart of stone to be mean to a lively, animated, and colorful girl like her!

She didn't know if Isac was going to let Shin "travel" with them, or if Usurii would be for it when she came back. Mimi didn't know if either Isac or Usurii were all that upset with Shin for what happened, but Mimi was, darnit! Shin may have apologized, but there had been no flowers involved!

Since Usurii hadn't come back yet (making Mimi wonder what was taking so long in there!), Isac's decision, if he made one, was going to be etched in stone, then. Though, traveling didn't seem too unlikely. Where was there to go here? Usurii and Isac still had things to deal with in the city, though Mimi didn't know exactly what "things" that entailed, which didn't leave many places to travel . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

After a glance at Mimi that told him she wasn't going to forgive him that easily, Isac sighed, and gave Shin an exasperated look. "We're not going anywhere. We're waiting for someone."

Usurii is not going to be happy when she gets back, he thought, not having any idea how true that would be. After their conversation inside, Usurii would no doubt be less than pleased to see Shin with him, but he had no way of knowing what transpired between the two.

"I don't even know who you are yet," he remarked, staring at Shin in a not so subtle (and somewhat rude) attempt to get him to introduce himself.

[Shin]

"I see that I wont get off so easily." Shin said in remark to Mimi. He could understand why Mimi would be upset with him, if someone had done that to him he would have gutted them the first chance he got. Fortunately Mimi was not nearly as violent as Shin.

Shin was more surprised Isac didn't know who he was then he cared about his rudeness, how could the boy not know who he was? Was the Tenken not legendary in all lands? Probably not he told himself ... he had to remind himself that Cizok had been extremely isolated and what may be taken of us common knowledge in his own lands was foreign to just about everywhere else in the world. And as far as Cizokians went Shin was very educated of other cultures and far more open to except other peoples beliefs....but now with how drastically and quickly the world had changed perhaps Cizok changed to? Doubtfully Shin thought with an exasperated sigh.

"I am Shin Shiden, I am also known as Tenken." Shin put it plainly. He didn't like to talk about himself very much and as of late he hadn't had to. Everyone seemed to already know him and recognize the name. But, if the boy didn't know then Shin would enlighten him with a tale or two.

"And who are you Isac? What brings you to a place like this?" Shin knew the boys name only because Mimi had said it a moment ago, albeit somewhat broken in speech but Shin was fairly sure he pronounced it correctly.

[Zach Kaiser]

The blank look Isac gave Shin said that he'd never heard of either his name or his title. Only six months worth of knowledge filled his head, though occasionally some bit shone through the haze of memory. Put into perspective, Mimi had more experience than he did, as far as memories were concerned...

"I'm Isac Hazker, and I live here," he replied irritably, barely managing to refrain from finishing the sentence with you dimwit. He didn't get along with humans much anyway, but something about Shin rubbed him the wrong way just like Christoph "Blondie" Zalien did before.

"What are you doing here? Coulda sword we left you back in that town," he snorted, as though it had been a conscious effort to get rid of him rather than the result of several blindingly fast change of circumstances.

[Shin]

Shin missed the blank look Isac gave him because he was looking out over the dark city with mixed emotions he felt home here yet he was an outsider. The darkness didn't seem so forbidding right now, not like a child looked on the dark with terror. Shin looked upon it like a place to hide, a place to be alone.

He didn't miss the way which Isac spoke to him and he audibly chuckled, no he straight laughed at him. It was a rather deep rolling laugh, surprising when one considered how Shin normally spoke. He peered out at Isac out from under his hood, debating something. He shook his head laughing again to himself.

"Isac, you are going to be a good companion to have around. You have a strong spirit." Spirit the word stuck out in his mind for a moment as he seriously took in the boys Chi.

"I will not treat you like a child." He pushed off the wall, and walked casually up to Isac close enough for Isac to see through the darkness of his hood. "You do not like me."

"And I can not blame you. But if you have something to say to me then say it. Because personally, " Shin turned his back on Isac and began to take slow measured paces away. "I like you Isac Hazker and unless something unforeseen happens I am going to be traveling with you for some time."

[Zach Kaiser]

While Shin hadn't done anything overtly threatening, the way he walked up to him and stated calmly that he knew he didn't like him gave him chills. As though he was saying, so what? You can't do anything about it. It only aggravated him more.

"Of course I don't like you!" he spat, though not until Shin had his back to him. "You hurt Mimi, you accuse me of stealing the one thing of value I own, and now you decide you're going to follow me around until I either hand it over to you or you run into the guy who you think it belongs to? You're...just...what the hell?!"

He stamped his foot in frustration. Isac Hazker was rather poor at articulating what he was feeling, which in this case was immense frustration. It would have been easier to deal with if Shin disliked him back, but saying that he liked him? He behaved like no one he'd ever met, and it made no sense to him.

[Shin]

"That sword;" Shin continued as if he had not heard anything Isac had said. "I know a bit about it's lore. The Aquasoul. From what Fenix and Zach told me the only thing special about it, besides it's look, is that the blade is indestructible."

He kept his back turned to them as he spoke, gazing into the sky. "You put me in a hard place Isac. I am trying to be a better person, but imagine if you had only two friends. Only two people that you can talk to and that you haven't seen for sometime and all of a sudden you see one of your friends most prized possessions in someone else s hands. What would you do?"

He turned towards Isac again, gazing through him, concentrating hard on the natural Chi that all living creatures possessed.

[Zach Kaiser]

For once, Isac didn't snap at him...instead, he looked at the ground. "I don't need to imagine what it's like to have only two friends...I only have one." Usurii was the only person in the world he could call a friend. Well...maybe Mimi, too, but he only met her yesterday, so it was hard to justify calling her a friend yet.

He couldn't answer his question though, because he knew he'd probably do the same thing. What if he suddenly saw someone carrying around something he was sure was Usurii's? He'd probably be a lot more aggressive than even Shin was being.

Instead he explained something else. "I've had this sword for as long as I remember...but that's only six months or so. I don't know how I got it--it was with me when I woke up. So...I can't say for sure that I did or didn't take it from your friend...but having it around my jog my memory, so I can't just give it up."

This wasn't something he was fond of telling other people, but...Shin's sincerity made him feel like he needed to share why he couldn't just hand it over to him. He didn't know that Shin could probably sympathize better than most about not knowing oneself.

[Shin]

"Keep it." Shin said quite sadly, his shoulders slumped and his head hung low as he looked off to the side.

"Zach Kaiser is dead."

It struck Shin hard, the air around him felt heavy and he felt itchy all of a sudden, sweaty. "He fought a great evil, a god even. And won... but it seems he paid a heavy price. You were probably in the town when everything happened...explaining why you now have the sword." There were some gaps in Shins story obviously, but over all it seemed very plausible thing to have happened.

"...wait.. your memories? You.. don't remember anything that happened six months ago?" Shin raised brow under the cowl of his cloak. Was it a coincidence? No.. it couldn't be. Isac had to have been there, it would explain so much.

"Usurii can help you remember." Shin said suddenly. "Until an hour ago my memory of six months ago had been missing... and she repaired it."

[Nayt]

Mimik stood next to Isac, before Shiden, looking up to the Tenken with curious scarlet eyes. Despite the obsidian color of her skin and even darker black for her hair, she wore a colorful sun dress--a nice cool color, blue. It was her preference to have colors around--she loved them all! That's why flowers were so nice, and if Shin super wanted her to forgive him, all he'd need to do would provide her a nice bouquet of colorful flowers. It didn't even have to be organized.

"U~su~rii . . . Memories?" Mimi cooed.

The girl had great conversation skills, all things considered--she had, after all, been learning social behavior on the fly since before she even met Christoph. She had no idea who this Zach Kaiser guy was, though, and while she knew it should have been extremely sad for someone to have died (after all, she felt sorry for the shades that Shin and Christoph boasted about killing!), Mimi figured that maybe it would be best if they stuck to the previous conversation, just so that there wouldn't be too much sadness amongst them. If there was one thing that Mimi disliked more than being punched in the stomach, it was being sad! Fortunately, it took serious effort to bring that sort of reaction out from her.

"Mimi-ku no remember before meet Christo~ph!" she declared, unknowing of the real problem behind the conversation, to possibly fit in a bit better.

She really hadn't given it any thought, but deep in the back of Mimi's mind, she didn't want to be too outlandish around others! Fortunately, she was telling the truth. Unfortunately, she was speaking as if they were bragging about memory loss, and she was trying to throw in her two cents, possibly to let herself stand on par with the Tenken and Isac. Well, maybe Isac. Mimi didn't want to stand next to Shin if she didn't have someone to protect her, after all! Forgiveness was possible, but of all things, Mimi never forgot--anything. If she had observed it, even if passively, she could recall it, and not even by Usurii's means, either--no thought was necessary, her memory simply came natural to her. If anything, that was why it was so strange for her to remember nothing before meeting Christoph.

[Zach Kaiser]

Isac didn't know how to really react to the statement that Shin's friend was dead. He didn't know the man and therefore found it tough to really sympathize; fortunately, Shin asked a question so he could avoid commenting on that particular issue.

"It doesn't work like that, unfortunately," he explained with a sigh. "Something about...them being...naturally gone?" He adopted a confused expression as he tried to recall what she said. "I don't really remember, but she said it was too dangerous."

He then turned to Mimi, not grasping the entirety of what she meant. "What do you mean, you don't remember?" It didn't occur to him that she was saying she remembered nothing at all...

[Shin]

"Yes, she did say something along the same to me. She can bring them out, but it is dangerous to you. If your mind isn't ready to remember then you shouldn't force it." Shin pretty much said word for word what he had been told, otherwise he never would have figured it out on his own.

He looked over to Mimi, luckily the cowl of his hood prevented her from seeing any portion of his face because he looked more then confused. He could tell what she meant based on her expression and gestures but as far as speech was concerned it was like trying to talk to an infant.

It took him a few seconds of repeating her words over in his head before he understood what she meant. "About how long ago did you meet Christoph Mimi?"

[Nayt]

Well, none of this was to suggest that Mimik had particularly excellent social skills--they were mediocre at best. She could just melt the hearts of most people. She did with Christoph, at least. That also wasn't to suggest that she even knew about that--it was just a natural phenomenon.

Mimi shook her head quickly. She couldn't remember a thing, not one moment before she met Christoph on that fateful day! Well, except for one word: angel. Mimi couldn't recall a time when she learned the word, but she knew in every way that she understood the word before she met Christoph; it was, incidentally, the only telltale sign for her that she had a life before meeting him, and simply didn't just crawl out of the shadows and into consciousness like a shade . . . not that she gave any thought to that. In fact, that only reason she was thinking about it now was so she could adequately respond to the curiosity of the two, and maybe fit in just a little bit better!

"Uh-uh! Mimi-ku meet Christo~ph ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm," she set her index finger on her cheek as she looked up at the sky--as if it had the answers she was looking for, "Three months ago! Mimi-ku remember knowing one word before that, but that all~."

She declared this so cheerily, too, as if she didn't know it was even a bad thing . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

"Only three months ago?" Isac looked at Mimi curiously. Well, in a way it made sense--the way she acted, she didn't seem to remember the City of Shadows any more than he had, so it explained why she was among humans.

She doesn't remember anything before she met him? That seems pretty suspicious. Christoph Zalien didn't seem like a terribly trustworthy person in the first place--did he somehow erase her memories in order to get her to trust him?

He didn't voice the suspicious, because if there was one thing he knew about Mimi, it's that her faith and adoration of Christoph was nearly unwavering. "Well...maybe Usurii can help you remember."