rakuen | Courtyard [ open to all! ]

Oichi's wakening is from the chatter of people, the clatter of feet against the floor. It's a cruel awakening she thinks, when her dreams had been ever so warm, ever so kind. The waking world is far too cold. She shivers and rubs her hands along her arms, standing from the soft, strange thing she'd been laying on. It seems to be a futon of some sort, and she thinks it quaint. Strange.

The small torches along the walls are lit up, and she wanders out of the room. The doors are strange; the ceilings are strange; the walls themselves are strange. And she thinks it not so strange at all, that everything else is-- after all, she'd woken up somewhere different than she'd fallen asleep, been brought here as if by sorcery.

There's the faint memory of something being explained to her, of agreeing to something, but Oichi can't recall it properly. It must have been a dream.

Wandering down the hall and out the back, she explores this strange place she's found herself in.

It's a pretty place, a pretty picturesque fairytale land she never even could have imagined-- the buildings stand in a way she's never seen, the flowers are new and bright and colorful and the people are of all sorts. In the courtyard, Oichi kneels before a flowerbed, picking one of every color, every kind.

"On and on the road does go," she sings, voice high and airy, loud in the stillness of the courtyard. "Down into the depths below…"

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And she hands it to him, a red one, and she folds his hands closed over it. Oichi's fingers are ice cold, and they linger a moment on his wrist before pulling back to herself.

"Ichi doesn't remember the song's name," she murmurs, and her voice picks up the smallest bit while her mouth slowly falls into a sad frown. "Who are you? Will you be Ichi's friend? Oh, how terribly lonely Ichi is in this place... this strange, strange place..."

Kotarou shivered as her hands covered his, not daring to pull away. A few seconds later the bravado kicked back in, and he looked his unexpected gift over dubiously. It was probably poisonous, he reckoned. Something that red would have to be dangerous... for some reason, he remembered Nanashi.

He sniffed at the flower, then tucked it into his jacket so it'd be safe. Why had he remembered the samurai now? Maybe, it occurred to him with a surge of hope, it was a sign. As far as he could tell, the lady, Ichi, looked as lost as he felt. So he hesitated, out of hard-learned habit, but still blurted out,

"Kotarou. My name's Kotarou. You think it's strange too? Everyone's acting like this is a normal place, but... But!"

"Kotarou," she repeats his name back at him after he says it, and murmurs: "Such a pretty name..."

She picks a few more flowers as he speaks, and settles her pile on the grass nearby, sitting beside it. "Yes... yes, Ichi thinks it so very odd, so very perplexing... fireflies are caught in glass, voices come from nowhere... It is as though Ichi has entered a dream, bright and vast."

"They're making us fight, too," he added, unable to stay quiet in spite of how unnerved he was by her behaviour. Were all nobles this weird? She had to be really noble, with that outfit. He'd never seen anything like it, even in Ming during the processions, and that meant she was some kind of higher being from the compounds you weren't even allowed into. Which also meant that this place wasn't just somewhere else in Japan after all. He slumped, then flopped down near to her and her small heap of flowers, "A lady told us we won't remember anything important unless we fight each other."

Or, that was his vague understanding of the situation. He hadn't really been listening beyond the basics and what Dave had filled him in on later. "You should make a vow! Then you'll be safe."

And she hesitates a moment at that, looks to him in the face. "Fighting?" she says. "Ah, fighting... it isn't unfamiliar to Ichi. Ichi fights for her brother, is a very good girl and does what he tells her to." And she looks down at her knees, the flowers scattered around the grass. She can't remember her brother-- his name, his face. Oh, how that stings. The tears well up in her eyes. There's nothing she has but memories.

"A vow?" she looks to him once again.

"That's right, a vow!" He knelt up to help in the eye contact department, radiating childish determination. "See, only some of the people here are allowed to fight, and the rest of us can't. Uh, on our own. You have to find someone who can fight and make the vow with them, so they have to protect you and help you get stronger."

It was, at best, a wildly optimistic view of the whole system. But that was the only thing he had to offer, so it would have to do. He dropped back onto his heels, and added, "Is your brother here? I was with my dog, but I can't find him anywhere. Now I'm with Dave."

"Only some are allowed... a promise... a protector," she parrots, and quietly she mulls it over. A vow, he says. How strange, how strange. The idea of someone protecting Oichi is strangely painful, reminding her of something that is quickly shuffled away before it can be properly recalled. A tear rolls down her face as she blinks, and she looks away to the trees, the bushes and the flowers, thinking on his question.

"My brother... Ichi's brother..." He's-- no, she doesn't know, that's how it is, it's okay. She doesn't know where he is. She grasps at her head and shakes it. Things feel like they're just a hand's length away. She doesn't want them to get closer, so wills them away, and they listen.

"Ichi is alone," she says, and a second tear joins the first.

Augh, she was crying. Kotarou made a quiet sound of indecision and hovered next to her, arms half-raised. What was he meant to do?

"It's okay," he tried, a tad desperately, "Don't cry, Ichi!" It didn't help that he'd been in a constant state of 'about to cry' since he'd arrived, and this was setting it all off again. "Dammit," he scrubbed at his eyes, and thought fast. "You gave me a flower and... that's payment, right? So I'll stay with you, Ichi. I'll find you an owner and you won't be alone!"

She doesn't stop crying-- tears dripping down the length of her face-- but she does look at him, hopeful.

"Really?" Oichi asks. "Truly?"

"Really!" He repeated, firmly. He paused again, then rested a hand on her arm. Lightly, in case she shook him off or lashed out at him for daring to touch nobility and he needed to get out of range quickly. He managed a smile, having mastered the impulse to cry. "No one should have to be alone. No one."

Oichi looks at him and then closes her eyes, resting her fingers gently on his.

"Ichi is glad," she says, and she doesn't cry anymore. "Ichi is so glad that she's met someone ever so kind. Oh, how light as a feather Ichi feels..."

Well, she'd stopped crying. Kotarou sank back onto the grass, hand still underneath hers, and became incredibly interested in the pile of plucked flowers, all of a sudden.

"Right," he picked one of them up, and twirled it. They really were weird flowers. They looked nice, though. He decided it would be a good time to try out some of Dave's vocabulary. "Um, cool. Are you hungry? They have a huge dining hall just over there..."

Oichi pulls her hand back to play with the flowers as well-- they truly are nice things, and she twists the head off of one. "A dining hall... food..." Oichi nods slowly. Yes, she is hungry. She hasn't eaten for a long time, so she ought to. She can't be of any use without it; she cannot be of any use if she is dead.

"Yes, yes... take Ichi there."

Courtyard [ open to all! ]

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