There was a palpable 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 when Gabriella pulled away; all that ʙʟɪꜱꜱ, all gone in an instant, leaving only the ever-present ʜᴜɴɢᴇʀ and ᴄᴜʀɪᴏꜱɪᴛʏ in it's absence. There is a fleeting pang of 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘵 in Jin, regret that he could not draw that moment out longer with Gabriella, that they couldn't spend the next few hours here, entangled in each other, but that pang quickly fades, even as he watched her temptingly strut away. There would be plenty of other nights ahead to be shared, more than a lifetime's worth if they were lucky.
"My thoughts exactly, let's have us a look," Jin answered as Gabriella pulled away and moved toward the door, smirking at her, an air of shared knowing apparently between them, perhaps more-- he could tell that Gabriella felt it, too, from every nerve in their body to the depths of their mysterious Souls, that there was far more at play here tonight than sheer coincidence.
"Now what do we have here?" Jin said a few minutes later, after he had stepped up onto the ship's deck, moving in a fashion that was both predacious and regal, especially with Gabriella at his side, the two of them monarchs of the damned among their cursed subjects that had, too, gathered.
Across the rippling waves of the Pacific, beneath the cloudy night sky, a dark plume of smoke is seen rising from the Isle of Yakushima, and beneath that plume, a strange, bright, violet light pulses.
"That's the docks at Miyanoura burning, sure of it, but it's only the tip of the iceberg," Yoshi says, while they fidgeted with a tablet-like device in their hands, "something's wrong across the entire island, nothing's coming out, no calls, no internet traffic, no radio signals."
Yoshi brings up a screen of radar traffic on the device, showing the island and the surrounding waters.
"Not seeing any outbound planes or ships on radar either! It's like the island turned into a dead zone just an hour ago."
"How 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲," Jin curiously eyes the smoke and lights in the distance, and wastes no time as he smoothly demands, "One of you take a closer look at Miyanoura."
Yoshi and the other Bount--the likes of Mabashi, Sawatari, Go Koga, Utagawa, and the twins, Ho and Ban-- exchange silent glances and glares with each other, waiting for someone to step up and heed Jin. They all wait a little too long for Jin's liking, however, and he inevitably chooses for them, saying, "𝙈𝙖𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙞, you take a closer look."
Jin shakes his head and says, offhandedly to Gabriella, "Most of the creatures you see here have lived for hundreds upon hundreds of years, some have even lived for a thousand or more, and still, they sometimes act like 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗻."
Mabashi fights back the urge to groan, the urge to complain, the urge to speak their mind; they fight back these urges because they were all too aware of what happened when someone of 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 ignored a direct order from Jin, and they were not keen on crossing that 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘭 bridge tonight.
"Right, right, right, gimme a few seconds here, Kariya, I'm on it," Mabashi says in a somewhat contrived but seemingly relaxed tone, stepping to the very front of the ship where they focus their gaze more firmly in the direction of the port town.
A subdued, but visible flash of Reiatsu envelops Mabashi, deep and orange-hued, like the glow that suddenly overtakes his eyes as he channels his preternatural sense of sight to scry on the port town ahead.
Soon enough, Mabashi starts describing the scene revealed to him.
"Fire, 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘵 fire? Lots of damaged buildings. I see bodies, and pieces of bodies, some burnt, others cut up. Good grief, looks like we missed one hell of a party!"
As Mabashi laughs and continues listing off minor details to the other Bount, Jin, too, steps closer to the front of the ship, his eyes still trained on that violet inferno raging in the distance.
"For this to occur a mere hour before we make landfall on Yakushima, well, it almost feels like 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑜𝑛𝑒 or 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 is sending 𝗮 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲," Jin says to Gabriella, sounding both serious and yet vaguely amused, "whether it's meant to 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 us off or 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗱 us further, I cannot say, but this is surely no 𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗉𝖾𝗇𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗇𝖼𝖾."
Jin then looks away from the fire, to Gabriella, piercing crimson eyes holding her in their gaze, "not to mention, there's something about that 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦, something about the 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘸 that stands out to me."
Jin grins, as a dark light infused his expression.
"I've watched you perform your 𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚏𝚝, your 𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚌𝚜, more than a handful of times now, and I notice in them a distinct 𝚏𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎, 𝚊 𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎 if you will, that mirrors the 𝚏𝚊𝚜𝚌𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 qualities of your Soul."
A gust of wind comes forth, one that, briefly, wraps itself around Gabriella's hands, a touch that was dead-cold, yet tender, "In that glow, I'm almost reminded of 𝚢𝚘𝚞, and the spells you loose from those 𝚋𝚎𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚒𝚏𝚞𝚕 fingers of yours."
Jin gestures with a hand toward the fire in the distance, though he doesn't look away from Gabriella.
"We're still far from that blaze, but if you look closely, I wonder, do you see the same 𝚜𝚒𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚎𝚜? Or do you perhaps 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 them from here, instead? It's clearly the 𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚏𝚝 of someone far less 𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 and 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑑 than you, but it's similar nonetheless. 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴, isn't it?"
