plip plop. plip plop.
plip plop.
A RHYTHMIC, ALMOST PATIENT SOUND DESCENDED upon the roof of his shrine with the fall of the rain. Long, drawn out knocks signaling the arrival of each drop. And Ren on the edge of the porch, just beneath the awning, held out his hands to catch this gentle spring rain in a small pool between his cupped hands.
❝ Last night I dreamt it would rain. ❞ He broke the silence with a hint of wonder in his voice, ignoring the dampness caused to his bandages as some of the water leaked through the thatch onto pink hair, on wrapped eye, bruised shoulders and aching wrists. ❝ But not so lovely as this. ❞
Looking back to Susabi, he didn’t seem sad to have been found the only one here for a long while, the forest having begun to consume the grassy trail beyond the torii; not a single offering dropped in the saisen. Oddly, the kami had been nothing but peaceful since his arrival. How could one feel sadness in the grip of such beauty, after all, where loneliness could not bite at his ankles ?
The rain was no stranger to Susabi, a child born of the sea, nurtured and caressed by the tears of the heavens - though it didn’t feel like a welcome presence either; instead, a steadily occurring, dull visitor that the god would sooner wish away. In between the idle noises of water splattering on the roof, offering little in the form of shelter as it struggled to hold back the rain from escaping through the the many cracks and holes, the former god of the desecrated shrine spoke, his tone soft, hopeful.
He stayed quiet for a moment, reflective, making one think he was almost ignoring Ren’s attempt at a conversation, choosing to opt out and simply take in the sight before them. But slowly, steadily, his mouth crept open as he let out a sigh of indifference, his gaze glancing towards the knelt-down kami, a shriveled bud of pink amidst the decaying wood and overgrowing flora around them.
he began, eyebrows furrowing in thought, as if unable to comprehend what he’d just heard. ❝ Do you not hold contempt towards the rains for what they did to you? Your people? ❞ Though blunt, the question was genuine, the only thing he sought from Ren, a man he always found to be on his lonesome, waiting for something - or someone - an answer to the inquiry that burned in his mind. Just...how was it possible?
The specifics were muddy and unclear, even to one such as Susabi, but it was evident enough that Ren still held a selfless love towards the followers who ceased to remember him, honor his sacrifice, humans that only bolstered the god’s distrust in them. He could not know, and he possibly never could know such a feeling, not when they only take, take, and take. When their source of security is gone, they choose to abandon it, let it wash away without remorse, for what is wrong with forgetting what never mattered to them in the first place?
Perhaps his thoughts were cruel, unsympathetic, and perhaps Susabi knew it. Yet knowing the end of Ichimoku Ren, a once-almighty god, how similar it was to his own tale, only to be twisted into two different outcomes - it filled him with an utter distaste for how little the man before him cared for his situation, how content he was to give his entire being to those that sooner let him shrivel into the husk he is now. However, they stayed only as thoughts, unspoken, his greater conscious prevailing as he kept in mind Ren was nonetheless a god, former or no, one who possibly ruled for longer than even he has and still held an aura worthy of respect from anyone.
But to be brought into this world to help and guide those that would eventually abandon them...
❝ I suppose there could be a hidden beauty about it, as deceiving as it may be. ❞
