"Ripples in Reality" [1x1 with The Lady Reaper | C/S]

[Kaosujin Ryu]

The Lady Reaper

Raen grinned after a moment. "You don't have to be scared of him; he ain't gonna hurt you since he knows I care about you; startle you sometimes, maybe, but nothing more," he said with a slightly teasing tone. "You know... my brother was just like us; godlike talents and abilities yet sealed within a mortal form... when he died as a mortal... he was reborn as something even Gods fear... a Cthonian.... a god-killer," he said quietly.

 

[The Lady Reaper]

Kaosujin Ryu

Mairi stared out the window, not finding his teasing very funny "Sure..Until your faith or trust starts to waver." She was referring to the card reading she'd given him just before they fell through the hole.The Wheel of Fortune and Judgement were the two cards she worried about most, especially after what had happened in the soul scape.And never had she been wrong about a reading.She tensed slightly at the mention of his brother dying, panic crossing her face for a split second before disappearing "Not the best conversation changer..."  

[Kaosujin Ryu]

The Lady Reaper

Raen rolled his shoulders with a low snort. "I'm going to say this only once at the moment. My faith and trust in you is absolute. There is a better chance of Usagi shattering a diamond to dust in her hands than there is of me doubting you; I know if you don't reveal something, there is a reason for it," he said in a flat, serious tone. He paused, his gaze snapping to his right just feet from Ginhana. What he saw was a 7' 1" tall man with a long black duster jacket, black hair that had crimson and amber streaks in it, and wraparound sunglasses. He was simply leaning one shoulder against the wall, but Raen knew immediately this... being... wasn't human as he could keenly sense the molten power roiling in the immortal's aura. "Do not turn your head, Mairi... seems we have another visitor, and though I don't have your talent for seeing auras... this guy's aura is crackling to my senses like standing in a lightning storm with a steel pipe over my head," he muttered to Mairi. He knew who this was as well: his brother Apostolos/Acheron. He knew from how his eyebrow twitched slightly he'd heard the warning for Mairi.

 

[The Lady Reaper]

Kaosujin Ryu

Mairi closed her eyes and sighed slightly "You say that now.When have I ever been wrong in a reading, Raen?When have the cards ever lied?" The truth was, she was afraid to tell him the truth, to tell him about her parents and what happened when she wasn't hanging out with him when they had been younger.She rested her chin on her knees when she heard Ginhana let out a yelp of shock and felt the little creature take a flying leap from her cradle back to the couch.Unable to help it, Mairi's mouth twitched slightly at the corners, hiding a small smile "I thought I was the one afraid of storms." Having already met his brother once, the guys aura didn't surprise her, though she was still a little on edge "Next time you want to come in, Ash, knock on the door and wait for an invite." He'd have a hard time intimidating her at the moment.She was moody. tired, hungry and just a tad bit irritated with people/immortals popping out of no where.  

[Kaosujin Ryu]

The Lady Reaper

Raen jerked slightly, realizing Mairi had met his brother. "I'll admit you haven't been wrong, but you know the only thing more stubborn than me... would be someone trying to break rock with his head; and when exactly did you meet him?" he said, tilting his head slightly towards his brother as he stood and walked towards the kitchen before he started cooking breakfast. "I'll remember that," Ash said with amusement, glancing towards his brother. He could sense the energy swirling around his brother and knew that his abilities were fundamentally different from his own. He glanced towards Ginhana, shifting his weight slightly. "You know, your past is your secret for now, Mai-chan... mine, however, is one I'm about to reveal," he said quietly. "I was left not long after birth at a home that had skilled doctors, though all I remember is growing up in an orphanage... being fed next to nothing... practically scraps that even the dogs had trouble stomaching, not to mention the times they'd shove me in that damned cage that made a pet carrier look good sized," he said in a low voice. He noticed that though his brother didn't say anything nor look his direction save to look out the window, he could tell the immortal was listening closely.

Kitai saw Tatsujin flinch as memories disturbingly similar to his past flickered in the pool. Kurotai frowned slightly, seeing the memories.

 

[The Lady Reaper]

Kaosujin Ryu

Mairi gave Raen a very bored look "You have tried breaking a rock with your head.I'm the one that got stuck taking you to the hospital for stitches remember?And i met him on the roof, same as you, when I created that beacon with whatever you wanna calling this freaky thing I have." Her pale eyes flicked to Ash as he moved to the kitchen, keeping silent rather than reply to him.She glanced back to Raen before setting her chin on her knees again listening quietly.She'd guessed at some of this, from when they were kids and him not liking small spaces and the habit of double check expiration dates.She hadn't known the exact reason, but she'd pieced together some things and figured it had to do with before he was adopted.Her back ached at just thinking of her own childhood.Ginhana eyed Ash for a moment before fallowing him into the kitchen.  

[Kaosujin Ryu]

The Lady Reaper

Raen rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure..." he started before he blinked a couple of times. "Next time, Ash, that you want to hide yourself from peoples' memories, maybe you shouldn't," he said irritably; he hadn't realized he'd met his brother eight months before due to the immortal messing with his memories. "If you remember, we didn't meet like this, face-to-face; I used my astral form to see you rather than meet physically due to circumstances I had no control over," Ash deadpanned. Raen snorted a slight laugh as he shrugged. "Regardless, when I was five and a few months... a couple of weeks before that Christmas snowstorm in '94... they threw me out while locked in that damned cage... left me unconscious for two days afterward and they refused to let me back in, calling me a 'freak that didn't need a family' or a 'monster in human skin'," he muttered through clenched teeth. "Survived on the streets for two and a half years before being adopted," he muttered. He had had those parents for five months before the car accident that had killed them and he'd been shunted to his uncle's and Sakura's home. He missed how his brother frowned at his revelation of his past.

Kitai saw Tatsujin look annoyed, then pissed off as she recalled the same thing had happened to him.

 

[The Lady Reaper]

Kaosujin Ryu

Mairi shrugged slightly, not really caring if her remembered or not.It irked her a bit that she'd had to replace the leather seat lining in her car after that little episode but that was about it.She hugged her legs and closed her eyes, though it was obvious she was listening.She knew it took a lot for him to tell her this, especially with Ash there.She hesitated a moment opening the link with Raen, knowing that if she tried speaking, she'd never get it out "I never made it to the orphanage...Someone..I'm assuming my birth mother, dropped me off at Saint Peter's clinic with a note strapped to the blanket with my name and a 'Wish you luck'. She snorted slightly in disgust "Three weeks later my parents, the ones you knew, adopted me.It's was okay for a little while, mom was a bit of ditz, da scared the hell out of me..I turned four and the beatings started.Mom never knew, or at least she never let on that she did, and he made sure never to hit where people could see.Couldn't have the public knowing that the mayor liked to see little girls bleed.It was Nana, she was actually the neighbor, that noticed things were off and confronted me.It was actually a few weeks before i started school with you..." She trailed off slightly, trying to figure out how to continue, knowing there was so much more he needed to know so he understood why she'd gone pale when he'd mentioned the Chthonian god killers earlier.Ginhana whined slightly, knowing what Mairi was getting at.  

[Kaosujin Ryu]

The Lady Reaper

Raen frowned as he heard Mairi's low words; he could tell it was hard for her to reveal this about herself. "So," he muttered. "he was one of us, eh? He'd better hope Z, Savitar, and I don't catch up to him," Ash said quietly; his tone seemed outwardly cheerful, but underneath it was disgust at how another Cthonian would stoop to such a low manner of life. Raen cocked his head ever so slightly, fairly sure that the two names his brother mentioned were other Cthonians. "Savitar's that guy that likes surfing so much with the lavender eyes, eh?" he said to his brother, getting a momentary look of surprise before he nodded carefully. "He said 'I gotta check on you ever so often to make sure you ain't dead, grom; you are tough, just like your brother,'" Raen said with amusement, seeing his brother's thoughtful look; he guessed that Ash hadn't known other Cthonians were watching out for him. "Just because he beat the hell out of you when you were younger... it never broke you and showed just how strong you truly are. To be as caring, friendly, and beautiful as you are, even though you're cautious and often wary of others, is precious, Mairi," he murmured to Mairi; he knew she knew he meant it when he used her name that way.

 

[The Lady Reaper]

Kaosujin Ryu

Mairi's arms tightened around her legs slightly, her shirt moving in such a way that his showed the edges of the scars on her shoulders "He wasn't the Chthonian...I am, or at least I think I am..Dad was as human as you could get.." Her eyes opened a little bit, showing that her eyes had turned completely silver That week I missed of school back in eighth grade?He beat me so bad I stopped breathing.He dumped me by the river and Nana found me.I don't know what she did, but I'd been gone for a few hours at least..I was in her living room when I started breathing again, and from she said I blew the place up.Every light bulb exploded, the power shut off and a gas line snapped.She kept saying something the old gods Fate and the cards.She wouldn't shut up about the cards..I wrote it off as her rambling again.Dad died three days later in the massive pileup and mom died of a heart attack.I didn't have anything to do with it..But I keep getting the feeling it was my fault somehow.." She managed a half smile, though it never reached her eyes.She knew Raen meant what he said, but he didn't know just how broken she was.  

[Kaosujin Ryu]

The Lady Reaper

Raen cocked his head, frowning fractionally. "Something similar happened to me when I was eleven... it was before I met you, but I had gone to a rollerblading competition and blew a 720 backflip with a 180 heel grab.... caught the wheels of the skates on the edge of the halfpipe and landed hard on the side of my head and rolled a couple of times head over heels before reaching the bottom. They took me to a hospital, claiming I wasn't breathing, which I don't really remember... I remember a guy with shoulder length black hair cursing something about `can't keep the little b*****d`, then all I remember is a surge of molten power, almost like getting hit by lightning only about eighty times worse... from what I heard, two floors of the seven floor hospital went dark and half a dozen people slated to be near death were somehow healed... they came in my room and it looked like a small typhoon had hit; pretty much everything that had glass had shattered, water pipes in the ceiling burst, electrical wires hanging down and my bed looked like it'd shaken itself apart short of the mattress while the sheet looked burnt beneath me," he said quietly. He had told nobody, not even Sakura or his uncle about this incident and nobody in school knew about it, either. He knew what Mairi was talking about, however, and noticed the scars on her shoulders. "They claimed I'd broken my neck and spinal cord as well as my right arm in half a dozen places and four ribs, two of which had punctured my heart and left lung... they had no idea how I survived," he murmured. He knew what injuries he'd suffered because he'd looked at the paperwork. The migraines he'd suffered for nearly three months after that day had been downright debilitating. His hearing had grown unnaturally sharp, as had his sight, and sense of smell in addition to hearing loud cursing voices and screams. He missed how Ash himself froze in mid movement when he mentioned the black haired man, unaware that the man in question had been none other than Hades himself.

 

[The Lady Reaper]

Kaosujin Ryu

Mairi inced slightly "Breaking your neck and being beaten to death are a bit different.." She frowned slightly at the mention of Hades, looking slightly confused "I didn't see a black haired guy..He was blonde and looked kinda sad.I remember him touching me between the eyes and saying something but all I could make out was 'for my boy'."He actually kinda reminds me of you two now that I think about it.In looks at least." She laid her head on her knees, not realizing that it was Archon that she was talking about, and when he'd touched her forehead, he'd left the Mark that she still had no idea exists.She made a face smelling smoke "Ash, what're you burning over there?" She chose to leave out the bit of Nana sewing her back shut and all the gory details.She'd gained the ability to read the Tarot cards with devastating accuracy after that, as well as the normal parlor tricks, such as reading palms and tea leaves.But the talent she'd gained she hated the most was being able to tell when someone's time was up.  

[Kaosujin Ryu]

The Lady Reaper

Raen frowned fractionally. He blinked as Ash jerked slightly before he flicked his wrist, the scent of smoke being replaced by the scent of complex spices as he fixed a couple of bowls and garlic bread before bringing it to them. Raen cocked his head as his brother came around the minibar. "The sweet potatoes are a bit overcooked," he said sheepishly.

 

[Kaosujin Ryu]

The Lady Reaper

Raen exhaled, half closing his eyes though he knew he hadn't told Mairi about the beatings and viciousness of the matrons and older kids in the orphanage. He remembered only two that had been actual friends with him, and he didn't know whether they'd been adopted by someone or even if they were still alive.

All three soul weapon spirits gasped as they saw flashes of the two that Raen-sama was thinking about. "Tenten... Hana?" she murmured with shock, recognizing the duo; Hana didn't have the facial markings she remembered, but the duo were identical to the people they'd known in life.

 

[The Lady Reaper]

Kaosujin Ryu

Mairi frowned slightly, not getting why her mentioning a blonde guy that reminded her of them would get a reaction like that.She noticed an unusual ripple in Raen's aura and debated on whether to ask what was wrong or not.She snapped back to reality when she saw Ash moving towards them and fought the urge to shrink back.Her sight wouldn't allow her to see what it was he was holding "No worries, you can't smell it over the spices now anyways..." Ginhana looked at the bowls curiously and jumped up onto the couch by Mairi, leaving Ash either on the floor or the chair by Raen.