Darkmaster006
roleplaying is fun!
Seina (星奈)
Goddess of stars and matter
Special Abilities: Void. Star Dislocation.
Currently in: Foodstall in Katsushiko Ward, Tokyo Metropolitan Area.
Wearing: Brown and red kimono.
"My daughter, oh, it's been a while, my daughter," the voice of a woman began, slowly, "thou shall have to break through another ordeal, oh, my daughter," the voice continued, a tint of melancholy seeping through its own resounding cackles. "My poor daughter," the voice faded away, leaving only darkness, no trace of any kind. Only few heard it. Some intended, some unintended.
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The summer was coming to a close in the city of Tokyo. In all of Japan, actually, but places like Hokkaido—far up in the North—did not suffer from temperatures as high as Tokyo's. Only a few days remained until the 23th of September, when the equinox would take place and give way to Autumn. And again, only in Hokkaido would one be able to see the deep red leaves beginning to fall from the trees at such a date; Tokyo, instead, would probably have to wait weeks for that to happen. The few fox statues that stood on the ground of the little Inari Shrine in the Katsushika Ward of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area were peacefully waiting for that spectacle. They had no rush, and they watched as school kids rushed past the concrete torii gate back to their homes. None paid heed to the little secluded shrine. But the foxes, peacefully waiting, could never have predicted what was to happen next in their little shrine.
Specks of dust, stardust, started to slowly pop up one after the other in the center of the sandō, the path which guides one further into the sacred space of the shrine and into the honden, the main hall, where the kami reside. Normally, a visitor would have to pass through the torii, cleanse himself in the chōzuya (the purification trough), and only then advance towards the path. This, though, seemed to be no ordinary visitor. Rays of light emanated from the stardust and linked all of the emerging specks together, one by one, as they kept popping up. The fox statues, the only fox guardian (komainu), and the ordinary god that lived inside the main hall were all in awe. Their eyes followed the specks and the light as if they were otherwordly. For all they knew, they were. They could do nothing against it: they knew it was a power far beyond them.
After a while, the specks and the light lines settled in mid-air, forming a discernible humanoid form. Bam! For a single second, all the space inside the shrine became dazzling light; then, a woman appeared. She was wearing a brown and red kimono with an emblem emblazoned on the back, as well as waraji sandals. The god was frightened, despite the fact that he knew he had to get out and greet her, he stayed inside the main hall, cautious. The woman, who was standing, looked around the shrine for a moment, then looked up at the trees that filtered the sunrays of the early afternoon, then back down to the main hall and the fox statues, and then fixed her eyes on the fox guardian. The fox statues were clean but the passage of time was evident on them; the fox guardian, instead, made of asphalt, was solemn. "Uhm... hello?" she said and waved to the statue. The guardian didn't answer. She tried again, tapped the statue two times, very gently, but the statue did not answer. "I guess that wouldn't work, huh..." she plopped down into the floor.
She had no idea why she was here, who she was, or what she was doing, but for some reason—let's call it instinct—she started listing off the things she knew about herself: my name is Seina... I am a goddess of... stars... yes, that feels correct... I was... being chased? I don't remember if I was captured or why I was being chased, but I remember being scared as hell for some reason, hmm, I have brown hair—she pulled on one streak of her hair slightly with her right hand as to level it to her eyes and looked at it—okay, wrong, black... it feels wrong, but well, it's black... I have no idea what age I am and I have no idea where I am, alright, all set! Set for what!? Now that I have no idea... was I just born? I don't remember anything, oh god. Suddenly, Seina's train of thought stopped and images flashed through her mind. She could discern none of them, but, promptly, tears came to her eyes. She had no idea where her shrine was, if she even had a shrine, maybe she was just a stray god with no memories and no family and nothing. Who was she? What was she? Those thoughts spiralled her into an anxious state. The god inside the main hall wanted to reach out, but he was too scared, didn't want to get involved. He stayed quiet, masking her presence as much as he could, though he knew deep down that this kid right there would not be able to notice him in his state. He was regretting not helping this very instant... but he couldn't get himself to do it!
Eventually, Seina stood up again. Her eyes were teary but she had stopped crying, for the most part. Her eyes were puffy and red. But she walked out of the shrine nonetheless. She had to wander around. Maybe she'd always wandered around, without purpose, but that didn't matter. It didn't matter if she had no purpose, she still wanted to move, she was urged to walk, instinctively. She walked out, and she was met with what she recognised as a building, a house... but such a weirdly built one! Now, she didn't know much about architecture, but as far as she remembered, they were usually built out of wood and, unless they were castles, they weren't that big! These things looked like masses that just shot up into the sky! Had a god built this? It must have. What era was this? What era was she from? She had no idea. Was she in the past? Was she in the future? She had no idea. She kept on walking, admiring the buildings and the structures, the poles that shot out of the ground, she saw strange wheeled vehicles, some big, some small, some like carriages, some like... nothing she'd seen before. Most words she understood, written in her language, others were difficult to discern, and others were alien, with shapes she'd never seen before. She'd moved to her right and turned to the left on a big road which had wildlife in the center, as if on a line, and lines of a road made of dark material that were completely different to the roads she knew. But the space was vast and she marvelled at the sights, so she decided to take this road. There were poles and sticks of a grey material everywhere, trying to reach the sky. The buildings were of different colours but they also shot up into the sky, most of the time. She had seen some small ones, too. Modest ones. The people were dressed in weird ways, every now and then she saw someone with some sort of clothing she could recognise, but ignoring that, no one was wearing a kimono like her.
She began feeling hungry, but caught no sight of any place where she could find food. She didn't see any animals either. It was full of humans, humans, and more humans. Not even a god. Not even a shrine. She veered left again, towards a small road, then into a small road again. She was heading south, she knew thanks to the sun. Suddenly, she stopped. She'd seen something that caught her eye. She had no idea what it said... something about Donburi... did it have something to do with bowls? Must be food. Plus, the pictures... they looked so life-like, how was that possible? There were also weird pictograms she had never seen. But she had to try it! Thankfully, there was no one in line and the person inside the small, green building was there, checking some sort of... rectangular metallic block that emitted light that Seina had seen but overlook until now. She walked up to the counter.
"Ah, hello," she bowed, "good afternoon, may I have some of these... bowl aliments?"
The man at the counter raised an eyebrow at the weird wording and the weird appearance, but answered nonetheless. "Yes, which would you like?"
Seina thought long and hard as she was handed the menu—a weird parchment with realistic drawings, according to her—and looked at all the different pictures. She finally settled for three of them, and tried to pronounce them as best she could. Eventually she had to point to two of them, but at least one of them, she got right!
"Alright, those three. That'd be ¥2000," said the man.
"Uh, what's this... yen?"
The man was getting a tad annoyed at the customer. How could she not know what a yen was? But still, he held out a bill and a coin for her to see. Then it all clicked. She definitely knew of those! Well, the ones she knew were longer and had more inscriptions, they were called scrips. And she knew of coinage, too. They were just different, she knew of coins made of silver and bronze and gold and that had other shapes. "Uh..."
"Well, if you have no money, you better go look for your wallet, right?" the man smiled and he looked at a customer who was approaching behind Seina. Seina got the hint and moved away to sit at the bench next to the shop. She placed her hands on her face and looked down... what would she do now? She couldn't possibly threaten this man for food, he seemed nice enough, right? But she had to eat something...
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