NPC: Mikaboshi, Eldest Shadow and Lord of the Deep Court
"This city is so big!"
Suzaku marched alongside Mikaboshi with his eyes the size of saucers and his mouth hanging agape as he turned his head from side to side taking in the sights around him trying in equal parts to take as much of the city in at one time and also keep pace with his master. Mikaboshi was significantly less interested in the buildings and the people around him as they walked, his hands clasped behind his back and his eyes set forward on the path ahead of them as they went. It was easy to forget that this was Suzaku's first journey to one of the larger cities in Wind Country. He was mostly accustomed to frontier towns and to the wilderness of Wind Country and the underground and so had never seen so many people in one place before.
"And there's so many people! Master, you didn't tell me there would be so many people!" His face alight with an excited grin, Suzaku's eyes went from person to person and new landmark to new landmark with startling speed as though it were all a mirage that might fade from him before he managed to see it all.
"I most certainly did tell you there would be a vast amount of other humans here." Observed Mikaboshi without taking his eyes off of the path with uncharacteristic patience for Suzaku's exuberance. "Boy. Do not tarry."
Suzaku had stopped to gawk at a crowd which had surrounded a man that was sitting upon a short stool with a long stringed instrument in his hands and was playing a soothingly soft melody for the gathered group of folk around him. A number of the gathered people had dropped coins into a collection hat set out in front of the street musician and as Suzaku stood listening for a moment or two the jingle of a few more coins falling into the hat could be heard in between the notes of the musicians instrument before Suzaku's attention was wrested back to his master with Mikaboshi's call to fall back in step with him.
"But I didn't think vast meant like. This many people!" Exclaimed the youth as he caught back up with Mikaboshi in a few quick strides. Mikaboshi was moving at a relatively brisk pace but he was hardly moving at a speed which even normal folk might consider fast which was to say nothing of what the definition of "fast" meant to people at Mikaboshi's level of ability. "Mom is really going to let me live here?"
"Your mother has agreed for me to assign you to the care of a foster household for the time being to further your education." And it of course was for the child's safety as well but there was no reason to burden him with that knowledge. He was very skilled for his age and if he were anything like his father then he would likely prove to outgrow his limits at a rapid pace but the wilds were simply becoming too dangerous for him.
"I know. She said you were taking me to meet somebody. One of Dad's old friends." Suzaku continued, pressing a bit further causing Mikaboshi to take a smirk in spite of himself. Suzaku was an honest child and very much his father's son in that regard but every once and a while Mikaboshi's lessons about deception and subterfuge showed through in his behavior. It made the Ancient Lord wonder what the former king of men would have thought about his son being taught to lie by one of his people's oldest boogeymen. It was unlikely that he would approve and that small rebellion against Katsuo's family line brought a small sense of satisfaction to Mikaboshi.
"That is correct. His name is Takahashi Sousuke and he is the Steward of Sunagakure."
"Mom says he's a jerk."
There was a moment of silence as they walked and Mikaboshi considered his words. Suzaku was clearly trying to dig his master's opinion of Sousuke out of him and it would not be... it would be a poor way to begin their relationship for Mikaboshi to poison Suzaku against Sousuke before they even met regardless of their history.
"Takahashi Sousuke is many things. Among them is intelligent and honorable. He will not mistreat you."
It was as diplomatic and generous as Mikaboshi was willing to be. He had long since buried the hatchet with Sousuke and no longer wished ill upon the man but time passed differently for ancients than it did for humans. Where humans lived upon time borrowed from the universe that was ultimately finite and had an end to it, ancient-kin lived so long as they were connected to the cosmic cycle that they were born into. For a creature whose perception of time was ultimately unending and cyclical like Mikaboshi the passage of a few years did little to smother the embers of mistrust and humiliation. But still, he was not darkening Sousuke's doorstep this day for his own sake which made those feelings irrelevant to the present.
Finally Mikaboshi came to a stop before a house that was truly unique among the others. Surrounded by a short fence and gate, the yard glittered resplendently with all forms of metallic ornamentation. Devices and apparatuses for all sorts of indecipherable esoteric purposes likely known only to the mind of the inscrutable Steward littered the yard giving it the appearance of almost being more iron and steel than any sort of biological or natural material. As they stopped, once more Suzaku let a gasp of surprise and excitement escape as they halted their progress and he beheld the fantastical sight that was the Steward's front yard.
"Suna's breath!" Swore Suzaku as he beheld the sight of the Steward's home, forgetting himself for a moment causing Mikaboshi to scowl at his choice of swear. Realizing his error, Suzaku looked up to Mikaboshi with a cringe in his features. "...sorry Master. I am going to live here?"
"Yes." Replied the Eldest Shadow with a suck of his teeth to show his displeasure before pushing the small gate that separated them from the wonderment of Sousuke's garden of appliances open and motioning for Suzaku to accompany him. "Stay here in the front yard. You may explore it but touch nothing. Do you understand, boy?"
"Yes, Master." Responded Suzaku almost instantly as he fell back out of step with Mikaboshi, his attention drawn by a complicated device which bore a heavy resemblance to an incredibly over-designed weather vane.
Moving swiftly along the path to the front door, Mikaboshi vaguely entertained the notion that he had destroyed two of the Steward's homes in the past and that it would be somewhat amusing to see Sousuke's garden of technological terrors melt away but dismissed the silly idea as quickly as it had materialized. He was not here to re-open old wounds after all and it would hardly be a pledge of enduring cooperation for him to go about destroying a third of Sousuke's dwellings.
Even if it would be incredibly amusing.
Raising his hand as he arrived on the stone doorstep of Sousuke's sizable home, Mikaboshi raised his right hand and the heavy steel of the door's knocking apparatus lifted into the air on it's own before thudding into the surface of the door with surprising force for the fact that Mikaboshi had not physically touched it. It left no permanent damage to the door but it would have been impossible not to hear it regardless of where the Steward was in the home unless he was of course not home in which case Mikaboshi and Suzaku would just have to let themselves in for the time being.
"This city is so big!"
Suzaku marched alongside Mikaboshi with his eyes the size of saucers and his mouth hanging agape as he turned his head from side to side taking in the sights around him trying in equal parts to take as much of the city in at one time and also keep pace with his master. Mikaboshi was significantly less interested in the buildings and the people around him as they walked, his hands clasped behind his back and his eyes set forward on the path ahead of them as they went. It was easy to forget that this was Suzaku's first journey to one of the larger cities in Wind Country. He was mostly accustomed to frontier towns and to the wilderness of Wind Country and the underground and so had never seen so many people in one place before.
"And there's so many people! Master, you didn't tell me there would be so many people!" His face alight with an excited grin, Suzaku's eyes went from person to person and new landmark to new landmark with startling speed as though it were all a mirage that might fade from him before he managed to see it all.
"I most certainly did tell you there would be a vast amount of other humans here." Observed Mikaboshi without taking his eyes off of the path with uncharacteristic patience for Suzaku's exuberance. "Boy. Do not tarry."
Suzaku had stopped to gawk at a crowd which had surrounded a man that was sitting upon a short stool with a long stringed instrument in his hands and was playing a soothingly soft melody for the gathered group of folk around him. A number of the gathered people had dropped coins into a collection hat set out in front of the street musician and as Suzaku stood listening for a moment or two the jingle of a few more coins falling into the hat could be heard in between the notes of the musicians instrument before Suzaku's attention was wrested back to his master with Mikaboshi's call to fall back in step with him.
"But I didn't think vast meant like. This many people!" Exclaimed the youth as he caught back up with Mikaboshi in a few quick strides. Mikaboshi was moving at a relatively brisk pace but he was hardly moving at a speed which even normal folk might consider fast which was to say nothing of what the definition of "fast" meant to people at Mikaboshi's level of ability. "Mom is really going to let me live here?"
"Your mother has agreed for me to assign you to the care of a foster household for the time being to further your education." And it of course was for the child's safety as well but there was no reason to burden him with that knowledge. He was very skilled for his age and if he were anything like his father then he would likely prove to outgrow his limits at a rapid pace but the wilds were simply becoming too dangerous for him.
"I know. She said you were taking me to meet somebody. One of Dad's old friends." Suzaku continued, pressing a bit further causing Mikaboshi to take a smirk in spite of himself. Suzaku was an honest child and very much his father's son in that regard but every once and a while Mikaboshi's lessons about deception and subterfuge showed through in his behavior. It made the Ancient Lord wonder what the former king of men would have thought about his son being taught to lie by one of his people's oldest boogeymen. It was unlikely that he would approve and that small rebellion against Katsuo's family line brought a small sense of satisfaction to Mikaboshi.
"That is correct. His name is Takahashi Sousuke and he is the Steward of Sunagakure."
"Mom says he's a jerk."
There was a moment of silence as they walked and Mikaboshi considered his words. Suzaku was clearly trying to dig his master's opinion of Sousuke out of him and it would not be... it would be a poor way to begin their relationship for Mikaboshi to poison Suzaku against Sousuke before they even met regardless of their history.
"Takahashi Sousuke is many things. Among them is intelligent and honorable. He will not mistreat you."
It was as diplomatic and generous as Mikaboshi was willing to be. He had long since buried the hatchet with Sousuke and no longer wished ill upon the man but time passed differently for ancients than it did for humans. Where humans lived upon time borrowed from the universe that was ultimately finite and had an end to it, ancient-kin lived so long as they were connected to the cosmic cycle that they were born into. For a creature whose perception of time was ultimately unending and cyclical like Mikaboshi the passage of a few years did little to smother the embers of mistrust and humiliation. But still, he was not darkening Sousuke's doorstep this day for his own sake which made those feelings irrelevant to the present.
Finally Mikaboshi came to a stop before a house that was truly unique among the others. Surrounded by a short fence and gate, the yard glittered resplendently with all forms of metallic ornamentation. Devices and apparatuses for all sorts of indecipherable esoteric purposes likely known only to the mind of the inscrutable Steward littered the yard giving it the appearance of almost being more iron and steel than any sort of biological or natural material. As they stopped, once more Suzaku let a gasp of surprise and excitement escape as they halted their progress and he beheld the fantastical sight that was the Steward's front yard.
"Suna's breath!" Swore Suzaku as he beheld the sight of the Steward's home, forgetting himself for a moment causing Mikaboshi to scowl at his choice of swear. Realizing his error, Suzaku looked up to Mikaboshi with a cringe in his features. "...sorry Master. I am going to live here?"
"Yes." Replied the Eldest Shadow with a suck of his teeth to show his displeasure before pushing the small gate that separated them from the wonderment of Sousuke's garden of appliances open and motioning for Suzaku to accompany him. "Stay here in the front yard. You may explore it but touch nothing. Do you understand, boy?"
"Yes, Master." Responded Suzaku almost instantly as he fell back out of step with Mikaboshi, his attention drawn by a complicated device which bore a heavy resemblance to an incredibly over-designed weather vane.
Moving swiftly along the path to the front door, Mikaboshi vaguely entertained the notion that he had destroyed two of the Steward's homes in the past and that it would be somewhat amusing to see Sousuke's garden of technological terrors melt away but dismissed the silly idea as quickly as it had materialized. He was not here to re-open old wounds after all and it would hardly be a pledge of enduring cooperation for him to go about destroying a third of Sousuke's dwellings.
Even if it would be incredibly amusing.
Raising his hand as he arrived on the stone doorstep of Sousuke's sizable home, Mikaboshi raised his right hand and the heavy steel of the door's knocking apparatus lifted into the air on it's own before thudding into the surface of the door with surprising force for the fact that Mikaboshi had not physically touched it. It left no permanent damage to the door but it would have been impossible not to hear it regardless of where the Steward was in the home unless he was of course not home in which case Mikaboshi and Suzaku would just have to let themselves in for the time being.