Work Text:
Just Meet Me at our Favorite Cherry Tree
~*~
The crispness of the night had already settled in, causing the accompanying stillness to layer in the air like a fine dusting of snow.
Regularly, the shrine grounds at this hour would be unsettling to most. Shadows hung heavily in the corners of the scattered buildings in the courtyard. The barriers of the trees at all sides fought to block out all light and hope of escape. The large, imposing Tori gates loomed above the pathways and judged those who sought to walk through their arches. The moon above was only a crescent moon, and offered only a fraction of its usually guiding radiance to those still lost in the night. Offering only just enough light that one was able to know exactly how deep all the darkest of the shadows were.
Manjiro Sano was not unsettled. He looked out into the courtyard of the shrine with unseeing eyes. This place was incapable of unnerving him, although he wasn’t even aware of any place that had that kind of power over him. But especially Musashi shrine would never feel unwelcoming to him. Even if the grounds were ablaze, or he was blind without sight, Manjiro would always feel he fit into this place as though he belonged here.
No, Manjiro Sano sat casually at the top of the steps where just earlier in the night he had declared a war. He looked out unbothered at where he had rallied all his precious soldiers to battle. A battle they were all impassioned to fight.
A fight he had no doubt they would win. Not a thought of failure ever crossed his mind, not since before or after he had decided on this path.
He looked out into the nothingness left of the space before him after all his captains and soldiers had departed back down the tall staircase. He didn’t know why he didn’t leave with them, didn’t know what he thought there was still to do at the shrine. But he stayed either way. Looking at nothing. Feeling nothing. Thinking of the nothingness that remained after the Tokyo Manjin Gang had left his sight.
He felt no particular way about where he was leading them now. This fight with Moebius. Thought nothing beyond the fact that Pah-chin had made a request. The details were unimportant. Everything was just that simple.
There was nothing left to think about, and no reason to think he needed to feel anything more about what he had commanded. No reason to think something was missing or lacking.
But here he was, sitting in the dark, feeling his butt start to numb as the cold touch of the stones beneath him leached his body heat from him slowly.
After a while more of the nothingness - a soft, repetitive scuffing sound echoed through the air, drawing closer. The noise did not cause concern for Manjiro as he did not even turn to give an indication he heard anything. It was the familiar sound of wood dragging lightly across the stone floors. The shuffle was rhythmic, equal in pace and candance. Unhurried, but growing ever nearer as it became clear he was the intended destination.
The sound of the scuff paused right behind him, and he could feel the space become occupied as whatever it was stood over him. Manjiro did not move or greet them. The silence stretched on until the soft sound of the sigh of a breath broke the wait. There was the sound of more shuffling, thick fabric rustled and the space behind him rearranging as emptiness was filled with moving parts. There was a soft ‘plop’, followed by a longer, more exaggerated sigh as whatever it was settled down, no longer towering above him but now sitting on the same level.
Manjiro felt a pressure push against his back. His spine straightened without conscious thought, his body instinctively preparing for the added weight against him. In the back recesses of his mind he found amusement. There was a physical press, causing him to have to exert energy to push back, lest he be forced into a forward bow. Lest he give an indication of this weight having any sort of heaviness. Manjiro Sano did not yield to anyone or anything. Yet as he leaned back into the force, into the warmth that was now spreading through his back, he found this new load was the opposite of all of that.
This physical weight against him eased his tension, his once stiff muscles loosened and his breath came with new space in his chest for his lungs to expand. His thoughts cleared as if a bell had just rung through his head, its ripples of sense and clarity mounting until everything felt like it had fallen into place all at once.
A soft, slow smile spread across Manjiro’s mouth, completely unhindered as there were none in any position to see it. He leaned his head back, the top of his skull knocking gingerly against the head of the one who now sat at his back. And he whispered into the space between them.
“Hey Ru-ru~,”
~*~
The boy at her back was a sight she had not expected to see that night.
Between the already late hour of the night and the chill that was starting to leave a nasty nip in the air, she had thought he would have gone home already. As she approached, she noticed he was the only one left. Even Draken’s ever present shadow over the boy was absent.
The noticeable lack of the mothering hen was even more surprising as she recalled the announcement she had overheard while completing her chores in the closest shrine building. A war with Moebius approached. And in so few days. Surely there were plans and preparations that should draw the invincible commander of the Tokyo Majin Gang away from the shrine to prepare. And now he was even left without any protection on the eves of the battle(rather she always viewed it as supervision, the gods knew as well as she that this boy needed protection from himself more than anyone else).
“Why are you still out here?” Rui huffed out in a near grumble as she settled in. She gave a quick, hot breath of air into her cupped hands as she tried to chase away the night air. She hadn’t expected to be out long in the growing chill, and was already regretting her choice to approach him.
“Why indeed,” Manjiro questioned back in a baiting way, more awake and aware then he had been just moments before. The sudden change in energy excited him, and the inflection in his voice made that apparent. “I just didn’t feel like leaving yet. Although I didn’t know you were working late today.”
“There’s a lot to get ready before the festival. There’ll be a string of late nights from now on until it's over.” Rui did not even try to hold back the whine from her voice. She held no shame in letting the world know how bothersome she thought the coming week would be.
“Poor Ru-ru,” Mickey teased in a higher voice, and Rui knew that if she looked she would find a familiar mocking tilt on his mouth from just his tone alone. “What ever are you going to do without your habitual oversleeping for a whole another week?”
“Like you’re one to talk!” Rui shot back heatedly, her spine stiffened in an instant against his in fury. The indignation was enough to make her forget her complaints about the cold as her body warmed itself up for a fight.
Manjiro snickered lightly, and Rui felt the jolts from the movement of his shoulders as his chuckles reverberated through her back. “I know, I know. But I’m sure the week will fly by. The festival will be here before you even know it.”
His words drew her into a pause, making her hesitate before uttering another sound. While his words remained lightheartened, she could tell his thoughts were already drifting away from this shared moment in time by mention of the upcoming festival.
“Doesn’t sound like that’s a good thing. In fact, it sounds like you won’t even be able to enjoy it this year,” There was a lingering question in her statement. One she did not want to come outright and ask, but she could not overlook the curiosity-she would deny even to herself that one could read it as concern if they looked deep enough- that pulled at her.
Manjiro hummed quietly, his head tilting back against hers as he turned to absentmindedly watch the starry sky. He readjusted against her back, drawing a leg up and throwing an arm against his knee to brace himself. “So, you overheard all that then?”
“Kind’ve hard not to when you guys are so loud,” Rui tried to muster up a fraction of the attitude she usually shot his way when she felt it was time to remind him that they should have some level of manners while they were at a shrine. Regardless of how much of a home he had made the place out to be for himself and Tomen. But her efforts were in vain, and any of the usual annoyance she felt when boys were being loud and dumb didn’t rise in her. Damn that falsely named curiosity.
“Pah-chin seemed really upset tonight,” Rui whispered, unable to keep the silence. She looked down apprehensively at her hands that rested in her lap. They started twisting the large bow of her uniform restlessly, as she struggled with what to say when the air felt so heavy.
“I don’t blame him, he has a lot to be upset about.” Mickey replied back, his voice even to disguise any intention.
“This group, Mobeus? They really sound terrible.” Rui pushed, unwilling to leave it at that.
Manjiro mumbled in agreement. “The worst. They messed up a lot of people for something so petty. But that’s alright, we’ll just go kick their asses, and Pah-chin will feel better about it all.”
“Sounds a bit overly simple when you put it that way. Is just beating them up really going to change anything? People have already been hurt.”
“What else is there to do? It’s not like they’re the first trash gang we’ve had to deal with. It’s all just one more step in making a new age for delinquents.”
Rui glared down at her knees, unsatisfied with such an answer. Her fingers stilled as they intertwined with the red ribbons of her uniform. She debated if this was the kind of night where she wanted to push back against him. In all their years of knowing each other, she never could understand the clean and easy way he viewed the delinquent life.
Like so many times before, Rui wanted to shake the boy, get him to abandon this idea of his that he can reshape the world just by his sheer will
To Manjiro it was all so simple. Just a couple of street brawls and the winner makes the rules. And he was always the winner. Rui had never seen him be desperate in a fight the way she’s seen others. In fights where rules are abandoned, and both sides don’t just shake hands and walk away. Where egos rule action, and things get crazy before anyone can even blink.
She remembered the look in Pah-chin’s eyes, the absolute frustration he had had in his voice, and Rui did not see anything simple about his feelings. Even from the distance his voice had to carry to reach her, and the sliver of the sight of him she had been able to catch from the window of the shrine, he had seemed like he was at his wit’s end. Just the memory of it unnerved her.
But Manjiro knew this life better. If he said a battle between the Tokyo Manjin Gang and Mobeus would fix things, then she would have to go along with it. She wasn’t a part of that life, despite how often and how close she toed the line to it.
So Rui stayed quiet on the matter, as she had done before.
The shrine was meant to be a safe haven for Tomen. That is what she offered. That was the extent of what she could give to them.
What they all did beyond the shrine grounds, was out of her control.
“Well, once things settle down and Pah-chin isn’t so worked up, remind him and Peh-yan that there’s no violence at the shrine,” Rui settled for that demand, knowing it would both restore the normalcy to this conversation, at least for her. It seemed as though Manjiro had not even noticed the heaviness and doubt she had been feeling before.
“I’m surprised you didn’t come out and remind them yourself,” Manjiro laughed loudly, as though already imagining the sight. Rui’s cheeks blushed red in response. She knew he wasn’t actually mocking her with this statement, and she knew sometimes she got carried away with herself, particularly when she felt she had to make an impression on these juvenile delinquents. It wasn’t her fault they really only responded to one ‘language’. “I always enjoy watching you ‘remind’ people of that. Most entertaining thing to ever happen at these meetings.”
“It didn’t feel right, with Pah-chin being like that,” Rui muttered with a sigh. “Why did he and Peh-yan go after that kid anyway?”
“Oh, Takemitchy,” Manjiro stated as though he had forgotten the whole thing and only just now remembered the boy even existed. Rui rolled her eyes at his typical carefree mindset. Sometimes she thought he had the mind of a goldfish. “Just something stupid one of the guys in Pah-chin’s unit did. Blames Takemitchy for it, even though he didn’t do anything.”
“So why was this ‘Takemitchy’ here?” Rui threw the question out, even though Manjiro’s previous answer did not help her understand what had happened in the slightest.
“I invited him!” And didn’t Manjiro just sound so proud of that fact.
“Okay-” Rui drew out, sending the boy behind her a suspicious side eye. She was somewhat surprised at the enthusiasm Manjiro was displaying. It was rare for him to be so excited about new people, but Rui figured something about this Takemitchy had interested him. And if that is what had happened, it wasn’t like this Takemitchy was going anywhere then. She was sure she’d get the chance to meet him, probably sooner rather than later, knowing Manjiro.
“Well, far be it from me to say who you should bring into your circle. Just didn’t seem like he was the usual, delinquent type,” Rui replied with a sigh, her body’s tight muscles loosening, and she slouched further against Manjiro behind her.
“Maybe not yet, but I’m sure we’ll get him there.” Manjiro nodded to himself, having already made up his mind on something Rui decided she did not want to know.
‘Whoever this Takemitchy is, good luck to you.’ With that thought, and the tension now having left her body, Rui once again took note of the lateness of the night. The fact that as the air got colder, the points at her back where her body met Manjiro’s were becoming even more of a beacon of comfortable warmth was brought to the forefront of her mind.
“How much longer are you going to be here for? It was already late, and now it’s even more so. You should go home.” It was a gentle urging Rui tried to give Manjiro, knowing she wouldn’t force him to leave.
“Hmm, I don’t think I want to yet,” Manjiro said quietly, as though just realizing that thought himself.
Rui gave a large sigh, fully dedicated to the theatrics of it. She pushed lightly against Manjiro’s back in a small rebuke. “You need to sleep. Somewhere where you’ll actually get some rest. You’ve got a big fight to prepare for afterall.”
“You know, we could always use another member to add to our ranks? Would help even the odds if you were there,” Mickey said hopefully out into the open air of the shrine. Rui always felt it was an act, after all, how many times could he ask the same question and expect a different answer.
“I’m not joining Tomen.” Rui’s swift response left no room for doubt at how nonexistent the chances were of that happening. At least it would have to anyone who wasn’t Manjiro.
“It doesn’t matter what you say, you’re already an honorary member,” Immediately came Manjiro’s persistent response, the pout and insistence in his tone was one that Rui had been fighting for years at this point.
“The hell I am! You can’t just decide that for me!”
“But I did~” Mickey declared happily, turning his face towards her so that the large grin crossing his lip, and his eyes which were wide with cheerful delight were only inches from her face.
“Why do you have to always act so spoiled,” Rui held her head as she shook it back and forth in exasperation. Although the slight wobble only served to make the heaviness in her head more noticeable. “It’s too late and I’m too tired for this.”
With one more resigned sigh, Rui leaned her head back so the base of her neck was laying on Manjiro’s shoulder. His tilted face was still turned in her direction, grinning as he gleefully soaked in her reaction. She knew what he saw. How her long, black hair and pale skin should give her the look of a perfected shrine maiden.
But she also knew he saw all the ways she couldn’t get it right, despite how hard she tried. How her hair was just a little too wild, curled a little too much for the perfect, sleek ponytail of a shrine maiden. Saw that despite how tightly she tied the string and paper to bind her hair into a thin tail, it would loosen and pull away from the base of her neck, and the escaping strands would frame her face, and the tail of her hair would become more unruly as it traveled down her back. The same thing always happened with the twin tails she wore when she was out of uniform. He saw that the thin framed glasses she needed were always ruining the otherwise perfect traditionalism of her uniform.
(She didn’t know that he would watch, fascinated at the sight of her hair flying behind her in an uncontrollable wave when she moved quickly. How he enjoyed when her side parted bangs slid away to expose her forehead. How it opened up her eyes so he could see them unobstructed. How he looked forward to seeing the deep brown color of her eyes, especially when they seemed to turn a dark red in the right light. Even better when her glasses slipped just far enough down her slim nose to help expose the color even more. Kind’ve like they were doing now.)
“So what now? We’re just going to stay out here until you decide you want to go home?” Rui would have almost been in disbelief, but she had been guided by Manjiro’s flimsy whims too often before to not think him capable of an impulse as simple as this.
“Yeah, actually,” Came Manjiro’s faint reply, slow and steady, as though the thought was something he wanted to bask in. “That sounds nice. Just wait out here with me for a bit longer. That’s what I want.”
Rui found herself unwilling to really quarrel against him on this. She hummed softly and turned back away, blocking off the sight of him. She compulsively knocked the wooden zori sandals on her feet together lightly, in an effort to try to keep the rest of herself still. She also didn’t want to leave this spot yet, but there was energy rising within her, an excitement that she was loath to admit came about just from being near him. When things were calm and she was allowed to really notice the effects take hold of her, that was when they caught her off guard and were the strongest. These feelings both simultaneously settled and agitated her. A constant, confusing state of contradiction that always left her behaving in the most baffling ways.
The two stayed seated on the ever freezing ground, lapsed into a comfortable silence as they enjoyed this quiet moment where they were together. Unsurprisingly, it did not take long before she felt the press of Manjiro’s full weight against her. It had been a gradual increase in pressure she had felt building as the moments stretched on. Eventually settling against her as if suddenly the strings holding him up had been cut, and he became weightless. And so came the slow steadying of his breath and the calm motionless from him that came with sleep.
‘Damn it, I forgot to tell the idiot to get a shirt on. He’s definitely going to catch a cold now! He better not bitch to me about it, because this is not my fault.’ The thought to wake the boy up crossed her mind only for a fleeting second, and more in retaliation for him being so quick to leave her alone to the chill of the conscious world when he was the one who stalled them out here in the first place.
Rui swiftly snuck her phone out from a secret inner pocket of her hakama pants as she resigned herself to this position for at least the next half hour. She could give Manjiro that long.
As she reflected on the conversation, and the upcoming fight the boy behind her was about to engage in, she hummed in discontentment. She had long since gotten used to hearing of the fights Toman got into, and rarely gave them much thought anymore besides the usual disapproval of senseless fighting. There was nothing indicating that this fight should really be any different.
As her thoughts looped in an endless lemniscatethe, the wind winding through the air above the shrine picked up. She could feel it start to tug at her hair and the folds of her priestess uniform persistently, demanding her attention. The usual calm tinkering of the wind chimes across the grounds all became a violent, ugly clash of noise at the insistent gusts. Leaves from the surrounding trees all rattled against one another in an angry racket, being forced to dance as they were nearly being pulled off at the steams. Clouds of dust and dirt traveled as the wind commanded and blew across the grounds, emphasizing the emptiness and darkness of the shrine.
Rui sat and watched unmoved as the serenity of the shrine grounds shattered in all but a few moments.
The boy at her back slept on without giving any notice to the rising chaos around them.
‘Is this,.... a bad omen?’