degozaruyo | 001 [action; voice]

[Action (locked to Okita Souji)]

[It's very cold, which is the first tip-off that something has gone quite wrong. Early October in the Eleventh Year of Meiji had seemed like a second summer, but now Kenshin is lying in snow.

On his wedding day.

He jumps to his feet and reaches for a sword that isn't there. Whoever brought him to this snowy wood has relieved him of his sakabatou and his normal clothing, leaving him wearing nothing but a thin pair of Western-style silk trousers.

He hears a rustle and the snap of a twig underfoot; someone is coming. Kenshin takes a defensive stance.]

Hello?

[Voice - the next day (January 17; open to everybody)]

[There is rustling as Kenshin attempts to figure out the way the book works.]

Ah is this how to...? This is so strange, speaking into a book...right, there we go. Yes. Hello! This one is called Himura Kenshin. He arrived in this place--Luceti?--yesterday.

[More rustling. Yep, that's totally Kenshin bowing to a book.]

Pardon the intrusion, but this one must ask: is there a Kamiya Kaoru-dono or a Myoujin Yakiho here as well? If so, this one would dearly like to speak with them.

Thank you for your help!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[While Kenshin is off getting dressed, Souji gets dressed himself - much faster as he's well used to having the wings already and has holes cut out so his wings show, folded against his back. He takes the extra time to move Saizou off the table and onto the floor, where the pig roams off to the kitchen. Okita smiles at the stranger when he emerges into the room again and returns the bow.

-Himura Kenshin.

A name he recognizes. He knows they've met before now - only very briefly - and apparently now this man doesn't remember him at all.]

It's good to make your acquaintance as well, Himura-san. [What can he recall about him...? From Edo, the future, something else...]

My name is Okita Souji. I'll put tea on for you now, so please take a seat. [He motions to the sofa with its pillows both on and off the cushions.]

[Okita Souji. That earns the other man a sharp look, very quickly masked by Kenshin's usual pleasant smile.

He doesn't look quite like the Okita Kenshin remember, and seems quite lively for a man dead over ten years.

But in a strange country where everyone has wings? Maybe anything's possible.]

Oro? Okita Souji, like the Shinsengumi Captain?

[That look is all he needs to see to know that this man isn't from the far off future, but one where they could have crossed paths. It wasn't often that he met someone who survived him, but when he did, it usually ended with someone dying. Even if Kenshin masks his recognition with pleasantry, Okita is on alert and waiting for the first indication that he might attack.]

We share a name, yes. Did you read about him in history books?

Something like that. The Shinsengumi are very famous, you know! So very well admired. This one really respects the stories of their skill!

[Diffuse the situation. After all, there's no indication at all that this is Okita Souji; not the one of Kenshin's memories. Kenshin accepts the tea and sips, asking questions about Luceti all the while.]

...and this truly is another world? It seems almost unbelievable.

I've heard they weren't very well liked at all. [He steps back as Kenshin takes the tea, putting his hands behind his back. With his hands out of sight, he motions to Saizou to stay in the kitchen. The pig pokes its head out, sees the hand motion and slinks back.]

More that they were ruffians and no better than the criminals they went after. Like a loose pack of wolves.

[nope, you do not get away from this, Kenshin.]

[Okita hides his hands, but Kenshin takes a different track; he makes sure that his hands are in view at all times. He never stops smiling politely.]

Oro? Well, it's been more than ten years. Memories do tend to soften with age. Stories of the Shinsengumi are quite popular in Tokyo, where this one is from.

[Ten years. Memories. Tokyo.

Souji counts back from what he knows of Japanese history after he dies and up to when he's learned they change the name from Edo to Tokyo and...

Okay, yup, now he is definitely on alert, Kenshin.]

That would explain why you speak in such an old-fashioned way. It's very unusual. For someone from the future.

The future?

Yes, you're from a time when Edo is called Tokyo, aren't you? But not so far if you say ten years is a long time for memories.

You knew them, didn't you - the Shinsengumi.

001 [action; voice]

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