Qualms of the Passioned and Dispassioned

As Nami stepped out of the portal's exit, she, her eldest daughter, and husband took in their surroundings; a fairly large island seeming to combine as many geographies as possible. They stood at the top of a mountain overlooking it all. Beaches became grasslands which eventually turned into arid deserts which soon formed into more mountains that surrounded the main one they stood on. Water stretched all the way to the horizon. Behind them stood a 2-story house designed as something of a modern version of a traditional Japanese pagoda. The air was somewhat chilly but it wasn't unbearably so; a cool breeze would be the best way to describe it.

"Well.... don't we get a nice view?"

That was the first comment to come out of Nami's mouth. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Shiro step out of the portal, taking a brief look at the surroundings before stepping aside to allow Ryuzaki to step in as well.

"It looks kind of boring."

Mitsune was examining her surroundings, looking for something interesting she could do with her spare time while she was here. She saw nothing. There was no city, and no people, which would mean no hollows, which would mean no hunting. She didn't know if it was possible to travel back to the human world via garganta. Even if it was, she didn't know how to make one herself, so that option was probably out of the question...

Ryuzaki fully exited the portal as Mitsune finished speaking. With a shrug he explained, "There aren't any other people here, so if you want something to do other than explore, I'll give you a way out later if your parents don't mind." He said the last because he knew how protective Nori could be after seeing how little pain tolerance Mitsune possessed. It would be best not to rile him up by possibly giving her a way to run away.

"...."

Nami looked over with a skeptical raise of the eyebrow at the man clinging to her like a toy. His head was buried in her shoulder, avoiding all visual contact with the environment. She rolled his eyes. "Well, I suppose Hime ain't saying much to object, is he?" She remarked dryly. "I'll be in the house...." With that, she decided to bend over, scoop Nori up in her arms, and carry him bridal-style. A sigh escaped her lips. "Really making me feel like I have a dick right now, y'know?"

"Oh, shut up..." Nori groaned. He layed his head against his wife's arm. "This is unecessary, you know. I'm capable of walking, and don't need to be humiliated like this in front of our host." He glanced over to Ryuzaki. He knew that he wasn't the strongest man alive, or the manliest, but he still cared to keep up appearances for people before they actually got to know him.

"And yet, you insist on hugging the shit outta my arm and looking like a teddy bear....." Nami drawled. "Clearly, you're enjoying every bit of this, aren't cha?"

"N-No! Shut up!"

"You are such a girl. If I had one, I'd just stuff in you in a dress, put ribbons in your hair and take you out to the ballroom for some dancing."

"Fffft, I can't remember the last time I got you in a dress; if you lost your tits and shaved your head, you would be the spitting image of a pissed old man."

"Old? Says the guy with liverspots on his forehead."

"Said the girl about five-hundred years older than me."

By this time, they were already at the couch. Nami promptly sat herself down, allowing Nori to rest on her lap. She folded her hands behind her head, looking down onto him. "....five hundred years older, hm?" She remarked, raising an eyebrow and smirking. "And yet, I'm not the one worried about growing old.... and really...." She tilted her head to the side. "I really don't see why you bother to complain about that. After all, I can still fuck--" She emphasized this word with a taunting hiss. "--you senseless."

This turned Nori's face a bright red. "Yeah, well... Considering you're the only one I've ever had, it's not like I've got much to compare you to. Besides, you don't fuck me senseless, you just fuck me."

"Is that why you...."

And so the argument went inside the house. It was probably going to go on for a while, considering how stubborn the two were when it came to arguments such as this. Outside, Shiro could hear them faintly, but didn't care too much about the words. Instead, she simply walked over to the outside wall of the house, slid down into a sitting position, and placed her arms onto her knees. Then, she rested her head on her arms, completing a rather dejected position.

She had just remembered that she left her cello behind.

Ryuzaki noticed this and moved to squat down next to her. Calmly he asked, "You don't seem the type to mope for no reason at all; leave something behind?"

"...." Shiro didn't respond to him. Though so far what he was doing to them was helping them, he wasn't family, someone she could trust right off the bat. She turned her head away from him, hair shadowing her eyes.

Ryuzaki sighed, trust would come, for now he would have to use other methods. Noticing her slightly callused left hand, Ryuzaki deftly grabbed it for a mere second before releasing. The grip was strong but gentle. His eyes flowed with power before fading and his expression lightened in understanding and he stood up and stepped back slightly. "Should have guessed you were a musician," he commented thoughtfully. Slowly as if from dust a cello exactly like Shiro's old one began to materialize in a standing position held up by Ryuzaki's right arm. In his left a slider stick appeared like her old one as well.

"...!!!"

Immediately, Shiro jerked her eyes towards it, the man now having her full attention. Slowly, she stood up, eying the cello with what seemed like shock. Though her expression was blank, her eyes were widened considerably. "....how did you know....?" She asked quietly, taking a few hesitant steps forward towards him.

Ryuzaki switched the hands he was hold the cello with and played the first bit of Return Game with skill about the same as Shiro's; it had been the same song Shiro had played for her family earlier in the day. Then he explained flatly, "I can see the pasts of things I touch, and absorb any skills that come with them."

At that moment, Shiro was almost tempted to smile. Although he had copied her own skill, she had never expected it to sound as good as the original. Her hands twitched, and for a moment, she was hesitant in her actions and what she would speak next. "I.... am capable of playing more than that simple piece.... can I.... show you?" She didn't move her hands any further, but they were positioned in a manner that indicated she wanted to take the cello and stick from his hands in order to show him.

Ryuzaki said nothing more and handed the instrument to her. He had seen the volumes of passion exhibited in her past. There was no sense denying the passion of the mainly dispassioned. Besides, he loved good music.

Grasping the instruments in their respective hands, Shiro immediately set to work.

Once she put the stick to the strings, it was as if everything had silenced itself just to listen. At first glance, it looked as if the hand operating the strings was at an awkward angle, fingers bent and moving at what appeared to be inhuman positions at a quick speed. However, in this unusual fashion, she was playing more than one note at a time. She had her eyes closed, eyebrows furrowed, and a concentrated frown on her face. Her tones were aggressive this time around, but placed in a manner that had it rightfully so and to the most beautiful effect.

She was playing half of the song Domination from Apocalyptica, her notes accurate and precise as she worked the cello, stopping once she reached the repeat of the intro.

Ryuzaki felt that it was best to leave a respectful silence and so he nodded his respect and admiration at the performance.

There was a slight whistling noise as a rock careened towards Shiro at high speeds. Mitsune had put nearly all of her strength into the throw, and it had produced a stone flying fast enough to punch through a car door. It wasn't aimed perfectly at the girl. It was aimed at the Cello; it's objective was to stop Shiro's playing, even though she had already done so.

Ryuzaki noticed the sound of the thrown rock and instinctively reached out and caught it out of the air. He sighed inwardly; the two would likely be death of each other if they kept this up. He flipped the projectile around in his hands before tossing it to the side. He said nothing as he waited to see how Shiro would react.

Had Ryuzaki not interfered, Shiro would've taken matters into her own hands, dropped the cello, and respond - by punching Mitsune in the face several times until she couldn't lift up a finger to flick a stone in her direction.

However, thanks to him, all was peaceful. She lifted her head up slowly to stare at Mitsune for a moment, eyes blank and half-lidded. She simply remained silent, keeping the stare onto Mitsune and waiting for her to react. What would she do? Disregard the fact that Ryuzaki was there and continue on as she always was, or allow his presence to interfere?

The young girl's eye twitched with annoyance. Who was this stranger to interfere with family matters? He knew nothing of their past, of their quarrel, and yet he had interrupted their affairs in such a non-chalant way. It agitated Mitsune to no end. However, she knew better than to pick fights with people much stronger than she was.

"So, do you live here, stranger?" She asked the man slowly, as if she had never thrown the rock at all.

Ryuzaki decided to put behind what had happened for the time being; prying wouldn't do him any good here and he hadn't gotten the whole story from just Shiro's hand. "When I'm not travelling, yeah."

"What do you do for fun? Place seems pretty dull to me." As if for emphasis, Mitsune plopped on the ground and propped her chin on her hand. "You don't mind us leeching off of you like this?"

"Music, video games, reading, exploring, and so on. And of course it's pretty dull right now; haven't finished it yet," Ryuzaki answered simply.

"... What do you mean, you haven't finished it yet...?"

Ryuzaki shrugged nonchalantly, "I created this world from scratch and add onto it whenever I have some spare power."

Mitsune shook her head. "That shouldn't even be fucking possible. Would there be a way out of here, without your permission? You could literally just rip open a giant portal here and imprison all the bad people in the universe without any worries of them escaping."

Ryuzaki again shrugged nonchalantly, "I did base the entrance on a key of my design, but any lock can be broken into with time." He pulled out the pendant he had used to open the portal and explained, "This pendant, which I can make at my leisure, opens the way; someone would eventually figure out how to reproduce it and every single person would escape and then every single world would be stuck fighting an army of convicts. Probably best not to make this place a prison, and I don't have the time or energy to make a seperate world for each guy."

"Well... just don't assume we're all your subjects just because we're living here." Mitsune was staring at the man with slight interesting. She was more interested in finding something to do, but at the moment the man was entertaining her.

Ryuzaki knew the look he was getting and so tossed her a pendant like the one around his neck and waved her away, "Just don't be gone long enough that your parents start worrying."

!

The girl immediately perked up. Smiling gleefully, she snatched the pendant out of the air, and gave a reassuring nod to Ryuzaki in exchange. "Don't worry, I'll be back soon enough. If my parents ask, tell them I went exploring in the forest over there~!"

And, just like that, Mitsune left, opening a portal and then closing it before anybody could do anything else.

"....she's always the naive one...."

As soon as Mitsune fell out of earshot, Shiro spoke up. "I suppose this just proves the people never change." She said in an apathetic, but cold tone. "Maybe if I'm lucky, she'll kill herself by accident...." However, she immediately shook her head. "No. That's just false hope. The only way noise gets turned off is if someone actually flips the switch."

Ryuzaki shrugged, dispassionately observing the situation, "She could use some control, but that takes time and training."

"And I doubt anyone has the patience to give such things...."

Ryuzaki chuckled slightly, "You never know."

"....I'll be inside." With nothing to say to Ryuzaki's remark, Shiro turned her back onto him for a moment. "And.... thank you for listening to me. Do you want your cello back?"

Ryuzaki waved his hand lazily as if to bade her away, "Your passion, your instrument."

That immediately made Shiro freeze in her tracks. She abruptly turned around to face him once more, but spoke no words. Instead, she gave a curtsy in appreciation for the gift that he had given onto her. With that, she turned back around and headed back into the house in order to put the instrument away.

Ryuzaki couldn't help but laugh a little once Shiro was gone at the highly old and formal gesture. Then he himself entered the house to see how Nori and Nami's arguement was going.

"....the facts, Hime. We both know that you just love to be my little--"

However, Nami immediately cut herself off at the door opening once more. She snapped her head to attention, only to relax her neck at the sight of Ryuzaki. "Oh...." She muttered, turning her gaze away from him in a disinterested manner. "It's just you...."