2026-03-09: Three Guardians
- Log: Three Guardians
- Cast: Hyousuke Suzuki, Aigis
- Where: Naganaki Shrine
- OOC Date: March 09, 2026
- IC Date: October 07, 2012
- Summary: After the events at Morimoto Sanitarium, Hyousuke goes to Naganaki Shrine to clear his head and is shortly joined by Aigis taking Koromaru on a walk. While the dog makes his rounds, the human and robot share their thoughts on why they, too, must protect those dear to them.
(|============================= Naganaki Shrine ==============================|)
-================================================== Iwatodai City/Iwatodai ====-
Naganaki Shrine is a piece of tradition in the middle of the city. Long stairs
lead up to a stone-pathed pavilion lined with sacred trees; immediately to one's
left is a children's playground, with slide, see-saw and a jungle gym. The first
part of the shrine proper is the cleansing area, where one washes out one's
mouth and hands in order to respectfully meet the Gods. This done, one may
approach the shrine.
Two lion-dogs fiercely guard the monetary offering booth, where many a student
has come praying for academic success. Off to the side, one may receive a
relationship fortune and tie it off, in hopes of growing closer to a special
someone. To the other side of the shrine are red pillars which lead one to the
/Inari/ Shrine, another place for prayer. One may receive items, here, if items
are sacrificed in turn. Beside the Inari Shrine is a great sacred tree,
protected behind a fence and by a series of tags tied about it from a holy rope;
a sign beside it describes the history of this place, going into the sacred tree
and the Shrine's deity.
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Autumn encroached upon the land, and with it came a steady change in the weather. Leaves began to turn, winds grew from gentle and meandering breezes to stiffer gusts, and the temperature ticked ever downwards, day by day. Yet, even with summer's last gasps becoming quieter by the day, the weather was pleasant, and Hyousuke sought to make the most of it. That morning, after his usual routine, he had reached for clothes suitable for hiking, but stopped upon seeing the bandages and plasters clinging to various parts of his body. Patches of white and brown formed uneven patches across him, and though they had been applied by a practised hand, their presence was a reminder that to stress the wounds unduly would only have made them linger.
He deliberated for what felt like an age. He was desperate for air, and peace, and a chance to clear his mind of everything but trudging across soil and underbrush. He clung to the shirt hanging loosely in the dorm's cheap wardrobe, creasing the sleeve as frustration at his own body wracked his mind. Then, he released it, and sighed. He would have to settle for something lesser. But what was nearby? If a trek up a steep hill was not in order, and more urban areas did not provide the ambience he required, where else was available?
So it was that Hyousuke found himself taking the first train he could away from Hirasaka, plotting the route to Naganaki Shrine in his head before he'd even stepped past the doors. Some few people cast glances his way upon catching sight of the injuries peeking past the cuffs and collar of his longsleeve shirt, but none thought to let their gazes linger, whether out of politeness, disapproval, or simple apathy. The reason mattered little to him. As long as they left him alone and granted him a quiet moment, they could think what they wanted.
He found himself at the shrine before long. The motions were performed slowly, partly out of ingrained reverence for the ritual, partly because he struggled to remember exactly what they were, and partly to account for whatever aches Kurou's earlier assault had left lingering in his muscles. He supposed it was fine. There was nobody around to judge him, save for whatever deities resided in and around the shrine, and they would just have to make their peace with it. With the usual rituals finished, Hyousuke dragged himself over to a nearby seat, and exhaled while looking towards the middle distance. His eyes focussed on nothing, and his mind began to stir. He was there to reflect, after all, not to sightsee.
It would not have been hard to sneak up on him while he was caught in that reverie.
<Pose Tracker> Aigis has posed.
Regardless of the turning of the seasons, Aigis is a being of routine. On most other days, with little variation, her schedule goes something like this:
Walk to school. Attend school during the daytime. Club activities after. Walk back to the dorm. Study for at least three hours. Recreational activities for three hours, if time allows for it. Patrol Iwatodai during the Dark Hour. Alternately, traverse Tartarus with the rest of SEES. Return to the dorm to recharge.
Sundays are more of an open question which she still hasn't found a reliable answer for. School provides her with structure for the daytime, and she otherwise flounders without it. Normally, there are other SEES members around to socialize with, but as she steps down the stairs to the common area, her sensors indicate that everyone else seems to be occupied today.
"Arf!"
Well, all of the humans, at least.
Aigis swivels her head in Koromaru's direction and pivots on her heels before she kneels down to observe him more closely. Koromaru barks again and lolls his tongue out at Aigis, and his tail wags rapidly.
"I see," the android responds. "No one has taken you out for a walk today, have they?" She stands up and smooths the front of her dress, then nods at Koromaru. "I shall accompany you to the shrine, then."
A short stroll later, after the pair make their way up the stairs to the park outside of the shrine, Koromaru bounds over to the open area opposite of the road. Aigis scans the area for a place to sit as she watches over the dog -- and in doing so, she finds a familiar face.
In the dress she's wearing -- seafoam blue with long sleeves and white lace, enough layers for the winter, despite how it's only just turned to autumn -- her robotic nature is relatively more concealed than how she had appeared the last time Hyousuke had seen her at Tartarus. There are other telltale signs: her finger joints, the rivets on her neck, the mechanisms which only seem like headphones. She gives him a bow and pleasantly announces her presence. "Hello, Suzuki-san. It is a surprise to see you here."
After a brief pause, she smiles and adds, "Shortly after our last meeting, I informed Kumamoto-san that you had been concerned about her."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke registered footsteps, somewhere in the back of his mind, but they were only sounds. So preoccupied was he with his own thoughts that he did not manage to connect the dots and realise the steps had been coming towards him. Only when he heard Aigis speak did he snap out of his reverie, but even then, he moved slowly. Like some old machine made to creak to life after a lengthy slumber, he moved his head around to face her gradually, blinking a few times to try and instil something approaching focus.
"Aigis-san, wasn't it? It's been a while. I'm just here for a change of scenery. Needed some air, and Hirasaka was getting kinda cramped." He said back, greeting her with a faint smile and a short, courteous, nod. He could afford that much. For all the damage he'd sustained, Hyousuke had at least been spared anything more than glancing blows to his neck, and had enough energy to manage that polite gesture. It quickly turned to a wide-eyed jolt when she informed him of what actions she'd taken since they'd last spoken to each other. He almost choked on his own breath, and it was only after a second or two that he managed to catch himself - more than enough for someone to notice him starting.
"You told Kit-sa-" Hyousuke cut himself off halfway through realising he'd defaulted to using the nickname, and began again. "You told her about that?" It was hard to tell if he seemed surprised, sheepish, or both. His expression seemed to fall somewhere in the middle, unable to fully commit to one or the other. All the while, he considered his options in regards to answering, and what kind of response would embarrass him less. His mouth, however, moved faster than his mind. "She didn't say anything about it when you told her, did she?"
Realising that asking if she'd spoken about him could also turn out to put him in an awkward position, he shook his head.
"Forget it, it's nothing." He sighed, a little embarrassed by his own inability to control his speech, as well as being caught out for such a shameful thing as worrying over a friend. There was a brief lull, and in it, Hyousuke's mind began to whirr. He'd already been caught out - what harm could a little more do? Especially if he tried to act casual about it. "...Do you know if she's doing alright though? Her and her friend, I mean. The one with the ponytail. They both took some pretty nasty hits the other night."
Aigis knew Moriko, and Moriko knew Minako. He assumed, therefore, that Aigis was at least vaguely aware of Minako's existence. The fact that he - bandaged, plastered up, and bruised all over - seemed to have taken his fair share of damage seemed to either be ignored summarily, or have escaped him entirely.
"Anyway, what're you doing out here?" He looked down at Kuromaru, and - as if on instinct - held his hand out for the goodest boy in Gekkoukan to sniff. "Taking your friend out for a walk?"
<Pose Tracker> Aigis has posed.
A couple of months ago, she must have seemed to be in a similar state to Hyousuke. She's been that long-dormant machine.
> It is now safe to turn off your robot.
"You needed some air?" Aigis tilts her head in curiosity. "Has the smog gotten bad in Hirasaka? Or perhaps a high pollen count." The idiom, it seems, is lost on her.
'Kit-sa-' likely means 'Kit-san', had Hyousuke not cut himself off. From context, that must be a nickname for Moriko, whom, according to protocol, she must refer to as Kumamoto-chan for politeness' sake.
> Default honorific: '-san'. > Moriko Kumamoto: Active override in place due to user request: '-chan'.
Yes, all this may be obvious without even a passing thought to the sequence she took to get there, but she doesn't get the benefit of a biological autonomic nervous system. Bit by bit, byte by byte, every link in her chain of logic requires painstakingly deliberate motion and conscious effort to assemble.
The nuance of whatever situation there is between Hyousuke and Moriko escapes her notice entirely. Aigis almost answers 'she asserted that she was fine,' but Hyousuke rescinds his request. "Understood."
Aigis' awareness of Minako is more than 'at least vaguely,' substantially so. Her face clouds darkly and she casts her gaze downwards. She laces her fingers together in front of her and tersely replies, "You must mean Arisato-chan. I am led to believe that they will both be fine shortly, but I am still waiting to hear more."
Oh. Right. They went to Sumaru City, too. Given Hyousuke's condition ... "I comprehend. You were present for the recent event. You do not literally need air, but wish to create some distance between yourself and what transpired."
As he hears Aigis approach Hyousuke, Koromaru circles back around to sniff his hand. New friend! The dog bounds off again to make his rounds through the shrine and the surrounding area. 2 o'clock, and all's well!
Aigis nods and briefly glances back at Koromaru as she confirms, "In addition to 'killing time,' as they say, precisely that. He used to protect these grounds full time, and he still wishes to do so even after his previous owner's passing." She returns her attention to Hyousuke and gestures to the bench as she offers, "May I have a seat beside you while he patrols?"
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke gave Aigis a quizzical expression, blinking once as the hamster wheel squeaked behind his eyes from the strain. Was it a joke? She'd not said it in the tone that was usually attached to one, as far as he knew. Or perhaps it was dry humour, and the delivery was part of it. In the end, and after a somewhat awkward beat, he chose to believe she had asked the question genuinely.
"It's one of them figures of speech." He said, speaking a little slowly, as if unsure of whether that was even the correct term. Before he could explain further, however, the conversation shifted.
Despite all of the complex trains of thought and branching paths the human mind could go through, none of it applied when Hyousuke chanced to see Aigis's reaction to the news of Sumaru's aftermath. He frowned abruptly, feeling that he had said something he should not have, though it was suppressed just enough that he could play it off as simply empathising with her. The last thing he needed was to make the situation more tense by introducing his own discomfort, after all. He did not, however, disguise the disappointment he felt when Kuromaru wandered off to make the rounds. He had seen a cool stick earlier, and had hoped that his new dogfriend would appreciate them in the same way as Lance.
Hyousuke smiled a little at Aigis explaining Kuromaru's behaviour. He was still a little disappointed at not being able to pet the dog more, but supposed that there was at least a good reason for it.
"Looks like he's pretty serious about it." He remarked, his gaze following Kuromaru for a little while, before drifting back towards Aigis. "He must've loved his old owner a lot, if he's still doing it now."
Then, the seat.
"Huh? Oh, sure, go for it." Hyousuke blinked suddenly, only just realising that he'd been sitting in an awkward spot, and shuffled to the side until there was enough room for two. He didn't wait for her to sit before he began speaking, but instead continued at a slow and measured pace, forcing his voice to sound as relaxed as possible while he continued the conversation. His gaze, meanwhile, returned to the middle distance. He looked towards it, but did not see it - his mind's eye projected a different vision. "Yeah, I was at Sumaru. A bunch of other people were there too. Then the Joker Killer and some other weirdos showed up, and..."
And what? What was he supposed to say to someone that was still more or less a stranger? A friend of a friend, yes, but what was he supposed to offer her beyond a surface-level description of what happened? Perhaps a confirmation of her supposition on why he was there? It seemed a good start.
"...And I just wanted a little while to get my head straight before I go out hunting for him again."
<Pose Tracker> Aigis has posed.
Hyousuke has chosen ... correctly. Aigis is often unfailingly sincere, and was so here. "I see. Thank you for the clarification."
More gently, in stark contrast to her strained response, Aigis corrects herself. "If it is any reassurance, given everything that I can discern, Arisato-chan must be alright."
Aigis again glances back at Koromaru. "He certainly is, and he certainly did. I can understand how he feels, to some extent."
After their passing, will she, too, haunt the site of who she protects today?
With a wordless bow, Aigis takes the offered seat. "I am familiar with the surface details. I was undergoing repairs -- I regret that I could not be present, but it is necessary for my continued function."
She assesses his physical state again to make sure she heard that right. She is exceedingly literal, once again. "Only your head? You have a number of other injuries."
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
"You should speak to your friends if you want the details on it." Hyousuke said offhandedly. He inclined his head towards her a little, and at first glance, it seemed like he was looking at her. But there was distance to his eyes, and a strain to his smile. It was like his face was just a mask, and he could only stare out of it while hoping it would hold. "It sounded like they had a better idea of what was going on over there. There was a lot going on, and I lost focus a little."
He chuckled awkwardly at the remark, and hoped that Aigis didn't dig too deeply. The last thing he needed was for her to know what plagued his mind upon seeing the bloody massacre at the sanitarium, how he'd almost lost himself to a fit of blind rage at the very sight of Kurou, and how he'd recklessly thrown himself against his foes as if his very body was nothing more than a battering ram. At the very least, it seemed to him that she was more concerned with the physical than the mental, and he shook his head in response to her observation.
"Huh? Oh, I meant more like... organising my thoughts." Hyousuke struggled to put the concept into words. He spoke slowly, and almost tripped over his own words, but he managed to get there in the end. "Don't worry, all this is just flesh wounds. I'll be back out there in a few days. A week tops." His state of mind was a little more difficult to judge. There was still a distant gaze, a smile he had to force a little, and images he could not clear from his mind no matter how hard he tried.
There was a quiet pause as he trailed off, and Hyousuke looked back at the shrine. He couldn't see Kuromaru from there, but even so, imagined him sitting by and guarding it - a guarding hound, keeping vigil on that which it held dear, come rain or shine.
"...Guessing you've got something you want to protect too?" He asked. His tone was softer that time, a mirror to the breeze that drifted between them.
<Pose Tracker> Aigis has posed.
Aigis nods in perceived understanding. "I often find myself in a similar position. Even if I am present for a situation, I sometimes miss the complexities of it until after the fact." She narrows her eyes. "Palaces, for instance ... I first thought they were no different than Tartarus. I did not comprehend that they are more ... how do I put this? -- Individually tailored."
Not quite the same thing, Aigis.
"Oh. Analogous to 'defragmenting', perhaps." Aigis regards him further. With skepticism, she adds, "Are you certain that you will only require a week to fully physically recover? Let alone mentally or emotionally. You are more vulnerable than I am in those respects, but I still undergo the full extent of proper maintenance when I require it." She lowers her head and warmly advises, "If I am damaged beyond repair, then I am of no use to anyone."
"'Want' has nothing to do with it. I have people whom I must protect." Aigis slightly turns her head away. "You are aware of my nature. I was designed with an explicit purpose in mind, and I follow that to the exact specification."
Koromaru comes happily bounding back and drops something at Hyousuke's feet before looking up at him expectantly. "Arf!" Wag wag wag wag. He's brought him a ball, previously well chewed-on and loved. Aigis translates: "You are fortunate. It appears that he is done with his patrol and would like to play with you."
... translates?
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke wasn't certain that her summation of Palaces was quite correct, but did not know enough about them to refute it with any reasonable degree of confidence. Instead, he nodded thoughtfully, as if he had come to some quiet revelation, or wished to agree in some silent way. He did the same for defragmenting, though that was more a matter of pretending as though he knew what she was talking about. He had not heard the word before - not in any context that made sense to him, at least - but he hadn't the presence of mind to quiz her over what was no doubt something beyond the understanding of a blunt instrument.
"I'll recover enough to do the job. I've got people counting me, and I can't let them down." Hyousuke eventually said. A sad hint of empathy, like the first cold winds of autumn, began to creep into his voice, and began to weigh down the corners of his already-strained smile. "Besides, I'm tougher than I look. It's gonna take more than this and some weirdo wearing a paper bag to keep me down." His hand - just for the faintest hint of a heartbeat - tensed around the ball while he picked it up, and turned it over in his grasp.
He did not look at Aigis as he spoke, but for once, it was not due to any difficulty, or something plaguing his thoughts. Rather, it was because Kuromaru demanded his attention, and he was honourbound to give it. One hand took the ball - soggy though it might have been - while the other scritched and scratched at all the spots around his face that Hyousuke was sure were hard to reach.
"But I think we've both got a different kind of job to do right now. I don't know if I can keep up with him like this - you mind helping out?"
He looked at Aigis expectantly, the ball held loosely in his palm.
<Pose Tracker> Aigis has posed.
If it helps, Aigis isn't even sure if her own summation of Palaces is correct.
She looks at him with no small amount of concern. "Which people, if I may ask? If I have the spare capacity to do so, then I will endeavor to share your burden."
At his insistence that he's tougher than he looks, Aigis bluntly states, "Prior to when we met in Tartarus, the entire left side of my torso and limbs were crushed beyond all recognition, rendered completely inoperable. I only require replacement parts and technical expertise. You require time and care for your injuries. Even with all of my advantages, it is important that I respect the full danger that our adversaries are capable of."
Thankfully, Koromaru is here with a distraction as he lightly nudges Aigis on the leg. Aigis nods. "I concur. This, too, is a burden I will endeavor to share with you. Shall you go first?"
And so, the three loyal protectors all spent some time playing fetch with the ball from their spot on the bench.