Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Shinra, your meeting with “the mushi master man” will take place in 30 minutes,” a serene female voice called through the high walls of the house.
“Remember to brush your teeth. Change out of your pajamas. Comb your-”

“Ok, I got it Chika!” Responded the slightly peeved voice of a young boy. He was spread out on a chair on his porch, his focus on the frankly boring school work he had been trying to finish before the mushi master arrived. Perhaps his focus had shifted to all the birds flying and squawking in the woods of his home, and the voice of his caretaker jolted him from his thoughts. Shinra shuffled around the house, hurriedly brushing his teeth and hair while the little beeping floor cleaning bot waited expectantly for him to move. And he was 5 minutes before his scheduled time, finishing with a proud smile. The boy sat on his porch, absentmindedly doodling on his homework. The shape of the bird he drew was quite detailed for someone his age. He added swift strokes to highlight the feathers of the wings, slanted his pencil on the side to apply shading. It was so good it could almost come to life, he thought rather proudly for a moment. Oh wait…

“Wait no!” He cried as the pen drawn bird began to peel from the corner of his paper. Shinra could never seem to remember to not draw with his left hand, especially when the doodles were mindless. Perhaps it was for the best that this mushi master saw him despite his grandmother's warning.

“Hey, come back here! Who gave you permission to leave?”
The ink bird, being a mere ink bird, ignored him and flapped away through the thick green forest. Shinra watched it disappear behind the trunks with dismay before rushing back into the home.
“Chika, where’s the net?”

-------
While the ink bird flew out of sight of its artist, it flew right into the space of the approaching mushi master. Ginko had been walking up the trail that was said to lead to his newest client's home. He had to appreciate the beautiful forest of tall pines, flowering bushes, and twisting ivy that surrounded his home, even if the path was not very well kept. When the trees began to thin out, Ginko could see the shape of the house in front of him, and even hear a child speaking loudly. Then an oddly shaped… thing... flew towards him. Ginko squinted at it as it buzzed around his head, flitting and jerking strangely like a bug with a broken wing
What is this thing? Hand reaching up slowly, he grabbed at it a few times before catching it.
Got it! His hand was smeared with long black streaks now… What?

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“Come back bird!” Shinra had grabbed his net and was following the bird to catch it, but halted when he saw a person outside. There on the edge of his backyard, a tall man with bright white hair was staring at his hand with a puzzled frown on his face. He looked up at Shinra.

“Hello. You must be Ioroi Shinra,” the man said, wiping his hand on his khaki pants.

“I’m Ginko. You requested an appointment after I contacted you?

“Oh yes um. Please, come sit,” Shinra nodded, not hiding his net behind his back very well.

---------
“So the rumors are true then? The things you draw really do come to life?” Ginko cut straight to the point, raising his ink stained hand and pant leg as proof. Shinra nodded sheepishly at the sight of his sloppy bird on him.

“Yes. But only when I draw or write kanji with my left hand,” he explained, picking up his pen to show Ginko. He leaned closer and watched the boy draw the kanji for a bird with his left hand. The character sat on the paper unassumingly before it began to quiver. It shook and peeled itself off the page like it was breaking free, twisting around before flapping in the same odd manner of the bird that had come at ginko.

“That’s amazing!” Ginko said “How did you gain that ability?

“Shinra does not wish to be investigated,” a female voice replied sternly, causing Ginko to nearly jump out of his skin. He had not been expecting a white humanoid bot to roll into the room. It’s big digital eyes and rounded body gave it a very gentle look, although the voice betrayed this statement.

“Oh that’s my homecare bot, Chika. Say hi, Chika,”

“Greetings Ginko-san,” the bot said pleasantly, tipping forward in a greeting bow.

“You live all by yourself?” Ginko asked, growing a bit concerned. Is that even legal?
Shinra shrugged.

“I am fully certified to attend to children in emergency situations!” Chika informed him brightly.

“Are you carrying any weapons or hidden surveillance devices on your person?”

“No -hey, why is she scanning me?”
Shinra frowned and waved the care bot away from them

“Chika is watching me until my aunt moves in in a week,” he mumbled.
“And she’s right- my grandma didn’t want me to be investigated for some reason,” he was drawing mindless scribbles all over his already cluttered paper, a sad tone to his voice.

“Oh. Why is that?” Ginko tried again. The withdrawn attitude Shinra had now was far different than his previous acceptance of Ginko’s request to see his ability.

“Well…before she… my grandma told me not to let people know about my ability. She said it was too dangerous, and that it wasn’t my place to act as a god in this world,” he said, repeating his grandmother's words nearly verbatim. It was almost 6 months ago by now, and tears still pricked at the corner of his eyes thinking of his grandmother.

She was simply old, and her heart was failing - nothing more than that, he tried to reason. After all, it was like she’d said, laying in her bedroom with her wrinkled hand gripping Shinra’s own soft hand. Her raspy voice was so weak, and hard to hear and Shinra’s own sniffling.

"All things are bound by the rules of the heavens Shinra. That is why I must go, and this is why you must control your abilities."

She took a strained, weak breath that made Shinra’s own heart throb.
"Do not let any one of those mushi masters, or journalists, or police, or anyone learn too much about this Shinra. This is not for them to know. Promise me that!"
Shinra had not been expecting this to be one of the last things she said to him.

“I guess it made sense. She was always saying stuff like that,” he began to talk faster, a small part of him relieved to have someone other than Chika or one of his childish classmates to spill his feelings out to.

“She told me the mushi I see are demonic, perverted creatures and that I should just ignore anything I may see..but I don’t get it.” He put his pen down and looked up at Ginko across the table.

“Why did she hate the things I saw when they never did anything wrong?” he finished, the frustration clear in his voice.

Ginko had heard this one from people before, many times from clients.

“How old was your grandmother?” He asked. Shinra seemed a bit peeved at this, but responded, “75 I think,”

Ginko nodded and bit his soft necklace thoughtfully as he considered the situation, what to say to a clearly distressed client so young.
“Many people who were not born being able to see mushi only have experience with the mutated forms introduced several decades ago, before you or even I were born. It is likely that your grandmother only has seen these, and was worried for your safety,” he explained.

Even as they spoke, a few worm shaped mushi were floating around the bases of the trees, faintly shimmering in the setting sunlight. Shinra hadn’t thought of this much but it did make sense. All he knew about the mutated mushi was that they were used in warfare several decades ago. But anytime the subject of mushi, or his ability was brought up, his grandmother grew unusually upset and shut it down quickly.

“But ..what are mushi then?” he blurted out. He’d never met anyone other than Ginko who openly talked about mushi, both natural and mutated, without a tone of fear, or resentment in their words. Even Chika managed to dance around the subject. Teachers at school reprimanded students like himself who mentioned the creatures. And now it was like a walking mushi search engine had made its way to his front steps

“Well, think of them like this,” Ginko held out his palm, hoping this would be understandable to a child as well. He found that this explanation made the most sense to people who did not understand what the mushi were, rather than the highly detailed definition he could also provide. It was an added bonus that his own veins were very visible.

“Imagine that this hand represents all living creatures. All four of these fingers are animal life,” he wiggled his index, middle, ring and little finger. “And the thumb is plant life. Human beings would be right here, at the tip of his middle finger, the farthest away from your heart.”
Shinra nodded eagerly as Ginko continued.

“If you travel further up your fingers to your wrist, this is where your veins and arteries connect.”
Shinra didn’t really know the difference between arteries or veins, but he did notice how the pale blue lines in his palm met at the wrist.

“Are those the mushi?” He asked, practically gluing his eyes on Ginko’s wrist.
“Not quite,” Ginko chuckled. “More like fungi and bacteria. The mushi,” he led his other hand all the way up to his chest, past his shoulder over to the center of his chest where his heart beat.
“Are more like here. They are the purest form of life. The heart of all life if you will,” he finished.
Shinra blinked in confusion at this idea.

“But then why can’t we all see them?” He demanded. “Why couldn’t my grandma see them?”
Ginko tilted his head. “Well, the cause is still unknown for sure, but it is most likely a genetic mutation of the part of the brain that controls our sensory response, probably born out of response to exposure to mushi or the light vein and passed down to….”

Shinra was just gaping at him with a blank expression and he stopped himself from continuing.
“Nevermind that. We still don’t know for sure,”
“Oh.” The boy mumbled. But this didn't answer his deeper query.

“What you said earlier...that most people only saw the mutated forms of them. What are those then?”
Hmm. Even Ginko was still a bit stumped on that one to be honest. Most people did not get past the idea of mushi simply being living creatures.
“I am not quite sure. All I know is that a few..variations of those mushi were visible to even people who can’t see regular mushi. They were often used in malicious manners. To someone like your grandmother who couldn’t see the mushi that you and I see, it's understandable why she felt that way about them.”
This made perfect sense to Shinra, although it opened a whole new door of questions. How much about his grandmother’s life did he not know, and would now never know. He pelted Ginko with a seemingly endless stream of questions about mushi.

What does mutate mean?
How do you mutate a mushi if everyone can’t see them anyway?
How old are you?
What are those weird little mushi that dance on the floor called?
Can Chika see mushi?

While Ginko could not answer half of these questions with confidence, he had to admit he appreciated the open mindedness of a child. It was a nice welcome from the hushed whispering tones he heard when the word “mushi” was said in a non negative manner. Eventually Chika snuck up behind them to inform Shinra it was almost his bedtime, and that no, it did not matter that it was a Saturday.

It was already pretty late in the evening, and Chika had prepared a guest room for him since the nearest hotel was rather far. The house was quite impressive to Ginko. It was ultra modern, with sleek brown wood floors and paneling, and had almost fully automated appliances and a few little cleaning bots. After shifting through his belongings, scanning him, and even confiscating his multi-tool, Chika led him to the small guest home separate from the main home, connected by a traditional wood pathway and a nice bamboo garden around it. The room was small, with a calm dark brown and white minimal look. Before turning in for the night, Ginko pulled out his laptop. Disconnecting the display, he hooked it to the wall before beginning his required log for each client he took on.

A flash of movement out of the corner of his eye distracted him from finishing his log.
Weird...
It was probably nothing, although it reminded him of the weird flashes in the woods earlier.

-mushi and become more comfortable with his abilities. I do wonder if his grandmother or other relatives have any experience with mutated forms of mushi.

The same blurring streak of orange and a familiar tingle caught Ginko’s attention again. He really hoped it wasn’t a monkey, or a squirrel in the guest room- that would be uncomfortable to tell Shinra. But it didn’t feel as if it were an animal. It was more like the feeling of a person watching him…
Ginko stood up and slowly walked about the room, glancing under the bed and desk.

“Anybody in here?” It was worth a try. For all he knew there was probably a security camera trained on him. He was pretty sure Chika was right outside the room too.

“Up here, mushi master,” a child’s voice spat, and Ginko was surprised that it had actually worked. Head shooting up, his gaze landed on a strange sight. On the beamed ceiling, the hazy figure of a girl with short black hair in an orange and green flowered sundress glared down at Ginko.

“What are you doing here, just walking around like you own the place? Looking to create some new monsters?”
Ginko was a bit taken aback, not by her appearance- he had seen weirder things - but more the open hostility.

“Are you a mushi?” He asked.

“You’re rather nosy and suspicious for a mushi master!“

“And you’re rather cheeky for a mushi,” he replied. The girl huffed and materialized on the ceiling behind him again. Before Ginko could get a good look at her she seemed to disappear again, to his side this time.

“Leave my house now!”

“Your house? Big words for a mushi,”

“ Shinra doesn’t need your meddling!”

“Do you know Shinra?” Ginko interrupted, surprised by this a bit of information.

“That’s none of your business - what is that?” She demanded as Ginko pulled out a neatly labeled spray bottle. The aerosol like spray had a grassy scent to it and wrapped its cloudy tendrils briefly around the see-through girl,

“Ugh, what is this?! Some weird poison you carry?” She shrieked, tugging at the spray.

“Relax, its just to keep you still for a moment,” GInko sat down on the side of the bed, waiting for her to stop making a ruckus.

“You know Shinra. How?”

“Get out of my house you-” she slammed her fists onto the floor without a noise and something solid rolled out of her sweater pocket. Quickly she gasped, but Ginko was quicker and snatched it up.

“Now what is this?” He pondered, turning the smooth jade colored object in his hand. It seemed to be half of a flat wine cup, a deep forest green and beautifully made. Right down the middle, it was split in half. Ginko looked up at how the girls form wavered, as if she were a ghost.

“Give it back!” The mushi girl demanded. But Ginko was pretty sure he had formed a picture of the situation.
“I think I know what’s going on. You said this is your house, and you know Shinra,” He began, leaning forward seriously. The girl didn’t respond.

“And you’re quite a weak mushi with a broken wine cup? Where did you get this cup, and why do you still have it - Renzu?”
Renzu’s eyes went wide with shock. “How do you know my name?”

“Shinra mentioned you,” Ginko said. “That you passed away a few months ago,”
Renzu didn’t have a repsonse to that. It was true, to some extenet that she was dead…

“But you’re not fully dead, are you?” Ginko finished. Renzu waited to see what he would say.

“Why do you care? There’s nothing you need to do for us but leave!”
She watched as Ginko studied the cup for a few more moments. Finally he said,

“I’m not here to do anything you don’t agree to Renzu. But, if you want my help, I need to know exactly how you got this cup please.”

“...fine.”
She began her story.

The day was a bright one, with the clouds nowhere to be seen. Renzu was walking home from school on her usual path, past the schoolyard and surrounding town, to the long winding trail that led to her home. Her town was a medium one, but Renzu appreciated all the lush greenery that decorated it. This was one of the reasons she insisted to her parents that she be allowed to walk home, even in such tense times.

“Besides,” she’d said to them, “who would bother attacking our town? There’s nothing here but trees!”
She was halfway home and passing the weirdly smooth stones that led into the dense woods. She had never followed it out of fear of getting lost, but they always interested her. For such a wild forest, they looked so prim and proper...almost out of place. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a movement.
I should get going...

It would be unusual to see someone off the forest path. But insead, her head compelled her to look right in that direction. Renzu gazed into the forest until the movement appeared again, closer this time. It was a whitish blur, slowly making its way towards her.
Who’s there? Her voice said in her head, but she did not open her mouth. It did not take longer for several white draped figures to be walking straight towards her, silently. Finally the one in front halted. Its formless arm raised and beckoned Renzu.

Renzu blinked in a daze, but followed them anyway. The reasonable part of her told her to stop, that she shouldn’t be following strangely clothed figures into the woods. Who knew what they were? They could be cult members, or spies, or anything really. Yet the childish part of her was burning with curiosity at these figures. So her legs continued to move forward in a dreamlike trance. They swayed like people walking in their sleep, and Renzu realized their bodies were almost vibrating, like they were static, as they entered a clearing in the woods. The tall figures silently fanned out in a circle, allowing Renzu a spot between two of them. As they raised their arms, then slowly began to pass something small to each other. Renzu figured it was a cup of some sort, and when it finally reached her, she took it.

“It's empty,” she stated, glancing up at the ghost figures. Nobody moved, and she could see no one’s mouth move, yet there was a voice as clear as day in her head. As if someone was speaking into a headset connected to her brain.

“Ioroi Renzu.. One day you will have a grandson who will be born with incredible powers. We offer you this sake, for you must protect him. Please accept,” the voice spoje in a dreamy tone, neither male nor female, or in any accent Renzu recognized.

But that did not matter. What they told her sounded fine. The idea of having a grandson was not something Renzu had ever considered before, but now it was a thought that seemed to be obvious. The girl watched in pure awe as glowing gold liquid seemed to magically spring from the bottom of the smooth green wine cup. It glimmered so bright and so wonderfully that she did not hesitate to raise the cup and drink from it.

Renzu had never tasted something so delicious in her short life. Not ice cold water or mizu yokan on a hot summer day, nor thick hot chocolate sipped after playing in the snow would ever come close to this. The liquid made her whole body feel warm like the feeling of being hugged. She felt light as air, and was about to down the whole cup when a whoosh of cool air snapped her out of the reverie. The glaze over her eyes broke and Renzu gasped and dropped the cup as a rush of black starlings suddenly flew across the clearing.

“No, wait!” She cried, but the figures didn’t seem to hesitate before...vanishing. Their bodies simply dissolved into nothing, and before she knew it, Renzu was all alone in the clearing. Her senses, and her noticeably tired body hit her at once and she fell into the long grass with the broken wine cup the only evidence of what she had just witnessed.

“What you experienced those years ago was a mushi banquet’

“A...mushi banquet?”

“It's an event where mushi disguise themselves as human like figures to try and get a human to cross over into the muhsi world,”

“But why? Why me?”

“I’m not sure how or why they know this. But it seems like those birds interrupted your ceremony - that's why half of you is in the mushi world,” he gestured to her.

“Then my other half - Was it?…” Renzu stared at her hands, not fully there in her lap.

“Your physical body has died...but….” Ginko leaned forward with his chin in both hands. An idea was forming.

“I think there may be a way to complete the ceremony, and allow the rest of you to fully cross over into the mushi world,” he said.
Renzu rested her hands down. Fully cross over into the mushi world, and become one of the same things she had warned Shinra to ignore?

“Does that mean...Shinra?” She broke off

“Because Shinra can see mushi, he would most likely be able to see you,” Ginko

“But, this would mean you will stay a mushi forever. I don’t think I would be able to reverse the effects. Are you willing to accept that?

“Yes!” Renzu cried. She did not care about her disdain for mushi at the moment. Anything was worth being able to care for Shinra again.

“Yes! I... I want to see him again.”