Gangland Encounters (Kamikaze)

[Luffy]

She appeared to have calmed down signicantly as she climbed into the tub and sat down. Luffy turned and went rummaging though the cabinets in search of soap and other cleaning items. what he found was a couple of towels, a wash cloth, and bottles of shampoo and body wash. He set the towels aside and lined up the shampoo along the edge of the tub.

“Of the many crimes I’ve committed in my lifetime, defiler was never one of them. I do not intend to start now,” he said as he picked up the shampoo bottle and squirted a fair amount of of the mango scented orange goop onto her head. He gently began to rub his finger tips against her scalp before moving his hands to the rest of her hair as he washed it.

“Good thing the people didn’t bail on this place weeks ago, this,” he said as reached for the bottle, “Mango Madness’ shampoo might not have been here.” he continued scrubbing before leaning over and giving a quick sniff of her head before nodding in approval. He rinsed his hands off before opening the bottle of body wash and running the wash cloth under the water.

He squirted the soap onto the piece of cloth and held it out to Kami. “Here, I’ll let you do the rest, unless you want me to wash your back. I feel like it’d be more awkward otherwise.”

[Kamikaze]

Nodding through Luffy's speaking, Kamikaze focused on a single point on the wall, until her wraith peeked its head through. The look on the wraith's face was quizzical at best, though the poor soul had grown accustomed to the Shadow's quirks as she travelled deeper and deeper into her madness. Making a face at her, it then signalled, between the two vampires, before Kamikaze's eyes widened. Shaking her head quickly, sending soap everywhere, she then blinked, noticing the man had been holding out the cloth with the soap. Quickly and with force, to distract herself from her wraith, Kamikaze lathered the soap over her clothing, with vigor, as if this would cleanse the skin underneath. Tao whispered within her mind, questioning things, accusing things. She did not like it. She did not like it one bit. They always picked the worst times to bombard her with questions, causing her anxiety to start flaring up. Eyes closed, the Shadow's face contorted, as if this would disuade the wraith and its harassments. Her grip on the cloth tightened, her force with her scrubbing intensifying. Opening her eyes again, the darkness had come once more, in her mind, dripping, bleeding from the walls, from the tub, from her hands.

Eyes widening as she scrubbed, Kamikaze then shut her eyes tight, mumbling incoherently to herself, something mixed of jibberish and Japanese. Her mind was assaulting her senses again, and the overload of information from her wraith did not help. Tao stared, curiously, as the woman who struck a bond to them was beginning to freak out. She was shaking as she scrubbed, before she quickly plunged under the water, holding herself there and screamed, noticed by the bubbles that came up. The screaming helped Kamikaze momentarilly, as she rose up, wiping her face. The blackness was still creeping, dripping, consuming the area. She couldn't shake the feeling, it was as if she was in the Shadow Realm again. A nervous tic pulsed through, her jaw twitching, before she stared at Luffy. He too had been altered, in her vision, warped by the madness and the darkness.

Quickly rubbing her eyes, she then looked back to him, before she attempted to use reason, for once, this day. The other two personalities tried to remind Kamikaze that things were not as they appeared, and that this figure was still Luffy. He was a peaceful figure, where they were concerned. He wasn't evil, he wasn't the enemy. They needed her to calm down, though, as when she was agitated, that was when things got worse in the mind. It was already full of enough white noise, they did not need any more.

[Luffy]

Things appeared to be getting slightly better. She was simply staring at the wall, but Luffy had dealt with people in her state of mind in the past. He hadn’t noticed the wraith at first. He was more focused on his new fighting partner, and her lack of self care to notice. Then he caught a splash of soap across his eyes.He whipped his head as he pawed at the suds that invaded his sight. The cloth in his hand was stripped from his grasp. When he regained his vision, he saw that that Kamikaze was furiously scrubbing at herself with her eyes squeezed tight. Then he saw the shadowed form of a wraith.

The woman dove under the water and he could hear the muffled screams eminating from her throat. He drove his right hand directly into where a face would have appeared. Black tendril wrapped around his fingers as the ghost vanished. Luffy’s hand truck the wall as the last traces of the wraith faded. Cracks raced from the man’s hand and shattered the tile on the wall. He turned back to Kamikaze and shook his head slowly.

“God I hate those things,” he began, “When I came back from the Deadlands the first time, I discovered I could see the dead. Spirits and wraiths. I thought I was completely losing my mind.”

He tilted his head slightly as he watched her continue to have issues. “It’s alright Kamikaze, everything will be alright.”

[Kamikaze]

Tao had been banished upon the attempt at a physical assault, at its own displeasure. Filling Kamikaze and Luffy's mind alike with obscenities at the banishment, it was then silenced. The darkness within Kamikaze's mind now fully consumed her, causing her to grow silent, to grow still within the water. Eyes clenched tight, her body starting to have a fit. Screaming filled her mind, of the damned, of those she had just slain, of her siblings, her body trembling as she could hear more and more voices, the chorus starting to grow unbearable. Shizuka and Three were oddly quiet, in this time, perhaps due to their weakness, Kamikaze having sapped at them to take control.

Body contorting, the Shadow's hands shot out, then gripped at the edges of the tub, fingers gripping in. A gasp within the water drew the bath in, causing her to gag, her body still only able to process blood. Rising up, as if she had been in a baptismal font, she coughed up the taken water, her bodily fits still causing her torso and legs to twitch and flail sporadically, until eyes opened wide.

Shadows. They whisper. They deafen. Cry out. Sing to us. Bearded King sees shadows and hears yes? Shadows seek us. Seek gifts. We the harbinger of will. They whisper to Kamikaze. They cry out. No remorse. No relent. Beg. They beg. They seek us harm. Shadows consuming.

With the man's words of comfort, Kamikaze was unsure. She knew things would never be fine, in her form, and she had accepted this. The collective being had been through so much, and she knew that things always ended in disaster. Her family had died, some to Triad, some to suicide, others to age. She had been sent to the Shadows for miscommunication, for accidents. She had been wounded emotionally, crushed by others, crushed by her own hopes and wishes, crushed by her own actions.

Eyes closing, a new voice whispered within the chaos of Kamikaze's mind, as it was filling with too much negativity, memories flooding, eating at her. A young girl's voice. Kamikaze did not recognize the voice. It was not Shizuka. It was not Three. The two other personalities did not recognize it either. The voice broke through the white noise, albeit as soft as a feather. She believed Kamikaze to be weak, to be helpless, and worthless. Her tone was malicious, every word a dagger. The hallucination continued to torment, materializing within her vision, a spectre, a blurred distortion. It took time, before Shizuka could recognize it. The girl had been of her past. It was a girl that she had long ago wished to leave her be, who she wished ruin upon for what the other had done to her. Eyes widening frantically, as she gripped the pool tighter.

Words untrue! Lies! Lies! Shadows sing of lies! Feeling traitor!

Kamikaze shouted at the hallucination, lurching at it, though nothing was there. Whispering even more, the hallucination grinned wide, then laughed at her. She stated that Shizuka and Three pitied Kamikaze for her weakness, for her insecurities. She also whispered that they lied, and did not trust Kamikaze, for the animal that she had become. She laughed, that Shizuka would not allow Kamikaze or Three to communicate with Noelle. Perhaps she did not trust the others around the one who turned the being. She knew the three were weak, in their own ways, and used this to dig at them even more.

With the words spewing forth with venom, Kamikaze cried out, screaming, her words now flowing in broken and skewed Japanese, quick and not patterned into sentences. It was word vomit, psychobabble. Some words were not even Japanese. It was hard to tell. Screaming even more, Kamikaze relented, something snapping. A tendril within the shadows shot out at the hallucination, striking, though it hit nothing, nothing but the sink, causing a crack.

The hallucination grinned, then stepped forth, form appearing to step right through Luffy. She leaned in, then winked, before whispering into Kamikaze's ear. She stated that Kamikaze was worthless, once more, and that she would eventually lose all of those who she loved, who she trusted. She whispered that Kamikaze and Shizuka made Noelle uncomfortable. They drove Mora away. They drove everybody away. That was all that this being was good at. They were fragile, and easy to take advantage of. That was all others had done. Tytonidae had done this. The Worthingtons had done this.

Buckling, the personality of Kamikaze stopped, unable to retort. Unable to find the resolve. Shizuka and Three were too powerless to assist, though they had also been rocked by these half lies, these torments.

[Luffy]

“Yes, I see the shadows, the ghosts of the dead. I hear their cries. Thankfully less now than I used to. They’re far louder in both the Deadlands, and for a short time when I’ve come out. It’s been over a year since my last...trip as some would call it. The cries are now nothing more than the occasional whisper.”

He ignored the obscenity laced rant from the wraith as he focused on the poor woman in front of him. He knew from conversations they had in the past that was utterly insane. How far gone she was, well he was just starting to see.

“I won’t allow them to harm you. I’ll keep them at bay. That way, we can hang out more, maybe even become good friends.” He smiled at her before realizing she no longer really saw him. Once she began screaming he realized he was not a part of that conversation.

a black shadow tendril snapped past Luffy’s shoulder and struck the sink behind him. He didn’t even bother to look behind him, he could hear the porcelain crack.. What he did do though, was make a snap decision. Something he typically did. One hand slapped the handle for the faucet while he wrapped his other arm around Kamikaze. He stood up suddenly, bringing the smaller woman over the edge of the tub with him.

He wrapped his other arm around the woman and held her. Any damage he’d receive from her thrashing would be dealt with after. His concern now was dealing with this episode of whatever was going on in her head. He said no words, just held onto her. He’d let everything just wash itself out in the end.

[Kamikaze]

Constricted, Kamikaze attempted to budge, starting to curse loudly in her gibberish of partial Japanese and other bits and pieces of languages. She writhed and wriggled, to no avail, causing her to panic even more. It was too much touching. Too much. The white noise was on full, and then it shut off, the switch flipped. Growing stiff, her mind went blank. Kamikaze was past the point she could handle, shutting down instead. Shizuka and Three were concerned, then attempted to wake the third personality, as it was as vital to their survival as Shizuka and Three. They had never seen her driven to this state, to totally shut down, almost like a hard reboot to the system.

The darkness lingered, time past recognition at this point, for what could have been hours or maybe even seconds. The white noise flickered, the voices coming in pulses, before coming in full bore. Eyes shot open, wide, with a gasp, before she attempted to struggle even more. She needed space, she needed to breathe, but she couldn't. Her circumstance was confinement, and it was creating panic. Flailing as much as she could, the Shadow screamed out, clawing as best she could at the figure that was binding her. The hallucinations were in full bore, nothing quite true to what it really was any more.

No! No no no no no no no! Shadows cry! Shadows deny! Proxy-no! No proxy! No close! No touch!

The woman's screams were quick, loud, panicked, before she started to quiet down, as if her mind was splitting. She was trying to cut herself away from the spirits bombarding her mind, both real and hallucinated, concentrating hard on this. She wanted it to stop. The hallucinations died down, with some fight to them, though they eventually calmed, along with the Shadow herself, now very dizzy and unsure of her surroundings. She went silent once more, eyes closed, as she tried to reign herself in, to compose herself, though she fidgeted every once in a while against the containment by Luffy's arms.

Shadow dislike proximity. Cannot. Shadow free. Shadows call, scream, cry, sing of freedom.

[Luffy]

She babbled, flailed, and generally was freaking out. He had expected this. He let her scream until she went stiff and silent in his arms. He was worried for a moment as she seemed to have lost even further touch with environment surrounding them. He waited for her to reboot before letting go when she asked for release.

“Oh good, you’re back. You had me worried for a while there. Sorry about the whole hugging thing. I’ve found sometimes it helps when getting someone past the really scary stuff.”

Luffy turned and picked up the towel, opened it, and draped the long piece of cloth over her head. He went and sat down on the closed toilet and calmly waited for the woman to dry off. He wiped his arms on his damp shirt to dry them off and smiled back at Kamikaze.

“I’ll try to avoid the hugging in the future, but it does seem to have snapped you out of it though, which is a very good thing yes?”

[Kamikaze]

Now that the towel had been draped over her head, Kamikaze stood, mindful of her placement, as she slipped a bit. Stepping out, the woman began to dry herself off the best she could, though the towel was not about to dry her clothing off very well, but she hadn't noticed. Instead, Kamikaze furiously dryed at her hair with the towel, listening to the man as he spoke and sat, before she would attempt a response. Her mind was still rather fragile, though the reset was needed. From time to time, she was overloaded with feelings, with thoughts, voices.

Shizuka had figured that this explained why the host had anxiety in social situations, for the most part. When left too long, with such a high amount of stimulation, of course they were capable of a total meltdown, especially Kamikaze. Three murmured within the white noise, that they should definitely visit the doctor, once things had settled. Perhaps Charles would be able to help assess and perhaps they could form a plan that would assist in handling the issues.

Snap yes. Shadows do not sing. Silence falls. Darkness settles.

Kamikaze still needed to warm up more to the man that shared her company. Indeed there was a sort of friendship, but it could have been better than it was, and with that they would both need to work. With the latest of Kamikaze's Shadow Realm visits, though, the damages lingered, as would be noted with her mindset, the fragile ecosystem of crazy that it was.