Text -- BBS

[erogappa]

Date: November 21
From: Anon

What do you think we are? Why do you think we were brought here?

Comments

[erogappa]

The one who used to be a god, are they an alcoholic idiot?

[koukai_kirai]

I wouldn't describe them as such. Curious as to why you ask now, though.

[erogappa]

You sound like somebody I know. I'm just making sure you aren't them.

Sorry but I have to ask. If you got everyone killed last time, how are you sure that won't happen again?

[koukai_kirai]

[In a really weird way, that forces him to confront the things that aren't really his fault in a way that Souji straight-up telling him "it isn't your fault" never quite could. Because what was he supposed to do? Make war and tuberculosis just... go away?]

That's fair.

One man decided to die because he thought that he was in my way, and that I wouldn't listen to any other form of protest. Others fell away from where I could save them because I tried to protect them from too much of the truth, and many of them died as a result. The one I loved the most died of something no one could have stopped, but nearly died without knowing how important they were.

I can't be sure I can keep people safe this time. There's too much danger and uncertainty in the world, and sometimes everything you can do just isn't enough. Besides that, if I just try to keep out of trouble, all it means is that I'm sacrificing the lives of the innocent people we don't protect in exchange for the ones I selfishly want to keep close me me. That's still blood on my conscience.

But I can make sure none of them die because I didn't listen to them, or because I didn't trust them enough, or because they thought they were worthless to me.

I can make sure that they live knowing they're of value, and knowing what a heavy loss their lives would be if I end up unable to protect them again.

[erogappa]

I'm not good at trust. Or any of the rest of that either. I think your people are lucky to have you here though.

[koukai_kirai]

I didn't say I was good at any of it. Just that I owe it to them to try.

[erogappa]

But what if that's what they want though? The people who brought us here? They brought you here with people you want to protect. Did you ever think about why? What's they're getting out of having us here?

[koukai_kirai]

It's hard to say without knowing who exactly is responsible. That said, I doubt it was out of particular intentional compassion for me or anything.

[erogappa]

I don't think it was compassion. There are a lot of us here from the same places who know each other. If we were just brought here to fight ayakashi we wouldn't need to know each other right? They want us to team up, and I can't trust anyone until I figure out why we're really here.

[koukai_kirai]

Understandable. I'm not about to trust our circumstances, either, but I won't let that get between me and people I should have held closer in the first place.

If the ones who brought us here are going to be my enemies, they'll just have given me allies against them.

[erogappa]

I don't think we're the people we remember being.

[koukai_kirai]

To be clear, you’re implying that we were either created from whole cloth or had some form of original memories suppressed and either partially or completely replaced with fabricated ones?

[erogappa]

the first one. look i know it sounds crazy okay? But just think about it. Most of us are human, but we can do all kinds of magic that humans can't. Not to mention the part where we don't crap, and sometimes when we die we come back and sometimes we don't and there's no pattern to any of it. We aren't people, but we aren't the same as the other spirits here are we? Their shinki can't remember anything, but ours sometimes do. We're different.

I think somebody made us. I think they took a bunch of dead people's souls and fucked them up, and put them into these spirit bodies, and then set us loose on the Far Shore.