Kyuuketsuki Duo: Segue Part 4.5
Another Random Interlude
It was a hideous, inky blob that roiled and boiled and bubbled and troubled, emitting a foul stench with each burst as its pseudopods writhed in oozing anger.
Duo wrinkled his nose at it in distaste.
"Shinma... eww." It belched out a mentally nauseating gas, foully polluting the otherplane with its refuse. Duo cringed away from it, fighting to keep his innards calm. "Shinma... umm.... Shinma..." He blanked. "Oh, Shinma whatever the hell you are. Go away already."
He waved his hand dismissively at it, opening the portal. Due to the lack of conviction, which was caused by the lack of its name, the Shinma spirit was sluggishly drawn away to the Dark, pieces of it breaking away and dissolving at a time. It wasn't going nearly fast enough for the guardian, so he gave it a little, alright, a big, shove with his power and slammed the door behind it.
Heero silently materialized behind him.
::Shinma... whatever the hell you are?:: The mindvoice was flavored with a careful neutrality, with just a slight undercurrent of rich amusement.
Duo turned belligerently. "Yeah. Gotta problem with that?"
His companion presented only a blank mask in response.
"Hmpf. I couldn't remember its name, okay?"
::It was Shinma K'thrqatchtystr- crwth, I believe.::
Duo blinked. Then blinked again. Then twice more for good measure. "You're kidding, right?"
The answer was a bland, offended feeling, overlaying a humor that was for the oddity of the name rather than because it was an untruth.
Duo stared a good long while in disbelief, then snorted. "Sure, you can think that easily. Now let's hear you say that aloud," he challenged.
Heero looked calmly back at him. ::We're working right now. I am under no obligation to speak aloud at this time.::
Duo's expression became miffed. "Alright, then. When we get back home."
::I am under no obligation to speak of matters involving work during our downtime. In fact, I think you previously expressed disapproval of my doing so.::
Duo glared.
Heero didn't move.
The wind blew a newspaper down the alley.
Duo glared some more. "Hmpf," he uttered, a graceful concession of the little contest. "Let's blow this joint. The air here is making me sick."
He stalked off into a shadow to slip into and back home. "And get that smirk off your face," he called grumpily over his shoulder just before dematerializing.
Heero's mask never changed expression as he, too, slipped between the shadows without a word to their home in the place between places.
TBC...
this is a little nothing meant to add more time between segue 4 and 5, and consequently even more time between 3 and 5. i mean to indicate that there is no particular urgency between the two of them to bring segue 3 to any particular conclusion of any sort. so in addition to this little non-event, more random time passed between 4 and 5 that will not be documented.
i also was reflecting on why shinma had to have such mundane names. i additionally was pondering how duo would know all of them. does he just look at the stray and pull the name from them? did he have to memorize a grimoire or some sort? is it in his blood? these questions, and others like them, will likely never be answered.
i also wonder why the house heero first brought duo to was an abandoned temple. i seem to have forgotten the fact that they're in the west, not the east. oh well, we'll brush that one under the rug, although we can never forget it since the 'house' in which they currently reside in the shadows is modeled after that temple. otherwise i'd just change it to an abandoned farmhouse or something.
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