Times past and a path to the future.

Even as the rain slowed, she tried to listen. Baliquis took more time than average to try and recall the conversation but, more specifically, what he was replying to. “There is nothing that will taint the memory of my teammate…she was…a lot more to me in my own head than just that….” Miyamoto said, and she hesitated.

Was that normal? Was this something all shinobi did, or was it just this man? How could this be? Baliquis’s mind buzzed increasingly with questions about how the man before her could be so loyal to memory. However, at the same time, Baliquis was the first to be loyal to that memory and the image she had made of her sister. However, this man became defensive of her, commenting on the memory of her that he had after Balquis had been dismissive about how Shinrei’s team treated her sister from an outsider’s perspective. She saw him clench his fists, and she wondered for a moment if she should pretend to be afraid or brace herself but then decided against it; there was no need for something like that when you could turn yourself into water.

The world was viable to Baliquis’s whims and whimsical tribulations as long as she could access water.

“That is unfair…I stated that she was a member of Team Winter, yes, but she was a woman whom I…I fell for at first sight, she was someone I cared for and honestly tried to keep from danger, but despite all of this…we still found danger, went down separate paths, and in the end we are here. Talking about this as if we are in an interrogation. Do not lump me in with the world that killed my entire family and left me as a husk as well. I am here for my own answers after all.” Even as he spoke in defense of his mirage of her and she saw the rain slowed around them, she was still impressed. At the bare minimum, seeing someone who didn’t come off as religious be so devoted a follower was impressive. His religion was this false idol he had made of her sister, and yet in the crevices? She could see it. Either way, there it was…was there more? Something bothered Bali, though…

Did he say he fell in love at first sight? Was that really a thing, or was that also something made up? Well… looking back on her own parents, her father proclaimed the same thing for their frigid, war-hardened mother. Commenting on how she looked so ethereal and mythical when she was in her element and how the smoldering rolled off her skin in the light. Or that's how he put it, but internally, Bali had always written it off as love-drunk hallucinations.

“Your sister…she helped me mature, or what I thought was to be mature. She saved me plenty of times, and then showed me that the ceiling I placed above myself in terms of power and such was just that…a ceiling. We can break those and Geni…well she sure did. I was often jealous and shortsighted as I saw her as a woman and nothing more, but in reality she was absolutely one of the strongest I ever knew. I loved her, I guess is what I should say.”

There it was again. The high flung and lofty praise of someone not quite in touch with reality. He was smiling, and it looked so… serene and sincere.

“I am afraid that I do not know much past what I saw with my own eyes, but I am still thinking that there are those here that can give a different account. I am sorry that I have only caused anger and probably confusion.”

She saw as he unclenched his fists that he had harmed himself, and she closed her eyes, tilted her head back and chin up, then looked at the gazebo ceiling.

“Actually, quite the opposite.” Baliquis said simply as she looked at the beams above her, “You have answered a question I have struggled to articulate well; however, my words have also upset you.” Bali was minimizing the damage she could have done but needed to rely on the ghost of her sister’s image- the one she created and maintained for herself- and see the version he had made and maintained. Each is seemingly different, but both sides of the same coin, and each is a version of ‘Geni.’ Even if this version he was giving her was different, it was consistently the same Izayumi. Baliquis lowered her head,

“I am treating it as an interrogation as I am playing ‘detective’ while I do my own investigation into what led to her death.” The woman replied flippantly, then she voiced, “You may feel as you do, but even from your account, amid my frustration and distrust: you have given me a different version of her. Different from what I was looking for and different from what I was expecting. You have recounted a version of her that, I suppose, gives me hope.”

She paused, then told him, “That even in a different environment, Izayumi was consistent. She was helpful and a guide where you needed her to be and where- I’m sure- the faith deemed her to be. It seems she was in the right place at the right time for you, and sometimes that is all one can ask for, even if they want more. Some people only come into your lives for a singular purpose or for a short period….” Baliquis paused a moment, “I… do not think I can apologize to you for upsetting you because, in the end, you did ‘show’ me a version of my sister that I did not know existed… and now I wonder if there are other little pieces among the shinobi that I could collect to make a whole image.”

---

Post Word Count

984

Total Word Count

3,626

Tagged

@Shinrei Yamato

“Do not worry about that.” Miyamoto replied to her about his wound, “Having the elemental affinity to fire chakra helps to heal some, superficial things.”

Well, that was one less thing she had to worry about, in all honesty. The less she could concern herself with the well-being of others, the better it was for her. When she had finished talking he added,

“I am just happy that I could show you that I am not like everyone else and that I at least remember your sister in a light and vision that could show her talent. Baliquis…if you ever require aid…send a scroll, a hawk, whatever you must to the village shinobi headquarters asking for Miyamoto…I will come to you at the drop of a hat if it means you get answers for your sister, as well as I can have closure and can at least… fulfill a role that I thought was long gone of a guardian.” A guardian? For who, Baliquis? Did she need guarding? “I have let myself and my team down too much to remain idle.” The man said as he got up and bowed to her deeply, “I will take my leave first.”

She watched him walk back into the rain for a moment but she stayed where she was as he walked off. Just a little longer. She wanted to stay a little longer, here, in these memories she didn’t allow herself to review nor feel on a normal day, but today she rested in them. Stewed in them for a moment longer before she got up and left herself.

---

Exit Post Word Count

266

Total Word Count

3,892

Claims

• 3,892 WC towards Half Handseals Mastery of pH Shift Technique: Melting of Man (3892 / 5000)