Shoji and the Field of Memories

CHAPTER 9 - Blades and Minds

(Bangkok Institute)


Shoji woke up in his colorful bed, now void of pillows save for one under his head. The sheets were twisted and tangled at his feet and he felt a soft breath of air spilling across his bare chest from the open window.

He ran his palm over his stomach. He could feel the rough calluses of his hand against his skin. The cuts and bruises he had received were healed and nothing remained to remind him of the night before.

At least nothing physical.

His mind was swimming with images. He saw his parabatai and the ravenor demon at the pool, the blinding light of Filly's magic at the hut, Kevin holding a bleeding Filly in the dirt, the way Arisa kissed Filly in an exhalation of relief.

He groaned and rolled over on his side. He didn't know what he had expected. Certainly the demons and chaos weren't new. Of course, it had been a long time since he and Kevin had had to do any fighting like that, but it had all come back to him easily enough. It had felt good to use his weapons in a fight. He was still reveling in the feeling of slaying the ravenor demon.

But the way the morning had ended, he hadn't expected that. He didn't know how to feel about it. Arisa was like a sister to him, and Filly was a stranger he barely knew at all. It shouldn't have been surprising that Arisa kept parts of her personal life private, but Sho felt a little betrayed all the same. In his mind he recalled Arisa coming out of the bedroom at Filly's place, and of Filly reaching down to take the suitcase from Arisa's hand.

He was frustrated he hadn't picked up on it sooner.

Arisa had spent time with the boys since Sho had first come to the Tokyo Institute. She was one of the few Downworlders who had spent time at the Institute and was friendly with all the Shadowhunters. He never knew how she had come to take an interest in their Institute, and had never thought to ask Takuya why.

She was head of the massive vampire clan in Tokyo and a respected leader, so there were hardly ever incidents involving the Downworld that required Shadowhunter intervention. Sho and Kevin had split up some territorial disputes and restrained fledglings for the Praetor Lupus to handle, but other than that life had been considerably peaceful. Almost boringly so.

Yet Arisa was always available, to vent to or get advice from. She never talked about her past and didn't ask others about theirs. She enjoyed sharing in the arts and music and games that Sho enjoyed and could make some killer gyoza.

It had never occurred to Sho to ask her if she was happy or who made her happy.

He opened his eyes and stared out the window. He didn't want those thoughts floating around in his mind any longer.

Besides, he told himself, the mission was an overall success.

They now knew where the convergence was and the Clave's group had come out of the ordeal no more worse for wear. Kevin's wounds had healed up and Filly's hand was going to be fine as soon as she had recovered enough to heal it properly with her own magic.

But there was, of course, the fact that the Institute had lost one of their Shadowhunters. They had managed to recover Aom's body from the parade and bring it back with them. The Silent Brothers had been called to take her to the City of Bones and lay her to rest among the other fallen Shadowhunters.

Sho had explained to the Institute head what had happened and while Bella had broken down, Damyun kept the same cold, steely expression he normally carried. Sho had seen the couple talking with Brother Alexander in the front lobby of the Institute later in the morning on his way to his room to sleep. The other Shadowhunters were gathered in their mourning whites and comforting each other in hushed tones. Sho didn't understand any of the Thai words but their intentions were crystal clear.

It was afternoon now. He had slept for a while from sheer exhaustion but now lay awake and was ready to admit that he wasn't going to get any more sleep. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and slipped his bare feet into a pair of sandals. He kicked away pillows he had thrown off the bed and made his way to the bathroom.

He was relieved to find a western style shower with plush towels and fragrant soaps that soon had the room smelling as sweet as the department stores back home in Tokyo. Once clean and feeling infused with energy, Sho left the bathroom and changed into his travel clothes; a white V-neck shirt and jeans. Then he went to work cleaning his scimitars and gear of demon ichor and dirt.

The whole time he was thinking of his mother. He wondered if she had liked living here at the Bangkok Institute. He was certain that Damyun and Bella were too young to remember if she had.

Would she have stayed here in these rooms? Had she been carrying Sho inside her while she walked the halls? It occurred to him that he had never asked his father much about her. He didn't even know how they had met. His father hadn't been the type of man to revel in the past and indulge family history. He was far more focused on being a Shadowhunter and making sure Sho followed in his footsteps.

There hadn't been an overwhelming amount of love there, but that was typical of a Shadowhunter family. Sho knew that there was probably a lot that he would never know about his parents. His life was destined to a cause, as all Shadowhunters were. Their fate was not their own and their lives were forfeited to the greatest battle humanity would never know.

But he couldn't help but think of his mother's fate, and his own had his parents lived to see him today.

He hung the clean gear from the shower curtain rod and laid his blades out on the bed next to his back holster. Still deep in thought, he heard Kevin open the conjoining door between their rooms and stroll in. He was also wearing jeans and a t-shirt with the words "Notice Me Senpai!" written across the chest. He had an open bag of shrimp chips in his hand and was methodically scarfing them down.

"Well, I slept like a rock. I forgot the punch-out power of healing runes," he spoke in his usual relaxed tone.

"Do you ever not sleep like a rock?" Sho replied.

Kevin pointed at him reproachfully. "The man has a point," then stuffed his mouth with more shrimp chips.

Sho's stomach turned over. "Ugh, I'm starving. Where did you find food?"

"These," he said, emptying the remaining contents of the bag into his mouth, "came from a little basket by the kitchen. But there's a whole spread in the Downworld parlor. They even have sushi, but it's the rolled up, knock-off kind." Kevin walked over to the waste bin and dropped his bag. Sho was staring out the bedroom window again in a distracted state.

"So...food? Hey, you alright man?" Kevin leaned against the door frame to his bedroom with his arms crossed. He was looking at Sho uneasily.

"Hm? Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just…" Sho picked off some crusted mud from the strap on his belt, "I was thinking about my mother. If she had ever lived here, you know?"

Kevin's eyebrows arched and he puffed out his cheeks in a long slow breath. "Probably, yeah. You might've even been born here. That's kind of weird to think about."

"I know, it's a stupid thing to be fixated on. Especially with everything else needing our attention."

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

Kevin unfolded his arms and walked up to Sho. Together they stared out the window. The river was shining in the late afternoon light and long, thin canoes were floating by the gardens at the river bank.

"You were bound to think about stuff like that coming here. I think that's why Takuya said what he did before; you don't have to feel guilty for wanting to know more about your parents," he clapped Sho on the back, "but you do have to focus on the task at hand and the first mission is to gorge ourselves on convenience store sushi."

He smiled his infectious smile and Sho was dragged into his good humor. They started to walk out of the room and Kevin chuckled to himself.

"That kiss last night was crazy though. I didn't know Arisa had a thing for warlock ladies," Sho's parabatai mused as he swung himself out of the room by the door frame. Sho sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, closing the bedroom door behind them with an intentional slam.