Chapter 74
Shin sighed, drifting peacefully in the garden pool.
He had no idea where he was, but he wasn't about to start complaining. The water was warm. The air fragrant with the scent of summer blooms. The sound of the small waterfall feeding into his serene escape mingled with birdsong and a gentle breeze through leafy trees.
He sighed again, filling his nose and his lungs with clean air, the horrible rot and darkness of the city far away. His brain kept circling around to a woman with long sable hair and violet eyes though. Helios had called her a princess.
What was a princess doing rescuing him?
Why had he found her in a shrine and not a castle? Who was the old man? She'd called him Grandpa, but was he actually her grandfather? Wouldn't that make him some sort of king? He let his memories of her spiral idly through his thoughts, not keen to start another headache.
But one particular memory kept flitting around, a hummingbird darting amongst the lazy drifting of his other memories.
The image of Rei, startled, staring at him in surprise and confusion as she simply disappeared. He didn't know why it was so important, but he knew that it was. Every time he called it up, the sharp sting of panic sliced through his stomach, something inside of him beating at him to find Rei. To protect Rei.
But that didn't make much sense, did it? Shin had vivid memories of how very little he'd been able to protect himself, let alone anyone else – especially someone like Rei, who'd seemed very capable of taking care of herself. And others. She'd rescued him. She didn't need his protection, did she? Something embedded in his psyche strongly disagreed.
Shin furrowed his brow, trying to think. Trying to call up any other memories he could of Rei or anything else from his life that seemed to be missing.
The waters of his mind were still muddy.
Shin let out a frustrated growl, running his hands over his face and losing his sense of peace. He rose, putting his legs under him, his feet touching the smooth tiled bottom of the pool. He moved toward the stairs, only to run into something large. And very, very hard. Cursing under his breath, Shin rubbed at the bridge of his nose and looked up.
Into the empty maw of a suit of armor sitting patiently on the stairs to the pool, staring at him despite its lack of face.
Somehow, that wasn't creepy.
Shin stared back, trying to remember if he'd seen this behemoth arrive at any point and realizing he couldn't. Really, how had he not noticed the arrival of a giant and empty suit of armor? Why hadn't it made any noise?
He stared at it some more and it returned the favor.
"Shin Mouri. Will you once again bear the Mystical Armor of Suiko, renewing your vow to protect the Earth?" a random woman called from somewhere Shin couldn't yet see.
"…What?" he said intelligently.
This was his dream, wasn't it? Why had things suddenly taken a turn for the strange? He turned, setting eyes on a woman with red hair wearing what appeared to be ceremonial garb, standing on the water next to him. She smiled down at him and confusion mixed with a strange resonating sensation inside of him.
Suiko sounded right. Felt right. He turned, regarding the armor again, where it sat patiently in the shallows, regally.
He'd worn this armor and protected the world?
That…seemed like a lot. Shin thought back to his own family legacy of looking after the Hagi Sea. He'd thought that was enough responsibility for a lifetime. Of course, protecting the Hagi Sea now had a lot more to do with conservation and community relations than it did taking down invaders or battling rival clans.
Protecting the world seemed like an entirely different class of burden. This wasn't a fishing community she was talking about. He'd done that? Protected the whole world? Feeling slightly awed, he turned back to the woman.
"I….wore this and used it to protect the Earth?" he asked, needing her to confirm. She nodded solemnly, walking with soundless steps so that she stood beside and just behind the armor now, running elegant hands along its shoulders.
"You did. It was a duty you bore gravely, but not without struggle. I'm offering you a choice now. You can walk away. The armor will be sealed to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands until another pure of heart and strong of body is willing to take on the mantle of Suiko," she intoned.
He wasn't sure that he wanted to resume whatever struggles she was referring to. But he really didn't like the idea of anyone else picking up something that had been his. If this armor truly gave its bearer the power to protect an entire planet, he didn't trust anyone else to respect it the way something like this should be respected.
It did help, somehow, knowing he'd struggled to deal with this burden. That he hadn't been gleeful in carrying out his duties. He looked back up at her, searching for any sign of dishonesty, but saw only a grave truth.
She wasn't lying to him. He wasn't sure how he knew that, he just did.
"Why would I want to take on a burden like that?" he asked carefully, hoping that she could tell him more about himself – about the memories he was missing. She smiled sadly at him.
"You are missing many, many memories. The answer to that question is complex and difficult to express without them. I can tell you that you had people you fought with side by side. People you fought for. They were worth the burden, to you," she replied.
Now that? That made sense. Rei flashed again in his mind's eye.
"Should you choose to take on the armor again, your memories will return with it. If you choose to remain as you are, the memories will remain missing. They are memories connecting you to the armor, and I cannot return them if you are not connected to the armor," she continued.
Shin sighed, understanding what she meant but feeling the unjustness of the choice. How was he supposed to choose if he wanted to take on the burden or not when he couldn't remember how he'd felt about it before?
In the end, he simply couldn't turn his back on the people who needed him. He might not remember them. Maybe they didn't remember him either. But he had friends. Loved ones. And they had counted on him. Hadn't he been wishing for some way to protect the things important to him? A way to fight back?
Shin knew, when faced with the choice to walk away or carry the burden again, he would carry the burden. And besides. Rei remembered him. She'd cared about him enough to rescue him. She'd brought him to this sanctuary to keep him safe. He nodded, firming his hands into fists.
"I'll wear the armor," he said in a firm tone. Suzunagi smiled sadly.
"As I thought you would," she agreed. Shin waited for something to happen. Some flash of light. Some sequence of magic. But instead they merely passed a moment in silence. She raised a brow at him. "In order to cement your choice, you must call the armor to you," she said after a moment.
Shin opened his mouth to argue, to tell her that he didn't know how to do that, when he realized that he actually did know how to do that. He threw out a hand.
"Busso, Suiko!"
And just like that, instead of staring at the armor on the stairs, he was staring at it…on himself. It felt…amazing. Cool, alive. It was the pounding of the ocean waves in his blood, the inexorable pull of the tide in his core. It was freedom even as it weighed heavily upon him. Because now that he was connected to his armor, he was also connected to his memories.
Suzunagi had been correct. He had struggled. But as he remembered the Troopers, they were struggles he didn't regret. The weight of war sat heavily on his shoulders, but Shin realized that he was, in fact, glad to carry it if it meant he could ease the people he cared about. Protect those who couldn't protect themselves.
Be someone Rei could depend on.
Shin frowned as he remembered her – all of her. From the moments they'd shared in the Underworld that had made him fall in the first place, to the strong, stoic woman he loved even more now. She'd used the dream of her shrine to break into his prison and call him home. She hadn't lashed out at him in anger or hurt when he hadn't even remembered who she was – after all the trust she'd given him, that hit him the hardest.
Absolutely nothing was going to stop him from getting to her now. He looked at Suzunagi warily.
"How do I get out of here?" he asked her. She sighed, smiling at him somberly, and reached out to touch his forehead with one hand. Shin closed his eyes.
And opened them to find himself flat on his back and staring up at an arched, gilded ceiling. An unfamiliar ceiling. The bed he lay in was both massive and comfortable – a bed fit for royalty. He sat up quickly, swinging his legs over and moving until he cleared the side of the bed.
"Busso, Suiko!" He summoned his armor again and made for the door, throwing it open in time to see Touma, Shuu, and Ryo as they moved past. They all paused to look at him – taking him in with a delighted surprise that made Shin feel like he'd come home. Shin sighed as they greeted each other with hugs and a round of backslapping.
"Now we just need Seiji," Ryo said in a determined voice. "Then we can figure out where the Senshi are and get out of here," he growled. Shin nodded. He was on board with that plan, though he was a bit worried about how complicated it might be.
How did they find the Senshi? How did they get out of here? Where was here?
Shin shook his head as they moved down the hall together.
It didn't matter. They'd figure everything out.
And then they'd end this miserable creature once and for all.
