Mission:

A spurt of generosity overcame Xion a day or so ago. And he’d went to the administration building to scope out some grunt work. Really just anything that was hands-on with minimal risk of being mortally wounded.

A few tasks caught his eye; a post on the directory by a woman that called herself Ms. Juuzou. Describing herself as “seventy-eight years young” and needing a pair of younger arms to help her carry some crops from her rice-fields. And that anyone interested need only show-up. She had a head-shot of herself as well. Silver wedge-cut hair, rather tall and lean looking. Spaghetti strap top that drew attention her muscled shoulders. Xion tittered. She sure was modest.

He scanned the rest of the board. A missing cat here. Some boring guard duty there. A bright, and strangely professional photo caught his eye. It was a picture of the Mountain Villa. The luxury hotel right next to the Hokage Mountain. This certainly was a lot more high-brow. The description for the job says that they need a surveyor with “keen prowess and awareness to search for a blight in the gardens. Preferably a shinobi.”


He could probably do that. And it wasn’t as taxing dragging his feet in rice-field puddles. Mosquitos and everything else. To the same vain as the other few, he only needed to show up, complete his task, and expect a payout at the end. So it’s settled.

_ _ _

The trek up the mountain was funner than he expected. The sun was brighter but the air was a lot cooler up here. He passed under a flower gazebo, adorned by black-eyes in full bloom. This place looked the part, certainly. When he reached the front desk. A younger woman with brown hair, hyper and upbeat, was making herself busy with papers and a phone call. She ended the call just as she approached. Her hair was up in a tight bun, her lips were rosy and shiny. Her eyes were like today’s clear sky.

“Can I help you?” Her face faltered for a moment as she looked him over. Not unusual. But she quickly corrected herself.

“I’m here to survey the garden. You guys put up the ad, right?”

Her eyes lit up. She placed her pen down and poised her hands together. “Yes! I knew it! I could tell as soon as you walked in, Y’know?”

She was very outgoing. Xion didn’t say a word.

“I mean, you’ve got the vibe. The face. And the build! Oh sorry, my name’s Rize. I’m one of the assistant managers of the hotel.”

“Uh--Xion.” He returned.

“Oooh just like the flower! So lovely! Y’know, I think we have a few asters planted around here somewhere. Though I can’t remember where.”

“Um--”

She cupped his cheeks, she was reaching over the counter now. Dead eye contact.  “Wow, your eyes. Those guys are bright!. You from around here?--”

Xion blinked owlishly. Is this--is this really what’s happening. A nervous laugh was forced out of him.

“--It’s almost like you lived--no, evolved somewhere dark.”

Xion’s eyes were wild now. He took a step back to get away from her grip, and she almost fell out of the desk. She sighed in relief as she caught herself. She was expressive, though he supposed anyone who works with people all day ought to be.

“But anyways. I’ll show you the brown patches in the garden. The blight would probably be somewhere around there, wouldn’t it?”

Xion nodded. What, did having a flower name make him an expert now? This was already a bit too odd for him. Maybe he should have went with getting bit up by mosquitoes.

She pointed him in the direction of the patches. Thank goodness they were out of sight. It was awful. The clash it would have with the front of the property would make this place look second rate. And they let it get this bad?

“It’s--not that bad.” His face denied it.

“No, it’s uh--it’s pretty bad.” She crossed her arms.  “If I was head manager I would have gotten someone here to correct this sooner. Better late than never I guess. But that’s why you’re here now--”

She went from looking displeased to her signature smile immediately. “--So whaddya say?”

“I guess. No reason not to commit---”

“--Great! Thanks a bunch!” She poised her hands again. Skipping back inside. “Come get me when you feel like you’ve figured it out. Calls to take, days to make, Buh-bye!”

“Weird lady..”

_ _ _

“Chocolate cosmos? With these bright colors? Doesn’t make sense.”

Xion was crouched over. The suzies and lilies are all but dead or dying. Withering, petals flaking off. Though right next to it was freshly disturbed soil with dark cosmos planted. In contrast, they were lively, their purple pedals plumb. 

Anywhere they were, about a meter or so around them, everything died. It would appear that these were the culprits. Xion retrieved Rize who was more than elated for the news.

“They look freshly planted. So I think finding them all and pulling them out shouldn’t be an issue. I figure--the bigger issue would be stopping whoever did it, from doing it again.”

“Weird.” Rize put her curiosity on her fingertips. “But why? And why would anyone do it for free?”

She knelt down and plucked one off it’s stem. “They’re pretty, sure. A dark beauty to them, yah?. But they don’t go with the garden at all, and their killing everything else. Breaks my heart to see such pretty flowers be torn away.” 

Xion’s face was steeled. But he had to agree. Still, they had a bigger problem if they couldn’t figure out the perpetrator. Easy money, if he had to come back. Though he doubted that he’d be of much use now that they knew the cause.

“I guess I can uproot these for you. And then I’ll be on my way.” She slipped him a note, textured and large. He knew it was his payment.

“Sounds good to me. Thanks again for the help, Mr. Xion. I put a voucher in there too. A discount for a free night. But If you ever just want to hang out, maybe wander the gardens, then that’s fine too.”

She laughed. And Xion’s eyes grew wide. People think of laughing as a noise that comes from the mouth, but when Rize laughed it was nothing like that. The laugh was in her eyes, in the way her face changed into that vision of relaxed joy and unrestrained mirth. Yet truly, it wasn't in her face either. Her laugh came from within, it was just the way she was wired, he thought. People like her just have more flexible brains, like all that humour bubbling around in her was like yoga for the synapses.

He couldn’t help but reciprocate. Genuine laughter and joy outward. Two of the few things to break his icy-calm.

He went to work pulling the cosmos out. Yet as soon as he did, darkness seeped from the wounded earth. Xion’s legs flew over his head as he vaulted backward. He took a good look at the dark cloud. He could see, sense, that this wasn’t ash or regular smoke. It had an eerie, white glow among it’s brume shape. This was--

_ _ _

“--Void energy.” A vision crossed him suddenly, paralyzing. Dirt underneath his fingernails, black cosmos. His face. Same white eyes. But black scleras. That grin of rapturous delight. Was this--his face?

He spoke softly at first--, “Beautiful. Brief. Soon departed. Chocolate cosmos, and The Cosmos are so very alike. They never trivialize the meaning of death by pretending it is anything other than a final parting--” This vision of Xion patted the soil. --Then he lost his composure, veins jutting from his temples and running from his eyes. “AND THAT MAKES REALITY A SAVOURY MORSEL. A FORBIDDEN DELICACY. THE FINEST FLESH. AND I AM HUNGRY.”

“Y-You did this?.”

“I want to see how tainted reality can become. Weaponize the Deep. Use this complex force to create unsolvable problems. Then I’ll see who still want’s to eat--” Xion hadn’t realized it, but his other self had quickly planted more. “--AND JUST WHAT DO YOU ALL SAY TO THAT?”

When a vision struck, Xion was it's prisoner, quite helpless in his cage of confusion. He was blinded with flashing colorful spots and craved darkness, quiet and stillness. Often the nausea would overwhelm him and like now, he would vomit.