Nimbus Child I: Games of War

Chapter 6

Oki didn't have the exact right tools at her disposal for making a shrine, but she had two small candles, a cherry twig that had been knocked down by a storm and a stickman drawing of her god.

It was the worst shrine she had ever seen, but it was the best she had to offer.

She clapped into her hands like she had seen the adults do, then held them together and closed her eyes.

What came next, though? Did she just... start talking or thinking as if she were talking?

Why had no one ever taught her how to do this??

Taking a deep breath, Oki just started whispering her prayer.

She didn't know how often she repeated her words before she was brave enough to open her eyes again, but when she did, she was in a completely different place.

It was obviously a ship's private room in the Concept Communication System, but she didn't know the room nor its owner whatsoever.

There was a big willow with a swing, table and chairs on which two mental models were seated, another standing and holding an umbrella over them.

Oki didn't know them, but she recognized the eerie air – she was in the right place.

One of the sitting mental models, a pale blonde dressed in black that reminded Oki of Kongō, poured a cup of tea, shoved it to the empty place on the table and then tended to her own cup.

The other one, covered by a blue hooded cape and a terrifying black mask stood up slightly to lean forward and pat aforementioned spot in invitation, then sat down again and removed her mask and hood.

That was the god! The colours were different but that face was the exact same!

Overjoyed, Okir rushed over to sit down in a chair, smoothing her hair and dress out.

God – who was acting out the existence of a Fleet of Fog ship, she realized – cocked her head, looking the other over with the same non-saying gaze as in 1944: "Your appearance has changed. Name, too, I have heard."

Oki nodded. Her changes had been nothing big, mere detail changes to her dress and accessories given to her by her sisters: "Yes, Miss God."

She looked at the pale blonde again: Maybe "Mrs." was more fitting by now? Was that this kind of relationship?

That ship had been quiet, keeping herself willfully in the background; yet, her presence was loud, powerful – it was impossible for her to disappear into the shadows as skilfully as the one holding the umbrella.

God, on the other hand, slipped into the background and foreground at will: "So, 797, why have you called? You even built a shrine, did you not?"

A rhetorical question no doubt, especially since there was not much curiosity in the voice (there was not much anything in it, only seriousness, only calculation).

Oki chose to answer anyway: "I...", she played with her dress nervously, "I... just couldn't reach you any other way."

"No. I did hear you:"

Her head snapped up: What...?

The being supported her cheek on the back of a hand, the corresponding elbow on an armrest: "I had to win a war and amuse politicians", the last part was still in effect, it seemed, "there was no time to come for you."

Ah, so that's why.

She could understand it, she could! For God, Oki's Afterlife was... meaningless. It had been made to amuse a child, amuse her, and maybe that ghost fire had had something to do with it as well, but to God it was just another ring of Samsara.