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Kasen Kaneda shared a photo.
9/20 near Home

San-ju-roku Kasen

三十六歌仙. The 36 Immortals of Poetry

My namesake. 歌仙. I was named after these men and women.

And that name, associated with these creators of beauty, was used to carry out an act grave brutality. All for some point I don't even understand.

I could really use someone to talk to right now. Someone who has had

seen great violence. in their new memories.

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-Kasen settled back into his seat, raising a hand to rub at his chin and nose and taking in a breath as he did so. It took him a moment to speak...-

He... used me... to kill 36 of his vassals. Innocent people that had done no wrong, as far as I can know.

Just... killed them, one by one, in front of his son. Some... demonstration of what it meant to be a daimyo, to have life and death in your hands.

[There's a strange sort of understanding that dawns on him then, and he nods his head just a little.]

And it's pretty much impossible, matching that kinda thing up with our lives today. Right?

Exactly. I can't comprehend what he was thinking, or what point he was trying to make. At least not as I am now.

... And I'm not sure I want to.

To be honest, I dunno if we'll ever one hundred percent be able to understand those kinds of things anymore.

[Even though he's acknowledged that his own thought process is becoming distinctly less human than it used to be, that hasn't undone his experiences as a human. He imagines it's the same - or will at least be similar - for his fellows.]

Because that idea of life and death and feudalism is antiquated, or because we're not human?

A little bit of A and B, probably. But in this case? More of A, I think. I mean, just 'cause we were swords before, that doesn't mean what we lived here is less real, yeah? It's way too hard to think of all that war and junk as being normal.

Normal is relative. -Another sigh, rubbing at the bridge of his nose.-

How... many of us are there?

Hah, I can't really argue with that...

But, hm. There's me and Yasusada, you, Rindou, Kenta and Jirou... [Toshi, too, but he seemed reluctant to even show up to the meeting, so Kiyomitsu leaves his name unsaid for now.] And if I'm remembering things right, there were a ton more of us, too.

I know Jirou and Kenta. Jirou's a friend and model I've worked with a lot. The others... vaguely familiar? -He was mostly talking to himself, gathering his thoughts.-

To have so many people collectively remember such a specific thing...

Pretty weird, right? Especially since a lot of people here are kinda just... by themselves.

At least Jirou and Kenta have history together, as far as I know. But I never met a one of you until recently.

-But the fact they're all in the same town...-

Yeah... Yasusada and I have known each other since we were real little, but I didn't meet anyone else until I was way older. Almost makes you wonder how things ended up working out like this, right?

[Creepy as it is to think about, he wouldn't be surprised if Retrospec had a hand in their lives long before coming to Recolle was even a conscious idea in some of their minds.]

So even though some of us had connections prior to this, there was still some force in this city that drew us in, all the same. -Kasen sighed again, humming in thought.-

Are we all simply swords?

Mmmhm. That's what it seems like, anyway. ...I'm not really sure about that, either.

[A BIG SHRUG both literal and metaphoric.]

And I'm still not sure how we went from swords to something more humanoid...

Mm-- I think that might have something to do with someone I remembered, but I'm not sure. [...] I know that's super vague, but I seriously remember like, nothing about 'em or who they were or what they did. Just that they were probably important, I think?

That doesn't help much... I wonder if any of the others' remembers more?

Wouldn't hurt to ask. We only just now figured out we were all kinda experiencing the same things, y'know?

Maybe...

I don't want to sound ungrateful for your own help, though. Knowing I'm not going through this alone helps more than I can really say.

Oh— It's no problem. I'm just glad I could help even a little, y'know? Back when things first started changing for me, I was pretty much the only person I knew going through it all, so I know how much that sucks.

[To say the dang least.]

There was... so much anxiety. Like I didn't understand at all what the memories were telling me. I felt like I was going insane, suffering from severe disassociation... -Kasen sighed again, staring a hole into the table.-

[The only reason he didn't end up facing a similar crisis is probably because he boxed and shoved things away so quickly and still had Yasusada, but he can understand this, at least.]

Mm... You can at least talk to us now, if you want.

I'll keep you in mind, at least. -Well, him and Kenta, but Kenta seemed just as lost as Kasen was, at times. And Jirou hid his feelings behind a veil of booze and self-indulgence.-

I'll do my best to help when I can.

[Considering he spends like 90% of his time pretending sakura fubuki isn't weird, he's probably not a great candidate for helping either but dang if he doesn't try.]

You got any other questions, though?

Do you... have any memories of being used?

Kasen Kaneda shared a photo. 9/20 near Home
San-ju-roku Kasen 三十六歌仙. The 36 Immortals of Poetry My namesake. 歌仙. I was named after these men and women. And that name, associated with these creators of beauty, was used to carry out an act grave brutality. All for some point I don't even understand. I could really use someone to talk to right now. Someone who has had seen great violence. in their new memories.