__ A smile crossed her face after entering in the office and being offered by Kagerou to follow along into the void. Kagami knew that she would have to stay here, in the Sero, with her new friend for a while longer. She needed to master and stabilize her new dojutsu evolution before she could ever contact Toso. It was for his safety that she needed to ensure that this change in her would remain consistent. She was elated to be with her new friend for however long they would be together. In time, Kagami would master the abilities of the Ketsuryugan and make it her primary goal to keep it active for as long as possible,
_______________ ≎Out Of Context≎ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Training coupons used on Ketsuryugan techniques. End of Sero chapter.
Personal Attributes • Smoke and Mirrors | Kagami can cast any and all genjutsu through eye contact with her created mirrors. • Mirror Flower, Water Moon | Kagami gains access to nature's mirror, the water element. • Built to Last | You double the number of posts your mirrors stay active. Additionally, once per battle, you can use Terikaesu (Reflect) without paying its cost. • Area of Denial | Kagami doubles her range of control for her mirrors and gains an additional 75 chakra. • Otherwordly Imagery | Genjutsu performed by Kagami cannot be mimicked or reversed by any means. [ Genjutsu can still be broken, however. ]
Sakkakugan Attribues • Life Sense | Within 100 meters, any type of life is able to be seen as a bright glow, when even the Byakugan cannot see it. • Potent Illusions | Genjutsu performed while Sakkuguan is active are treated to cost an extra [5] chakra per rank of the genjutsu to Kai. • Sixth Sense as the First | With a stationary body, Kagami can detach her vision and walk around to look at things. Cannot physically move during this. • The Gift of Life | Kagami may trade her life for another's, resurrecting them if they were recently killed.
Sanbi Attributes Chakra Cloak Version 1: Basic Effects • Slight fortitude boost. • The host will begin to draw in ambient water towards itself slowly from the environment, drawing in a C ranked amount per post. This water will fall from the sky, rise from the ground, whatever so long as it is coming towards the host. It pools and rests around its feet and stays within an area of 10 feet. • Host can breathe underwater.
HeadlessKoko
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2019 1:01 am
Bonds/Lasting Memory : "I don't have time for you."
Title: Bonds Information: Call it friendship, call it camaraderie, call it a legal obligation. The nurturing of relationships is one of the most fruitful types of narrative. Helping a friend out in a kitchen, helping keep their business alive, being there for them after a bad break up, building new friendships...building new rivals...building new nemesis's. Confronting those nemesis's and exchanging conflicting beliefs in fierce wholehearted heated debate and getting to know the other through their opposition on a new level. Every post made strengthening an existing relationship with an rpc, rewards Ac equal to one's body rank plus [1], maximum . Those interacted with may also be considered to be running this narrative with you albeit their posts are separate from your own. The narrative is considered completed once the parties part ways for another day.
==Begin "Sero Chapter: Severin"==
Lips set in a firm, straight line, crimson eyes glowed with intensity as they stared at an even darker red stain upon the perpetually damp ground. Green hair waved along with the breeze, but otherwise, the body, glistening with sweat and water, remained utterly still.
Suddenly the woman stood up and looked one way, the direction she had come from, following this trail of blood. Then down the other way, the direction she felt that this trail led to but had no conclusive evidence of. Kagerou's fist remained clenched, as it had since the group had been separated by a strange fog that enveloped and choked them the moment they entered. Without sight, she couldn't see what was happening to the others as she struggled to move without touch, fumbling and stumbling towards noises that came and went without warning. However, at least she could hear them. The throttling gasps of those suffocating. The screams of others. The suppressed grunts of pain that would sometimes arise. She heard them all the way until the fog lifted and showed that she was far away from any of the others.
The last half hour had been devoted to frantic searching after that, Kagerou fighting her way through the Sero's tricks and illusions, dealing with obstacles, mental and physical alike, with a brute force completely uncustomary to her usually calm demeanor and the smile that was nigh indestructible. She didn't agree with such undignified methods, but she had to admit that they did make thing go a lot faster, if at greater risk and cost, and as of right now, all she cared about was finding her squad, or rather a particular member of her squad, as fast as possible.
"If separated, meet at the Sero."
That was the standard protocol for these autumnal forays to pacify the Sero and learn more about it, how the land that was once Kiri's could be retaken once more. If only her squad hadn't contained that individual, then she would have followed the protocol... loosely. Perhaps while worrying the whole way, but it was the best course of action. No one knew what they were getting into when they entered Kiri. Every year was different, and there was no time to lead advance groups in. What the Sero would do, where individuals may end up, the limited time and the sheer size of Kirigakure itself all made it impractical to attempt to search for individuals individually. Better for everyone to a rendezvous point if they did get lost. Moreover, each individual permitted within was skilled enough to handle themselves.
However, the Sero has claimed lives before, and the blood back then, she had ascertained through her own means that it had been what she had feared it to be. That is to say, the very individual she was so desperate to keep safe had already been injured in this short time. There was always the risk, and for this particular individual that Kagerou was so desperate to find, she wasn't willing to take that risk. "If I fail..." Kagerou leaped to the top of the nearest, mud-encrusted building and looked across the landscape covered in fog and brown-gray earth, "Never mind broken promises and my own grief... If once again... Uncle... What he would do if he lost again..." Kagerou only cared about finding the smallest hint of life on the earth below. However, the only movement to be found came from shambling mounds of stinking earth and wood, humanoid in appearance and, Kagerou remembered, human in their shrieks of pain as they were destroyed. She didn't care at all for the towering earthern walls that raised high above the blanket of rolling mist, towering into the skies. She had already seen them and the Sero that now seemed even inexorably taller than it usual did, or how it wasn't a trunk that rose from the ground, but a large, towering labyrinthine mound of wooden offshoots that piled upon each other in a confusing mass. The exposed roots tumbled into hills around the main mountain around the Sero, devouring the buildings closest, and then winding their way through the rest of the village. Even where Kagerou stood, still relatively on the edge, a large root extended down the street, another one passed through the building she stood atop, and some ways to her side, there was one more that humped up into the air.
What a sick joke of the Sero to make. Ruefully, Kagerou wondered again just how sentient the tree was. Finding no clues, she dashed off the building in her best guess of the direction, eyes peeled and tracking every small detai that she ran, practically flew, past in the once submerged village. Now, of all times, when the son her uncle had finally managed to find after almost a decade of mourning and then spent another decade painstakingly keeping hidden and safe from prying eyes, happened to be assigned to a mission through the Sero, the Sero decided that it would drain itself this Halloween, reveal the old village, and above it, erect a barrier like night that Kagerou remembered well.
It wasn't that the barrier itself was black, but that water piled so high atop it that it blocked all but a few faint glimmers of light from shining through. About a minute ago, with a resounding crack that boomed like a warning, a spider thin line spread across the barrier. Nothing after that, but Kagerou, who had lived through that trauma, got the message loud and clear. In time, this village will flood, just like the great flood that had claimed the lives of her uncle's wife and child. Really, if the light and life he had finally found once more were to face the same fate... It would be too cruel. Kagerou's face grew colder with that thought. While her eyes continued to radiate that glow, another light within them appeared to dim as some sort of resolve was made to herself. She also, after losing her father and mother, did not want to lose more family. Really, she really couldn't smile under these circumstances.
Something approached her, but she didn't really bother with the grotesque, lamb-eyed, fanged frog head that was attached to a body that looked like the large intestines. She nimbly jumped upon the head that was easily the size of her, and vaulted off of it high into the air, taking advantage of the bird's eyes view as she ran away from yet another encounter on her spiraling journey to the center of the Sero. The way she saw it, assuming her younger cousin was listening to orders, at some point, she should be able to meet him if she continued to spiral around the Sero, gradually getting closer to the center. [54 sentences]
Blood, human blood. Splatters of it decorated the ground and roots in various places around the Sero. The masked man was crouched, fingers running through a hardened puddle of blood. It had to be at least half an hour old, but the question still remained... where did it come from, and could he help? Perhaps even for help out of this hellhole? The male straightened himself up, letting out a sigh, then began to follow the tracks.
It had been a long time, and he had forgotten all of his medical ninjutsu.. but he still knew the steps physical wise and could at least do some field medicine. Practiced bare feet made quick work of the knarled mess of roots, he had mapped them almost entirely out in his head. He knew the in and outs of the Sero, and it seemed like the tree was in a good mood again today...
It was leading him.
The mask man hauled himself up on top of a larger root... and then froze. In his view was a sight he didn't think he'd ever see again. Flashes of green hair were all he saw first, his target was too far away for him to see much else. But he knew that hair, he'd know it anywhere. He knew almost everything about the head that sported that hair, and he'd use that to his advantage.
Quickly, he stalked her. She wouldn't know the difference between him and any of the other monsters that swarmed through the ruins of Kirigakure... after all, she either didn't care or thought him dead. Once he got close enough to see the crimson eyes that had searched his icy depths more than once, he hauled up his makeshift spear to land in his hand above his shoulder and then with one practiced motion he sent it sailing through the air.
It would hit the root in front of Kagerou with a substantial amount of force, so much so that it vibrated with the leftover kinetic energy. Slowly, the masked man emerged from the underbrush, his whole body taut with energy. Behind the grotesque bone mask he wore, his eyes shown with a sickly blue light reflected off the muddy water from the Sero. Anger rolled off him in palpable waves, and under his oily disguise his knuckles were white. She dared leave him... and then come back and not look for him?!
An animalistic growl slowly made his way between his lips as his thoughts spun out of control-- he had cared for her, shown her more respect than he had ever shown anyone, sat beside her through everything, helped her... But then she betrayed him time and time again. First after Kumotake died, she left him to grieve all alone; he had told himself that she was just grieving too and needed time. But friends, best friends, stuck together through everything. Then when she met Sonyo, when he became a smaller portion of her life. He tried not to b***h and moan, because he was still there. How could he complain, Kagerou had so much to do. But then Inka left. That hit hard, but Kagerou was too busy picking up everyone's pieces that she hadn't noticed him falling apart.
"Grow up, Severin. This job is hard, stop complaining."
That had done it. They grew apart so fast, Kagerou no longer had any time for him and he no longer felt comfortable around her. He was a burden, a burden to her, to the village, to the people he cared about. Then she left him alone, she left him to die! Twice! She said something about not having time for him, and that was all he could take. Within a heartbeat, his aggressive stance turned to motion and he was sprinting towards Kagerou. Should she not stop him, he would knock her over in to the mud. The force would dislodge the skull mask from his face, revealing Severin's animalistic snarl and hardened face. His eyes glinted with pure unbridled rage as he held a makeshift dagger to his ex-best friend's throat. Bitter and frustrated tears burned behind his eyes as he forced his voice to work. They came out in a gravel-like growl, strained both from misuse and emotion.
"Do you have time for me now, Kagerou?" He was a shell of his former self; his once pure white hair was stained from mud and sweat and matted beyond belief. His eyes, once kind yet somehow sharp were now surrounded in exhausted circles and were so sharp they could cut through steel. He was thin from periods of starvation, probably matching the thinness Kagerou remembered from him in the hospital when they first met. The expression on his face was pure primal fury, he looked about ready to kill her.
HeadlessKoko
Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 7:13 pm
Bonds/Lasting Memory : "I don't have time for you."
Title: Bonds Information: Call it friendship, call it camaraderie, call it a legal obligation. The nurturing of relationships is one of the most fruitful types of narrative. Helping a friend out in a kitchen, helping keep their business alive, being there for them after a bad break up, building new friendships...building new rivals...building new nemesis's. Confronting those nemesis's and exchanging conflicting beliefs in fierce wholehearted heated debate and getting to know the other through their opposition on a new level. Every post made strengthening an existing relationship with an rpc, rewards Ac equal to one's body rank plus [1], maximum . Those interacted with may also be considered to be running this narrative with you albeit their posts are separate from your own. The narrative is considered completed once the parties part ways for another day.
He was right, much as it would hurt her when she finds out later, but Kagerou did not distinguish the greasy-haired, skull-faced denizen from the rest of the abstract horrors that surrounded him, or rather "it" as she labeled the shamanistic humanoid. They treated him as one of them, a part of the Sero's world, the tree's property.
Who knows. After spending all this time in the Sero, maybe be really was closer to being one of them than who he once was.
She had noticed, however, that "it" was following her. The roots and the mud tangled and swamped each step Kagerou took. It was like a battle against the terrain itself. Meanwhile, from what she heard of the slower footfalls behind her, the ones she would always hear no matter how quickly she tried to move forwards, her hunter moved unimpeded. Sometimes, she would manage to pull ahead, lose the sound of the her tracker's footsteps, only to pause for a bit, intentionally or unintentionally, and then she would hear the steps again. Endurance hunting, that was the term. The Sero was tiring her out, but she remained unbothered. "One obstacle passed, and another follows right after," was her only opinion of the situation, as her eyes glanced at the shadowy figure that skulked after her in the corner of her vision. He saw scarlet eyes, sharp with urgency, burning brightly just like before. She saw only void-filled holes in the skull, black sockets that she assumed lead to nothingness... or a mouth lined with teeth. Either would be fitting with the Sero's flavor. Whatever the monstrosity, however, it no longer fazed her. She'd seen them all. This one didn't matter to her.
That is, until he made himself matter. Kagerou looked down upon the spear that had just lodged itself into the root, inches away from where her foot would have been had she not dodged at the first sound of splitting air. The vibrations within the shaft ceased, and again, she head that familiar sound of crinkling underbush, signalling that someone, something was approaching her. Her eyes turned, but it wasn't worth turning her whole face. She already knew what was going to come out, and how she would prefer to handle it. It mattered not to her if the snarling, mud-covered beast that came out from the water-logged vegetation looked like the avatar of rage itself. Dirty, pale skin crawling with blue veins peeked out in the few spots not completely caked in mud, giving one of the impression of a drowned corpse. The figure was bipedal, and what could be seen of the neck and chin below the skull that was the upper half of the head certainly seemed reminiscent of a human, but that was the Sero's favorite trick. The creature was covered in some sort of bristling fur that draped around its body, and reeked completely of unimaginable scents. Even the chakra, when Kagerou reached out with her sensory abilities, echoed that of the Sero's.
One snarl was his only introduction, then he sprinted over the very mud Kagerou had been forcing her feet through as if it was dry ground. Feet moved nimbly, hers and his. Kagerou turned her body to the side, raised her right hand, bells rang. Her favorite trick. An inconspicuous movement, disguised to look like she was going to do something else. In this case, she looked like she was readying to slam the heel of her palm into the incoming danger. The bells on her wrist rang with the motion, becoming the main culprits for the ninjutsu that was the real goal for Kagerou. However, that was also a red herring, encourage her opponent to focus on her bells, her sounds, and how to get rid of it. In reality, it was the hand that was now conveniently behind her just-turned body. Looking like it plucked invisible strings, these motions were the real catalyst for her chakra to manifest about her in a drapery of green. A silently rustling forest, runes moving across it in deceptively lazy motions.
Fast as the monster moved, it was in almost laughably slow motion to Kagerou. He was anything but a threat at this speed. Never mind having her sharingan active, he moved so much slower than she did. Therefore, once the leaves manifested, timed at the very last instant to ensure maximum accuracy, the fight should have been over. She shouldn't have needed to have that terrible stench, within which she swore she could smell faint traces of human defecation, in her vicinity for more than an instant.
However, it didn't end like that. Instead, at that very instant when her grove of chakra materialized, Kagerou froze. "Wait until you can see the whites of their eyes." She had waited that long, until the enemy was close enough for her to see the grotesquely glowing orbs resting in the shadowy sockets of his skull, and that distorted blue, the shape of the eyes, and even the low growl escaping from the body tackling into her, all triggered something in her mind that told her to stop, pulling at memories and feelings so old that she couldn't possibly disobey, not within that small instant.
Bodies collided, Kagerou was tackled to the ground. Bare skin sank into the soft, moist mud beneath, sending a wave of involuntary shiver through Kagerou as she looked into the revealed face. Looking into the features, the lines and creases she never thought she would ever see, she forgot to breath. Probably for the best, because the stench was truly horrendous.
Sharply impatient eyes versus a barely contained snarl that almost looked like it would gladly tear into her flesh given the chance. An unbridled explosion of raging emotions versus a contained, purposeful, but volatile concentration of panic, worry, and fear.
Her eyes did immediately widen at first when Severin's face came into full view. For a mere moment, a small glimmer of hope as recognition crossed those features, the sheer force of their impact breaking through an otherwise impenetrable concentration. Her materialized personal forest of chakra rustled in brief excitement. Then the hope, the excitement, all of her emotions were gone. Bright eyes went cold. Dead, some might say. Even that heartless blaze that burned within it before was extinguished. The grove of chakra surrounding the two stilled.
The same blue, but sickly. The same face, but twisted into an extreme expression of anger and sorrow. The same body, but sickly and malnourished. Her heart wrenched at the sight, at the Severin she had failed, the friend she had lost through no fault but her own. Every crease, every wrinkle, every disfigurement in that snarl, she deserved. She thought she knew best, and acted without asking or listening him. She thought she would only hurt him if she stayed, and left him alone. Then it was all too late. He had chosen to stay with the Sero, die with the Sero she believed, and she hadn't been there to stop him. She lost Kumotake to negligence. Then despite the promise she had made with herself, she made the same mistake again with Severin.
Severin was dead. No one could survive nearly a decade alone in the Sero. The light in Kagerou's eyes faded away as she accepted that truth, and everything it implied. Eyes locked with what she considered sickly blue replicas, and... And she couldn't just accept it and get it done with. Her hands clenched into the first thing they could find, that being the horrendously shaggy cloak Severin had on, until her knuckles were white. Shortly after, in a fit of rare rage, Kagerou's chakra exploded. Slit her throat for all she cared. She was going to have this much at least. Threatening her remaining family wasn't enough? The Sero really had to bring her dead friends in too to push her to the limit? What was next in this trend? Make her kill her mother again?
Through eye contact, Kagerou's sharingan shifted lenses to cast a bloodline genjutsu that would immobilize Severin in place. Normally, she refrained from this technique. No matter how powerful it was, she did not like causing pain, and the imaginary stakes that drove through the target's body as part of this technique happened to cause a lot of pain. Through his legs, feet, arms, and hands, black spikes would suddenly materialize and pierce the skin, every inch of flesh affected by the brutal method of this genjutsu feeling the effects of being stabbed and pierced with perfect clarity, the clarity of someone who had, at one point in their life, routinely endured the same treatment. There would be pain, but no slack to move the limbs even an inch. One stake in particular, the one that ran through Severin's knife hand, would give the impression that it had also stabbed straight through Kagerou's throat. [Magen: Kasegui no Jutsu]
A hand reached up, tantalizingly slowly, its progress announced by the bells that rang upon the wrist, and cupped over the top of the blade pressed down on her throat, unimpeded unless Severin had already found a way to kai from the genjutsu. Hand clenched down on the blade as, Kagerou finally unleashed the attack she had intended to make at the very beginning, before all of this happened, and she was confused to the point that it felt liker her heart was being ripped out. Her trees of chakra glowed bright, and from within their depths, a tornado of kikaichu, ants to be exact, was released, battering and tearing Severin off of Kagerou while her own hand, gripping the blade so tightly that she even began to bleed, made sure to wrest the weapon out of his hands. [Ant-nadoes from the Green Aburame Ranger Kagerou fought right before the Kogarashi War]
It was an S-ranked attack, so naturally, it should have been enough to kill Severin provided he did not manage to find some way to defend. Severin probably felt like he was about to die after getting hit. However, even if he took the blow full force, he wouldn't be dead. He wouldn't even be all that injured. Bruised and in pain, yes, but nothing broken. Not even a sprain or a concussion. Kagerou couldn't. Even after all of that, she just couldn't land that final blow.
Slowly, with impeccable grace, the same elegance her mother always moved with. One bleeding hand continued to hold the dagger without so much as a flinch. She gazed apathetically at Severin, neither cold nor hot. It was perfect. Her form, her figure, the way she held herself without a single unnecessary movement. She was perfect as the avatar of a cold tool who simply didn't care. Breathily, she admitted, "I'm glad Nozomi isn't here," yet it was also a lie. If Nozomi was here, surely she would try to stop Kagerou from doing what she thought she needed to do.
No one could see how much she trembled inside.
If Severin didn't release himself from the genjutsu, the spikes would continue to render him immobile, painfully pinning his body to the ground. The perfect opportunity to kill, but she couldn't take it.
She was hesitating. She needed something to hide that hesitation. Her voice, soft yet clear, alluring yet cold, would put Severin's guttural grunting to shame as she gave him a belated answer to his one question, "I don't have time for you."
She could feel something coming, hitching her breath and itching her eyes. She ceased her already soft breathing and closed her eyes to stop the flow. Smooth, perfect, the very picture of a collected kunoichi who didn't think her target worthy of looking at after giving out a cool single-liner. It wasn't enough, though.
Why did the Kiritani make their children suffer through such harsh training?
Because a single tear, like the one sliding down Kagerou's cheek in self-loathing, could spell life or death in a mission.
[124 sentences]
▰ Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique [ Magen: Kasegui no Jutsu ] ▰Rank: A ▰Primary Sense: Touch ▰Additional Senses: Sight ▰Base Duration: 4 Posts ▰Upkeep: 40 Chakra ▰Trigger: Eye Contact ▰Source: Touch Phantasm ▰Status Effect: Mental Stress ▰Description: Firstly, this technique requires the Hypnotism Lens. The opponent is caught in the illusory world created by the user, and the victim is tormented with the sensation of having spikes driven through their limbs, taking away their body's freedom. At the same time, the physical pain accompanying the illusion reveals that the greatest use this technique has is torture Disables all forms of pain as a method for escaping from illusions, during the duration.
The surge of hope and excitement from Kagerou startled him, Severin had not expected those emotions to flow so blatantly from the sharingan user. It was only when that hope was quickly extinguished that he was able to lie to himself again, to tell himself it was a ruse. But the hopeful part still somehow buried deep inside him slowed him, and caused him not to react quicker when she grabbed his cloak.
He should have known better, he should have learned from the scars that adorned him that you couldn't let your guard down. Within moments he was skewered, and then beaten within what felt like and inch of his life. He made no sound outside of the air escaping him from the sheer impact of the kaichu, and when he was sent flying he laid motionless on the ground. He couldn't move, he couldn't lift his head to look Kagerou in the eyes.
He could only stare up at the branches of the Sero.
It started with a sound not unlike a cough, but then quickly dissolved in to hysterical laughter. Of all the ways he could die, never once had he imagined it would have been by Kagerou's hands. It was hilariously cruel, like a final punchline from the universe. He had taken such careful steps to treat her with the upmost respect, to let her intelligence and kindness be the things he noticed and not anything else.
She deserved that, she had deserved that for every moment she had taken care of him in that hospital. But here she was, willing to end his life. The pain from being stabbed and shish kabob'd didn't seem to bother him in the slightest, and it didn't. He had endured much worse in the past decade.
Severin's hoarse laughter slowly began to die down, allowing him a moment to speak. "What are you waiting for, Kagerou? You're not one to hesitate. Finish me off already!" Words spat with venom weaved through chuckles as Sev's tired eyes stared upwards at the sickening blooms above him. How ironic... He was constantly surrounded by flowers, yet none of them ever heeded his call.
The sero had stollen many things from him, his bloodline seemed to be one. Severin quieted, his mouth drawing up in to a sneer. "I cared for you. More than anyone else. More than Kumo, more than Inka. It's good to have a final confirmation before I die that it wasn't reciprocated." Severin's unkempt nails dug in to the flesh of his palms, but his eyes were steadily staring upwards with outright defiance.
"C'mon now. I thought Kiritani never wavered."
The quote was from one of his very sleepless nights back when he had still worked beside Kagerou in the hospital. It had been a hard day of many losses, and this was still a time in which Kagerou tried to nurse Severin's broken ego. He had asked her how she still went on on days like this, how she always seemed so calm. She had told him that she was trained at a young age to never waver, to do everything with a practiced hand.
Severin remembered being sad for her, wishing he had been there when they had both been younger. He remembered thinking they were a good fit as a team, both trained practically from birth by parents who didn't quite care enough. He had been so wrong, which was only driven home clearer the more he fell behind her. The more his sympathy weighed him down, the more he fell apart. She had been made of tougher stuff than him.
The sneer grew pained, but it was easy to tell that it wasn't from the spikes that had otherwise not bothered him up in till now. When he spoke again, it was a growled command. "Put me out of my ******** misery. I can't get out of this place, I minds as die here too."
HeadlessKoko
Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 1:09 am
Bonds/Lasting Memory : "I don't have time for you."
Title: Bonds Information: Call it friendship, call it camaraderie, call it a legal obligation. The nurturing of relationships is one of the most fruitful types of narrative. Helping a friend out in a kitchen, helping keep their business alive, being there for them after a bad break up, building new friendships...building new rivals...building new nemesis's. Confronting those nemesis's and exchanging conflicting beliefs in fierce wholehearted heated debate and getting to know the other through their opposition on a new level. Every post made strengthening an existing relationship with an rpc, rewards Ac equal to one's body rank plus [1], maximum . Those interacted with may also be considered to be running this narrative with you albeit their posts are separate from your own. The narrative is considered completed once the parties part ways for another day.
She didn't dare trust herself to speak or move, for fear of betraying even more. It was no small blessing, to Kagerou, that her tear had gone unnoticed. Of course, she didn't make the same mistake again. Her tears stopped, but that didn't mean her emotions had.
He was laughing. A distorted laugh that was nothing like what she remembered, yet thinking of how different it was only made her think of him more. A mad, painful laugh, equal parts desperate and apathetic. The sound landed flat in the mud, but it echoed in her reeling head as she worked up the resolve to make the final blow. If Severin was still alive, she was sure he would have laughed with this kind of pain. After all, she had abandoned him. When he needed her, she wasn't there, and when he stayed behind at the Sero, an act akin to suicide, she had failed to stop him. Just like she had failed to stop Kumotake. Just like she had failed to stop her mother. Each time, she was busy with something else, but no amount of excuses would change the conclusions they faced. She wished he would stop laughing.
His laughter eventually died down to chuckles interspersed by poisoned words. Ironically, his insistence on death was what gave Kagerou second pause. She could not trust what he said about caring for her more than Inka or Kumotake, but asking to die? Now, that sounded off. The Sero was manipulative, tricky. It was not something to be trusted, but it was also predictable. It wanted to hurt, and it did so in typical fashion. Mockery was not the choice of poison Kagerou heard. It was a hate and despair that stabbed deep into her heart, but such were not the Sero's weapons of choice, not usually. The Sero was dramatic, if nothing. It would not allow the body of its trauma to simply lie there and do nothing. It did not understand the subtleties of human nature enough to give such details like the taut muscles in the wrist as finger nails dug deeply into the palm. The sneer that crossed the face should have long since stretched into a horrific caricature of a human face.
Her mind reeled, took a step back, but then a step forward. Was this just her desperately trying to find an out? To believe in something that couldn't be true? Or were these valid observations? Was her analysis of this situation going to prevent her from taking an innocent life? A cherished life? All of that resolve disappeared as the hope surged back. If only it really was him, but then if it really was him, what had she done? The despair returned. It could be him. Didn't she just realize earlier that, if he had been still alive, she could imagine his laugh would have come out just like that? Then, to Severin... She had just now... Unstoppered, the trembling started to appear, starting in Kagerou's hand and then shuddering all the way up to her shoulders.
Severin should be dead. However, if this was the real Severin... She didn't have the time now to be hesitating.
Her silence had evidently gone long enough for Severin to remind her what the Kiritani ought to be. In a voice, hoarse and unfamiliar, he repeated to her lines she once said to him. However, somehow, in a way that Severin probably never meant, it sounded reassuring, like advice from an old friend. Was this all just an illusion from a Sero?
Kagerou looked upon the sneer, now pained when it wasn't before. Living, did it hurt that much? She felt sorry. She was so, so sorry, and she had yet to even decide if this Severin was the real deal.
If she stepped forward, would she be falling into a trap? It looked so real, though, that she wasn't even sure if she would hate falling for such a trap... Kagerou clenched her own hand tightly, the hand that was still wound around Severin's knife. The sharp edge dug into her skin, deepening the bleeding wound that already existed. The pain shot through her mind and cleared it. Such thinking would only befuddle her and muddle her decisions. It was unacceptable.
More silence followed, during which Kagerou moved without a sound. Her bells muffled, she gestured with a hand to create a clone besides her, her face paling with the exertion of transferring so much chakra at once. However, she didn't allow herself to waste any more time. At once, the original and clone separated, one leaving Severin while the other stayed to see this through to whatever end there might be.
Severin would feel the spikes impaling his body suddenly leave, releasing him of the pain and immobility. At the same time, footsteps would come closer. A bloody knife would be tossed onto the ground besides him. Though, the hand of the one who tossed it, should he bother to look, would be uninjured. Perhaps Kagerou had healed the wound? It would make sense for the medic. Red eyes staring contemplatively into the muddy, yet familiarly pale blue, Kagerou asked with a searching look she had used on Severin far too many times in the past, "Severin, is that you?". Her voice had returned to its state of calm. It could not be called particularly soothing, but it was at least neutral, and Kagerou's neutral voice had a little bit of that comfort to it and a little bit of that melodic lilting.
Sev gave himself a moment to just lay there in the mud while the pain faded, he didnt even flinch when Kagerou tossed the knife beside him. What goddamn right did she have to be angry? The raigyo slowly hauled himself in to a sitting position as the adrenaline from the pain drained from his body, and the days of starvation set in heavily on his shoulders. His half lidded eyes slowly snaked up Kagerou’s body, she was close enough to see without trouble now. Despite being covered in the rank, boggy mud, she had grown up stunningly ********, the universe was cruel.
Eyes, now angry once again, set upon Kagerou’s stoic face with their sickly blue orbs. His hand reached over and grabbed the knife, but after a moment it became clear it was only a defensive action as he held it close to his side in a vain attempt to protect himself should she attack again. Where he wilted, she had grown and thrived in to a strong shinobi. She could easily kill him, but he’d go down fighting.
Her words ripped out a harsh bark of laughter from him, that suddenly stopped when he realized she was serious. Severin’s searing hues searched her face, finding clues and purchase— he knew her as well as she knew him. Slowly, his eyes grew wide as the realization dawned on him exactly what those words meant. He snickered, sharp like obsidian as he peered through eerily glowing slits.
“Oh my god, you thought I was dead. You rationalized being a s**t person, a horrid frie- ABANDONING ME-“ his voice boomed out, his anger reaching critical, “-by forcing yourself to think that I had died, so you wouldn’t feel bad about not coming back to find me. Dead and gone is dead and gone, dont need a body for that scapegoat.” Slowly, with whatever energy his rage could muster, he rose to his feet and tossed the dagger to the ground.
”But here you are, confronted by the reality your brain can’t grasp to be true.” Severin began to approach the Kiritani, his eyes boring holes in to her. His voice, when he spoke again was a high pitched mockery, ”This can’t be true! He can’t be alive! Poor, weak, fragile-hearted Sev could never survive the Sero!” He snorted, continuing, having come to a stop in front of Kagerou now.
It had been years but he was still taller, so he had to glower down at her.
”Well you’re wrong, there’s no convenient excuse for your abandonment. You left me to rot, alone. Look at what you’ve made me in to Kagerou— I’m no better than them, I’m barely human!” He could feel her disgust, disgust at him— how he looked, smelled, felt. He waited for her to leave again; leave him to die, to wither away in to nothing. He was disgusting, sub-human, fit to kill. Would she end his pain before she left him here to die?
HeadlessKoko
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2019 11:12 pm
Bonds/Lasting Memory : "I don't have time for you."
Title: Bonds Information: Call it friendship, call it camaraderie, call it a legal obligation. The nurturing of relationships is one of the most fruitful types of narrative. Helping a friend out in a kitchen, helping keep their business alive, being there for them after a bad break up, building new friendships...building new rivals...building new nemesis's. Confronting those nemesis's and exchanging conflicting beliefs in fierce wholehearted heated debate and getting to know the other through their opposition on a new level. Every post made strengthening an existing relationship with an rpc, rewards Ac equal to one's body rank plus [1], maximum . Those interacted with may also be considered to be running this narrative with you albeit their posts are separate from your own. The narrative is considered completed once the parties part ways for another day.
The laughter grated at Kagerou's ears, a prelude to the words that would stab into her, like dozens of knives. Like the blades of her mother's puppets, cold steel that slipped effortlessly into the body, shining with poison that turned the body numb while making the blood run warm. Except, the poison that Severin dipped his words in did not give such a pleasant death.
Assailed by words, Kagerou did nothing but stand there, shaking, as Severin stepped closer and closer. Each second spent searching for the smallest of lapses, the smallest of mistakes. Looking into his eyes and every line on his face, hearing the words spat out at her, feeling that pain in her chest, she could confirm. This wasn't the Sero's trick. Not this time. This time, this toxic tongue that hated her with every fiber of its being was true.
She thought of a poem she once read. His words were drenched in venomous hate. They had been aged, long past the first flames of passionate fury and anger. Alone, left abandoned in the Sero, his words, rough as they were, had grown cold. He spoke loudly. He spoke with exclamations, but there was only freezing hate in his tone. It had even less emotion than when he had pressed her down, knife to her throat, and demanded if she thought he was still a waste of time. In her impatience, in her foolishness, she'd chosen to answer that question by almost killing him. No, most definitely, she had intended to kill him. She simply couldn't bring herself to out of her own weakness. His heart had perished twice, and Kagerou was afraid that she had, here and now, been the reason for its second death.
Was that really the case? Kagerou, with her gaze still poring into Severin's, reading and watching, believed it was, and though she admitted, as evident by the trembling she felt shake through her hands, she was perhaps not in the best mind to make sound judgement, she deserved all of it. She deserved this sort of hatred. She deserved to feel this pain in believing such was the case. After everything she had done, she deserved it all. What she didn't deserve, however, was letting show any of the pain she was feeling. The others side was the true victim, the ones suffering more than she could even begin to imagine. No matter how great, no matter how many years she had quietly held in her memories all of the individuals she had failed, she was better than that. She was strong, favored with the blessing of finding a way, any way, to hold her head up and walk forwards, believing that there was a better tomorrow. She didn't need sympathy and shouldn't expect it.
She deserved sympathy even less from Severin. What was a few moments of heart rending pain to having to survive for over half a decade, alone? He clearly had no company. He, alone, was lucky enough to have survived. All the decaying corpses Kagerou saw that first Halloween after the Sero had clammed up. There were too many to record all of them. Even more had died while they were tallying the deceased, the Sero being the fickle monster it always had been, and the humans having been fools who sent a small army in to assess the damage and "conquer" the Sero. The second year, there was another attempt to retrieve those deceased who were lost; this time, with smaller forces that were much more successful at surviving. More corpses had been added to the existing, those from the small army that hadn't been able to leave the Sero in time. They, some of the nation's best soldiers, had all succumbed to the great tree's madness and dangers over the course of the years. The message was clear. All those that remained with the Sero, died. All those, except Severin. Kagerou couldn't even imagine what it must have been like, to live through over five years in a place where the madness killed the most experienced. To have endured all of that alone? What that must have cost?
She did not defend herself. She tried her utmost to cease the unstopping shaking when facing the apathy Severin treated her trembling body, railing on as he now glowered down at her. "What have I done?" The thought reeled circles in Kagerou's head, barely holding back tears behind eyes that continued to stare up.
"He is right. I thought he was dead.
He is right. I abandoned him in the end.
He is right. I couldn't believe he was still alive.
He is right. I didn't think he could be strong enough to survive.
He is right. No excuse can justify that I left him to rot, alone, and then even tried to kill him on sight.
I made him into who he was now. No reason could ever be reason enough for what happened. I should have been better.
He has no reason to care for me, who had failed him."
He was a better friend than she could have ever asked for. Someone who had always been there for her, supported her. She'd rarely call for him because whenever she thought she might want his company or help, she'd find he was there already. When Shadow disappeared from the village and Takeda would pretend she didn't exist, she could always count on Severin. He was her best friend. Friends, best friends, were the people she wanted to lose the least, the people she should have protected only second to her family. She had failed him in every way possible. Like that time so many years ago, in the weeks following when she was finally forced to accept Severin's "death" after losing Jim because of her folly, she felt guilt and regret wrack through her entire being. Back then, it was because she had failed to keep him alive. Now, it was because she had failed to continue believing he was alive.
However...
However...
She had failed him. He had every reason to hate her. He probably never wanted to see her again, much less touch her. She had ruined it all that they had. All that Severin had. Knowing all that, Kagerou's heart hurt so much, but despite it all. She was hurting only because Severin was alive. These emotions, and her trust in her emotions, were her final confirmation that this was the real Severin.
Even more than everything else combined. Even more than the pain, the regret, and the guilt, Kagerou felt an even greater tide of relief. Severin was alive. Alive! The friend she thought was dead. He was dirty. His stench was horrid. He was worse than the homeless in Giman's dirtiest alleys, but it was better than the stench of corpses, at least. Of rotting flesh and loved ones dead or hurt. Here was Severin, and the tide his return brought would never wash Kagerou of her crimes, but she... she believed she could bear it. No, she would not fault Severin if she was never forgiven.
"I'm barely human!" he screamed into her with years of pent up frustration.
And what did Kagerou do? Her body still quavering like a leaf about to fall, with eyes that fought to remain strong, she cracked a smile because Severin was alive and screaming at her. He had been so kind as to walk up to her and close the distance between them, so she took that last step forward to closed the gap between them and leaned into him. Her hands, before he could kick her off or worse, wrapped around his waist, gripping him tight and, for at least this moment that she probably didn't even deserve to have, refusing to let go. Her smile widened when she found that her nose still rested in the same general spot on his shoulder, and god, did he stink. Wait, no, not quite. Her nose was a little higher than it should be, just slightly. Still, that was likely because she had since lost her "original" shape amidst all of her transformations. It was close enough. It was good enough.
It was okay if she was hated. It was okay if he never wanted to see her again. So long as he was alright. So long as he would be alright.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." Did she even have any right to apologize?
She cracked a smile and Sev nearly exploded, his shoulders shook in rage, the edges of his vision went red. Was she really laughing at him now? At his suffering, at his pain? At the fact he was a monster now?! His hands gripped in to fists, his lips pulled back in to a snarl, his thoughts were racing with all the ways he was going to beat that smile off her face. He would decimate it so that she’d never smile again, so that she’d have her jaw wired shut for months or maybe he’d just rip the whole ******** thing off—
He tried to flinch away as Kagerou pressed against him. This was it, she was really going to kill him. Sev remained tense for a moment with Kagerou’s arms around him, ready for a knife in his back or a genjutsu that would end him. His entire body shook, his sickly green-blue eyes wide with the absolute fear he felt. He didn’t need to his his facial expression, Kagerou couldn’t see her face was pressed in to his shoulder- oh. It had been so long since he had last had human interaction, he had forgotten what a hug was.
Something inside him broke, something that had been threatening to fail for a very long time now.
Severin’s body relaxed as Kagerou apologized, his shoulders slumped, his forehead dropped to rest on her shoulder. Was.... was she really sorry? He wanted so desperately for it to be true; for him to matter as much to her as she mattered to him. His throat and eyes began to burn, not with anger this time but the threat of tears. He kept telling himself he wouldn’t cry— it was a promise he made to himself the night everything went to hell, so he hadn’t. For almost a decade he hadn’t cried; and now all those tears we’re threatening to drown him.
Slowly his hands raised, carefully gliding over Kagerou’s skin it till they fully wrapped around her, holding her tight to him. He had missed her so much... she even still smelled the same. He buried his face in to her shoulder, and within moments Kagerou would feel the skin there begin to become damp. Tears. He had broken his promise. Severin’s shoulders slowly began to shake; first only once, then again, then again, then suddenly over and over. He was too weak to grip at her, but the pressure he pressed the Kiritani to himself was enough. His voice broke and wobbled when he finally brought himself to speak.
”Please don’t leave me here again...”
HeadlessKoko
Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:01 pm
Bonds/Lasting Memory : "I don't have time for you."
Title: Bonds Information: Call it friendship, call it camaraderie, call it a legal obligation. The nurturing of relationships is one of the most fruitful types of narrative. Helping a friend out in a kitchen, helping keep their business alive, being there for them after a bad break up, building new friendships...building new rivals...building new nemesis's. Confronting those nemesis's and exchanging conflicting beliefs in fierce wholehearted heated debate and getting to know the other through their opposition on a new level. Every post made strengthening an existing relationship with an rpc, rewards Ac equal to one's body rank plus [1], maximum . Those interacted with may also be considered to be running this narrative with you albeit their posts are separate from your own. The narrative is considered completed once the parties part ways for another day.
He couldn't see her eyes when they widened at the touch of his hands skimming across her exposed waist. She couldn't believe it. He was hugging her back? Her body shivered, a different sort of shaking from the trembling earlier, at the cold touch that concluded by clasping behind the small of her back, bringing her closer than before. It wasn't the cold that surprised her. She could at least be happy that she could feel his heart beating strongly through their connected chests, but there was so much more that brought her concern. Severin's whole body had been cold, and was worrying her with its low body temperature, the ribs that poked through the bare skin, clammy and wet with the cold of going shirtless in Kiri's misty climate, and the bony arms she could feel at her sides. Then the lesions on his skin from old wounds and scars. Not to mention, the new ones she had made.
She bit her lower lip, smile trembling as she was hit full force, once again, by the memory of attacking him. It hadn't been a physical strike, but her mind didn't listen to reason on this one point. She relived, in a moment, the release of the technique and then filled in the blanks. The collision of the thousands of voracious ants into Severin, bruising and tearing at his skin. Kagerou's fingers twitched, suddenly feeling like she was very, very dirty.
She swallowed back the bile, and leaned even closer into Sev even though there wasn't any more room to lean into. Her head leaned to the side, rubbing the top of her head against the side of his as she focused on him. A hand raised from his back to pat the top of his head in comfort. She could feel the fall of his tears on her own shoulder, the way his sobs wracked through his body. Was he crying? The guilt that had never left revived, but there was also... a strange happiness. The peaceful smile returned. Severin was here, back in her arms, and he hadn't rejected her like she had been so afraid he would, like she had expected him to.
"He is still alive. Focus on that, Kagerou. Focus on that," she reminded herself as her own tears slid down her cheeks, much to her own surprise. Immediately, she tried to quell the emotions, letting out an involuntary gasp, a sob that she had failed to stop completely and so came out as some kind of strangled breathing. She was smiling like usual, but also crying, and to her mild distress, she could not stop. Biting down on her lips in a vain attempt to stem the flow before letting out breathy exhales, she stood there, unable to stem the flow of tears until finally, she found control of herself once again. Her eyes lowered briefly, and though her hands continued to touch Severin softly, one sending reassuring pats and the other holding steady on his back, a hardened determination passed through the kunoichi's gaze. This time, even if it was only Severin and her cousin, she would get them out. It was not sensible, illogical, and very much favoritism. However, she was only human, and as someone only human, she was afraid she might break if she lost Severin again. To lose someone once was hard enough. Losing someone twice? She hoped she will never have to know what that felt like.
Kagerou's eyes raised to the great barrier dome still raised above them. Then, without turning her head, her eyes scanned side to side for any danger as she continued to comfort the still weeping Sev. It was only his trembling voice that brought Kagerou's gaze back to Severin. She hesitated, for just a moment, before gently pushing themselves apart, not completely, but enough that they could face each other. The hand on his head slid down to his cheek and the other hand also tentatively reached up to lower his forehead to hers. Their foreheads touching and eyes so close Kagerou could see the colors that radiated through the iris, see that familiar ice blue next to the tinges of green and greenish-yellow that gave it the new sickly shade it had, Kagerou locked eyes with Severin. She tried to smile like she hadn't been crying with Severin just now, but the red that rimmed her eyes were a dead giveaway. "Until death do us part," she tried a joke on for size with her smile, even giving a single-syllable laugh, but quickly grew somber once again when she felt that it didn't feel quite right. Of course, it wouldn't feel right. She had just nearly killed Sev. Unable to meet his eyes any longer, Kagerou released Severin and stepped away, hands pulling back, one hand gripping the arm of the other. She turned away, using the excuse of keeping a watch.
However, it was clear her attention was still on Severin. The bells that rang with her swaying motions and the small taps her hand beat out on her arm cast a quick series of techniques on Severin. Severin would feel a gentle warmth flow through his body, warming him from the outside in and soothing the pain of his fresh injuries [Hot Hug Technique [MEDIC]]. Following that, Kagerou healed the wounds, matching the S-rank damage with the S-rank Mystical Hands healing technique then carefully cleaned his body with several waves of Cleanse [ Kiyomaru ] to wipe of the grime, dirt, and stench. Though, she didn't bother cleaning the mud off of her own body for some reason, likely to conserve chakra. Kagerou confirmed, her eyes darting to a suspicious rustle on one side, "I will definitely make sure you make it out here alive," then asked, "Are there any other survivors?". The chances were almost none, but so had the chances of finding Severin. At this point, anything could be possible.
[58 sentences]
▰ Hot Hug Technique [ Hotto Houyo ] | Rank D [MEDIC] A technique that must be used with a Basic Combat Skill to grapple a target or a Style's technique to do so. The user channels their chakra to heat their body's surface temperature while they are latched on to the target. The target's skin is given tier one burns on contact. This technique has an upkeep cost of five chakra and ends if the grapple is broken. If the technique remains in effect on the target for more than two posts, the burns on the target are elevated to tier two.
▰ Mystical Hand Technique [ Shousen Jutsu ] | Rank S Uses chakra to mend any and all wounds. Any stamina lost through any tier of trauma is automatically restored to the patient. If this technique is used on a target which has not endured trauma then they gain stamina double to the cost of this technique. If this technique is used on oneself then the stamina is only equal to the rank of the technique.
▰ Cleanse [ Kiyomaru ] | Rank E Removes all bacteria, dirt, blood, and other contaminants from the user and their target. Grants a boon to adrenaline where neither the user nor the target can be effected by any status effects which affect a target through pathological means for one post.
Bonds/Lasting Memory : "I don't have time for you."
Title: Bonds Information: Call it friendship, call it camaraderie, call it a legal obligation. The nurturing of relationships is one of the most fruitful types of narrative. Helping a friend out in a kitchen, helping keep their business alive, being there for them after a bad break up, building new friendships...building new rivals...building new nemesis's. Confronting those nemesis's and exchanging conflicting beliefs in fierce wholehearted heated debate and getting to know the other through their opposition on a new level. Every post made strengthening an existing relationship with an rpc, rewards Ac equal to one's body rank plus [1], maximum . Those interacted with may also be considered to be running this narrative with you albeit their posts are separate from your own. The narrative is considered completed once the parties part ways for another day.
Huddled all by his lonesome in the corner of the gateway of a dilapidated estate, a small preteen, hardly more than a boy, darted his fearful eyes back and forth. Pale skin, light eyes, white hair, he looked like a ghost, a perfect fit for the Sero's flavor of spooky, except that anything ethereal about him was ruined by his dirty and haggard appearance. He was muddy, tired, and had a skinned knee to boot, and though he had been trained to see through the mist like any other Kiritani shinobi worth their salt, the mists of this abandoned village carried with them a strange atmosphere. To his virgin ears, this being his first expedition through the Sero, the whispers most others had learned how to mostly tune out slipped and wormed into the cracks of his mind.
However, there was something to say about his talent. As helpless and young as he looked, not more than a few meters away from him were scattered the corpses of several wooden zombies, bark demolished so thoroughly that the bleeding innards oozed out. Then, there was that... monstrosity that sat all the way at the other end of the gate, the reason why the child was trying to disappear into his corner. The teddy bear with beady spider eyes and a mouth that looked like some sort of deep sea worm's would occasionally breathe out a small waterfall of centipedes, but otherwise... It hadn't attacked the boy yet.
"Kageroooooou," the child who would always insist on being treated like an adult silently cried, "You promised you wouldn't let anything happen to meeeeeee," as he flinched as another deluge of centipedes were breathed out and then quickly buried/melted their way into the swampy ground. "Is it okay???" he wondered, trying to ignore the equal parts disgust and fear that rose up from his gut, "Is it really okay for me to be here? That thing isn't just collecting centipedes in the ground to have them rise up all at once and horde me all at once, right? Right?!". Who made him come here?! Who told him it was a good idea?! He was going to punch them in the face once he got out of thi- Oh, that's right. It was him. He was the one who had insisted and thought it was a good idea. A good way of proving himself... Well, Kagerou should have stopped him anyways.
===
Kagerou sneezed as she caught a stab with one hand and forced it off to the side, avoiding any major damage to her torso in exchange for a bleeding gash on her left hand. Releasing the wooden spike that the Sero corpse had attacked her with, she ran straight through the opening. Such a strange timing for a sneeze. She didn't think it was possible. Was someone thinking about her? It better be that cousin of hers, sitting safe and sound while thinking about if she was going to get to the Sero safely after all the trouble he put her through. She gritted her teeth. Her cousin better be safe.
Fleeing as she clutched her bleeding hand, she assessed the damage done by that unlucky encounter. To get caught in the middle of all of that had been her own folly. She had been rushing too much, but... what else could she do but rush? With a grimace on her face, Kagerou ripped a shred of cloth off of her armor and hastily bandaged her hand. She didn't choose to heal the wound, reserving what little chakra she had left in her body, just like how she had chosen earlier to take damage from the attack instead of expending stamina to dodge it fully.
Seriously, though. She was disappointed in herself. It hadn't even been five minutes since she parted with her clone, leaving it with Severin and the bulk of her energy, and she was already injured. Not just her hand, but without the luxury of spare chakra, it was getting harder to dash her way through the once underwater village easily. The mud stuck to the soles of her shoes like it had a life of its own. The branches were uncooperative. The underbrush whipped and tore at her skin. She couldn't shake off the roots that entangled around her legs when she was least looking. Oh, look. Another zombie, she jumped atop a nearby house and, best as she could, avoided all contact with it, running away as she continued her spiral into the Sero, eyes peeled for any signs of life. She found none. By this point in the mission, she didn't know if that was a good sign or a bad sign.
She expected that she would be suffering a lot more damage with this body, but that had been the plan all along. If her hunch had turned out to be wrong, the clone could disperse without a problem and she wouldn't have lost any precious time. If her hunch had been right, then the clone needed the bulk of her resources to protect itself and Severin while also amending the awful mistake she had committed with her attack earlier. Her body, on the other hand, was much sturdier than the clone's. It could take some damage, and as for the limited chakra and stamina she kept within it, she needed to use it sparingly. Especially her chakra. Who knew what state her cousin would be in, or any of the others.
Thinking about the clone, though. It hadn't been long, certainly, but that it hadn't been dispersed by now likely meant that her hunch had been right. It had been Severin she had met just then, which meant, she really had hurt Severin. She'd thought him dead, then tried to kill him on their first meeting. Her fist clenched, and in her distraction, she slipped and fell, tripping on a grappling root. With a twist and a turn, she returned her muddy body upright and continued, spiked wooden vines scraping against her skin as she broke free. Even with sickening guilt churning in the pit of her stomach, she couldn't let herself be distracted and fail. She crashed face-first into a low-hanging branch. The branch wasn't even doing anything weird. This one just existed, and she crashed into it. Just as quickly as before, Kagerou picked herself and continued on. This was why she couldn't lose focus. The foliage was getting denser now that she was in probably the last spiral to the Sero.
Huffing and puffing, she pushed herself to continue at her swift pace that had brought her across all of this distance in such a short time. She would be coming upon the base of the giant tree pretty soon and, hopefully, reuniting safe and sound with the squads sent into the village. If not, then that was why her real body was here, so its durable self could be sent out to search for the others before whatever arbitrary time limit ran out.
[72 sentences]
Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2020 2:44 pm
Severin was more than thankful for the clense-- literally layers of grime and dirt began to fall off the male. It wasn't a bath, but it was the closest thing he had to one in years. Suddenly he was standing there, looking a bit more like himself. His hair was returned to a lighter but ultimately changed color; more like a light gray than the pure white it had been before. Scars and scabs from old injuries were cleaned away, leaving him standing there with a few more blemishes than originally observed-- namely a few across his face where hair had stuck to hide them. Under his eye, across his cheek-- they were ragged, like claw marks. Severin closed his eyes for a moment, then reopened them as Kagerou asked him about survivors.
"There used to be." He started, slamming his foot down on the spear to his side to flip it back up in to his hands. "But no, not anymore. The Sero only kept me alive for the sake of having a plaything. They weren't so lucky." He shucked off the cloak around his shoulders, revealing what seemed to only be a tattered pair of pants. Ribs showed along his torso, but he was also quite a deal more muscular than the Uchiha would remember. He made a nod to her, as if to tell her to lead on. "You had a cell you were here with, right? You must be worried about them."
Bonds/Lasting Memory : "I don't have time for you."
Title: Bonds Information: Call it friendship, call it camaraderie, call it a legal obligation. The nurturing of relationships is one of the most fruitful types of narrative. Helping a friend out in a kitchen, helping keep their business alive, being there for them after a bad break up, building new friendships...building new rivals...building new nemesis's. Confronting those nemesis's and exchanging conflicting beliefs in fierce wholehearted heated debate and getting to know the other through their opposition on a new level. Every post made strengthening an existing relationship with an rpc, rewards Ac equal to one's body rank plus [1], maximum . Those interacted with may also be considered to be running this narrative with you albeit their posts are separate from your own. The narrative is considered completed once the parties part ways for another day.
Smiling sadly up at the familiar face, eyes dawdling on the newly revealed wounds and scars, the clone nodded back. Despite the pleasant curve of the lips beneath, the scarlet eyes shone with sorrow. It knew, even before asking, but even so, it couldn't help but hope. Nonetheless, the clone thought the same as Severin. This was not the time or place to waste precious seconds.
However, the shared feeling didn't stop the Uchiha's clone from, instead of moving on, stepping back towards Severin. It flicked its wrist, the bells rang, and chakra danced in the shapes of leaves and branches until they swirled together into something like a fuuinjutsu symbol. The seal held form for but a moment before breaking once it completed its task, a customary puff of smoke appearing as a thick black trenchcoat was summoned out of thin air. With a sweep of her arms, the spitting image of Kagerou swung the coat over Severin's shoulders, standing on tip toes to get all the way above the taller male. "It's cold," it explained, as it tugged the coat over his bare chest, its smile inscrutable as it hid his visible rib cage.
Turning back around, the clone signaled with a nod that it, too, was ready to move forwards. Then, without another warning or any more wasted time, it led the way. At first, a brisk walk, then slowly upping the pace while keeping a careful eye on Severin to make sure he could match. Talking as they traveled, Severin was given the following information, "We started with four three men cells. Two to 'play' with the Sero and two to research it. In these circumstances, our rendezvous point is the Sero itself. Normally, the main entrance, but because we're far under the main entrance, the side that the main entrance is on." There were no jokes this time. Severin's silence and utter lack of reaction to the last joke was the only warning the clone needed.
===
(OOC: The following is only necessary to read if you want Severin to reach the real Kagerou now as opposed to, say, rping a conversation or an encounter with the Clone-gerou.)
"I won't leave anyone behind." "You are to stay, Aka. That is an order."
The actual trunk of Sero this deep down, hundreds of meters beneath the usual surface of Kirigakure, could be reached only after traversing through a veritable forest of roots. The light that had covered this village was eerily artificial to begin with, conflicting with the black dome that, one assumed, held the ocean water at bay. In the depths of the roots, such light could not penetrate, not with the thick wood and creeping mists in the way.
Darkness is a powerfully dangerous element. A blank canvas that the Sero could paint the fears of its victims on freely, it gives body to errant voices and voices to unfounded thoughts. That was why, even the shinobi who used the darkness as an element took the precaution of light. Eleven figures stood surrounded by a flock of pale golden chakra constructs in the shape of butterflies that shined almost too bright to look at. All were muddy, and none unscathed. Varying levels of exhaustion could be seen and while all were wounded, only the most detrimental wounds were healed.
One brown-haired figure sat in the center of the light, golden eyes literally shining. Dim butterflies landed on him, and when they took off once more, they were shining as bright as stars in the night sky.
He wasn't the only figure to emit light in this group, either. There was a girl, who crouched at the fringes of the group. If the golden boy in the center of the circle felt seeped in light, she appeared the opposite, stolen into the darkness. Black skin and hair blended in with the nightmare filled darkness that lay beyond the protection of the light. The woman, drained of all of her light by the otherworldly glowing flowers that adorned her could be heard softly giggling and mumbling sweet nothings as she flitted on the edges of the light and dark, embracing the roots with hands and, occasionally, her face, occasionally collecting samples that she sealed away with a pink bloom of chakra.
Kagerou, hair smeared with mud and face hardly better off, stood with two others. Blood dripped from various wounds across her body, the dark gashes standing out starkly against her fair skin with nothing to cover them. Earlier, she had been asked why she hadn't healed them, to which she had answered by explaining about the situation with Severin and the clone she left with him so that she could sweep for any stragglers. In turn, that led to her declaring she would go back out to find Rei, a declaration denied. The cracks across the dome had gotten only worse at an alarming rate. Time was of the essence. Losses needed to be cut. Now, stubborn silence followed the order, and it was all too easy to read on her face that she thought naught about what she was ordered to do,
One of the figures accompanying Kagerou, a male with brown hair tied into a short ponytail, gently returned Kagerou's defiant gaze with a smile. While also mud splattered and wounded, he appeared least affected, standing with a gentle smile that was not unlike a certain someone else's and hiding his wounded hand in the sleeves of his kimono. He broke the silence with a sigh and a caring shake of his head. "You must understand," he explained.
The other flicked her purple eyes across the other two parties impassively, her poise filled with such grace that it almost made one overlook her torn clothes, cut lip, and the mangled, blood-soaked sleeve over an arm that was only just healed of a compound fracture. She, who had been silent until now, added quietly, "We cannot let the medic go."
To which, Kagerou snapped back, "We do not have much time. I will not leave without Rei."
Purple gaze frowned in return, sending a chilling warning to Kagerou that she did not forget to heed.
Quickly, she calmly amended what she had to say, "Without everyone... We finally found a survivor. I... I cannot," but her words fell apart and her excuse unraveled. Could not what? Could not face that heart break again? Could not bear to see it in her uncle's face so soon after she was reminded of it once more? That right now she couldn't reign in the emotions she thought she had suppressed and dampened? If she lost Severin again, then what would she do with herself?
It was Mura's seemingly inane observation that brought Kagerou back down to solid ground, "Did your smile just grow bigger?".
Mido wordlessly brushed off the question with an innocent, bemused glance, before addressing Kagerou once more, "Even this supposed survivor you have found, if they do not reach us in time, then we will have no choice but to leave them. Aka, think about your uncle before throwing your life away. You are his only family now, after all."
He had been expecting one reaction, or rather, hoping for a reaction. To expect it wouldn't be giving Kagerou enough credit. In his credit, he got the action he expected, but his shortsightedness lost him the confession he hoped to receive.
Before a thought to stop could pass, Kagerou found her hand whipping through the air and, in a motion so cliche that, if she wasn't in the middle of nightmare fun times, she would be covering her face in shame, slapped the expedition leader. A perfect imprint of her palm blossomed in beautiful red and pink hues across his face and the cut on his cheek that had just scabbed over was reopened.
Still seeing red, Kagerou growled, "How dare you. Mother is still alive," as she felt herself grabbed and pulled back by soft hands. Not that it was necessary. Already, she had her eyes closed as she felt rationality, followed by regret, return.
Silence followed. Mido looked pitifully confused as he tried to figure out how Kagerou's mother suddenly came into the picture. Mura had been the one to leap forward to hold down Kagerou, reaching her before any of the others on standby could. Ki looked like he had been shocked awake from a pleasant day dream and now couldn't figure out if he was supposed to return to daydreaming or stay conscious. Momo, at least it was presumed that she was Momo right now, giggled a little louder, "I thought you would do so~ much~ worse~". Her shining pink eyes trained on the group before, once more, returning to the great Sero before her, as if pulled by some irresistible force. Judging from the high-pitched squee that followed right after and the excited grabbing and clawing of some part of the Sero, the force had also been incredible pleasant.
