Welcome to Gaia! ::

As she reassured the Ichazuki about her eyes not yet being able to access the deadly glowing white state that they had inherited through her fathers blood, she felt a shiver travel slowly and menacingly down her spine. That makes perfect sense she felt for the cut on her shirt. There is no way someone could've survived an attack like this one. I must've died. There's no other explanation. But... If I'm dead, then why is this Ichazuki here?
A memory of the cloaked stranger's conversation with her before he fataly wounded her floated back into her thoughts.

Tree World Construction 3/9

He mentioned something about a place where I could gain great power... Could this be the Afterlife?! she wondered, trying to tap into a seemingly long and distant memory in order to exract some vital information that the stranger had told her.
As the young male trusted her enough to lift his gaze, Sayomi smiled. Offering a handshake, Sayomi replied. "Nice to meet you Ichazuki Ichigo. My name's Orimara Sayomi" she paused for a while before continuing. "Say, you don't happen to be dead, do you?"

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The look on Ichigo's face indicated to Sayomi that he was struggling with a few questions of his own. I'm pretty sure he's dead. I mean, where else could we be?
Looking Ichigo directly in the eye, she informed him of her findings. "Before I was... Killed, my... Sayomi searched for the correct terms. "My murderer told me that he had followed a strong chakra signal that he claimed to have 'radiated with a desire for power'. Apparently, he told me that he was going to send me to a place where I could learn extremely powerful techniques from legendary shinobi," she paused for a minute to let her words sink in before continuing.

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"He said that he was going to send me to the 'After Life'..." she added softly, trying very hard not to startle the Ichazuki. "Ichigo... I know that I died. I have a wound to prove it," she showed him the slice through her top on the front, then turned to show him the tear in the fabric from where the blade had entered her body. "After god-knows how many minutes of thinking, I'm pretty sure that I died from the wound which was given to me by a very sharp blade, and my attacker healed me afterwards. Ichigo... I'm pretty sure that this place is the After Life, and that you and I must've died somehow and ended up here..." she had a feeling that it would be hard on him to understand what she was getting at. After all, she'd just admitted the fact that he must be dead.

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((Don't feel bad I may not be on too much longer))

Ichigo understood. "I will have to go with what you say. I don't have a mark on me, so I have no idea how I could have . . . died. Still, I ran into your killer for a few moments and then he escaped. I was with your body for a while longer and then everything else goes black. I do not remember anything else past that. If I am dead then something happened during those few moments." Ichigo thought about what he had just said to Sayomi and decided that that was everything that he could think of. There was probably nothing else to share.

14

"Anyway, if we are truly in the Afterlife, then it is not a complete loss. There are several ninja that are legendary here in the land of the dead. This could be a good learning opertunity, I must admit." Ichigo was putting on a calm exterior, that was something that he was used to doing. It was something that he had had to do several times in the past. However, Ichigo was in turmoil in his own mind. The best way to describe it was that he was going to the stages of acceptance. He was on stage two at the moment.

15

Ichigo nodded and had to admire Sayomi's investigative skills. She had went through the same thought process as Ichigo and was able to come to a decent conclusion, which was more than Ichigo could do in his present shape. Fortunately his mind was rounding on acceptance and he would soon be playing with a full deck. He would probably need that full deck when it came to what ever he was going to do here. This was something that Ichigo was interested in. He would probably have no chance to find out who had killed him, but he really wanted to know.

1

Ichigo took a deep breath. "You do raise some interesting points. I doubt that your killer would fake an escape, change weapons and then kill me. That is a possible scenario, but not a completely probable solution. No, I have to agree with you, our killers were two different people. Different, modes of operation, different weapons, different styles. Quite an interesting weapon. I don't know if it was because I had my attention on you, or because it was a truly quiet technique or weapon, but I honestly did not see it comming.

2

Ichigo nodded. She was right, they might as well make the best of their time here. If they were in the underworld then there would be a good chance that they would be given plenty of techniques that they could not learn anywhere else. Though this was a bad place to be, if was fortunate luck for them if they would be able to get out because of the skills that they would have learned. Ichigo could not help but smile. This would be a very fun time. Ichigo thought about Sayomi. She was certainly not the same kind of person that Valkyrie was and that was lucky for him. He could only take Valkyrie for only so long

3

"Well you do have a point. And besides, we can't exactly make any plans about the future until after we have successfully made our way out of this place. That is pretty depressing though. I have researched a lot, admitadly not about the underworld, but I have never read anything about how one could escape death after it has taken hold of you. On those weapons, the kind of ninja that would hold such a weapon should not be take lightly, you are right. Plus our lack of knowledge about the weapons or the ninja will only make searching for someone like them all the more harder."

4

Ichigo thought about all that he had said to Sayomi and figured that that was all that he could say on the subject. It would be hard, if not impossible to escape the underworld and make it back to the world of the living. However, if it can be done, he would stop at nothing to find a way. He had a feeling that Sayomi would do the same. She seemed to be a determined ninja, something that seemed to become an expectation when dealing with a member of the Orimara main house. "Still, we should get moving if we plan to get stronger, don't you agree?"

5

Hedoro

Hedoro remained motionless for a long time, possibly several weeks. Or perhaps it was just three minutes. Time seemed meaningless, with no real method to keep track of it. Instead of worrying about that, instead she just focused on the matter at hand. That being, of course, how to walk. She was still on her back, she felt stable in that position. With a larger mass touching the ground, and with a lower center of gravity, it was much, much easier to remain where she was. That gave her an idea. Maybe she was trying to do too much, too fast? If a lower center
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of gravity and more of her touching the floor was better, couldn't she do that for her attempts at learning to walk? It seemed probable. She debated what might work for what she had in mind, and finally made her choice. Carefully, she rolled over, until she was face down on the floor. She noticed the floor was apparantly made out of boards, just like any ordinary building might be. With it being only an inch or two from her face, she could see even more detail, following the individual whorls and lines of the wood, tracing them carefully with eyesight alone.
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At the same time, it was slightly harder to see the detail, with her head over it, it was plunged into slight shadows. She realized that meant there had to be a source of light, but she hadn't noticed anything earlier. Instead, she just began to carefully move her arms and legs. A bit jerky and uncoordinated at first, but they began to work in tandem before too much time had passed. Even then, she had to learn how to exert physical pressure. Enough to hold herself up, without being so much that she tried to push off of the ground. The calibration and coordination
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was even more difficult, working with four limbs, but once she began to get the hang of it, the process sped up admirably. She finally achieved her goal, now on all fours, her hands and her knees. She'd tried standing on her hands and feet, but with her legs being longer than her arms, that had felt awkward and unwieldy. So instead she opted for using her knees. And that seemed a better choice. Now on all fours, she carefully moved an arm, and was gladdened to not fall flat on her face. With three other limbs to hold her up, she could adjust her weight accordingly,
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leaning to the opposite side as she moved the fourth limb. This experimentation went on and on, with her slowly but surely learning the various subtleties of crawling. Her speed increased as well, until she was moving at a decent enough pace that it suited her purposes. She felt more confident in herself with this small success, and decided to move on to trying to walk normally. Her practice with crawling had given her a sense of balance, and while it would be harder on just two limbs, she felt she was capable of it. She pulled her legs under her slowly,
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until the balls of her feet were just to the rear of her center of gravity. She slowly began to push up, sliding her feet apart just a little bit. She kept her arms straight out, using them as a balance beam of sorts. Finally, she stood upright once more. Carefully, very carefully, she adjusted her posture, straightening up. Once she did, she was surprised at how natural the pose felt. She had the feeling that, for some odd reason, walking wouldn't be difficult now. She didn't know why she felt so sure of that fact, but nonetheless, she was still sure of it as a foregone conclusion.
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So she took a step. Her arms were still out at her sides, helping her to keep her balance. She shifted weight to her right leg, as her left moved out to slide forward a foot or so. Pressing down, she put her weight on her left foot, and repeated the movements with her right leg. Back and forth it went, with her walking in a loose circle, slowly measuring just how precise she had to be with her movements, what was a good way to keep her balance, everything. She started out slow, although not quite as slow as when she'd started crawling. She managed to speed
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up before too much time had passed, soon reaching a slow walking pace, much like someone might use as they walked through a park or garden or something. She discovered that by moving her arms to match the opposite leg's movements, it created a counter-balance, helping her to stay upright without having to have her arms straight out at her sides.. She continued walking in a circle, until she felt fully confident in her new-found ability to walk. She came to a stop, her body straightening itself almost instinctively by this point, and looked around the place she was in once more.
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She now discovered she was inside of a room. A moment of fear and paranoia rose up within her, but it vanished almost instantly. Though it reminded her greatly of her long imprisonment when she was younger, somehow she knew this had nothing to do with that. Wherever she was, she was absolutely positive she was not in any of the buildings in Hidden Rain. The room itself was pretty plain. A wooden floor like she'd noticed earlier, and the walls were a uniform greyish-white. There was a single window, although the light coming in from it was vague
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and diffused. She had the feeling she wouldn't see anything through it, even if she looked. So far, these odd hunches had been right, so she didn't bother. There was a mirror on another of the walls, so she drew closer, curious to use her new-found ability to actually see, to see what she looked like. She was pretty sure she wouldn't recognize herself. She'd known herself as a nonhuman creature for her entire life, but now, seemingly for whatever reason, she seemed to be a human. The why, she couldn't even begin to fathom a guess at. So she'd
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just have to try to adapt to it, do what she could to adjust to the fact. As she drew closer to the mirror, she felt a vague sense of apprehension, suddenly she was a bit unsure if she really wanted to see herself as she was now. What if she saw the new her, and liked it, but in the future had to return to her normal form? That sense of loss, of disappointment, would be a heavy blow to her. But in the end, she knew she'd look at herself in the mirror. Now that she had real eyes, she couldn't afford to pass this chance up, there was no way of knowing if it'd ever come again.
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She was now standing in front of the mirror, her eyes still closed from when she'd approached. That in itself stood as a testament to her growing skill in walking, she hadn't walked directly into the wall, even with her eyes closed. But now, she carefully opened her eyes, to look at the mirror, to see just what sort of face was staring back at her. Even though she'd never seen the face, she instantly recognized it, she was absolutely positive that it was her. The figure in the mirror stood as she did. They were maybe 5'4", slightly short for her supposed age.
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She had very pale skin, although numerous patches of dirt made it seem darker. Her hair was a dull grey which hung halfway down her back, matted and scraggly, having never known a comb. Her face was a mask of expressionlessness, no emotion visible as the pair of yellow-gold eyes stared calmly out of the mirror back at herself. Her features were delicate, if not hardened by rough living and sunken in from long stretches of not eating, if she'd taken care of herself, she could have almost been thought of as attractive. She was wearing something very close
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to what she'd worn in her normal form, a quantity of filthy and soiled rags. However, what she wore now was markedly less, amounting to something much like a dress, leaving her arms from the shoulders down bare, and the scraps of cloth only going down to just above her knees. All in all, she was a rather pathetic sight, looking like any of a number of other down-on-their-luck types, forced to live on the streets, eking out a meager existence from day to day. She spent a long time just looking at herself, drinking in the sight of what she actually looked like.
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Hedoro

Looking into the mirror, Hedoro was absorbed by what she saw. She was still getting used to how sight worked, and she was now struck with how different she looked than what she'd always felt she'd looked like. Of course, she seemed to have changed a lot since then, so she really shouldn't be quite so surprised. But she was, nonetheless. Even so, she gradually became used to her new visage, as she intensely stared at herself affixing each detail to her memory. She didn't want to forget this face, just in case something happened and she returned to
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her other form, the one she thought of as her natural form, even though it was fairly unnatural. But finally, she felt she'd commited as much to memory as she could possibly remember, so she turned away from the mirror, taking another look at the room she was in. Only now did she notice that, despite the otherwise seemingly normal details, there was one rather important feature missing. That being a door. There was a floor, walls and a ceiling. There was the odd window and a mirror. But there was no door. She looked around a second time, looking closer
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at the walls, wondering if it was possibly a hidden door, or maybe a secret panel. But nothing appeared to stand out, nothing seemed to be anything more than what it appeared. Of course, that was how a proper secret door should be. She moved along the wall, placing a hand against it as she gently pressed, wondering if there was a secret door, how she'd even find it. She quietly noticed the odd sensations caused in her hand by rubbing it against the wall, even her sense of touch was different from what she remembered. Although nothing as drastic as her other
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senses, it had changed, surely enough. She had adjusted to it almost instantly, but when she actively thought about it, she noticed some of the various little differences that came about from having a whole different body to feel things with. She returned her thoughts to trying to find the secret passage, continued in a slow circle around the room, keeping her hand against the wall at all times. She finished the first pass, and had found nothing. But she didn't give up, instead she now brought both hands into play, one moving a little higher, the other moving a
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little lower. She continued for a second lap around the room, moving even slower this time, hoping that she'd find something she had missed the first time. But again nothing. She was beginning to get frustrated again, and vocally complained, 'Where is that accursed door?!' As if waiting for just such an exclamation, a crack appeared on the opposite wall, quickly growing along the wall as it raced upwards, then a sharp turn right, then back down to the floor, creating a large rectangular shape that looked suspiciously like a door. A few seconds later, the square
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glowed a bright white, so bright, in fact, that Hedoro had to close her eyes and turn her head. As the light faded, she opened her eyes, distracted by the glowing spots overlayed on her vision. As they slowly faded, she stumbled around cautiously, nearly falling several times. But finally she could see again, and she turned back to look at the rectangle again. It was no longer just a crack in the wall, now it was a door. It was a rich mahogany, with whirls and whorls even more elaborate than the floor, and polished to a rich gleam. There was a doorknob, seemingly
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a golden metal, perhaps brass, glinting merrily, almost calling for her to grasp it. She approached, somewhat cautiously, not sure if she should trust a door that only appeared because she had called for it. But nonetheless, she stood in front of it, looking at the knob as if expecting it to turn alive and start talking. Finally, she tentatively reached out and grasped it. It was cool to the touch, but not cold. Waiting a long moment, she then nodded once to herself, and carefully began to turn the knob. It spun easily, silently, and she pushed slightly against the
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door, causing it to slowly swing away from her, opening up onto something she couldn't quite see, since the door itself obstructed her vision. But finally, it opened wide enough that she could move forward. She stepped through the newly-created doorway, first noticing the wooden floor of the room had been replaced with an expensive red crushed velvet carpet. Her hand was still on the doorknob, as she moved a little further out, and then she began to close the door quietly behind her. The moment she let the knob go, the door continued swinging shut even without her assistance.
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