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 Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:43 am
((Hopefully ))
Seph woke up, startled by something.
I've been calling your name for the past three hours. Nyl's off to Durem. You should clean up.
Seph looked around, eye's scanning the floor. It was littered with scrap paper. Yeah, guess I should. You won't stop bothering me until I do, anyway.
I've been meaning to talk to you, Sephiroth. It's about-
I know what you want to talk about, and I'm not in any mood to talk. Should the time ever come, I'll act upon my feelings. If it does not, then..
Seph trailed off, snapping his fingers. The scraps of paper lit and burned away, one by one.
..Then?
I'm content with the way things are.
Seph stood and pulled a broom from the broomcloset, sweeping the ash into a dustpan before tossing it out into the wind. The entire chore took about ten minutes. He moved over to the window, wondering what had happened to the time. Did they even keep track with time, anymore? Late night, early morning. Late morning, early afternoon, it all blended into two categories: Light and Dark. The sun was up, or the sun was down, it didn't really matter what time of day or night it was, he supposed. His mind wandered to Syoku's health. Had she eaten the soup? How would everyone react to her older self? More importantly, how would Reeve handle it? Lately he just seemed so.. solomn. He was not sure what exactly he was dealing with, so he was slow to dish out judgements. It just concerned him.
Hopefully his return would cheer Fen up. Hopefully being around Fen would cheer him up. Seph's eyes moved to the top-left of his sockets again, as if he were trying to discern something.
What is it?
Eh? Oh, nothing. Just something in my dreams last night that confused me.
They usually tend to do that. Don't worry, they're not supposed to make sense.
Yeah, I suppose you're right.
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:39 am
-=Neko opened his eyes. He was sleeping in his bed for once. He smiled and rolled over to the other side of his empty bed. He sat there for a few minutes, thinking. Would she ever come back? Was it wrong of him to keep lending her clothes out? He sighed heavily, wincing as he sat up, and put on his shoes. He stood, rubbing his chest, and made his way into the main room=-
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:47 am
Waking up, his forehead now red and hurting due to the hard table he has so fortunately fallen asleep on for the past two days. His energy had reached that of a basic Jounin by now. He got up from his seat, his body now used to using at least this amount of energy, and walked into the Main Dojo before looking around slowly and gripping his fists together, his dog-like nails now growing in.
"Something funky happened here recently...all I can smell is Yami."
His eyes quickly turned towards Neko as he walked in, his eyes turning dog-like as well.
"What happened here, Neko?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:49 am
A chakra signature was getting stronger. Looks like someone just woke up.
~What're you doing, moving around? Stay in bed, doctors orders!~ He sent the equivalent of a grin through mind-link to Neko and moved to the stove.
~Hungry?~
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:53 am
Nothing surprising...
-=He looked up at Tut with a half-grin, looking over his features as his grin slowly faded. He cleared his throat, wincing some as he started making his way to the porch, to go look at the weather=-
~Hey, she just said not to move around too much. I'll be damned if I'm bedridden from a little scuff~
-=He chuckled a little bit to himself as he looked up at the cloudy sky, leaning against the railing of the porch=-
~Sure, what's for breakfast?~
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:59 am
Snorting slightly, Tutsumi turned and walked back into the kitchen, waving to Seph slightly. He had mainly tapped into the Gobi so he wouldn't feel so drained though behind him, two tails were barely visible. Suddenly, his right eye flinched as a headache set upon him.
"Geez...must be dehydrated. Morning, Seph."
Passing Seph by slightly, Tutsumi opened up the door tot he fridge and took out a bottle of water and a bottle of some other liquid, one that was wrapped from the cap down and even under it. Biting his lower lip slightly, he sighed and started to drink the unknown liquid before starting on the water.
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:07 am
~Whatever you want, really. I'll tell you if I don't know how to make it.~ He looked at Tut and smiled. "How're you feeling? You look like hell." There was a bit of concern in his voice, but he couldn't help but grin to him.
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:15 am
-=Neko thought for a few moments, scratching his chin as he moved his attention to the forestline=-
~Rice and eggs do-able?~
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:17 am
Finishing off the water, he shook his head slightly, fangs now visible if Seph was looking.
"I feel like hell. Thankfully, Houkou's helping me out with my lack of energy. How are you doing? I can only smell Yami around the place."
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:27 am
Seph nodded. ~Do-able, yes.~ He moved to the stove and looked back to Tut. "I'm fine. There was a small scuffle the other day, and lots of Yami was used." He grinned.
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:27 am
((Good morning, everyone! I need, in subtle defiance of guild-ness, 5 consecutive posts...so this is 1))
Nyl moved quickly among the trees, as silently as she could. She could hear her pursuer, but she knew that was only because he wanted her to hear him. Catching another sound, she jumped sideways to avoid a line of kunai. She landed off-balance as one of them sank deep into her left shoulder. She leaned against a tree, staring at the kunai and listening to the giddy laughter of the person chasing her.
“You’ll lead me right to your precious dojo.” She could see him, sitting up in the tree, legs dangling over a branch, laughing down at her. “Poor little Nyl, alone and powerless.” She backed away from that tree, automatically reaching for chakra that wasn’t really there. “And don’t even think about taking another direction. I only need to get close enough to sense power, not to see it.”
She took off running again, the person – a young man, boyish-looking, who seemed to be about Nyl’s age– following swiftly behind her. More kunai thudded into the ground behind her as she ran, but they all missed. She ran faster, dodging left and right in random patterns, keeping that pace until the sound of pursuit faded to silence.
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:28 am
She ran for a bit more, before finally stopping, breathing heavily but silently. She reached to pull the kunai from her shoulder, but a hand closed around her mouth, and another grabbed her right arm and twisted it behind her back. He laughed again – it was a high-pitched laugh and voice, even for someone as young as he was – and leaned in close to Nyl’s ear.
“Come now. Why are you trying to trick me? I was always better at stealth than you were. You found it impossible to mask your chakra, and you still do, even when you hardly have any.” He twisted her arm harder, and she yelped, but the sound was muffled by his hand. “I know you can’t help but run for you dojo. They won’t help you.” He gave her arm a sharp pull, cracking the bones in her wrist. She screamed again, but his hand blocked the sound.
He let her arm drop, and Nyl moved to get away, but froze when she felt something sharp pressed to her back. “Think about it,” he whispered icily. “Is there really anyone there who would come to your rescue? Are you still so naïve as to think yourself worth anything to them beyond your power?” She kicked backward, ducking from under his grip as he cursed, and turning to face him. Her entire right hand had gone numb, and her left arm was following. And she was still a good five miles from the dojo.
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:29 am
He recovered quickly, smirking at her, spinning another kunai in his fingers. “What one of them really thinks any more of you than that you are a tool, a useful channel for power?” He grabbed her broken wrist and pushed back the sleeve of her shirt to her elbow in one swift motion. Nyl yanked her hand away and jumped at him, flipping into a kick to his head similar to the one she’d given Fen. He took the hit, and she landed solidly, standing and turning back around. He was already there, directly in front of her, and she felt the cold metal of his kunai sink into her stomach.
“Burn marks? And here we went years thinking fire could never touch you.” He twisted the kunai, pulling it back out as Nyl doubled over, holding her hands over the wound as best as she could. “And still you don’t speak. What I’d give to be able to see what’s running through your head. Afraid that if you acknowledge me you’ll bring it all crashing down again?” He laughed. “It’s too late, Nyl. It’s already crashed.”
Nyl’s thoughts swirled, drifting from confusion to anger to resignation and back again. She knew, with a horrible sinking feeling, that he was right. None of the others in the dojo would come to help her. They’d never find her, and they wouldn’t try. She’d already failed Neko and Reeve, Seph was angry with her, Fen refused to even really talk to her. She’d tried…and failed, again. It had always been that way, and it always would be – she was disliked. When she looked up again, he was gone.
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:30 am
She slowly got to her feet, taking staggering steps toward the dojo. Her left hand she kept over the hole in her stomach, trying to stop it from bleeding but not being very successful. She kept walking at this pace for a time she couldn’t have measured if she tried. She knew, though, when she was two miles from the dojo – she came into a clearing, with a small stream running along one side of it.
She’d barely stepped into the clearing when she heard the bump of something dropping from a height. A hand closed around her mouth again, and something longer than a kunai slid into her back, just to the right of her spine. Nyl made a faint sound, her body going limp against him.
“Shhh, that’s right.” His voice was low, less openly arrogant; instead, it had a tenderly sinister tone. “You couldn’t help but lead me in a straight line right for the dojo. Still clinging to the hope that someone would find you.” He kicked her forward, and she stumbled and rolled, stopping on her back, staring up at him, now defenseless. She coughed, feeling and tasting blood in her mouth.
“Well here’s what you don’t seem to understand.” He grinned maliciously. “That dojo would fall into chaos without you there. How many of them would still be alive today, had your power been absent?” Her eyes widened in realization, and he cackled with laughter. “And now that you will die – and you will, slowly, painfully, waiting in vain for the help that will never come – chaos will reign, and the dojo will fall easily.”
He raised his knife, for that was what he had stabbed her in the back with, and plunged it down into her stomach, near the first wound from the kunai. He let his hand linger there, still sneering. “They will never find you in time.”
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Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:31 am
With a breath that might have been a sigh, Nyl brought up both her hands and closed them around the hand that held the knife. She stared right back at him, smiling herself, drawing a ragged breath. “They won’t have to. You won’t be able to hurt them. You will be dead.”
She watched his eyes widen then, in realization. “You planned this. You led me here to let me think I was winning. But all along, you knew it would lead to this. …You would die for the rest of them? You would give your life in taking mine, just to save your precious dojo?” He looked incredulous. And scared.
Nyl coughed again, painfully, but she was still smiling. “Every time.” The little chakra she’d been able to recover in the past two days shot through her and into him, as ijutsu, designed to act on his body in reverse – destroying him cell by cell, until there was nothing left but dust.
He screamed. “You don’t win, Nyl! The others will find you!” She locked eyes with him then, his full of open terror, hers clear and determined despite already losing so much blood. In the next second, his body was gone.
Nyl rolled onto her left side, coughing again, tasting blood. “You never were…any good at…strategy…”
They will never find me in time. I understand. …The forest is beautiful in autumn…but the air gets so cold… Nyl shivered, her vision darkening from exhaustion, blood loss, shock. If she wasn’t found soon…
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