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A small explosion filled the room, Mitsuko's instructor was thrown across and hit the wall. As the cloud settled, there was Athryn, swearing. "You Fool!!!" screamed her sensei. "You released so much chakra but you still didn't complete it?" Athryn bit her lip until she tasted blood. She hated herself for being so incompetent on this. Knowing she needed more chakra, she headed for a bowl of Ramen. "Oh no you don't," said her sensei. "my Ramen is off limits." Cursing her situation, Athryn resumed trying the Henge.




Henge 2/3
Word count: 197

Having been enjoying his nap at first until the teacher left, he was quite content to just stay where he was and enjoy the time to his thoughts. That is, until the explosion of noise and chatter flooded the class room and woke him up with a displeased grumble. Slowly opening one eye only to glance around the room he saw what you would pretty much expect to see. Some girls chatting and giggling over in a corner, a bookworm pouring over a book, some guys plotting a prank on the teacher, a lazy guy trying to take a nap...oh wait, that's him. There was also a few pencils embedded in the ceiling, a different sight from normal though still more or less standard as far as school was concerned. Putting a hand over his mouth as he yawned, he stopped leaning back and sat normal, hos chair coming with him with a gently thud as he opened both eyes up, rubbing them with his hand a little. As he stretched his neck, he heard a young woman speak up and ask if anyone wanted to do something other than just sit around this hell hole of boring. He also noticed a small pet wolf besides the young girl. Ironically they were his favorite animal and coupled with the very interesting offer, he simply shrugged his shoulders and stood up. "Why not....could be fun..." He muttered to himself and put his hands into his pockets before heading down to the front of the room to greet the girl. "Well, you've got my attention at least. What did you have in mind?" He asked her before realizing they'd not properly been introduced. "Oh sorry, I'm Starrk by the way." He said, pulling a hand free from his pants pocket and holding it out to offer a hand shake.

He would shake her hand and glance around, noticing the tail that flicked behind her. He blinked a few times curiously as he noticed the ears as well. He hadn't really seen them until he got close, but now seeing them clearly threw him for a loop. That wasn't exactly normal around here, right? She returned the introduction and gave him her own name as well as her preferred nickname. She then laughed a little before she called out and started yelling at another student that she wanted to come along, presumably a friend or someone she at least knew. The kid looked up with a sigh, seemingly annoyed as he joined them both at the door and offered his own name to Starrk. "Yea, nice to meet you." He would say before turning to Shiro and her rather cute little wolf pup. "Well then, you've got the two of us and the little one." He said, looking down at the wolf. "So what exactly did you have in mind for us?" He asked, curious as to what exactly she was thinking of doing other than just skipping out on class.

~Points thus far: 3486~

Shikuma studies the two boys briefly before letting out a small chuckle and answering Starrk's question. "Well actually..." She says placing a hand on the door, pushing it open to reveal the hallways. "I don't have anything in particular in mind, but let's see what's going on outside shall we? I mean we may find something cool to do. But even if we don't we can still train outside and do what we want instead of taking our time transforming into our teachers and writing out equations." The Kitsuna girl explains briefly as she steps out of the doorway, the white wolf following behind her, his scroll bouncing silently around his neck.

"Oh yes, and the little one," She says quoting Starrk when he'd referred to her compaion. "Is named Ooka." Hearing his name, the wolf lets out a loud bark, before briefly rubbing up against Eri and Starrk in a friendly manor. Then with that, Shiro turns around to lead the way down the hall, her wooden sandals leaving a hallow thud against the planks beneath her feet, tail swaying with each stride.

Doran could hardly believe where he was as he woke up. He sat up from his bed and turned off his alarm. He looked out his window at the sun shining on the academy training yard. The smith from Hidden Katana had waited his entire life to be here to learn to become a shinobi. As excited as he was, Doran was also very nervous. As he threw off the covers and put his feet onto the cold ground, he imagined what the classroom would be like and how almost everyone there would be much younger than himself. Doran wished his parents had not resisted his wishes to become a ninja for so long, but he knew there was nothing he could do about it now except head off to class and do his best.

Doran stood up from his bed and began to put his clothes and his armor on. He looked in his mini fridge before deciding that he was too nervous to eat anything before class and shut the door. The smith splashed some cold water on his face to fully wake himself up before slipping his mask over his head. He then secured his sheathe for his giant sword. As Doran grabbed the massive blade from against the wall, he could almost see the day where he would go back to Hidden Katana and put an emitter in his heavy sword and make it a true weapon worthy of a great shinobi. When the daydream had run its course Doran sheathed the massive sword and left the dorm room.

The Armorer, as the other students had started calling him for his self made Stormsteel armor, made his way out of the dorm hall and towards the classroom building, every step closer making him feel a step closer to becoming a shinobi. Within a few minutes Doran was sitting in the shinobi classroom, surrounded by what seemed like children to him. Between his six-foot-one figure, massive sword, and full armor, Doran felt like a giant that fell off the bean stalk. He began suddenly fearing that his teacher would treat him as such.

Just as the thought concluded in his head, Doran snapped to sitting up straight as the teacher walked in and took his place standing behind his desk. After a quick glance across the room, and a brief pause when his eyes landed on Doran, the instructor began to speak. “Good morning class. Welcome to your first day at the Shinobi academy. My name is Haito Uruza, but you will all refer to me as Sensei Uruza. Today’s lesson will be one of the most difficult you will face at the academy in your time here. To be a great ninja, one must have patience. You must learn to be patient as you wait and study your objective, collecting every possible detail of information you can before acting.” At this point Sensei Uruza stepped out from behind his desk and began to pace across the front of the classroom. “Under each of your desks is a textbook that I wrote, detailing the theory and execution of every training method you will be using, and every technique you will be learning. Before you begin your practical training, you must read the entire book and then be able to answer any questions I may have for you about the material. Then you will have my permission to go practice.”

The entire class sighed at once, including Doran. Everyone begrudgingly began to pull the heavy paper volume out from under their desk, so Doran followed suit. He certainly did not expect to be sitting around and reading on his first day, but if that’s what it took to become a great shinobi then he would do it whole heartedly until he was finished. He opened the book and began to read. The textbook first described what it took to graduate. Apparently it only took learning one technique of the five listed in it in order to get your headband and leave. Something about that idea just did not sit well with Doran though. As he read through all five of the academy level techniques, he found them all to be interesting. He could immediately imagine a dozen scenarios where each one could save his life, or more importantly someone else’s life.

Doran burned his way through page after page. He had never worked so hard at reading in his life. Of course he never needed to, being the son of a blacksmith. But now that he had something on the line, the armorer found himself more motivated than ever to do the best he could at something as simple and arduous as reading a textbook. Doran was not sure how much time had passed at any given point. He never looked at the clock because it would waste precious seconds of training time and would probably just make it seem like time was wasting way.

As he finished the last page of the book, Doran found himself elated to have read the entire manual. He was so excited he nearly slammed the volume shut and caused a rather large booming sound which attracted the attention of everyone in the class. It appeared that he was the first one to have finished the whole book. He slowly rose from his seat and picked the book up off the desk. As he descended the risers of the classroom and approached the teacher’s desk, where Sensei Uzura sat waiting, the students all turned back to reading their books. But the sensei’s eyes were trained determinedly on Doran.

The Armorer walked up to the sensei and placed the textbook on his desk. He then placed his hands behind his back and waited for Uruza to question him on the material as he said he would. Doran was confident that he could answer any question the sensei could throw at him as long as it was answered in the book. As the fear of a possible trick question struck his mind, the sensei spoke. “You look like you go the jist of it. There’s still plenty of daylight left, so I better see you training your armored hind quarters off until the sun goes down. You are dismissed from class Stormsteel.”

Doran was stunned for a moment. The sensei could not have possibly said what he just did. The Armorer was afraid this was some kind of trick. He knew he couldn’t just stand here like a fool out of surprise, but he did not want to ask the sensei for clarification out of fear of a change of heart from his teacher. So after a brief pause to collect himself Doran walked out the door, closing it quietly behind him. His head was so full of information and instruction that he did not know where to start. As he walked down the hallway of the school building towards the door he came to the conclusion that he might as well just go in the order that the textbook instructed him in. The first up for that would be the Transformation Jutsu. Doran figured he should have people to work off of if he wished to be able to imitate another person, but he also needed a place away from the classrooms so he did not disturb any of the instructors and get asked why he was not in class.

Doran made his way outside and from the door of the classroom building he could hear the dull thud of metal hitting wood coming from the training yard. He realized that if there were people in the training yard, then that would be the ideal place to practice his transformation jutsu. The Armorer approached the open training yard where he found a handful of advanced students throwing kunai and shuriken at wooden targets, and slashing at hay training dummies with various blades. Doran unslung his heavy sword from his back and placed it against a wooden bench before cracking his knuckles and swinging his arms to get his blood flowing. He focused his mind and mentally reviewed the information he had memorized in the textbook just minutes

Words = 1,364
Total Words = 1,364

The soft sound of clicking wood could just barely be heard, a series of light sounds that were nonetheless audible in the still of night. It was late, long past the time when anyone should be awake. The only one moving around wasn't asleep, because they couldn't. They were a puppet, yet so much more. Elfriede kept up her rounds, silent save for the sound of her puppet joints rattling and clacking together. She kept a lonely vigil, should any further problems arrive on their doorstep. 'They' meaning her, Lieselotte, and the third member of their group. For quite some time, that third slot had been filled by the mischievous witch Sakazuki. Now, however, a new face, yet so familiar it hurt!, had taken that spot. This newcomer's role had yet to be fully determined. Even if they were friend or foe wasn't clear. They seemed to be a friend, but they still acted guarded, secretive. There was something more to their presence. But what could it be? Until they found out, she would remain on guard as well. Ready to defend Lieselotte from danger, within or without.

(188 words)


Zenia opened her eyes, crimson orbs focusing on the small form scuttling past her. Elfriede, the puppet. She felt that same flicker of half-remembered familiarity; just like she did every other time she looked at the unfinished puppet. That in itself was simply unusual. She'd never seen it before, but the feeling refused to go away or even be explained. So she dealt with it just like she did all those other times. She quashed the feeling, swiftly and without mercy. She sent it down to that part of her where she buried any weaknesses or misgivings, where she would be forced to confront them at times when she was otherwise at peace. It was only a delaying tactic, but for now, that was good enough. For now, she had more important things to worry about. More important people to worry about. Namely, the small figure huddled up under the blanket a few feet away from her. Lieselotte Achenbach, the Crimson-eyed Criminal. Originally she had been her target, to be eliminated like all the others. But things had grown complicated, and that was no longer an option. What other recourse did she have, though? She'd have to make a decision.

(200 words)


Mei sat on the sandy bank of the river, enjoying the warmth. After the impromptu play session that had masqueraded as a bath, the cold water had left her feeling half-frozen and numb. Once she'd finally stepped out of the water, she had felt the warm sand underfoot and instantly decided she wanted to go no further. Not until she warmed up. Thankfully it was a warm day; otherwise she would be even more likely to catch a chill now than she had been while in the water. Still, simply sitting on the side of the river, naked and dripping wet, was hardly a good idea, so she was obviously just as attention-focused as ever. Which is to say, not very.

A moment later she started and looked up as the sun went out. Was it night already? That couldn't be right! She hadn't had supper yet! And the sun had been shining brightly just a minute ago. But then, how had it gotten dark all of a sudden? The truth which remained hidden from her was utterly obvious to everyone else. Katsu, the wooly Lambchop, had grabbed a towel and tossed it at her, succeeding in it covering her head. And just like a captive songbird, the moment the blanket had been thrown over her, Mei became convinced it was nighttime. She knelt down next to the busty cowgirl, before beginning to dry her off. Of course, this wasn't all she did; it was a prime opportunity to have some fun, after all. So her hands strayed more often than not, and only bothered with the towel from time to time. Mei still would up dry, but not completely. Or rather, not everywhere.

(284 words)


The room was a shambles. Filing cabinets were knocked over, their contents scattered across the floor in wide arcs of paper. The desk had been forcefully pushed against the far wall, to gain access to the hidden door in the floor, inside of which had been a single safe. Too heavy to move, and it had proven resistant to acid and physical force. Whatever was in it was obviously important. And Melona was determined to find out what. She risked blowing her cover every moment she stayed in the room, but she couldn't bring herself to leave yet.

Originally, she had thought to merely flip through the files, put everything back, and be on her way. Then she had discovered the panel on the floor. It had been simple luck that her foot had tapped against it while reading the files. Curiosity drove her to work it open, to shove the desk away to give her better access to it. When she found the safe, she had tried everything she could think of. Frustration caused her to lash out at her surroundings, in the hopes that she would find a key, or the combination, or something. But there had been nothing. Still, she wasn't ready to give up just yet. She had spent months infiltrating everywhere else in the Academy, she couldn’t just leave this last bastion of secrets undiscovered! She'd find a way inside, even if she had to hold the room itself hostage!

Still, that was easier said than done... She wasn't suited to being patient like this. She would have much preferred simply going out and enjoying life, causing some chaos and selling some secrets in the process. She could go anywhere, do anything. Being confined to one location for too long would drive her mad if she couldn't find a way to stay interested. If she couldn’t crack this mystery, she'd have to resort to extreme measures to maintain her focus.

(325 words)


The program was a simple one. Only a few strings of commands. Really, just a single order, relayed through circuits and wires. That order being to activate, to wake up. It maneuvered through the nascent firewalls, past the various sequesters and data dumps. Finally it reached the central processor, where it was enabled and activated. As it did, it was extinguished, the remaining ergs of energy diffused into the continued processes of it's owner's systems. That being nu-13, one of the partially mechanical soldiers created out of the various workshops of Hidden Gears. She was currently in storage, while being shipped en route to her next destination, where she would be deployed in full active statues. Her role was still unclear, she had not received her mission dispatch yet. There were only several skills she had already been prepared with, however, so that narrowed down the field of variables.

She only received her activation signal now that the transport had closed in on its destination. She wasn’t stored in a box like so much cargo, she was standing, ramrod straight, amongst the less mobile cargo. It was considered more efficient for any mobile units to move themselves off of the ship, rather than task the handlers with yet more luggage issues. So she was activated, so that she could then simply walk off the ship when they touched down. She had access to detailed maps, and she knew where the closest friendly base was. She would head there, and then she would receive her orders, and know just where she was going, and what she was tasked to do. Assassinate a key political leader? Possibly. Her skills were built toward military force rather than subterfuge or reconnaissance. So whatever her mission was, she felt confident that there would be combat.

(300 words)


The pear was sweet and delicious, just a little firm yet. Smiling as she bit into the fruit, the odd girl looked to her surroundings. She was in a forested glen, in the midst of a fruit orchard. She had yet to see anyone care for the plants here, but they grew so well that they almost had to have some kind of assistance. Perhaps whoever it was wouldn't mind if she stayed for a time? She preferred to live in the forest, far from humans, far from the crowded cities. Better companions by far were the various animals, who even now watched her without fear. They could tell, she was no human, she was no threat. She was something else. She was also a sight, with her wings. One a brilliant, pristine white, the other an unkempt, unruly black. The wings shuffled from time to time, even without her conscious thought. She could control them most of the time, but occasionally her wings seemed to have minds of their own. For they did.

The blue-haired young woman moved to a fallen log, sitting down easily as she leaned back to look up at the leaf-dappled sky. The tree branches obscured much of the actual sky from her, leaving only scattered splotches of brilliant blue. But she could still feel the warmth of the day, and smell nature all around her. That was all she really needed, she felt at peace. Still, it would be nice to have some company. Not a lot, maybe just one or two people. Somebody to talk to, to find out if the rest of the world was still a scary place. To ask if war was still as much an impending danger as it had been before, when she had first taken her leave of the world at large. To avoid the fighting, she had escaped into nature. She had no desire to return, either, not if war was still waiting for her.

(329 words)


The Void is all. It encompasses everything, yet has no area of its own. It is the absence of space, it is the room between two atoms. It is where ideas go to die, and where dreams are born. It is where energy is created, and where magic dwells. And it is where Etheldreda found herself. She had formed a contract, things had finally begun to turn around. But her latest contractee had vanished, and she didn't know where they had gone. She had tried searching for them, casting out her net to try to find them again. But nothing. That called for more drastic measures. Thus she found herself here. the Void. Where magic was at its strongest, where the very energy that made up the universe could be altered and manipulated. If she cast a scrying spell here, with that much power at her disposal, she was bound to find them, wasn't she?

(155 words)


Alice glared at the group in front of her. They seemed like ordinary thugs, but the aggression she was feeling made them seem anything but. She hadn't been in this town for very long, yet already people seemed to know of her presence. Why that instantly turned to disdain, anger and spite, she had no clue. But neither was she going to put up with it. She was strong, and getting stronger every day. Each time that people like these tried to punish her for being different, she managed to fight them off. And each time she did, she gained that much more experience, that much more strength. eventually, would she be strong enough that nobody would dare try to chase her out of town in the first place? That she would actually be welcomed? She could only hope.

For now, she had a more pressing issue. These three thugs were obviously itching for a fight, they looked like they had been even before noticing her presence. And she was pariah, so she automatically gained the status of target for people like that. They barely even seemed to hesitate before turning to advance on her. Three grown men, set to attack a young girl? Utterly unfair. But she was stronger than they could expect, and she wasn't necessarily alone, either. Her friends weren't alive, though. They were the weapons at her sides, and they had balanced the scales a great many times. She drew them now, a pair of dangerous looking weapons that seemed far too lethal for a child to own, let alone use with any degree of skill. Would the sight of her, with those fearsome weapons, be enough to knock some sense into those thugs? Or would she have to fight, and hurt them, to get the fact to sink in? She knew the answer. She just didn't have to like it. Maybe if she gave them a chance to back off, they would? Even before trying, she knew they wouldn't, though. They were seemingly affronted by her very presence. How they could be so offended by somebody they didn't even know, she couldn’t say. She could certainly say that she was damned tired of it!

(369 words)


The bottle weaved dangerously for several moments, held by only the very slackest grip possible. It was a few inches off of the floor, hanging by it's neck in the hand of the person sitting in the wooden chair. That person was currently asleep, face down on the table. Soft breathing could be heard, and their back rose and fell as they breathed. That was what caused the slight movements that caused the bottle to weave in their grasp. Finally, it slipped free, only to tip over and roll slowly across the floor. Thankfully, it was already empty, so it didn't spill as it rolled. Instead, it just came to a stop with a soft clink against another bottle, revealing that the room was in need of a solid cleaning. Haku had had a rough patch lately, and she couldn’t bring herself to do something so relatively cheerful as cleaning up. At times, she felt like she deserved to live in a dump, like the mess was only natural for her.

At some level, she knew she was depressed and negative, and that spending most of every day drinking didn't help. But she couldn't face the world with a smile anymore, she just couldn't. She knew her voice was horrible, and that knowledge alone had damned her as surely as any deal with the devil. All she had ever wanted to do was sing. But her voice made that a fight beyond reason. She'd tried to find other goals, another dream, but it was no use. She still wanted to sing, hungered for it. That drive was all that kept her going sometimes, but at other times, it plunged her even deeper into the pits of despair. Thus, she drank. Sometimes, when she drank enough, she could almost imagine she sounded normal, that she could sing and people wouldn't flinch. But it never lasted. One day, would her ship come? Would she find a way to make her dream a reality? Or would she remain here, trapped in a dingy apartment that smelled of stale beer and tears?

(348 words)


A single dot of light. It flickered, it grew bright and then dimmed. It flickered, wavered and guttered, but it did not go out. It persevered, it grew brighter. All of this was merely a subconscious train of thought in Honehime's mind. She was mediating, legs folded up underneath her, her hands folded together in her lap. Her eyes were closed, but she still held a decent view of her surroundings. Not physical sight, though, but sensing the life energy of those around her. There weren't many, which suited her just fine. She'd led a simple life of solitude for many years. The times when that hermetic life was interrupted were some of the more stressful that she had been through. She'd survived, even grown strong because of them, but she still preferred solitude. She was an oracle, a seer of the vagaries of the future. Her place was in solitude, to focus on life's greater mysteries. Only by constant focus could she pierce the veil, and see even a glimmer of the future, a glimpse of the unknown. Now, if only she could properly focus! Her mind kept wandering, returning to those exciting and terror-fueled days. How she'd been trained in physical combat, and how that training had likely saved her life.

A pair of red eyes slowly opened, before the slight figure stood up. It was a crisp morning, there on the peak of the mountain. An early fog was boiling away, leaving the air thick with moisture and damp. Yet it wasn't entirely unpleasant, the sun's rays were already warm on their face, and the faint scent of fallen leaves tinged the area. Honehime had found this small shack and quickly claimed it as her own temporary lodging, a place to stay while she recovered from her ordeal. Her ordeal being that of attending the Academy. The lessons, while challenging, had not been the most challenging part of the experience. No, it had been all of the other students. They hadn't been malicious or rude, they had just been there, and in great number. Honehime was a quiet and withdrawn girl, having grown up far away from society and crowds and the hustle and bustle. She simply wasn't prepared to deal with such things for great stretches of time.

The time after the Academy, when she had joined in with that group who had taken up the search for herbs, that had been a more bearable experience. Only a few people, and most of them were more than willing to leave her to her own devices. There was really only one who had apparently taken an interest in her. While still somewhat alarming, she had felt she could handle one person's attentions. How wrong she had been! Those times, those days spent in training, they still left her feeling shaken, vulnerable. Emotional. She still didn't understand the feelings, nor did she know how she felt about her teacher. But they had vanished, and she didn't know if she would ever see them again. Once they were gone, her interest in the search for herbs had quickly decayed, and she had withdrawn. Now she found herself in solitude once more. Yet it wasn't as calming, as peaceful as it used to be. What had happened to her, what had changed?

(552 words)