The City of Durem

[H4X]

Lina appeared a few rooftops away from the center of town as her shushin dispersed. She hadn't used the Rai shushin as was her norm given that she was trying to enter town without raising too much attention today.

She back-flipped off the roof and landed in a crouch before she stood up, making sure of her bearings before she started walking towards the edge of town. As she walked she started tossing the ball of metal she found still clutched in her hand up and down. The ball would sprout spikes in the air and suddenly reverse itself the moment a spike touched her hand. She glanced at an antique shop for just a moment as she walked along, brushing the metal piece behind one of her fox like ears. A faint flicker appeared over her eyes for a moment before she sighed and continued on her way.  

[H4X]

As Lina walked along she started to glance up frequently. Tossing the sometimes spiked ball, and following it with her eyes. She didn't hear the motion of a person ahead of her backing her way out of a tourist attraction kind of store that seemed to sell the fake love potions and other alchemical nonsense. The spiked ball landed on the other woman's head and the woman toppled backwards on top of Lina.

"... That really hurts...." the woman who left the shop muttered, trying to pull the now separate spikes loose from her silver hair with black spots and only managing to p***k her fingers in the process.

Lina's eye twitched a bit as her attention was brought to the fact that her face was now pinned under what most men would assume was a very nice rear, one belonging to the woman who had been stabbed in the head. Given the fact that this other woman was double Lina's current height, and looking like some kind of snow-cat with the fur included most would probably guess why Lina might be upset at her face being sat on.
“Could you please get off me?” came out from under the woman, though it was muffled by the fact Lina’s face was currently being used as a seat.

“Sorry Little girl.”

Lina breathed in deeply and kept trying to rub her face after the woman got off her. She glared at the woman for a few moments before turning away, somewhat pale. She looked around then started picking up bottles, likely bought from the shop the woman had just left given the turned over bag.
“Here… you need help with those spikes? Maybe I should heal them for you?”

“They weren’t silver, it’s fine”

Lina hadn’t returned eye-contact. She finally glanced over at the woman’s gold eyes, ones that looked very tired. The woman was somewhat busty given her overall proportions. The woman’s apparel wasn’t standard for any time of the year, being something like a leotard with shorts that looked sortof metallic. The boots on the woman’s feet were solid metal, but separated at the ankle to allow foot movement.
“So, that makes you some kind of Lycan then?”

“Not exactly”

“Oh, I see, more cat…”
Lina looked at a few of the potion bottles. Making note that they weren’t things one would expect someone who seemed into those sorts of shops to be into. She picked up a bottle, reading the label casually.
“You’re trusting one of those places for some kind of medication?”

“How’d you know that was medication?”

“Oh, I know a few things. Taken something similar long ago, even had to resort to trusting one of those places once.”

“You don’t say.”

“So, you’re stocking up for some kind of war then are you?”
Lina read a few more labels before she put the rest back into the bag. Noticing the woman had finished pulling the spikes out of her head, and that the wounds seemed to have already healed.

“Now you’re just creeping me out there.”

“It seems obvious after all given you’re desperate enough to resort to a place like this. I didn’t think the faster races would ever take the close alternative unless there was a dire need.”

“So far nothing’s happened.”

“But you’re afraid aren’t you? But fear’s a good thing, it makes sure you survive.”

“Why’s that?”

“You’ll find out someday”

“Says the little girl?”

Lina looked Insulted as she handed the woman her bag and stood up, dusting herself off.
“Foxes are tricksters; I thought one who smelled like she had been with one of us would know that. Though I’ll give you some advice, avoid flying during the thunderstorm that’s gonna come in, always nothing but trouble.”

“Thunder Storm? Hey wait how’d you know I could fly?”

Lina ignored the woman looking around, already knowing she would not be seeing any clouds in the sky, nor commenting on her lack of wings and yet still being accused of being a flier.
“You just told me”
Lina tossed one last bottle over her shoulder into the woman’s bag before walking away, the bottle being marked levitation. Lina unsealed some metal pellets after she rounded a corner and started to juggle them again. This time avoiding the spikes, but instead trying to make the balls connect with each other while in the air.
The catgirl said something that even Lina shouldn't have heard, and yet Lina still said something as she kept walking that seemed to match up to those who might have heard both.
"All my love to long ago..."  

[H4X]

Lina sighed as she kept walking through the town. Whatever was going on wasn’t something she wanted to be dragged into. Especially given the feeling she had gotten from Tier when he told her to stay out of it. She considered where Reeve might have disappeared to, given that now she actually had time to waste where she could actually be learning something. She sighed and tilted one of her palms up, forming a ball of spinning Rai energy. The small pellets started to land one by one and began bending into the shapes of the spirals her technique was taking on. Her technique began to change it’s pattern, the metal snaking along with her Rai, the glow of the incomplete version of her technique diminished as the electricity began to heat the metal. The white glow turning red as the metal was rapidly gaining heat.
She kept to the back alley’s as she walked, having no reason to hide her fox nature on the off streets, and the added benefit of fewer people caring about the display of something that was close enough to being one of the ninja arts. She brushed her hair that covered the absence of human ears as she walked feeling paranoid for some reason.
She tried to keep her mind off just who she had bumped into. It wouldn’t be something she should let herself dwell on, especially given what she might know from the little things she had observed. She sensed eyes upon her, but it seemed the action meant nothing in the end, and the eyes she felt she knew wouldn’t be there. In fact she already knew the particular eyes would fade. Lina roof hopped across a main road before dropping back to the ground. She stopped again, glancing at another antique shop. The metal in her hand was now only orange as it returned to a sphere shape, before dividing into pellets. She tossed the pellets into her other hand, catching them just off her hand with a small level of magnetism, now attempting to figure out just what secrets this branch of Rai had left a mystery.

Her now free hand brushed the metal behind her ear and something mostly transparent flickered into view over her eyes. She raised an eyebrow and entered the shop. She started examining a few objects, one being a small paperweight that was made out of a red crystal with black lines, almost organic in the pattern, running up the outer edge. She changed her position so the shopkeeper had only a view of her back and let some Rai flow into the top of a few of the lines, her almond shaped eyes widened at the material beginning to glow orange, something seeming to try to form on the inner edge. Whatever formed lasted only a second before the crystal stopped glowing. Her eyes narrowed and she started looking around carefully, keeping the object in her hand as she started to examine more of the shop. Her hand brushed against a coral object, her eyes stopping and calmly returning to focus on it.

“Hello there, who left you here? Better yet how did you get here?”
She brushed it, taking a fine interest in the object.
“I think I have a place for you”
Lina’s voice was almost like one would expect of someone talking to a child. She schooled her expression as she noticed the strange looks she was getting from the shop owner. She placed both objects down and then her hands on her hips as she looked at him sternly. After he glanced away she picked up the objects and brought them to the counter, setting them down for his inspection as she returned to browsing the shelves of the store. She tilted her head to the side as she looked at something that looked like a badly designed blender. One that had the writing and original white coloring faded and scuffed to where it seemed to belong in the shop. She tapped the metallic piece behind her ear as she examined the machine. She sighed and weighed the pros and cons before deciding to put it on the counter as well. She kept returning back to the shop, looking at various things. She came back with another object seemingly made out of crystal. This one had the faintest tint of blue to it and was larger than the other by a fair amount, the organic patterns of metal were present on this as well, but someone had etched a picture into the material. She pulled off the antique picture frame, and handed it to the shop-keeper, while putting the etching itself with her other purchases. Her final purchase was a very unimaginative vase, one with a flower that was firmly rooted into the metal of the cylinder. It almost looked like the flower had grown out of the metal. The metal likewise was somewhat oddly tinted for any normal metals, being almost indigo in color. There was writing on the side, some in simple Japanese, but it was faded, and seemed to lack meaning. The other language seemed extremely bizarre in its writing characters.

She pulled out a series of somewhat large gold coins, all with holes in the middle, held together by string, and paid the shopkeeper what she owed him roughly, which seemed to be agreed to be three of the coins. She pulled loose another coin from the string.
“Please, do tell me who you get your shipments from, or when they’ll come in. I have need of something a bit more specific and unlikely for you to get in otherwise. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised to find your supplier wouldn’t wish to get such an item without someone showing interest.”
 

[H4X]

She glanced back at the shop, deciding not to mention those coins might be antiques instead of foreign currency as she might have suggested. It didn’t matter to her one way or the other, but it would lower her opinion of this particular store’s owner, though that wouldn’t be able to go too much lower given what she had already seen. Her mind questioned the prices she had heard him mention of his supplier. Something wasn’t right with any one supplier having even two of those objects and not knowing some of their worth. But to have everything she purchased in the store from the one source, not once, but twice in its path to her, meant something was meddling in her life. There was a clue in the meaning behind what she had found, she knew this much. She knew the biggest message that had come through as well. Her mind began to question if she should check where Reeve was, but another thought nipped at her mind. She still felt the eyes following her, she knew why the eyes had been on her, but now she realized whatever she found today wouldn’t be coincidence, and likewise it wouldn’t be something she’d find to re-occur. In fact it likely had a much more important meaning.

Lina spun around on one foot and stretched her arms out holding the bag with the smaller items from the shop in one hand. Lina was glaring up at some nothing several feet off the ground.
“Well what are you waiting for? I’m the oldest thing here aren’t I? Come get me!”
“Come on, you know you can’t get her as well as I do. So come get me!”
She started to laugh as she walked away.
“You can’t can you? You just tease me with things I know to put me on edge, but you can’t get me.”
Her face darkened for a moment.
“But you never would let me keep these things”
She looked into the paper bag she carried with several of the smaller objects from the store in it, some touching the others which made her eyebrow rise. Her almond shaped eyes showing the slightest hint of fear.
“That means… you aren’t trying to scare me… You’re warning me.”
The feeling of being watched by at least one presence vanished. Something leathery fell to the ground, turning to cold embers that dissipated before coming into contact with anything solid.

Lina’s face turned grave, she checked the tracker she had on Reeve, making sure it still registered before flicking the metal piece behind her ear. Her expression still stayed calm as she walked back and forth.
“I can’t trust either of them even if I wanted to at this point; likewise I doubt they’d warrant this kind of a warning to me. Tier and those after him would be likely to warrant it but still I question it. I question everything about this I suppose. But for one of them to leave me be, to even give me a warning it means something. What does it mean?”

She looked around, trying to find anything that might give her a hint. She started looking at shop names, signs, even checking her memories for anything that might make sense of what she had seen repeatedly, anything that might make indicate a pattern. Anything that might provide that one little clue towards what she should expect. There always would be something when it truly came down to the final moments, that was always what she was told, every time she had been schooled in matters of this nature that had been a simple fact that they felt had to be pointed out. Although the words changed they always mentioned that somehow these small jokes, these small spoilers would make themselves known before it was to happen.
Her eyes wandered the streets and she returned herself to a neutral expression. If she looked for the meaning it wouldn’t be likely to become apparent. If she found her meaning then it likely would mean she was already too late to stop whatever was ahead. A part of her hoped whatever role she was to play was important, as they always said only then would the message truly give the final warning in a way that would be truly clear and obvious. Only then would whatever meaning she needed become clear.

She tilted her head and shook her head. For her friends sake she had to banish that thought, she couldn’t wish something important enough for it to be shoved in her face to happen. She had to keep her mind away from that line of thought and instead resolve to find what she needed to do. Maybe she would be one of the few who made it away with their life. She again shook her head rapidly, trying to remove the thought.
“No that wouldn’t be the case, every time someone has to die. Maybe it’ll be a good death this time, not one where I simply don’t wake up. That would be for the best; after all I’m the only one here truly expendable.”
 

[H4X]

She sighed, finally deciding what she needed to do for now. Lina walked along through the town, still following the back alleyways. She walked through a liquor store, picking up a few bottles and putting them in her bag. Her path became erratic as she moved through town. A few times it even seemed she would go into a back door in one place and end up another altogether, though she seemed un-phased by the changes as she kept walking. Finally she found her intended destination. It was a covered alleyway that dead ended. There was no way to observe it from the outside, and inside there was nothing but trash and a ratty tool shed.

Lina looked around and sent out several rapid pulses of Rai meant to reveal any hidden presence that might be hidden. It would light up anything that was around to her Rai senses like sonar, and likewise the frequency would have to be matched exactly or she would be alerted. It wasn’t impossible, but it was something that would take better than a normal person considered a master to pull it off. She knew that currently she was easily a master in Rai sensing and this was something that she couldn’t hide from even given her situation.
She set down the bag inside the shed and closed the door behind her. She was relatively sure it would make it back to her lab safely now.

She didn’t reverse her path, instead taking a different route, one that aside from a few places seemed easily followed from. The whole walk she was working on something. She had made a pair of rings, connected at one point on each side, but one being rotated 90 degrees. In the center was a ball, being levitated as she tried to figure out just what made the magnetic aspects of Rai.

Lina’s other hand was trying something new altogether. She was re-creating her sphere technique. Instead of shielding the technique to keep it from draining rapidly there was metallic dust spinning around in the technique. The particles were orbiting rapidly and superheated. She casually gave a magnetic push to one particle and watched it fly out, sliding against a wall, leaving a trail of burn marks and melted metal. She raised her eyebrow, and started making calculations on what sort of damage would come from a single kunai being melted as she started to constrict the technique. Given she was just training herself the additional spread was just wasting energy, when the tighter formation would be better for creating a better wound it would also be easier to divert. Her lack of focus started to show on and off as she walked, the ball inside the rings started changing direction randomly. The ball kept drifting in a straight line towards magnetic north until she would notice and pull it back.
She kept walking wondering how much time she needed to waste before coming back to the dojo to see whatever those two had done in her absence. Another aspect of her mind told her she should track Reeve, but she shook her head at the thought. He hadn’t made himself known to her, and if he had been captured by either side it would likely be a better position for herself. She needed information and Reeve unfortunately kept feeling like a gray pawn. He could create openings for either side, but wasn’t helping either side as things were.
 

[H4X]

“Whatever is going to happen isn’t going to be simple. I doubt that false demon will do anything of use to anyone. He’s something worth worrying about, and yet he’s following his nature.”
She collected all the material in her attack technique back into a ball and let it flow into the magnetic sphere, stretching the rings with the original sphere’s material while the molten sphere was held in place by magnetism, allowing it to cool off with the enticement of not letting a drop fall into her open palm.

Lina sighed and returned her attention to walking through town. Her tail wrapped around her waist. Her ears tilted back till they blended into her hair to most that didn’t look closely. She blended into the main streets for a while, keeping the ball floating in her magnetic sphere. Most paid it no mind given it seemed simple to do with magnets, but that she was providing the magnetism made it somewhat more difficult.
Lina was adding difficulty by ever so slightly giving the material tugs in various directions, aiming for precision over the most miniscule distances she could manage. Making techniques bigger was easy enough if she wasted the energy which she already had a reasonable abundance of, but pinpoint precision took time to develop with each new technique, and more with techniques which involved new bases. From Rai barriers to Armor was simple because it just involved improving her power output. Magnetism seemed to have been brushed against by metal molding, but this involved performing the technique without direct contact, and without a direct line of Rai connecting either.


((Got cut short writing this one, can't save it x.x))  

[H4X]

She tilted her head and sighed, the metal was cooled off enough. She molded it differently then normal. This time there was a strange amount of precision as she formed something that ran the entire length of her arm, slowly taking form. It was hollow and shaped like several connected bones. It mirrored the length of Lina's arm exactly. She shook her head, and thought back through her actions during the past year. She had buried something that could be used against her. The seals protecting it were nothing to prevent someone from digging it up. Given everything that had happened immediately after her return to the Dojo she hadn't had time to recover anything that she felt Neko would know could be used against her.

This blasted academy while providing her with some of the most interesting moments of this millennium still hadn't been kind in allowing her to trust her usual protection methods of things that required the proper but unprotected methods that took years apparently never could be trusted while she lived here. Her mind considered the aspects of burying things at one of her lab's current emergency exit points, but given some of the equipment that had been seen it probably was best she just contain everything she left behind till she could find someplace to throw it out at. She didn't want to do what she was going to have to do, but it was necessary. She followed the roads out of town, eventually heading back towards the dojo. She made a small diversion, going out a mile off the road and stopping, looking at four rusted Kunai. The grass in a perfect circle was dead and yet it hadn't decomposed.

Lina sighed and spent several long disgusting minuites digging through the earth, pulling out something that looked like skin. She put the fake bones into the hole after gathering everything and infused the false limb with her spiritual energy. A moment later she put forth some of the demonic energy in a pure form, knowing any manipulation would cause problems. The skin melted and puddled into the shape of an arm around the false skeleton. She released her spiritual energy and pulled the limb up by the end of the metal skeleton. She unsealed a jar from one of the scrolls. She opened it and put the limb into it before closing it and glancing into the metallic casing that now had something that had been a part of her at one point.
"You know... as creepy as this is to keep on display... I think I might keep it around. Be good for parties."
Lina slipped it under her arm and started walking. Her attention was drawn in the direction of the Ho dojo, sensing a familiar energy signature.

((Thought I needed to Tie up a loose end that I thought had related to something else when I typed it x.x))