Tsuuki
Member-Nin
This is a test of the NC-gakure Status Broadcast System. Objective: to find the max length of a sta–
28 posts
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Post by Tsuuki on May 25, 2018 14:26:25 GMT
A tranquil scene: a damp, cool forest in the foothills beneath what was once an iconic and towering mountain, its glory forgotten as the stone that formed it was scattered as rubble and reclaimed by the earth.
Where dire beasts and mighty warriors once roamed now was a popular camping spot, isolated but safe, not challenging for the casual outdoorsy types. A couple sat together on a log, overlooking the twinkling city lights in the distance and how they reflected the stars above. They clinked their wine glasses together and sipped, soaking in the sounds of nature.
Curiously, a small orb of faint blue light drifted into their view. The woman gasped with a smile, delighted to think of it as a fairy, though she knew magic wasn't real. The orb bulged slightly, and two pairs of clawed fingers protruded from it and curled around its edge. Then the tranquility was shattered.
The fingers ripped across the open air and with them the glowing orb expanded into a blue-edged hole, the otherside of which was streaked with ghostly colors--and violently hungry. Wind whirled through the trees and past the couple, the woman's shriek barely heard over the chaos as her beau locked arms with her and their seat just in time to keep from being sucked into the tear in reality. Leaves and dust went rushing in, as the owner of the fingers pulled himself out.
His head was a wild bush of pepper-colored locks and dreads that covered his eyes and faded into a robust and full-faced beard, the only features to escape which was the tip of his nose and two long, conical ears. A dusty, beaten long coat draped over a bare torso, as aged and worn-out as the clothes yet still fit, and mottled with wild tattoos. Peculiarly, he was wearing what appeared to be a long skirt down to his ankles. He seemed rather tall, but this could have been due to the fact his stretched, rodent-like feet were floating above ground.
The couple gazed in bewildered fright at the newcomer, distantly aware that all these exaggerated features--the hair, the long ears, the baggy clothes--were completely undisturbed by the torrential vacuum behind him. The half-empty wine bottle went airborne, somersaulting towards the gaping wound in space, but by just turning a finger towards it the stranger was able to stop it in mid-air. He snapped his other hand away and relaxed it, and as suddenly as it had appeared, the hole collapsed on itself and deafening silence replaced it.
As if carried by an invisible sommelier, the wine bottle floated towards the woolly newcomer and presented itself for a brief inspection. Without using his hands the spout plugged into lips veiled by his mustache and poured as he tilted his head back. The attention of all three present was drawn below him as merlot went splashing down into the dirt, pouring right through him. "Ah flaps," a smokey but somehow still musical voice grumbled beneath the hair. The bottle and what was left of its contents went scooting back to the log, behind which the trembling couple now cowered.
The stranger pointed his nose over the tree line and titled his head, then silently spun on his heels to face the vista. An ear bobbed and twitched. "Noisy," he muttered to the distant city lights. He peered over his shoulder, and although his eyes were well hidden, the couple could feel his gaze upon them. He floated to them as his body turned, stopping politely when the two shrank away.
"A thousand pardons, forgot about the pressure differences," he remarked with a slight bow. "Might you be able to tell me where Mount Kumo went?"
"Wh-what?" the man stuttered.
The beard shape drooped slightly in what must have been a frown beneath the growth. "What about the Koumori?"
The couple didn't respond. The stranger pointed to his ears, but the clue was lost on them. His shoulders sagged and he tsked disappointedly. "You leave for just a millennium and a half and the whole place goes to shit," he lamented to himself while looking around again, shaking his head.
His focus returned to the couple. "How about a woman with dragon tattoos, have you seen her?"
The couple exchanged confused looks. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?" asked the guy.
The stranger recoiled. "She's a woman," he retorted in defense.
"It's a movie," the man corrected.
"Moo-vee?"
"And a book," the woman added helpfully.
A hush fell over them. The weightless visitor dipped as he shrugged. "Wellll I'll let you two get back to your evening, sorry for the disturbance," he said as he reached behind himself and plunged two fingers into thin air, the white-hot blue glow shining around his knuckles. Reality rippled out from it like a pebble tossed into a pond, the couple bracing themselves again as the ripples formed another hole. However this time there was no extreme depressurization--instead a cold but gentle breeze came from it, and staring into it was like the view from the window seat of an airplane.
Tsuuki turned to step through his portal, but halfway through he stopped and turned back to the couple. "Oh, and if you happen to see two young women with ears like mine..." he started, his tone losing its melody as he paused to consider how to finish his sentence. Finally: "Run."
He passed into the opening and it closed behind him, and the couple was left in the tranquility again. Mere seconds later, the sky above them became choked with a cloud of fluttering, squeaking bats.
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40 posts
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Post by Raika on May 25, 2018 22:58:12 GMT
A woman with silver hair leaned out against the railing of a high-rise apartment's balcony, tired brown eyes staring out over the brilliant lights of the city and how it left the stars above muted, nearly invisible against the grey-black. She wore a simple black tank top and blue jeans, her feet bare, and her arms and what was visible of her back were covered in tattoos of dragons, bats, wolves, and many, many more creatures and objects and patterns that seemed to be of no real significance to the uneducated eye.
"...maybe it's about time I go out into the wilds again...."
Raika sighed, pushing away from the railing to turn back into her apartment, glass doors left open to let the night breeze in, smelling of exhaust and coming rain and carrying in all the distant sounds of horns honking and the low hum of people chattering. This city never slept. Not really. It never got... quiet. She ached for the quiet of old, when her charges slept safely, under the watchful eyes of her brethren, long, long ago. When dragons and bats and birds and wolves roamed freely. When everyone knew magic was real, and knew its true names.
She passed by a great painting sitting half-finished on an easel, of a village now lost to time, surrounded by mountains, with thunderstorms above, glimpses of sky here and there letting slants of sunlight fall down onto the village, a sense of warmth and comfort to it all....
She passed by countless sketches scattered across tables and pinned onto corkboards hanging from the walls, perhaps hundreds of faces staring back at her, all smiling or otherwise happy as she would have remembered. There were dragons, too--a twintailed beast, flying free; a five-headed giant, roaring out its glory; a large dragon and a small one, the former smiling and the smaller bickering over something; and countless others. There were werewolves, people with aspects of animals, men and woman performing magical feats. There was a man that seemed to be half bat, smoking through a pipe, a fanged grin on his lips, his eyes hidden from view. Once upon a time, many centuries in the past, she had marked the sketches with simple notes: RIP, MIA, and so forth. Throughout the years, however... as each new sketch was done, she gave up on those extra notes, as the first note became far, far too common. It had hurt too much to write on so many of the sketches.
Raika picked up her electric guitar as she passed it, decorated with a motif that only those who had survived alongside her would recognize: silver lightning bolts crackling around the symbol of her long-lost home village against a black body. Cords were picked up, plugged in; a small amp was turned on, a string given a few plucks to test; and the woman sat down on a beaten, age-worn couch, her expression quiet as she began plucking out a simple melody, her voice softly singing along without words, remembering ancient forests with massive wolves, towering mountains, deep valleys, and the melody of a world that time had long since forgotten.
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Tsuuki
Member-Nin
This is a test of the NC-gakure Status Broadcast System. Objective: to find the max length of a sta–
28 posts
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Post by Tsuuki on May 29, 2018 13:29:58 GMT
A mere miles above the planet surface, unaffected by the dizzying peril and chilly air of the altitude, sat Tsuuki crosslegged on an invisible cushion. His hidden brow was furrowed, his hairy lips buttoned with concentration. His ears were stiff and out, but it was not sound he was listening to. One hand was slightly outreached, his fingers sliding and pressing, as if deftly playing chords on an air guitar. It wasn't the focus that was hard to come by; it was resisting the cornucopia of curiosities spread out before him, vying for his inspection as ambassadors of the new world.
Finally, a smirk relaxed his mouth. "There you are," he said to himself with a heavy but happy sigh. His outreached hand remained locked while his other lifted up and slipped his fingers behind the curtain of reality, parting it with ease so that it became a window into an art-lined apartment.
--
To the average human, his arrival would be detected only by a freezing gust, as if a sudden change in weather had blown in from the open blacony doors of the high-rise apartment. But to those few remaining survivors able to detect beyond the mundane senses there was also an abrupt and immense spike in nearby energy, like a battery containing all the power of a star had appeared.
Tsuuki drifted into the apartment, still seated, and snapped his fingers away from the hole to close it behind him, choking out the icy air beyond it. His head tilted only slightly left to right and back again, his satellite-like ears twisting and fluttering before conceding to the city cacophony and drooping to his shoulders.
He hummed aloud to the song the woman on the couch played, himself unsure if it was because it was a song he remembered from long ago or if its melody was just that intuitive and familiar.
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40 posts
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Post by Raika on May 30, 2018 2:17:24 GMT
Raika's eyes flicked to the newcomer as she continued to play, never pausing or even flinching at the cold gust or the energy spike... and after a few moments, her eyes shifted away, misting over. She didn't remember falling asleep, but clearly she had if she was seeing this melding of past and present. Or she had finally gone insane. That was always a possibility, after one thousand and five hundred years. Fifteen centuries. Had it really been that long?
Her voice fell silent as she plucked out the notes on her guitar, listening quietly to that smoky, musical voice as her old friend hummed along to the ancient melody she played.
A soft, percussive note. The woman glanced down to find the source, her fingers pausing, before carefully wiping away the droplet of water. Then another. A third.
The Silver Dragoness of Kumogakure no Sato set aside her instrument before burying her face into her hands, giving into the silent flow of tears and age-old ache in her chest. After all... it was just a dream. Or insanity. She was still working that part out... but she was bound to find out which case it was, in time.
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Tsuuki
Member-Nin
This is a test of the NC-gakure Status Broadcast System. Objective: to find the max length of a sta–
28 posts
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Post by Tsuuki on May 30, 2018 12:49:33 GMT
The hushed puffs of gently sobbing breaths from the woman were suddenly drowned beneath a droning wail from the little amp. The guitar remained where it had been set aside, untouched, but the coiled strings were trembling and bending ever so slightly, producing the sound which was so alien and yet distinctly melodic. A wall of cold sound to the ears, a wave of warm foam over the soul.
Tsuuki had unfolded himself, though his feet still hovered off the floor, and he swayed weightlessly to the tune as a feather does in a soft breeze, with no regard to what is "up" or "down." He stopped abruptly, as did the song with a resonating PLUNNNG that swept along the corkboards of artwork. The bat-earred visitor was caught by the half-painted canvas, inspecting it without eyes, as if he could hear the rustling of green, the stony peace of greys, the stroke of every brush that amalgamated into a scene plucked from both memories and dreams.
The mop-haired head followed an invisible thread from the painting to the lonesome figure on the couch–a friend, an ally, a face from more than a dozen lifetimes ago. He recognized her heartbeat like a voice, fitting for a woman who he admired for always speaking her heart, especially one as mighty as hers. A dragon's heart.
A tear fell from her cheek but it did not crash against her body below; it remained suspended in the air between, an amorphous diamond shimmering with dim midnight light. It then floated up and away from her, meeting Tsuuki halfway as he silently approached the couch. "May I borrow this? Seems I've used up all of my own over the centuries..." he muttered with a doleful chuckle.
His legs bent into a lotus position as his form lowered to the floor, still not touching but placing his face below his friend's so that she would not have to look up to see him. The edges of his mustache perked up; he was smiling. "Hello, Raika-sama. Long time, no see eh?" It was a tired, old Koumori joke, but then, so was Tsuuki.
Raika's tear was at his cheek when he finally released it, letting it fall as his own. It went right through his lap and dashed upon the apartment floor.
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40 posts
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Post by Raika on May 30, 2018 18:00:15 GMT
The woman's hands had lowered with the wailing of the amp, gazing at the floor as she listened, arms resting on knees... before blurry vision flicked towards first the guitar, then the ghost of her past as he turned towards her unfinished painting... and then her gaze met where his would be, and she looked back to the floor.
A single tear, caught in midair.
"May I borrow this? Seems I've used up all of my own over the centuries..."
Raika's eyes softened, unfocusing. That didn't sound dreamlike. Usually her dreams were more memories of the days when shinobi were known and still populous, before the apocalypse. Or nightmares, surrounded by the dead and dying, lifeless eyes staring up at her as she continued on, walking endlessly through into the future. More and more often, she was questioning why she didn't just... stop trying. Why she kept going, in spite of it all. Who wanted to be essentially immortal, anyway?
"Hello, Raika-sama. Long time, no see eh?"
Brown eyes refocused on the man before her, his ancient joke bringing a brief, soft laugh to her lips in spite of everything.
The borrowed tear passed through him.
The laugh stopped, her smile vanishing, and she reached out to try to touch her old friend... and finding no resistance.
Her head dropped with a sigh, running a hand through her silver hair. "...so I've finally lost it, huh...? At least I'm not murderous... I think.... Murderous would be bad."
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Tsuuki
Member-Nin
This is a test of the NC-gakure Status Broadcast System. Objective: to find the max length of a sta–
28 posts
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Post by Tsuuki on May 31, 2018 15:48:21 GMT
Tsuuki didn't move, other than the gentle bobbing from his intangible seat, as his compatriot's hand reached into and through his form. He had anticipated the results, and even suspected how his incorporealness might vex her sense of reality, but the words that followed visibly surprised him as he dramatically recoiled, casting himself back and away.
"Well, now, let's not be so quick to judge murderous insanity," he blathered hastily, drifting as if he was pacing while uneasily rubbing the back of his neck. "A-after all, a twisted mind isn't necessarily indicative of a corrupted heart, right? And it's not like anyone chooses to be insanely homicidal, and s-some people need to, uh, murder to survive... we're shinobi, or were shinobi--that's sort of the name of the game! Even if, uh, most of those murdered are rather helpless..."
His words were steadily declining into a muttered rambling, seeming more like he was trying to convince himself rather than present company. He put his palms over where his eyes would be beneath his overgrown hair, his legs curling him up into a fetal position. "...they're still good girls—our girls..." he whispered with a nervous laugh, his voice brinking on a sob.
Suddenly he threw his head back as he whipped himself straight again, like he had been jabbed in a tender spot along his back. "But I am getting ahead of myself," he announced to empty space before turning sharply to face Raika again. He had briefly forgotten he wasn't alone, something he would have to readjust to.
His lanky body weaved back towards Raika like a sea serpent until he was seated across from her. "Forgive me, I know my... present state is quite perplexing." He gazed around himself, inspecting unseen walls boxing him in. "Full disclosure, I have yet to fully understand it myself," he grumbled, then refocused on Raika. "And given certain circumstances I may not be the most suitable judge of sanity, but I assure you, I'm real--"
Tsuuki shook his head fiercely in disagreement with himself. "Errr, I mean, perhaps not 'real' in a traditional sense, or even a, uh, scientific sense. What I'm trying to say is you're not imagining me... but then, maybe we all are merely illusions in each other's minds, in which case could any of us really prove we are more than a vivid dream? I know I feel existence, but an amputee can feel pain in his fingers on an arm he no longer has..."
He stopped, catching himself rambling again, and took a second to compose himself. Finally, he simply said "here" as he reached out to Raika's other hand. It moved like he was going to clasp her fingers with his, but instead his hand passed into her's, and stayed. He let his chakra radiate from him, politely inviting itself to meld with Raika's so that she would, at least, know that some part of him was there.
There was something more to his chakra now, a powerful hum resembling just a sample of the star-like energy that accompanied his impossible reappearance, yet the familiar weightless warmth of his inherent signature was still there, somewhere. And he felt the familiar puissance of her draconic energy from her... and something else. He had thought it was just his altered chakra reacting to its terrestrial origin upon proximal reintroduction, however now he noticed the same blight in her system. And it dawned on him then how easy it was to discern her chakra signature from the thousands of human lives crammed into every available space around them: simply put, those humans must no longer carry chakra. How was that possible? What had happened during his lifetimes away?
Tsuuki nodded pensively. "We have a lot to catch up on," he sighed.
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40 posts
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Post by Raika on May 31, 2018 16:59:52 GMT
Raika stared blankly as she grew less and less sure of her insanity. Surely she wasn't quite so off in the head that she could imagine this sort of situation, these reactions. Slowly she brushed away her tears, gaze sharpening as it continued to remain on... was this really Tsuuki? Had he survived somehow?
He was trying to defend murderous insanity. He mentioned "our girls"... Tsuuki's twins? Momona and Koromi?
She could remember in her mind's eye the rambunctious Momona running around with her giant spatula, the quieter Koromi lurking in the shadows.
...what had happened to the friendly Koumoris over the past fifteen centuries?
Brown eyes slowly moved to the ghostly hand struck through hers, feeling the chakra radiating from it... and Tsuuki might feel a more forceful reaction than he was expecting as she ate a tiny portion of his chakra, pondering bright, sparkling taste alongside smoky warmth and the bitterness of the chakra infection that had ended the shinobi way of life. Her gaze flicked back up to his face, brown eyes turning blue, and saw a color she had never seen before in his energies, right alongside what she could recognize as his signature and the infection.
The woman was no longer crying as she moved her hand out from his, focusing chakra to her fingers as she reached out to try to touch her friend once more and find some solidity with the power of her own spirit.
"...I've dated murderous insanity, Tsuuki. It never improved until the 'in' was removed."
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Tsuuki
Member-Nin
This is a test of the NC-gakure Status Broadcast System. Objective: to find the max length of a sta–
28 posts
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Post by Tsuuki on Jun 1, 2018 23:47:43 GMT
A whispered grunt escaped Tsuuki as the portion of his chakra was consumed--a fair sacrifice to appease a dragon, but if this vision or phantom or cosmic echo of Tsuuki could feel anything, he definitely felt that. His smile met her shifting gaze, and as her eyes did a telltale change in perspective he wondered if the expression on his lips would be lost between his muskrat-sized beard and the blend of colors she sees in. He wondered if she'd notice that his chakra had depleted slightly from her sampling, but the other energy expanded to fill the "hole." He wondered if it looked like how it felt, the new energy inside him: not in some isolated division from his chakra, as the individual Fire and Wind chakras were themselves, and yet it wasn't completely homogenized as the two chakras would be to become Flight chakra either. This new energy felt like it enveloped his chakra and scattered it as millions of tiny specs, shimmering with various intensities reflective of the power they contained and getting brighter as they circled--no, orbited--a core that outshone them all. A spiral galaxy with chakra for stars.
At least, that's how it felt.
Tsuuki was lost in his own vast ponderations when he noticed the chakra-pointed touch reaching out to him, and still he remained lost, adrift. Raika's fingers fell upon his nose.
At least, that's how it felt.
The energies acted for him, chakra seeping through the foreign element and gathering at her touch, replicating the pliability of his flesh, the hollow resistance of his bone, the warmth of his blood, right down to the grit of finely aged skin. Even the hair that parted along his bridge felt real as he dozily slumped forward, seeming to savor the touch with dreamlike distance, and bringing Raika's fingers along his nose, starting to part his plumage of matted hair away from his eye--
Tsuuki snapped out of the state and sharply withdrew from Raika before what was beneath it was exposed. "Wait..." he began, accompanied with a gesture of politely raised fingers. When he spoke again, his tone was suddenly brighter and unweighted, youthful. "... did you mean that metaphorically, like when someone 'flirts with disaster' but you went ahead and full-on dated disaster; or did you mean it more literally, like you shacked up with a deranged person?" He beamed his slightly fanged grin as he planted an elbow on his knee and balanced his scruffy chin on his knuckles, leaning in towards Raika. "Because either way, let's talk about that instead!"
His other hand flung out towards the open balcony. "And was it crazy-ex's idea or the tragic lapse in sanity that had you move here? Don't get me wrong, place looks great, the wall of heartache is a nice touch--but here? It's nowhere NEAR as high as Mt. Kumo--wherever it went--and it's just... busy. And loud." His mustache drooped with his frown, much like how his ears were still folded along his shoulders. "It's very busy and loud here, Raika." Both of his arms dropped into his lap. The excitement was waning fast as he spoke. "The whole place, the whole planet... bustling, squirming, overflowing with activity, with life."
He turned his head to the night sky. "Not like out there."
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40 posts
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Post by Raika on Jun 2, 2018 16:02:48 GMT
Brown eyes quietly watched her friend's reaction, wordlessly studying and listening with her full attention.
Chakra had let her touch him.
He had backed off at his eyes possibly coming back into view. Did he still have that odd condition...? From the night he found that his wife had died?
...and now he was redirecting.
"...."
Raika sighed, stood, and approached her old friend, focusing chakra in the same way as before... to just give him a hug, guide his head to her shoulder, and gently stay there.
"...so that's where you've been.... No wonder I never found your body."
She had looked. It had been a long time of hope and resignation as she hunted for those she cared for, fifteen centuries ago... and she had given up looking two centuries later. There were very few in the world of their time that could have lasted that long, after all....
"...if you remember Sasaki Ryuuchi, I meant him. When we started... he was actually stable. He'd lost his demon. And... then the torture he had been through took its toll, and I lost him. Prepared myself to kill him if I couldn't get him stable again. And of course, by the time I found him again and thought I was ready... he'd become stable without me having to do anything. Aside from the oozing aggression and short temper." Raika gave a soft huff at that, as if irritated. "We've been off and on ever since, though with how he's been missing for the past five centuries...." Her irritated tone dropped, and perhaps the old Koumori might be able to tell from the sounds of her body the old pain and numbness she felt as she continued tonelessly. "...he's probably dead."
Brown eyes turned to the night sky, quiet for a moment. "...we had twins, you know. A boy and a girl... Akahi and Hasumi. They were sweet kids... even if Hasumi had her father's temper....." ...her eyes misted over, reflecting those distant, faded lights.
Raika released Tsuuki without a word then, heading back out to lean against the balcony's railing.
"...it was my adoptive daughter's idea that I live in the city. Where people are. Instead of... just... off on my own. Though I suppose it hasn't really worked that well."
A soft, dry laugh... and her head drooped, shoulders hunched as she stared down at the city with all of its bright lights.
"...want to go somewhere quieter?"
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Tsuuki
Member-Nin
This is a test of the NC-gakure Status Broadcast System. Objective: to find the max length of a sta–
28 posts
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Post by Tsuuki on Jun 7, 2018 17:07:52 GMT
Tsuuki had gone far away again, light-years from that apartment or fading to some other plane of reality, the incorporeal embodiment of his mind skating past galaxies until they existed only as endless lines of light to him. He might've kept going, to where even the most ancient of stars had yet to cast their dying glow upon, were it not for the arms of a friend to remind him: YOU ARE HERE. His consciousness pitched into Raika like a ball into a glove, burning off interstellar friction with a soothed sigh as he relaxed and shaped to her embrace, nuzzling like a drowsy child into the nook of her shoulder. The old Koumori soaked the moment in, knowing neither the last nor the next time he would feel so centered and whole.
"No wonder I never found your body..."
He huffed once, his smile tangible against her neck. "Well don't give up yet, just let me know when you find it," he mumbled into her flesh.
He listened intently to his friend recollect her turbulent relationship, the mention of the name opening a dusty cabinet from another lifetime when he had founded and led the team known as BOLT. A twinge of guilt flickered the illumination of his memories, recognizing his penchant for leadership when the destination was Death's door. He stepped away from the yawning maw that threatened to swallow him whole and digest his spirit in regretful anguish, following the love in Raika's words and immersing in her pain to distract him from his own. Chakra spread across his inner arms as he embraced her back.
Yet it wasn't enough to anchor his rambling thoughts, after all his mind being more Flight chakra than material mass in that moment: shapeless, wandering, frighteningly free. He never once was so foolish to imagine he could have the might and resolve of a living dragon, however he still faced himself with the question on whether he was prepared to kill loved ones to spare the world of their unwitting destruction, as Raika had been.
As if sensing his thoughts, her words turned to the topic of twins--her own, in particular. The reference to them in past tense told Tsuuki what he needed to know about their current well being, and fusing with his thoughts from just moments before, he wondered if their expiration was at Raika's hands. Or Ryuuchi's. Or if whatever else caused Raika this pain still walked the earth. The widower knew all too well that the worst tormentors were rarely ever silenced by death; if anything, it only sunk their treacherous roots deeper into the heart.
She moved away from him, his arms remaining in the mold cast by her former presence while he allowed his chakra to be brushed aside as fluidly as smoke. He remained behind for only a moment, then without uncrossing his legs he hovered upwards and followed a few paces behind Raika, stopping short of the outdoor cacophony's unobstructed range. His chuckle synced with hers seamlessly, the two sharing a morbid laugh at their own dwindling sanities.
Tsuuki perked up at Raika's invitation. "I thought you'd never ask, I know just the place," he said with a brightening tone. He stood upright but as he did so his feet went up while his head went down until he was upside-down and at an angle, his messy hair unaffected by the rotation. He reached out with a hand to Raika's ankles, pausing to tell her, "Now, you'll feel a little jolt, just don't fight it," before he tapped the ground between her feet. The floor appeared to ripple like water for a split second before it suddenly became a five-foot diameter hole, through which gravity would pull Raika unless she resisted.
[proceeding with assumption that she allows this]
She was falling for only a moment, the scenery of the city remaining on the other side of the hole as the new world beyond took its place. A gargantuan lavender planet dominated a starry sky painted with bursts of cosmic gases, a string of other moons like jewels among them. The only light came from reflecting off the host planet, casting dim but warm purple light over a gently rolling landscape of long blue grass. A mild breeze swept through, carrying upon it lazily glowing spores and a fragrance like antique perfumes. It was silent compared to the city, but as hearing adjusted to the new volume, there was actually a fluxing hissing hum, like the environment was breathing in the form of white noise. It was obvious why Tsuuki picked this place: it was quiet, dark, and psychedelic.
Raika's descent slowed until she was placed gently upon the ground, and from the hole a few meters above Tsuuki somersaulted through and closed the portal behind him. "Ah good, right spot. You'd be surprised how often I accidentally just step into open vacuum," he laughed, dropping down to Raika's altitude.
Tsuuki's hand swept over the scenery. "Atmosphere isn't far from Earth's, though it is considerably higher in oxygen so it might make you a little giddy. We pretty much have this entire moon to ourselves, unless you count the plants." He turned to her, his mustache lifting as he grinned. "So if you need to stretch those scaly wings, please do so freely."
He nodded in agreement with himself, recalling when he had initially discovered this place and found himself again missing the rewarding challenge of piloting his massive shuriken Tasogare. However, on the list of things he missed most, that was hardly even in the top 10.
Tsuuki sighed, a sort of concluded sadness like finding ruined treasures in the ashes of a house fire. He had discovered a brief moment of clarity and decision in himself, and seized it before it could flee from him again.
"While I am elated to reunite with you, Raika-sama, the purpose of my return isn't to catch-up with old friends," he said sullenly, pausing to wrangle his thoughts together before turning to the dragon woman. "It's to warn them."
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40 posts
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Post by Raika on Jun 7, 2018 22:59:33 GMT
He had an idea of his own, hmm? Likely not what she intended, but there was time for her plan later, after all....
There was the briefest of tensing in the woman's form before something far deeper than self-preservation calmed her muscles: an age-old trust. Odd as the old Koumori had always been... he was one of the remains of an old Will that yet thrummed in her heart, quiet and steady. He had been of her generation, as odd as that term might be with their age gap....
...and Raika closed her eyes.
Freefall.
When was the last time she had allowed herself this sensation? The wind rushing past, pure freedom--
Brown eyes opened, and there was momentary surprise that was swiftly gotten past. This wasn't her first time in such an alien landscape, though the last had likely been... some kind of different dimension, based on Omoi's reasoning.
The familiar warmth of flight chakra slowing her fall, gently setting her on the ground. Tsuuki's comment about open vacuums made her quirk an eyebrow, but she didn't comment....
A slow, casual twirl, hands in her pockets.
A different planet, huh...? Or... a moon? Raika hadn't paid much attention to the astronomy research, preferring to leave it to those more suited, instead just gradually absorbing information as it was brought to her. Her companion's comment about stretching scaly wings had her cracking a slight smile, however; the old Koumori had no idea of what all she had done since his departure.
"While I am elated to reunite with you, Raika-sama, the purpose of my return isn't to catch-up with old friends. It's to warn them."[/color]
Brown eyes with vertical slits for pupils turned to Tsuuki as silver-scaled dragon wings sprouted from her back, a soft hum escaping the woman who was no longer fully human as she flexed the appendages for the first time in... probably half a century.
"About Momona and Koromi, right? Just how murderously insane have the poor girls ended up?"
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Tsuuki
Member-Nin
This is a test of the NC-gakure Status Broadcast System. Objective: to find the max length of a sta–
28 posts
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Post by Tsuuki on Jun 8, 2018 14:12:52 GMT
Tsuuki jolted from Raika's words, his ears unfurling and perking out. It had seemed to him she could read his mind--which he briefly pitied her for because it was a total mess in there--but reasoning helped assure him that wasn't the case. She was a dragon, ancient and wise... and probably more than capable of putting together the pieces of their conversation.
For a fleeting second he wanted to run, open a portal to anywhere and soar through it, back into unbridled irresponsibility. That would defeat the purpose of why he even returned, plus it would be super rude to just leave his friend stranded on some alien moon.
Resolve washed over him and he smirked, admiring with his hearing the creaks and pops of expanding ligaments and membrane catching the soft breeze. What kind of world did she live in now, where a majestic creature could not exist as she is and instead sequestered to a chamber in a tower like some royal prisoner?
Murderously insane. Words no parent wanted to be used in describing their prodigy, especially when it was hard to argue to the contrary. He turned his face towards the patch of stars between the horizon and the colossal planet that loomed over it.
"We met others out there... scientists, they call themselves, though they conduct themselves in business best left for the gods. They had been watching us--all of us--for a long time, before the villages, maybe even before humanity. They wanted a closer look, and they used me to get it... used Mitsumi, or some phantom echo of her. The ship, the life-sustaining capabilities, the coordinates... they fed this information to me, and I... I delivered everyone right into their hands--figuratively I mean, many did not even possess hands."
His obscured gaze fell from the heavens. He wish he could smoke. "My people, my daughters, even Roku... we were their guests at first, then their patients... then their test subjects." He lifted his hand and watched indifferently as it went transparent, disappeared even, and then came back. "And finally, their monsters."
Tsuuki chuckled, turning to Raika. His untameable hair concealed most of his face like a mask, but the bittersweet duality of his woeful countenance could still be felt. "Funny; learning to pacify and placate a legendary demon within you is suitable practice for managing insanity. I would have never before wished upon my daughters to have hosted demons, but in retrospect, that's much preferred to becoming something like demons themselves, wouldn't you agree?"
He shook his head. No, not demons. Not monsters either. His daughters. His only remaining loved ones in all the universe. "My girls... they don't want to murder, at least not what still remains of them--but what those bastards did to us makes them need to murder, to feed a hunger inside them."
The aged Koumori gazed again to the horizon, not wanting to sense Raika's expression as he treaded from tragedy into horror and shame. "I tried to stop them, few times really, but even individually they've become quite a handful for their old man." He shrugged. "Suppose all parents need to face that reality at some point." He swallowed hard.
"At first it was a few hapless celestial sailors, a wayward exploration crew or two. Then they started on orbiting colonies. Terrestial settlements. Home planets. Each time greater devastation left behind, each time greater momentum and power moving forward. If I couldn't stop them at the start I definitely could not now... only try to spare as many I could, and help pick up the shattered pieces afterward as some futile apology."
Tsuuki paused, reliving the centuries all at once. "Then, without warning, they set their sights for our old home." He huffed a strained laugh. "Peculiar, that mental link between twins. Between parents, and their children. Between loved ones."
Finally he returned his ear-framed gaze back to Raika. "So, I came back to warn whomever was left here about them... and..." He sighed, his tone growing stony and firm. "And that, as their father and as promised to their mother, I will do everything I can to protect my daughters, even if it costs the world."
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40 posts
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Post by Raika on Jun 8, 2018 17:44:29 GMT
Eyes that were almost feral studied her old friend, letting the silence stretch. Her body was loose and relaxed, her heart calm and her breathing even. In short, for the moment... she might be unreadable even to ears as sensitive as his.
Her tone was quiet and even when she finally spoke.
"...Tsuuki... I think you've forgotten something."
There was a force in her eyes as she stared down the old Koumori, still otherwise calm... but each of her next words carried a weight all their own.
"...whether it's laughable... or irrational.... Do you remember? This is the path that all great men walk. If there's a wall in our way... we'll destroy it. If there's no road, we'll pave it with our own hands. The thunder in our hearts... is blazing like flames."
Her heart was starting to quicken, a slow, fierce grin forming on her lips as she stood there, hands in her pockets.
"...who the hell do you think we are?"
A sudden burst of movement, a rush of wind, and in a fraction of a second the Silver Dragon of Kumogakure stood directly in front of the old Koumori, the rekindled fire of her youth in her movements and eyes.
"And for that matter... who the hell do you think I am? I stayed until the end. I remained. And if you think, for one second... that I would abandon you, or them... you've clearly forgotten far too much."
Raika Hofushi extended her hand to him then, chakra glowing... just waiting for him to clasp it.
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Tsuuki
Member-Nin
This is a test of the NC-gakure Status Broadcast System. Objective: to find the max length of a sta–
28 posts
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Post by Tsuuki on Jun 13, 2018 18:04:36 GMT
Tsuuki spoke his words, his confession that he would not destroy his daughters even if it meant the end of life on Earth, and with every nerve end electrified he waited for Raika's response. She was as still as a valley lake at dawn, no slight irregularity betraying her steely composure, no indication whether a fight was coming or not.
Then she spoke, and he felt the intensity of her gaze bear down on him as immensely as a supernova. Was she about to issue a fearsomely polite rebuttal?
But then she started to say the words that he had not uttered since he took to the stars. Words that brought back bittersweet memories of Kumo's struggles and triumphs... of his long-lost brother, Supaiku. Renewed determination fluttered up in him as she continued, the drumming of her heart carrying his, and he said it with her without hesitation: "Who the hell do you think we are?"
The next split second she was standing over him, the momentum of her incredible speed soaring past her body and washing over Tsuuki. He did not turn his face to her new position right away, delayed by his lingering thoughts and gushing relief that this peaceful moon would not be marred by a dragon's rage. Her words choked a dry, happy sob from his chest as she extended her hand to him. Chakra washed along his arms and he clasped it, then pulled himself into her and embraced her with his other hand.
"Thank you, thank you, my friend. With you this seems just a little less impossible," he said with a tight throat.
He held on for a little longer than was probably warranted, soaking in the comfort and making it last as long as it could. But finally he let go, the edges of his mustache lifted in the widest smile he had shown all evening.
Tsuuki held an open palm out to the cool-colored fields around them, an invitation to a walk, or a flight. "Enough about my problems... let an old friend hear about yours now." He pointed his dramatic ears. "I'm a good listener, yknow."
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Post by Raika on Jun 15, 2018 15:58:42 GMT
Chakra flowed as Raika embraced her old friend in return, tousling his dreads while keeping away from revealing his eyes. Her expression was softening now that her point had been made and acknowledged, letting that embrace linger.
After all, Tsuuki was not the first she had known to have suffered from... a lack of friendly contact over the years. Though there was no telling how long the old bat had suffered such, given his condition. And when he finally pulled away, there was a lingering grip for a fraction of an instant--and then it was gone, judgement allowing it for now. There was still time.
"My problems, hmm?" A tired smile formed on the ancient shinobi's lips as she started a walk out through the fields, a tail sprouting out that matched the wings before a hop, skip, and a jump later launched her into the skies. Up and up she flew, to where the atmosphere was thin and chilly, before she tilted backwards into a freefall, eyes closed... snapping her wings back open just in time to skirt mere inches above the ground, something almost lazy about the motion. Back up into the air. She had truly, truly missed this... and yet still, she remained silent. She had kept her walls tight for so long, she... was having troubles bringing them back down.
"...I suppose... lately... I've wondered what the point in continuing to endure is. Why am I choosing to continue to live? For the sake of keeping a long-lost civilization from being forgotten? People that have been dead for over a thousand years? Sure, there's Omoi, and there's Maya... but would the other survivors really care if I was gone? They'd probably be fine without me...."
Another slow loop.
"...that, and I'm not even sure what I am anymore. How much have I let my body be modified now? I'm no longer truly human, and I'll never truly be a dragon, I'm just... some kind of hybrid. I don't know. I just... don't know."
A slow, slow coasting back to the ground.
"...I haven't kept touch with humanity... I barely keep touch with the other shinobi... and if Ryuuchi's really gone... it'll be like how it was towards the end of Kumo all over again. I won't have anyone I can let myself open up to. Everyone that I could have... that I would've let myself break around... they'll all be gone. I'm not even sure I know how to let relationships and trust deepen anymore...."
A soft swish, and Raika stood quietly in the field, her wings and tail vanishing back into her form as her shoulders slumped.
"...we're some of the last of our kind, Tsuuki. After us... there'll be no more shinobi, ever again. And the world seems like it can thrive just fine without us, once we're gone...."
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