鉄 Capital Outskirts (Tsukihara Hana)

[Tenshuyami]

xxxM yxxxN a m exxxI s . . .
┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳

╔══╬═════════════╬══╗

Ｍ Ｕ Ｓ Ｕ Ｎ Ｄ Ｅ ※ Ｈ Ｉ Ｒ Ａ Ｉ Ｔ Ｅ

╚══╬═════════════╬══╝

"Truth is not what you want it to be. It is what it is,
and you must bend to its power or live a lie.."

. . . T h i sxxxIsxxxMyxxxS to r yxxx

You are of no use dead, Musunde.

While he continued in stoic silence, the Hakemoto couldn't help but agree with that statement. Then came the line. The voice in his head, one that wasn't his own. It would've been concerning that he was hearing voices, but he'd also heard one before appearing from his crystal. It was likely just a trick of the world, nothing wrong with his mental state. Knowing that, he responded to it. My name isn't what matters. Hatred is pointless. This need..it's a just vengeance for those who didn't deserve their fates. Everything else- anything else doesn't matter. It was a more extreme version of the nindo he once held. Just a shame that all those he wanted to help were already long dead. Long ago, in the few years after he ran from home, he wouldn't have ever seen himself as an avenger. But it was there. The conviction to make the hard decisions and remain unshaken in his path; the ability to do what it takes regardless of the cost.

Musunde exhaled, and the chakra particles around him violently began oscillating, creating the image of his world shaking around him. When the Fade began its move, he was able to hear it- hell, he heard it better than anything else in his life. Before it could actually come close enough to warrant a reaction, a wall of wind smacked him in the face while his enemies seemed to violently explode in front of him. His bodily was visibly knocked back from the action, but maintaining slight balance on one foot allowed him to spin back into place- albeit a couple feet from his original position. Looking back to the fades, he noticed that their bodies weren't cursed water anymore. "Hey, looks like you get to catch a break." He said silently to the armor, a smirk raising on his lips. Normally he'd question what strange force had aided him, but he heard the person before actually seeing them.

It was strange. Despite the newcomer being a fair distance away from Musunde, his voice sounded incredibly close. Not only that, but he could hear the boy's steady breathing. That's a little concerning, but...a good thing? Could just be adrenaline.

The samurai quickly realized that there was only fade currently paying attention to him, which meant the other had gone to greet the newcomer. Perfect. Musunde's chakra managed to reach a single focal point, condensing on the fingertips of his right hand while they brushed the cold iron in his side pouch. The small ingot crackled to life as chakra surrounded it, creating a makeshift "scabbard" around the material. It wasn't exactly a practical weapon, but he wasn't known for being predictable with that particular technique. "Nah, you're good. He said in response to the knife wielder's 'my bad,' before continuing.

"You should really duck down, though."

Musunde turned his body and stepped forwards with his right foot, a typical motion in draw stances. As he used form manipulation to create a katana on the spot and drew, he switched to the opposite leg (adjacent to the "sheathe",) creating a stutter step while he raised the blade's draw path enough to avoid cutting his own leg- well, that and to avoid hitting the newcomer. The second step in such a dangerous position created an instantaneous acceleration to the forward-charge as well as the sword draw. It was leagues faster than a basic Iaido strike, and easily his favorite technique from a life long lost to time. "Now!" He'd shout, flourishing his ever-expanding blade of cold iron in a single, sweeping strike that resulted in him turning a full 180° from his already changed position. It grew thirty feet in size during the swing, the large blue crescent having an additional layer added to the edge; jagged spikes littered the blade to assist in destroying the stone masks. In that moment, it was truly his strongest attack.







VxVANDATracker (Reckoner) - Rank: D - Hakemoto - Chakra: 225/325 - Stamina: 170/225 - Technique Used:
Iaido - C rank (Iaijutsu stance: +2 ranks in Speed/+1 rank in strength to flat-footed target)
Chakra Scabbard: Used on Cold Iron Ingot - Formed into > Katana (In frigid temperatures, the metal becomes less brittle and lighter. Speed of physical attacks is increased [.5] ranks, and gains [5] durability.)
Form Manipulation: 30 feet, +10 feet for layering (jagged spikes) - B - Rank

Royal Taorito

 

[Royal Taorito]

_______________The Narrator Whispers... ||
There was little the hound-like fades could do against an attack focused with such speed as the one Musunde unleashed upon them. In fact, the only reason his new companion avoided it was because of the brief warning beforehand. The slash severed through the mask and body of the fade closer to Musunde. Although, because of the other's stuttering steps, the cut didn't quite cut through the mask, instead chopping through the solidified legs on it right side. It collapsed onto its side, leaving it, for the moment, prone and helpless.

The blonde young man stood straight once more once he was sure the attack was over. Tossing one of his daggers into the mask of the remaining fade, he ended its suffering. The body of the one Musunde killed crumbled away and scattered in the breeze, leaving behind only the shards of its mask. The other body vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a small pile of items [Sextant, an Embroidered Goose Down Pillow, and a scroll containing Genjutsu - Suna no Akushumi [D]] "Damn. I guess I found the right person to hang with." Retrieving his thrown weapon and picking up the randomly dropped items with only a small amount of confusion, he made his way over to Musunde with a cautious glance around, in case any more decided to spring forth. Once close enough, he focused on the young samurai, flashing a surprisingly perfect grin. He held out a hand. "Kyoshi Matsushita. That was some move."

As the boy stuck his hand out, Musunde would feel the armor around him expand, no longer skin tight, before it retracted altogether. In the end, the dog fade sat beside him once more, a decent sized burn across the flesh of its side but it hardly seemed to notice. For the moment, it said nothing, simply observing the newcomer who watched it in return with a small amount of concern.

His gaze returned to Musunde not a moment later, though. "I almost didn't think I'd find another human out here. It's been these demonic monsters around every corner. Where the hell even are we?" Evidently, he wasn't from around there.

[+400 exp]

Tenshuyami

 

[Tenshuyami]

xxxM yxxxN a m exxxI s . . .
┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳

╔══╬═════════════╬══╗

Ｍ Ｕ Ｓ Ｕ Ｎ Ｄ Ｅ ※ Ｈ Ｉ Ｒ Ａ Ｉ Ｔ Ｅ

╚══╬═════════════╬══╝

"Truth is not what you want it to be. It is what it is,
and you must bend to its power or live a lie.."

. . . T h i sxxxIsxxxMyxxxS to r yxxx

It was a clean kill, for the most part. He should have accommodated for the stuttering fade mid-strike, but it wasn't like he'd regained all of his faculties yet.

He returned his katana to a normal size before extending it in a flicking motion. Musunde followed that by attempting to sheathe the blade in his scabbard, a motion that had been repeated by him thousands of times, but it didn't quite work out. The moment it came into contact with his scabbard, the audible sound of electrical discharge could be heard as his chakra "shorted out" around the weapon, the once solid ingot becoming little more than a fine powder in his hand. Made sense. It wasn't a finished material after all, it wouldn't have been able to take that much stress and expect to continue after. He looked back to confirm that the fade had been killed, only to see that it didn't quite turn into dust. A pile of items took place of its body, nothing that interested him save for the scroll. The newcomer collected it all before approaching, and Musunde took the moment to collect the mask shards from the ground. Never know, could've been useful at some point. I'm not one to shy away from taking trophies, not in this situation.

Walking over to pick up the katana that had been thrown across the field from his initial wind blast, the samurai turned to interact with the boy, one who was apparently named Kyoshi. "Kyoshi Matsushita. That's not a bad name at all, Matsushita-san. Tell you what: you pick up a sword at some point, and I'll teach you that move." He went to shake the hand of his new companion, only to watch the material on his arm shift around in an odd manner. The dog fade he traveled with had returned to his normal state, and his burn didn't go unnoticed by Musunde either. I'll make it up to him at some point. Still, the fact that he left just before contact gave the impression that the fade was shy to touch someone else. Even if it probably wasn't true, he gave the dog a teasing grin with knowing eyes, before turning to smile at Matsushida, who apparently had questions.

"Well, you can be assured that humans are still around. We're just the first around in...centuries." He gave Kyoshi a moment to let that sink in, if it was needed. "It's pretty likely that all the demonic creatures you're seeing are Fades. They feed off negative emotion, and the smarter ones are more likely to capture you than kill you. My people called them Yokai, before all this mess started. Sprites and fades. Good and evil respectively, for the most part." He moved forwards to take and shake Kyoshi's hand as a sign of goodwill, finding him to be good company so far. "The name's Musunde Hiraite, by the way. Call me what you want if it's too long." He pulled his hand back before continuing, not wanting to draw out the action.

"As for where we are, we're currently standing outside the city that I grew up in. Tsukihara Hana, in the Iron Country; Tetsu no Kuni. We've always had a Yokai problem here, but they've never been in the city like this. Needless to say, I'm not eager to see how my old house is doing just yet." His chiming laughter cut through any tension like hot knife through butter, perhaps making it noticeable that Musunde had a very pleasant natural voice, one he used for years of performing in a better time. "I came out of my crystal with some other humans, but I imagine that you didn't. They've probably set up places to stay by now. I was planning on killing some more fades, but I wouldn't mind looking for the others and setting up camp so you can get accustom to the area. I have too much extra weight in my inventory that i need to drop off anyways."

With his left hand, he smoothly let the edge of his blade run parallel to his own arm as he extended his limb away from Kyoshi, then sheathed the weapon. "As for the dog fade here, you don't need to worry about him. Despite what I think about fades as a whole, he's helped me out more than anyone else so far. I trust him. Hell, keep it up with the fire blasts like before and I'll end up thinking of you the same way. Really, thanks for the help with those things."




VxVANDATracker (Reckoner) - Rank: D - Hakemoto - Chakra: 240/325 - Stamina: 185/225 - Technique Used:

 

[Royal Taorito]

_______________The Narrator Whispers... ||
A grin split Kyoshi's face, seeming to take the information he was given in stride. "I mean, it's better than my thought that we were in a completely different world or something. Though I guess it might as well be." Pulling his coat tighter and subconsciously rubbing his arm, the boy's gaze traveled around them, slowly and studiously, though his expression was otherwise impossible to read. "I saw a few more of those things run off just before I triggered that explosion." Meaning it hadn't been him who drew them away. "We might want to go before they decide to come back. Dunno about you, but all of this running around has me exhausted." Now that he was closer, it was easier to tell his clothes were tattered in places and dirty. In fact, he even seemed to be favoring one leg over the other. Perhaps this wasn't his first encounter.

He glanced at the dog fade again at the mention of it, his grin fading a small bit from distrust, but he trusted Musunde enough apparently to believe him. "Right... Yeah, no problem. You're the first person I've seen for the last few hours. I'm sure you coulda handled yourself, but glad to help."

Speaking of the fade, its attention was elsewhere now, facing away from the chatting pair. Disregarding their conversation, it spoke up quietly. "Something approaches, but it's no fade. I would recommend you find your friends."

Tenshuyami

 

[Dopy Grimes]

Lanfaer

His fingers grazed the worn door stud that once held a glass panel long ago. It'd reveal the store interior to the outside world. A faded 'we're open' sign laid next to the entrance. The land of Iron was like a living relic of the past due to it's cold climate preserving everything. "Damn it." The boy mumbled. He realized that in his haste he had forgotten to ask the Fade how long he had been asleep for. "Just as lost as before." He continued while moving through the store. The items in it were foreign to him like most things in that land. This irritated him greatly. His ignorance.

 

[Lanfaer]

_______________The Narrator Whispers... ||
tab As the door slid to a close behind the boy and the contents of the building became clear as the yellow halogen bulbs blinked into stuttering live above it became clear that Toya had struck a technological jackpot...if he were a tinkerer. Around him lay machines of many different types, with many unknown materials lying around in various states of disrepair and frozen devastation. It was clear that this place had been here for quite some time, with many relics appearing as little more than frozen slag piles that hadn't seen a human hand in eons. And yet as the light bulb continued to flicker it becomes slightly more obvious that the thousands of cassette tapes that line the wall all curiously with their titles scrawled in crimson sharpie across their spine were...moving. Well, chewing to be more exact, though what they'd be chewing at this point was difficult to say. Or why they were chewing at all, really. Really, who writes these scripts?
tab Maybe it was these cassette tapes loaded with pie-shaped torpedos that were even now hocking back and spitting flaming, pumpkin spice scented lates of doom at Toya's face in a cascade of otherworldly nightmarish spit.

malavaes

 

[Dopy Grimes]

Lanfaer

Toya walked around the store trying to find something useful until something odd caught his attention. Something he recognized from his own time. Cassette tapes. A whole wall of them seemingly stuck in time with their secrets shook as if something were eating the tape within them. "Hm?" He raised a brow before pie shaped torpedoes were shot towards him. His scarf immediately moving to swat them away with D rank strength. Toya simply stood still in confusion while the scarf went to work. The smell was pleasant however.

 

[Lanfaer]

_______________The Narrator Whispers... ||
tab From deep within the building there came a menacing rumbling that brought with it an unnatural gust of warm air. It wafted past Toya with a spicy aftertaste of mom's spaghetti and what was likely marijuana. And moonshine. And...cocaine? What it was it didn't smell good, but it sure as hell had en effect on the little spitfires. They suddenly solidified and hid, though a soft, small sound came from them in a type of hellish rhyme.

"Long ago before the war,
there came a man little more than a whore.
Filled to the brim with powers of turnt,
his every word left the listeners burnt.

Once long ago he spat crazed fire,
enough to create his own funeral pyre.
The world did bow before his whims
as he wrote crazed tapes filled with hymns.

Few remember the chaos that followed,
though many would call the efforts hallowed.
Yet did they fight to find a vault
strong enough to grind his words to a halt.

Now you know the power your face,
the world's attempts to smother disgrace.
Never must you nor others forget,
what happens when the mic is handed to Chet."

tab As this was spoken there came a crazed crescendo from the back of the building as a door was blasted down with an eruption of fire. With it came crazed laughter and the scent of burning liquor as a man-sized tape stepped from the back, two large, manly, hairy legs suspending it in the air as fire erupted from behind it to begin filling the building with the power of turnt.

malavaes

 

[Lanfaer]

_______________The Narrator Whispers... ||
tab And so it came to pass that as the vampiress stared upon a clock that it did begin to ring. Bing bong, ding dong went the ancient machinery as its gears began to tick and tock of their own free will. First one, then a second, than two more, four more, compounding with each second that passed until the sounds began to overlap in a rapid nature. And so it came to pass, too, that the world became quite...breezy, Cold, chilly, and devoid of life in a way that was quite similar to the feeling of a graveyard.
tab Oh. Wait.
tab That's because she was suddenly in a graveyard. Wack.
tab The graveyard still was within the shop she'd raided, but here were now gravestones littered about, and two large ones barricading the two entrances and windows. Green and black grass was spread everywhere there was space available, leaving little in the way of movement that didn't involve stepping on it. From somewhere came a voice, quite and calm, and yet filled with the touch of malice. "Here lies that which you buried deepest. Find it, expose it to the light, and you will be free."

magcookie

 

[Lanfaer]

_______________The Corn Remembers... ||
tab As Soraru and Kyoshi sat about listening quietly to the wind rustling it became quite obvious that said wind was beginning to pick up. A low whistle began somewhere nearby as the gust licked their faces with the touch of a lover. This brought on a sense of dread to the hound beside the pair, his expression turning paler than ever before as he turned his face rapidly to Musunde's. Yet before he could speak there came a low whine from around a nearby corner, where the cold had left a large amount of snow to pile on the edge. And yet as they might watch a multicolored vortex, no taller than two feet at the most and half as wide, forming down into a spiral. A miniature tornado, with significant quantities of candy corn caught up in its pull sent spinning at incredibly velocity. It moved towards the pair with a slow pace as the hound kept watching until, at last, it barked out a warning. "Don't touch it!"
tab The words had barely left its mouth before the form destabilized, erupting into a blast of force powerful enough to rend flesh from bone were it not for the hound, splitting in two lengthwise wrapping around the pair and becoming harder than bone as the pair were launched with ear-popping force. The wind howled past them, enraged by those who would dare pierce through its resistance so recklessly, yet little would the pair likely care as they were too busy arching over the distance towards what could only be described as a nightmarishly large corn cob.
tab Wait, what?
tab With a crash that would shake them to their bones the pair would be sent rolling through wooden beam after wooden beam, only the scream of the hound muffling out their own from the blunt pain that remained from the majority spent upon the canine. When at last they came to a rest it was beneath a large scare crow made of straw and burlap, with tiny scarecrows birthing from its body in a hundred directions, only for them to branch into more, smaller scarecrows. In fact, one of them was leaning down, looming over him threateningly, before one of the tinier scarecrows reached up and touched its sewn-on lips with one gloved hand. "Shhhhh...It's listening!"

Tenshuyami

 

[Dopy Grimes]

Lanfaer

Footsteps crunch beneath boots. The wind and snow muting their sound. To the boy underneath the mask the only sound that mattered was his breathing. The cold world he had been thrown into was harsh and unforgiving. As he trailed through a world of white, memories surfaced of the last three months of his struggle. Creatures he had encountered. Beings that have died while fighting together with him. Now he was all alone once again. Wiser and stronger for a world that attempted to swallow him from the moment he opened his eyes. Yet even with these lingering thoughts he still maintained focus on the one single objective he set out to accomplish.
Something slowly gained form in the distance the longer Toya walked. A ruin half buried in snow. Nothing more than a small shed of sorts. Frozen vines wrapped around most of it's brick surface. The boy would find a way to make it inside and keep warm for the time being. The door wouldn't budge at first but the magical scarf gave it a solid push and in he went together with snow that had built up against the door. Quickly, Toya scraped away the snow to close the door and seal away some of the cold.

The boy sat down with his legs crossed in the center of the shed. A map in front of him with areas he had been to during his time in the new world. He never strayed too far however fearing the unknown creatures that lurked in the other regions. He knew his limitations. Toya needed to find the object that awaited him. But in order to get it he'd have to get stronger. Now he sat alone in the long abandoned shed contemplating his items and power.

 

[Lanfaer]

_______________The Winding Hollows... ||
tab Cold an ever present threat that never quite went away, Toya held up in his den trying to keep his warmth within instead of out. A simple concept anyone could understand, yet one that in practice was proving quite difficult. Finding a shed in the middle of a metropolis was truly a feat worthy of notice, what with the skeletons of skyscrapers clawing at the sky everywhere one looked. Yet had he attempted to claim the others it would have likely led to brawls with the local Yokai who came in shapes and sizes too innumerable to fathom, something that would have cost time, energy, and in many likely cases his life. Yet through the last three months he had survived many such incursions it was always swiftly followed by fleeing for his life as something larger was drawn into the mix. IT was this life, day in and day out, that defined his reality and made finding even a moment's reprieve a blessing, no matter how small or cold it may be.
tab As such, it would probably irritate him when the sounds of snuffling and liquid spattering against the snow, the hiss of heat on frozen crawling across his psyche, penetrated his quiet reverie. The telltale sounds of the Cursed Tide, water elementals with masks made of stone that proved difficult to shatter without breaking one's weapons in the process. They had been tracking him for some time as he dipped in and out of sight, fighting for survival in the outskirts of the cursed city, unable to reach its heart, the mighty citadel of the King of Iron. Their reasons would remain alien for the moment, considering talking to them was a death sentence when they'd swarm and drown him, yet their determination could well be construed as admirable. They never gave up.
tab Not until their pray was dead, anyway.
tab

Tenshuyami

 

[Dopy Grimes]

Lanfaer

Your senses become fine tuned to the beat of the natural circle of life once you're thrown into it. Pray and predator were but different perspectives. Toya had come to learn this. "Hm." He knew they were here. Yet he didn't expect them to have waited for such a fortunate scenario. There's only one entrance which can mean the death of him. Yet he didn't panic. His backpack still contained a few items that would prove useful against enemies but there was a limit to how much he could do. His genjutsu training never advanced too far due to the harsh circumstances of the area he woke up in. "GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE!" A muffled turkey went off inside of his backpack. He had come up with a plan quickly.

The boy set up a couple cans of yam by the entrance and sat at a distance directly in front of it. "I'm so dead."

 

[Lanfaer]

_______________The Winding Hollows... ||
tab At the boy's words there came a cacophony of screeches from the beasts that surrounded him, for his voice was a siren's call to their souls. Whether Toya could see them or not didn't matter when it came to this racket, since he could have recalled the image of their likely actions with relative ease. They would be tossing their "heads" back, their stone "faces" to the sky and their arms to the side as they screamed out their unholy fury. The sounds of liquid dripping against stone, the pitter patter of it falling on snow, and the gurgling, wet breathing they always elicited would be all the warning he would receive before the building would begin to convulse as they swarmed it. Instantly the light from the entrance darkened as the black liquid of their corrupted, aquatic forms bulged into the room, its stone mask sliding through the liquid as it reoriented itself upon Toya.
tab However, that process would take time, precious time indeed that would otherwise leave the beasty open for retaliation or punishment for its stupid transgression.
tab

Tenshuyami