『✧』Kotori Gaiden ⌠Spirited Away⌡

[Regenki]

Ⓚⓞⓣⓞⓡⓘ Ⓖⓐⓘⓓⓔⓝ

Account of Kotori's misadventures in the realm of spirits since vanishing during the climactic events of New Verales.

 

[Regenki]

Life is strange. This existence has a habit of playing off of the worst of times to choose a rare few individuals to find or realize a destiny. For example, one moment you might be put between an angry mob and your best friend who sorta lost their mind in the heat of the moment. Is that destiny? No, maybe not yours, but perhaps it was your friend's destiny. Sometimes there just isn't a choice to be made when faced with an incredible moment of growth. You just do what has to be done and hope for the best result.

Such a thing happened when Kotori Hyuuga was forced to face a very unexpected destiny at a very unfortunately inconvenient moment in her best friend Minashiba's life. Chaos was on a steep rise in New Verales when Minashiba was tricked into the assisination of revolutionist priest seeking the people's support to force Hi no Kuni's government to provide proper support to its citizens. The hows and whys of the event were lost to Kotori when she was plucked from the approaching climactic moment to be received in the realm of spirits. Time in the Mortal Realm was of strange consequence to any mortal who visited the unique, wonderful, and quite perilous Spirit Realm. Although, the two were nearly parallel in many aspects, they differed great in even more ways. Each of these realms have delicate ecologies where their residents had many direct influences on the environment and each other. Sometimes, albeit extremely rarely, these realms could even have influence on their counterparts and adjacents.

The varied sounds of birds chirping and of leaves rustling in the wind reached the small Hyuuga girl's ears and she faintly felt the breeze wash over her body and through her messy long, black ponytail. Her eyes felt heavy, her mind clouded, and her body felt almost completely numb. 'Wha... what happened?' Her inner thoughts felt like they were wading through a stormy sea of blackness. She could feel the restraining embrace of the abyss. 'Where is... Kotori?' Almost instictually, Kotori tried to activate her Byakugan as she forced her eyes open to embrace the all-consuming abyss. With a straining amount of resistance, Kotori experienced a very unfamiliar sense of claustrophobia as her dojutsu failed to glean anything from her surroundings. "Is this for real? Did Kotori die?!" She took a wild guess based on what she thought death probably felt like after finally managing to open her eyes. "Don't people usually see a light or something though? Kotori is confused." Kotori tried to look around but still could perceive naught but infinite darkness. She had no idea where the source of her previous sensations had gone since just before opening her eyes.

That was until shimmering, vibrant sparks of light erratically flashed in and out of view in the distance. "Whoooah... pretty..." It was hard to say how far away these spontaneous lights were, but it was just nice to have something to focus on as she continued to float adrift in the absence of such luminosity. The lights seemed to move and eventually gather into a loose formation that vaguely resembled a humanoid with long, pointed ears. There were not any other specific details she could pry from the entity manifesting before her since it was almost like a body made of countless stars. The super massive cosmic being seemed to turn, as if on a swivel, and soon faced her. It quietly looked down to where she floated in place, as if studying her like a child admiring an interesting Summer insect. "Uhhh... h-hiya! Kotori would wave or something but Kotori can't feel her body..." The ginormous being leaned back a little and a voice entered Kotori's thoughts with booming clarity, 'It has been almost two eons since I last met and spoke to a living mortal here, young human female. Your destiny must be strong..." Kotori continued to just hang in space and stare up at the shiny... man? "Uhh... neat? I guess that makes me pretty lucky! I hope..." She gave an awkward chuckle and introduced herself, "Kotori Hyuuga, super duper star pupil of the ultra amazing warrior known as Masato Umechika! It's good to meet you!" The being was almost awkwardly silent in response for several seconds, but finally relayed another boom of telepathy in her mind, 'So you say, Kotori Hyuuga. I am Tialos, Guardian of Fates and Custodian of the Cosmos.' Tialos leaned in toward Kotori again and said, 'I have read your fate and will send you on your way. Don't dawdle and do not fall off the path, no matter what.' The last three words of warning from Tialos were even louder and heavier on her mind. "O-Okay, gotcha. Go fast but don't fall! But... Kotori still can't move..." She was really trying, but she still couldn't feel most of her body. She hadn't felt like this since her boulder-lifting training some time ago. Tialos replied as a path of small stars formed under Kotori and led off into the abyss with a blindingly bright ovular portal at the far end, 'Mortal souls become disconnected in this place. In fact most of the very few mortals who wander here never last this long and have turned into stars in need of my works.' As soon as the starry path formed under her feet Kotori felt an instant reconnection to the rest of her body. "Wowzah!" She gasped then gazed up at Tialos to get a better look at the star being who helped her, "Yeah, okay. Kotori doesn't really understand any of that but Kotori appreciates you helping Kotori out like this, Tialos! Kotori needs to get home to Mina-chan, Masato-sensei and everyone else. See ya!" She gave Tialos a cheesy grin paired with a thankful salute then took off down the road of stars. The Guardian of Fates waved after Kotori and dispersed into millions of stars without another word.

It was pretty freaky to run on stars, but Tialos had made a very good path for her. It was firm, and almost energizing, under each step. The path was dispersing at the seems many paces behind her, but she was more focused on heeding Tialos' warnings. 'Don't stop. Don't fall! Don't stop. Don't fall! Don't stop. Don't fall!' Kotori kept changing these instructions in her head to do her best to stay focused on her task of getting to that portal. Even with her tempered swiftness and unfathomable stamina, Kotori just couldn't seem to get very much closer to the shining gateway up ahead. Eventually she just had to take a quick breather. "Gyeehh.. aah... haah. Why isn't Kotori there yet?!" She shouted out of frustration, half hoping that Tialos might come back to check on her or something. Nothing of the sort happened, so Kotori kept walking until she felt like she'd caught her breath enough to try another run for the goal. "Kukuku kuhu... you seem distressed. Kotori, was it?" A voice rang out behind Kotori's right ear, causing her to quickly turn on her heel to face the new voice. She assume a Gentle Fist stance, just in case. For some reason, she still couldn't seem to activate her Byakugan here. This one sounded like they were making fun of her or something. She looked around behind her but only saw the road she'd already traveled gradually falling apart at the shimmering seams. "Who's there? If you wanna fight Kotori then bring it on! Kotori will smash you good!" That mischievously-toned cackle rang out once more, but this time from everywhere and yet nowhere in particular all at once. "Kukuku kuhuuu! Non non non! I just thought you were interesting and might need some help~" The stranger's voice sent a bit of a chill up her spine.

Kotori was pretty sure she could still fight if needed, even if she seemed to lower her guard. 'Maybe they'll come out if Kotori plays nice.' She took a deep breath and asked with poorly masked irritation in her tone, "Okay, so... you will help Kotori get to that place over there?" She pointed over at the ever-distant star gateway that Tialos made for her. "Hmm... yes! No? Maybe..." The voice echoed around her again as it seemed to be deciding on their own intentions. Kotori snapped back at the voice and stomped her left foot on the star path, "What does that even mean? Will you help Kotori or not?" The voice laughed again then said, "Kukuku kuhu! Yes, I will help you, but I can't know any better than you if I'll be helpful." Kotori's head was starting to spin and the traveled half of the star path was catching up. "If you're going to help Kotori, then please do, buy Kotori is going to keep going!" As much as she didn't want to run more and still not get anywhere, it was probably better than whatever might happen if she fell off of the path. Kotori started jogging toward her goal, not entirely caring if the voice kept up or not. She had to gain some ground again. Kotori's jog turned into another run toward her given goal. This proved to be yet another futile attempt, however. Another lash of laughter reached Kotori's ears while she was realizing that she was only a little closer now, "Kukuku kuhu! I think it is time I helped you. As entertaining as this is, you're almost at the end of your rope." Kotori glanced back behind her to see that the star path was catching up to falling apart from underneath her. She wouldn't be able to outrun it for long at the rate she was going. "Oh man, Kotori might be in trouble..." As her voice trailed into the ether a glowing orb of yellowish-green energy formed in front of her face, "Non non! I, Hakshi, will help you along your journey... sometimes. Don't expect me to always be there to save you, though." Kotori stared into the glowing orb for a moment while listening to Hakshi's somewhat gloating aid. "I'm going to help you tap into some.of your surface potential. I'm sure you'll figureout the rest with this little push. Kuku kuuu..." The orb suddenly brightened until it was neon green and flew into Kotori's forehead before she'd have a chance to react. "Wha-?!" The neon green light briefly flowed through her body from top to bottom then abruptly faded. "Run." Kotori glanced back to see the starry pathway fading back into the abyss only a matter of yards away and closing in fast. Knowing it was time to act and only that, Kotori mustered her strength once more and began sprinting toward the gateway in the distance. This time, however, she was gaining impressive bounds of distance. A blending sense of exhilaration and joy overwhelmed her as she pushed forward, finding more and more speed as the starry pathway was left behind her. "Yaaahhoooooooo!!!!" She shouted triumphantly and disappeared into the unknown through Tialos' cosmic gate.
**MISSION - Lasting Memory [ S-Rank | 84 Sentences = 21 Posts ]




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