The Law of Attraction

[Nohkiyoe]

( ✷ )x▀xSheon
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxHyun



The Free New Genshiro City was once a flourishing corporate-sponsored city of Io Island. However, in the recent years the remaining districts of Io Island voted New Genshiro City as the worst place to live in Io Island, there was a list of issues behind it but the ones that continuously showed up were: Sky high rate of violence and more people living below the poverty line than anywhere else. However, no other place on Io had the largest population or generated the highest revenue, despite all of its crimes and insanely priced food and artistically produced meals, everybody wanted to live here, because if you aren’t in Genshiro then you aren’t living the life on Io.

There was always something to do in NGC and always something going on, this city is a pollution on Io and not only due to its insane amount of factories, fifteen to be exact, all of which were conveniently relocated into their own District neatly named Io Dump Zone Facility 15. But everyone calls it The Slums. A poorly organized multicultural metropolis whose architect and neon colors that acted as streetlights in the night, those things were so well constructed and designed that it was almost enough to distract a foreigner from seeing the excess homelessness and pungent smell of every known bodily waste.

Somehow you’d think that a city heavily patrolled by police wouldn’t be subjected to an insane amount of crime, but when this city makes it easy for practically anyone to buy nearly any form of weapons, then well that’s a receipt for disaster. Thanks to Kioshi Technology Advancement Corporation, now every self-righteous citizen who feels compel to take the law into their own hands can do so. In the mood for an Automatic Senbon Launcher, go ahead, just don’t use it to rob a bank like Yahiko Ita, age 25 and friends, now dead after a confrontation with NGCPD that lasted 1.5 hours. Over a thousand in property damage and a thousand worth in ammunition used, and the next day everything went on as usual, Kiroshi Technology Advancement Corporation released their new Fiber-Defense Fabric line of wearable armour. It sold well.

This city however was a wonderful lie, a lie that offered endless opportunity that was just out of reach that you could almost feel it. A city of dreams, fantasy, and boundless goals. All you had to sell was your soul, cash, and sometimes even your family, but at least this city had the House of Ahriman. One of the many religion that started spreading around Io Island, the House of Ahriman was fortunately (depends on who’s side you’re on) one of the more popular and widely accepted of these social infections.

The House of Ahriman had a very interest history, something they don’t seem to talk about a lot. A history that spans as far back as the warren era of the world, but nobody could tell you which stories were the right ones to believe in. Still, The House of Ahriman had gone through a lengthy process to gain the popular opinion and their recent project, The Home of Ahriman (genius, I know) was one of the latest endeavors. An orphanage.

There was only one Home of Ahriman in NGC and five House of Ahriman within 5 miles of it. The orphanage was a collection of three buildings that laid nearly flat, you could feasibly jump off the roof and onto the ground with no issue even at a young age. Something that was very popular among the orphans when playing tag, there wasn’t really much else to do. Each of the three buildings were used for individual purposes, and thankfully were labeled in a way that even the most simple headed child could understand: Cafeteria, Studies, Bedrooms. Simple, like everything in the Home of Ahriman. Some of the orphans have started talking about a hidden room in the basement of the cafeteria, but nobody believes them.



Sheon sat on the steps of the Home of Ahriman entrance, it wasn’t her first choice in a place to go but she had to go somewhere and home wasn’t an option at the moment, still she knew that even if this wasn’t her favorite place to be it was still a safe place. They always did a good job at keeping the grass here clean and fresh, even when you step inside passed the large gates the smell of the city just vanishes and it’s nothing but fresh air. Besides, nobody has the balls to start a fight on religious grounds, NGCPD would show up before you even had the chance to pull out your newly bought Kiroshi Toys and they'd take you out before you had a chance to step on the Orphanage or Church grass.

Sheon couldn’t properly inhale the few good things that the Home of Ahriman provided, she gripped the bridge of her nose and snapped it straight only reacting with a suppressed grunt. Every part of her body ached, even parts that she was pretty sure were internal. Sheon tried her best to sit back up, wincing along the way until she could get herself slightly straight, but it felt better to arch forward.

“What happened to you this time?” When you come to the Home of Ahriman, you’re suppose to meet with the Principle first because that’s how it works in every Home of Ahriman and the reason was because the Priest were always “busy” with more important affairs. However, this didn’t apply to the Home of Ahriman in NGC, because their Priest, Ryota Takeuchi always seems to take it upon himself to be the first person that everyone sees when entering NGC’s Home of Ahriman. This was what made NGC’s Home of Ahriman special.

“Don’t worry about it, I was heading out anyways.” Sheon picked herself off the steps, wincing slightly at the bright sunset light that had weaved its way through the endless hill of skyscrapers. She was quick in how she spoke, didn’t want to stay here any longer than she already had. Her shoulder dipped as Ryota’s hand lightly brushed on it and naturally, almost as if it was an expected reaction, Ryota sighed. It annoyed her even more than him being here.

“You have to stop going to these rallies, you’re only going to get yourself hurt.” Sheon snapped her head back and was once again met with that same expression, the type that just spells out You’re better than this as if he knows her better than herself. If her arms didn’t feel like broken crackers, then maybe she would’ve made her point more physical, but instead, she’d settle for her words.

“And do what? Sit on my a** and pray to Ahriman that things will get better, because that definitely has helped in past.”

“With your prayer, we can begin to so–“

“Don’t you dare give me that harvest bullshit again, I am sick and tired of hearing it. Screw this, like I said I was leaving anyways, goodbye.” She’ll likely visit again and it wasn’t because of him. The others weren’t as fortunate as she was and with all the time she’s spent there, she owed it to them to at least visit and maybe next time they’ll be the first one to greet her. Maybe next time.

NGC wasn’t popular just because of its city and sightseeing opportunities or its neon lights. Surrounding the city was a dense forest filled with its own unique species, each of them evolving to fit the structure of their surroundings. Until recently, these wildlife animals used to live in relative peace minus the occasion hunting by foreigners, excessive population and just overall human behavior. So it wasn’t really strange to come across some New Genshiro City Dumping Sites (NGCDS) or New Genshiro City Authorize Hunting Grounds(NGCAHG), there was also the Nature Reservation of New Genshiro City (NRNGC). Still nothing beats the wildlife view outside of NGC district, where the land isn’t taken care of by someone working to keep the flowers in bloom and the animal waste out of peoples sight, to spray some fancy scent to make everything smell “clean” and “refreshing”. Instead, the wildlife where everything smelled like it should, where the flowers can either bloom or be eaten, where everything is actually alive. That’s where someone should go if they want a real and authentic NGC experience.

Sheon knew that the forest outside of NGC district were dangerous given her entire rally revolving around the NGC government doing something about the encroaching threat outside its borders, but this was the only place where Sheon and her fighters could experience the beauty of nature. Where the stars that glitter through a midnight blanket could be fully experience, where the nightlight of the city acted as a void where no light from above could be seen. A city that when viewed from the outside could never be blessed by nature’s light.

She had made a stop to a pharmacy for some first-aid kits. She could treat her own wounds and would prefer that than to hear her parents blabber on about why she shouldn’t go out into these rallies, how she should stay focused in her studies and grow up to be a good and respecting woman. Everyone in this city had a black and white view on what people should and shouldn’t be. While she took care of her wounds, lost in her own thoughts it took her a few extra seconds to actual register that the stomps and pops of the forest weren’t normal, nothing normal in that forest was large enough that its steps could be felt, nothing in this forest was exotic enough that its growl were like the rumbling of lightning storm soon to come.

She was curious to a fault, there was a urge to know what it was because whatever it was, it wasn't normal. The skies were cleared and not even a hint of thunderclouds could be seen, so Sheon moved through the forest, her steps were slow as she didn't want to catch it's attention, she only wanted to see what was making such an extraterrestrial sound.

By the time Sheon realized she had gotten herself into something that she definitely shouldn’t have, it was already to late. Whatever it was, it moved too fast for Sheon to find it and she was only guided by her sense of hearing. Every time she turned at its movement, she only saw the falling leaves of surrounding floral, a multicolored spectacle of fear mixed adrenaline. Every turn made her vision blurry, she couldn’t keep up and equally and absolutely didn’t want to slow down how fast she turned. The only thing she could think of was to at least try and find it before it attacks her and maybe that’s why it hadn’t pounced at her. Sheon felt drunk like balancing herself on a spinning table while a dozen people held knives at her.

With every spin the blades got closer, until they licked at her clothed, then tore at the fabric, and sliced at the flesh. She realized the moment it was waiting for and it was creative, it got her so disoriented that she tripped on herself. It was a silent moment of realization and her body didn’t even resist, one second she was face to face with fangs and predatory rage, the next she had an eye full of taffy colored hair and words full of exhaustion.


”Woah, dude, what are you doing out here?”


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[Nohkiyoe]

( ✷ )x▀xKini
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxLörghren



Okay, take it easy, take it easy, I got this. Kini struggled to get her thoughts organized, every thought ran like a bullet train as she followed blurs after blurs. She couldn’t keep up with whatever this thing was, but she could keep it in her line of sight even if she struggled to even get a proper look at it. From the few glances that she managed to catch between moonlight beams and their brief stalled engagement where the only thing Kini could see were––mouth and fangs and herself being dinner––it also had a body like a wolf, probably male but she couldn’t tell, but its tail was more like a rat’s with thorn instead of fur, its claws were the second most threatening feature, less like claws and more like a butcher's knife and limbs with muscles the thickness of an actual oak tree.

This was suppose to be a three man mission, something small, something basic, something to just get her started. The only thing they had to do was keep an eye out for any wildlife trying to interfere with construction, naturally Kini and her team expected to have to deal with something like bears, or aggressive boars, maybe even a lion or a panther, but whatever this is? It wasn’t what Kini was expecting.

Kini’s body bounced off the tree hands still pressed together in the last sign she needed, there was a lot of enduring hits in this fight, moments when she couldn’t afford to slip into unconsciousness from how hard her body was getting slapped around like some sort of dog toy. The wolf-thing was quick to capitalize on tossing Kini around, but this time she was ready and the only thing that this weird thing would pounce was the tree. A cloud of wood mixed debris erupted from where Kini was, her body rolling and bouncing along the dirt ground until she manage to gain some control over her momentum as her back slapped against a boulder. “Yeah… Tonight is definitely going well.” There was taut in her tone as she shakily lifted herself off the dirt, gripping at the fractured boulder for stability.

“Say, mind telling me what you did with my teammates?” The wolf-thing’s tail brushed the smokescreen of debris away, snarling towards the taffy haired kunoichi, it’s beastly body grew tense causing its muscles to bulge to the point it might even shred through its own skin. It snapped at the air, bending itself forward as its tail waved frantically, excitedly and its pupils again shrank into a slit. “Nah, course not, only thing you know how to do and say is freaky noises and constantly trying to kill me. Could've made an awesome pet, but you gotta act all ignorant!” Kini barked back, pushed herself off the boulder and stomped towards the wolf-thing with a huff.

The wolf-thing kept the aggression from the moment it showed up, rushing her teammates and herself until separation and even kept up that aggression until just recently. Kini spotted this and immediately kept the momentum going, this was the first time during their entire brawl that Kini had the opportunity to even use any of her Techniques. The edge of her lip curled up as she wiped the blood from her lips, licking the crimson blob from her thumb. “Yeah, haha! Thought, I was easy food, huh?” She brought her arms out and swiftly weaved a small set of seals, it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be followed but it was quick enough that the wolf-thing didn’t or couldn’t react to.

The air crackled and crumbled like paper around the two, a mist of silver filled with strings of blue that snapped and popped as the air rumbled. “My turn doggie.” The wolf-thing screeched as the kunoichi’s body twisted and bent into a bright blue bolt of electricity. Each turn of its head and jerk of the eye couldn’t keep up with the trail of crunching lightning, the wolf-thing’s body jerked left and right from the sudden shock-wave that caused the ground to rise like a volcanic eruption. The wolf-thing unhinged its jaw to scream in frustration, Kini gripped at its agape mouth and with a yell of her own she flung the beast into the ground in a great geyser of soil and pebbles. “Gotcha now!”

Both of them, beast and ninja wrestled through the forest and while Kini did her best laying down a barrage of shock-wave enhanced punches, its skin, the wolf-thing felt thicker than lead. Every punch and every kick felt like she was beating up a waterbed, lots of force but zero effective result. Nothing was going through. The wolf-thing regained its balanced, drove its head under Kini’s and launched her up. “Oh..” By the time she realized what was going on, it was already too late as the wolf-thing’s rear legs dug itself into her stomach.

Everything in her peripheral moved like a blur, rotated like laundry in a machine until she had a face full of dirt. Her head snapped against the ground and every inch of her body vibrated like a current was hooked into her bones. There was a moment where her vision started to fade, she could see the wolf-thing standing above her with mouth ready to feast. But it stopped and jerked its body towards the right and Kini’s eyes slowly followed. The weight from the wolf-thing was gone from her chest as it charged towards something in the distance, she couldn’t easily tell who it was from her drunk punched state.

She could see rusted bronze hair and string of red bubbles flickering in the air like petals. She had to get up even if her muscles felt like they were being stabbed and burned, she had to get up. There was some strength left in her but she had to get up first, fight through the creaking of her joints and with the remaining bit of her rage, she screamed. Her body tackled the bronzed haired woman like a roid-up linebacker, body rolling along the dirt as the wolf-thing’s jaw snap shut around a tree, bending its erect figure like snapping a twig.

“Woah, dude, what are you doing out here?” Kini held the stranger as their body slid through the soil like a speedboat and leaving behind a wave of dirt until both women stopped with Kini’s back smacking a log and nearly divorcing them from their natural union. There was a heavy gasp behind her exhales, it made it seem as if she had to actually force the air out of her throat and each inhale was forced causing her chest to rise and sink with enough force that woman head couldn’t lay comfortably. The kunoichi didn’t check up on the woman’s condition, her attention was fixed on the frantic wild wolf-thing that grew desperate to unhinge itself from its self-made stump.

Snaps and pops spawned randomly and rhythmically around the Kunoichi as she stood and tightened her grip on the woman. “Alright, you may have won this round but I’ll be back, you freaky wolf looking thing.” Kini arched her body, still staring and still smiling as she whispered. “Cover your ears.” And the woman did, Kini lifted her leg and a charge surged from around and wrapped around her leg, with a stomp the ground shot up and pushed out in a wave of burned soil with a pillar of the same, it was almost like a blooming flower a fantastic distraction that both caused an even more frantic reaction from the wolf-thing, and gave Kini the opportunity to get away.

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[Nohkiyoe]

( ✷ )x▀xSheon
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxHyun



New Genshiro City Dumping Site #132, categorized as NGCDS#132. The location was closest to New Genshiro City from outside the city borders, you had to take a chariot through a twisting road but it was a safe road that basically never had any interaction with the surrounding wildlife. NGCDS#132 was a total 2,200 acres of landfill, the landfill is heavily bordered but not patrolled since employees had a habit of complaining about the smell. It didn’t help that the dump site had only one building with a decent amount of air circulation, everyone wanted to be in there and it could only comfortably hold 5 people, 15 worked the dump site, this caused problems. So, they ended up cutting the budget for NGCDS#132 only having one worker per shift and dozens of surveillance.

Tonight the employee that works at NGCDS#132 was her brother, Hideo Hyun. Hideo was Sheon’s older brother, they were nearly identical with the exception of Hideo having a buzz cut hair, small short blades of orange hair and short but pointed ears. Unlike Sheon’s which was untouched, Hideo pierced not only his ears, but his nose with a golden ring, and bottom lips with black rings. He called them snakebites, she calls them stupid. Much like his piercings, even Hideo’s sense of color pattern was off, either yellow and black or blue and white, nothing else. Today, interestingly enough, he only wore all black. His jeans had tears in it that showed bits of his skin, Sheon could see a portion of his underwear and it only caused her face shrink.

“What if she doesn’t recover?” Hideo arched forward on his chair, the building in NGCDS#132 was about as big as an apartment and surprisingly a decent amount of amenities, Sheon decided to put the kunoichi on the kitchen table. She didn’t have the opportunity to actually get a good look at her given the situation they were in, between the creature trying to turn her into a late-night snack, the speedy getaway that left Sheon disoriented and the kunoichi suddenly collapsing before they had even reached their destination. This was the first time that Sheon was able to see a bit of the Kunoichi’s face.

NGC doesn’t have a Ninja Military system and instead funds their law enforcement through privately owned police or security teams, the concept of a Ninja wasn’t lost to them but it was rare to see any that weren’t just on vacation. The Kunoichi in question had long hair, patches of dirt, leaves, and twigs were entangled between her locks. Her clothes weren’t in any better shape either, the black of her clothes were dyed with dark brown streaks and definitely not fashionable tears that showed dried blood stained skin.

“We can’t keep her here forever, y’know. We gotta get her to a hospital.” Sheon took a sip from her cup the cold liquid failing at soothing the soreness in her throat, she nearly spilled the damn cup a couple of time before letting out an exhausted sigh. There wasn’t really any time for her to think of anything, the only thing she had done was barge in and call her friend, barely even had the time to explain what had happened because even Hideo wasn’t questioning it. She took a minute to actually gather her thoughts, organize what was more and least important and only one thing came to mind at the moment.

“There’s something else.” Sheon stood up and made her way towards the kitchen table, Hideo who stood pressed against the fridge with beer in hand raised a brow, curious and cautious at the same time. The Kunoichi’s top piece had a turleneck and a diamond cutout around the chest, Sheon rolled down the turtleneck where Hideo could see the faintly glowing cyan glow that radiated from the unconscious Kunoichi’s vein. Rolled up her a sleeve and showed the same glow, a different color, a magenta of sort. “It doesn’t hurt, but its warm, like weirdly warm to the touch. We can’t take her to a hospital, they’ll just say its some bad spirit junk and throw us out, hell they might lock us up thinking we're devils after Ahriman. I already called a friend, we just need to keep her here for the night. Keep an eye on her, y’know.”

Hideo took a second to digest what Sheon was saying, blinked in confusion, then spoke out in disapproval. “Woah. We can’t just keep her here, if someone shows up its my a** on the line here.”

“Well I can’t just drag an unconscious woman back into the city, do you have any idea how bad that’ll look and with the list of bullshit they have on me, they’re basically looking for any reason to send me off into some dinky reform school again.”

“Mom and dad won’t let that happen, just explain the situation and I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“Like they have before?”

Hideo pinched his nose and frustration came out like air. “What is it anyways?” He got closer to inspect the strange glow, confirmed that it was definitely internal. Look over her some more and yes, the neck was the only part that glowed unless somewhere else was glowing on her back.

“No idea, but it stopped my bleeding so I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not.” Sheon rolled her sleeve down and a silence followed, before either could speak there was a buzz over the intercom and Hideo was quick to leave the kitchen and head into the office down the hall. She could hear some talking, a bit of chuckling and figured that was the rest of her party showing up. Now she’d have to explain everything to them.

Sheon technically has three close friends. She met them during a protest involving one of NGCPD’s most recent “mistakes”, a raid at the wrong apartment complex that led to the unfortunate death of a family. Their excuse being that they were given the wrong information, conveniently after a thorough self-investigation and deny to release body camera footage, NGCPD found themselves innocent. Nirvana, the protest group that Sheon is part of, didn’t like that. Their protest turned violent once NGCPD got tired of people telling them about their obvious mistakes, a couple of yells later, a few smoke grenades here, and Sheon found herself running from NGCPD “Riot Suppression Tools”.

Takuma Yashiro was the only person that Sheon had befriended from Nirvana and it wasn't because she couldn't relate with the others, but mostly because of Takuma was one of the few members of Nirvana that taught self-defense that actually worked, gave survival tips, and first-aid classes. Every protest, Takuma was there and during the unfortunate ones that turned violent, Takuma was there fighting back against NGCPD and making sure others got away safely. Sheon hasn't racked up as much prison time as Takuma, thanks to her parents she never got arrested. Her "intrusion on official NGCPD work" seem to magically disappear, but there was the threat of reform schooling through the Home of Ahriman, that risk was worth it if she could use her parents to keep Nirvana members out of jail and back into the streets.

Takuma was a tall male, skin like bronze and eyes like autumn leaves. He was a rather muscular male and proudly expressed his physique, there were scars that covered his exposed arms, some even tattooed his face along the bottom lip and left eyebrow. He was dressed in an outfit slightly similar to that of the Kunoichi, a sleeveless black hoodie and white sweats. There were beads of sweat rolling down his arms, his forehead was practically smothered in his salt-water. He carried a bright green duffel-bag by the strap and made his way into the kitchen per Hideo's direction.

“So, what exactly happened?” Takuma naturally inquired, Sheon moved towards the fridge to get herself another drink, her thirst wasn’t quenching even after her fifth cup of water. With a liter bottle of soda in her hand, Sheon removed the cap and took a long gulp only to catch her breath after. She leaned against the fridge, recapped the bottle, stared at the small group and then at the unconscious Kunoichi. Capped it and placed it on the counter beside her.

“I went outside of the city limits…” She paused for the collection of “What!?” and “You did what?” along with the sprinkle of “You idiot” from her brother. There was a groan before she continued. “Look! Thing is, when I was out there this, I don’t know, thing it was different than the regular Yfel's, bigger, faster, way more aggressive... And also.” Sheon again, rolled her sleeve and displayed the odd glow from her vein. It had grown a bit, Hideo didn’t immediately notice, but Sheon did. It wasn’t by a lot, a few centimeters maybe, she was sure it had spread out further. “I don’t know what this is, but it stopped my bleeding and I’m not the only one with it either.”

Takuma inspected Sheon's arm, gliding his hand across the mark and raising his brow at the unusual warmth it produced. Sheon could tell that even he was unsure of what it was. "This doesn't look like Ninjutsu, could some kind of parasite." Sheon pulled her arm away gently, slightly cautious at what could happen to her. "It doesn't look like it's anything bad, but we don't know if its completely good as well. What about the woma--"

The table was empty with only a body shaped stain of sweat that had already begun to evaporate under the air conditioned kitchen. Sheon's eyes darted towards the right down the hallway and nothing could be seen, then towards the left, Takuma was already looking there. Hideo was there, the Kunoichi was there as well. Her arm wrapped around Hideo's neck while her opposite hand gripped a kitchen knife. There was a clear expression of shock and confusion written all over the Kunoichi's face.

Takuma was the first to speak up. "Woah, easy there. You aren't in danger, you're safe here."

"Where the hell am I?" There was a growl with her voice that cause Sheon to flinch.

"NGCDS Lot 13."

"That literally doesn't explain anything."

"New Genshiro City Dumping Site, you're on Io Island, do you remember your name?"

"Of course, I'm not stupid. Wait." The Kunoichi relaxed her arm around Hideo's throat and a heavy gasp escaped as the right of oxygen was returned to him. "You're that chick at the forest, you're alive, dude what's up?"

The pause was a queue for Sheon to reintroduce herself yet she was speechless in what to say or what to do, what left her mouth was essentially a mumbling mess that only caused the woman's brow to rise, a nonverbal Are you okay? expression. "Uhm... Hi?"

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[Nohkiyoe]

( ✷ )x▀xSheon
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxHyun



There are four people inside NGCDS#132: Sheon Hyun, member of the protest group known as Nirvana, her day job consist of various volunteering work around NGC where she could spend as much time as possible not being home. Sheon isn’t armed but thanks to members of Nirvana, she was trained in some self-defense and naturally could handle herself against most.

Takuma Yashiro, another member of Nirvana and a busy body of sorts and unlike Sheon, Takuma had a weapon. A baseball bat made of titanium, it had a silver color with a red band wrapped around its handle. Takuma’s large build made it seem as if he never needed a weapon, frankly, his muscle mass alone could qualify as a weapon of intimidation. Still, when outside of city limits, more importantly outside the main road, a weapon was definitely necessary if you wanted to survive a rampaging Yfel.

Hideo Hyun, not a member of Nirvana and a firm believer in not participating in screaming at NGCPD official, instead, voicing his opinions online through forums. Unlike Sheon, Hideo worked not because he didn’t want to be home, but because he wanted to leave Io Island whenever the lockdown is removed. He didn’t have a weapon but could somewhat defend himself, Sheon liked practicing the moves she learned on him and he picked up a few things as well. He stayed behind, didn’t want to get involved.

Then there was the Kunoichi, introduced themselves as Kini but no family name. She wasn’t the tallest of the four, second tallest next to Takuma who towered at 6’9 while she stood comfortably at 5’10. Kini didn’t have any visible weapon, but Takuma, Sheon, and Hideo knew that the pink haired woman was a living weapon. An internal energy system with a power source that would put any of NGC’s best Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG), the Kunoichi was a walking, talking powerhouse and at the moment she wasn’t happy and the group were clearly in defense. They stood in her way, stood right in front of the hallway, Sheon and Takuma specifically as Hideo kept himself behind. His throat was still sore from that rear choke hold.

“Move.” Kini’s voice had weight behind it and Sheon could feel her knees buckle and quiver, Takuma stood firm but Sheon could see the slight trembling in his hand as he gripped his bat. Nobody wanted to hurt Kini, but nobody knew if Kini wouldn’t hurt them so it was natural for them to seek some sort of protection. “I’ll ask, one more time, move.” She stepped forward and it echoed in Sheon’s ears as she pivoted her foot back an inch.
“Listen, whatever you fought out there isn’t normal, we have to diagnose what that mark is on both of you before you head out.” Takuma spoke in a reassuring tone, didn’t want to accidentally induce a sense of threat in the Kunoichi. Even he knew with all the training he’s done, no amount of push up or bench presses is going to top the physical strength of an actual Ninja.

“Don’t care, that Wolf-thing caught me off guard but I’m ready for it now, either way I have a team to get back to and they need all the help they can get.”

“I understand, but your health is more important at the moment.”

“Don’t care, got more important things to worry about.”

“Miss, please, right now your health is far more important.”

The Kunoichi grinned following her sigh and Sheon knew that a conversation would be pointless, nobody here could really stop her if they wanted to and Sheon understood that far too well. She had to figure out a solution before things turned bad and she spoke. “We can go together?” Everyone turned their gaze towards her, Kini smiled with excitement as if saying finally, can’t wait for this rematch. “We can get your friends if you can keep the Yfel busy, I’ve seen her fight so I’m sure she can handle herself long enough for us to get away.” Nobody said anything, the idea was definitely insane. No one in their right mind actually wants to go out into the wilderness to fight Yfel, not even NGCPD or Corporate Security, not unless these guys were getting paid. It was one of the reasons as to why prices in NGC were high, trades outside of Io Island were dangerous to bring into NGC because of the Yfel’s.

NGCDS#132 was the furthest safest property within NGC border, three miles off from that is where the forest begins, you had to go around the property and jump over a fence in order to actually get out. From NGC southern exit there was a road that split into two direction, the left led into NGCDS#132 and the other led out into the wild. Sheon and Takuma vaulted the fence. Hideo stayed behind, he had work to do, but Sheon knew that he simply didn’t want to get involve in this mess. It was natural, even Sheon and Takuma were hesitant on this and it made it worse that Kini had gone off ahead leaving the two to navigate the three mile track towards Kini’s destination.

The walk towards their destination was a quiet one, neither Takuma or Sheon actually spoke as Takuma was the one leading the two of them with Sheon occasionally tapping at his shoulder and pointing towards where they should go. After a few minutes of this, Sheon couldn’t help but say something, it wasn’t that she was uncomfortable being with Takuma, but more so that she was cautious of her surrounding. With Takuma around and mostly thanks to his rather intimidating bat, she felt comfortable enough to be relaxed. “So… How’s work?” Small talk, definitely the best way to start a conversation and kill it immediately after. Smart move there.

Takuma chuckled before responding. “Pretty well, didn’t think this night could get any weirder.” He had a point, typicall the Yfel’s were an inconvenience, the typical wildlife deer on steroids and an unsatisfiable hunger specifically aimed at humans, the more horrific bit being corpses of the wildlife coming to life. But the thing that Sheon described to Takuma, with what bit of information she could even remember, it wasn’t a typical Yfel. Yfel’s don’t mark their prey, generally just choosing to snack on them or terrorize their campsite as well as the occasional property damage.

The final stretch of terrain needed to be cross was a hill, the area was in absolute shambles under the moonlight. Portion of the soil were carved out far too perfectly as if its been scooped out with a large spoon, there were prints as well that move about sporadically and they were unlike that of a wolf. Larger than that, large enough that Sheon’s head could fit in the print. The surrounding trees were either torn out of the ground or divided, however, these things weren’t what caught Sheon and Takuma’s attention. Neither had actually noticed the damaged surroundings or the still burning soil, instead, their focus were fixed elsewhere.

There were fifteen of them from what the two could see, each had an assortment of different weapons that reflected the cold blue light. From swords to daggers, some even had automatic projectile launchers, others had chain whips. They all surrounded a single person, a young woman with pink hair that sparkled and crackled in blinding blue. It illuminated the space around them, turning the once slate sky into a pseudo-morning that eradicated the surrounding shadows.

“Where is it.” Her voice was like the call of thunder, a rumble that caused the very wind to quiver. “Where the hell is it.” It grew in intensity, it was no longer a rumbling, no longer simply thunder, but shock waves of rage. The woman clenched her fist and in response, the sparks grew in intensity as bolts flew off into the sky. “Tell me where it is, I’m going to kill that thing right here, right now. Where. Is. It.” An arc struck the ground causing it to erupt, mist of soil filled with embers and fumes rose into the air and invaded the nostrils of those who stood witnessing.

Sheon stepped forward only stopped by Takuma’s grip on her shoulder. “This is way out of our league, we need to go.” Neither of them moved. They had only been there for a few seconds, maybe even a minute, but eyes had already locked onto them. Neither of them were NGCPD. “Sheon, we have to leave. Now.” Takuma took a step back, Sheon followed, Takuma turned and before another step could be taken a project tore through the air. It was only silent due to the clap and crackling of Kini’s electricity until it slipped inches from Takuma’s cheek and struck the tree ahead of him. The projectile was a dark metal with a handle, it was a knife. A curse slip through Takuma’s lips, barely audible to Sheon. Instinctively she turned her head. She shouldn’t have. There was another knife that sought to introduce itself, not to Sheon, but to Takuma and the words couldn’t come out fast enough.

Strands of pink tainted in dirt and leaves stood in front of them, there was no more roaring thunder, instead silence. The Kunoichi discarded the weapon who’s black flesh cutter had been transformed into a hue akin to a sun, its surface crackled as its body was consumed by the soil desperately attempting to snuff out its heat. Sheon couldn’t see Kini’s face, but she could feel the overwhelming rage that radiated off her. It was in her voice, in her stance, in her steps, and as she spoke in conflicted cold calmness. “You’re all ********.” A trail of sparks was left in her wake.

Sheon and Takuma could barely follow the chaos, bodies were thrown about like debris in a windstorm, screams and commands flooded out like cries in thunder. One by one, all fifteen of them laid on dirt squirming and writhing. Their wounded bodies twitching as the lingering shock continuously assaulted each of them. In the middle of it all, the lone victor stood, untouched and on her knees. Her screaming turning into a howl as she rolled onto herself with arms wrapped around. It was only then that Sheon could see what she couldn’t before. Two bodies laid torn and separated limb by limb, she could vaguely see the bits of the inside of each limb. The damage was fresh, still leaking its internal essence like a broken faucet.

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[Nohkiyoe]

( ✷ )x▀xIrida
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxMasamune



Irida Masamune was the sole offspring of Hanzo Masamune, the current president of New Genshiro City. At 26 years old, Irida has done a lot for himself thanks to his father and while the two rarely spoke or saw each other due to their business and daily task, Irida was no different and had his own daily task and routines. His day starts at 5:00 in the morning where he begins the day by reading the news report from last night. This is usually done along with his assistant also briefing him on what meetings are planned for the day.

At 6:00: Breakfast, Irida eats well above his body weight but maintain a fit and healthy figure. Irida’s breakfast is planned ahead, not by him, but by his nutritionist. During this time, Irida enjoys entertaining himself with local media, it was one of the few times where his mind could really turn off.

At 6:30: Exercise, the upper west-side of NGC was one of the more wealthy part of NGC. Successful entrepreneurs, corporation owners, politician, and celebrities could be found here. Their numbers were small as in NGC, only 2% of its population were wealthy, as such, the upper west-side was considered a form of a gated community. Heavily patrolled and well maintained that the scent of the lower masses dare not to even invade this section of NGC.

At 7:30: His schedule begins, any meetings are done at his office. These usually consist of conversation with politicians and corporate-sponsors, conversation like these tend to bore him and usually results in the same ending. Someone wants to do a thing and they’re willing to pay, often time, a large sum to do so. Typically they’re things that involve “overlooking certain laws and federal investigation in return for sponsorship for upcoming elections.” Other meetings usually involved finding ways to fixed certain issues brought on by independent journalist and investigators.

At 12:00: It was lunch, there was a lot of places to choose from and the food in the upper west-side was truly phenomenal and never ceased to excite his taste. One of his favorite place to dine at was a restaurant known as La Belle Vie. The ingredients were brought in from outside of Io Island and thanks to the threat of Yfel‘s, their prices have seen a slight increase, nothing that Irida couldn’t afford but even the middle-class who tend to eat here–mostly couples who have saved up months of wage to even afford a single meal that they end up sharing–they became even rarer, now Irida only sees maybe one every couple of months.

At 5:30: His official working hours end and his trip back home is one filled with a briefing of what’s to be excepted tomorrow, but Irida wanders off into filling his thoughts with social media, reviewing what the popular opinion of his family and himself are. The briefing given by his assistant will be the same tomorrow morning, beside, tonight something far more important will require his undivided attention.

Irida wasn’t wealthy just because of his father’s political position but because of his family history. The Masamune family owned multiple properties in the upper west-side, some of these were rented out or sold out to others with the rest being inherited by some of Irida’s family members. Irida’s own home was a large gothic-themed castle that resembled a church more than a castle, there were no religious symbols anywhere, but it simply just looked like a church rather than a castle. With enough room to host a twenty sport teams, Irida instead filled them with service workers who could only look at wealth and keep wealth looking wealthy for the wealthy that tend to visit.

Tonight, the service workers that worked around the clock, replaced like cogs in a machine, those workers were gone. The castle echoed each step and each voice. One of Irida’s favorite part of his home was what he considered the Historical Study. It was a large library that house shelves reached up to fifteen meters, the ceiling was thirty meters, there was an abundance of ladders for when he wanted to reach a specific piece of literature but those task were typically left to servers. There was two levels to this room, the walls of the second level was lined with more books. On the main level there were other interesting furniture, musical instruments such as a piano and organ.

One man accompanied Irida inside of Historical Study room, the man physique was far more refined than Irida, muscles that served a purpose outside of simply being a result of healthy exercising. The man was named Oda Itaji a mercenary from the badlands of Io island, hired under his father’s contract where he worked as nothing more than an expensive security guard. Irida had made more use out of him, whenever he needed a journalist who had gotten a bit too curious to have an “accident” Oda was just the guy for the job, whenever he needed to sway public opinion about a certain group seeking to do expose practices of his sponsors, Oda and his goons were perfect for infiltration and fixing things up.

Each time, Oda had proven useful and never once failing him so it was a surprise to Irida to hear that his greatest gun had failed him when he needed him the most. There was an eerie silence where Oda dared not to speak, dared not to even avert his attention away from Irida as he sat behind his desk, signing away at documents and contracts. When he finally stopped, Irida placed his pen down and interlocked his fingers. Eyes fixed on Oda.

“The Yfel escaped. There was another there, seems like NGCC had hired a single ninja team to act as security for construction near our survey spot. The Yfel’s attention was taken, likely by the ninja team.” Oda reported the events as he and his team saw, the situation devolved extremely quick in front of them. The construction crew were torn to shred in seconds as the ninja team desperately attempted to get the situation under control, they weren’t able to. “One of them had manage to survive and seemed able to go toe to toe with the Yfel, although victory was far from her grasp. Also..” Oda paused, Irida’s attention seemed piqued and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the news of these ninja or what Oda was about to say. “This Yfel, it is unlike any other, it seemed to have marked the Kunoichi as well as another. We’re unsure what this mark means.” Oda allowed Irida the opportunity to absorb everything he had said.

“You returned without either of them, so I have to ask. What happened to them?”

“The Kunoichi proved difficult to apprehend, my teammates couldn’t keep up. Unfortunately, she and the other marked one had managed to escape. I’ve sent a unit out to find them.”

Irida smirked, standing up from behind his desk. “It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to find them, they’re skilled at remaining undetected. The situation has changed, but it seemed to have evolved to our benefit.” Irida gestured for his guard to follow as the two made their way out of the Historical Study room.

The hallway was empty, no longer occupied with workers but instead statues and paintings, yet Oda’s attention never diverted away from Irida as he led them through doors and down more hallways. Words weren’t spoken and Oda was in no position to speak unless strictly required, Irida wasn’t a fan of pointless conversation. Eventually, the two ended up in another room. Much smaller than the others, though by definition, the room was roughly the same size as an single-bedroom apartment, so it technically wasn’t small. The room was an armory, weapons of different types and sizes were either pinned along the walls or displayed in opened lockers along with armor sets as well. Oda’s eyes skimmed through the heavy collection, each weapon had a unique detail about it such as a text that were indecipherable, some had colorful gems embedded into the grip, a few radiated a strange aura or humming, Oda were sure those were electrically powered.

“What’s all this for?” Oda said as Irida maneuvered through his collection and plucked a suitcase by the handle, dragging the seemingly heavy content holder towards his guard. There was a sigh of relief as the black suitcase dropped like a boulder on the marble floor. The case was locked with a 8-digit digital pin-pad.

“The Yfel that you’re hunting won’t be the same next time you see it. You can thank our new Kunoichi and their friend for this.” Irida’s tone was less of concern and more of excitement, it wasn’t openly expressed in a way that made it obvious but Oda could see the anticipation for success in his smirk. Even though Oda was restricted detailed information on this task, even though he knew he should’ve asked this far earlier, even before accepting even if he never had an actual choice in the matter. The words slipped.

“Sir. What exactly is this Yfel?” There was a pause. Irida seemed to contemplate his response, thinking what he should say and what he didn’t want Oda to know, organizing his thoughts until finally deciding on what to say.

“It is. My birthright.”

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