♒ || Land of Water [ The Caged Bird Sings ]

[HeadlessKoko]

♒ || Land of Water | Residence of Mizutani Hiro [Protection Mission]

[Mission Objective: Protect Mizutani Hiro from the assassin known as
Kotodori, who has announced that she will be arriving for his life at midnight.]

[Mission Progress: Act 1]

[Main Building: A Japanese-style residence. The owner's superstitions can be seen reflected in the building's construction. From one central room extends four hallways that bend perpendicular and to the right to connect to four outer rooms. From the skies, the design is reminiscent of the sun-symboloizing swastika. Nestled in each of the arms is a garden. The north arm contains a zen rock and sand gardens. A large part of the green garden in the east arm is filled with a pond and babbling creek. The south arm contains a minimalistic garden that borders a well tended lawn. The west arm contains a decorative garden in the Japanese style, cut through by a path for those who wish to enjoy it with a walk. The original purposes of these arms are lost as everythig has been removed prior, leaving them bare and with plenty of room to maneuver.]

[Client/Target: Mizutani Hiro, arms dealer of the Water Country and second son of a storied noble family of the fallen Water Country. A robust, self-proclaimed patriot who rubbed shoulders with the Lightning Empire's officials and merchants while selling the goods of war he obtained from his dealings to the daimyo's slowly rebuilding forces. He is a man who knows how to defend himself, but is understandably ill able to against the likes of an assassin who could cut the throat of a Lightning official one day and then silence a fortified town the next without suffering any repercussions.]  

[HeadlessKoko]

"Don't worry, Moriko. They'll have me. So long as I don't break my act, then my mother has no reason to target the others, and there's really no safer place than next to the best medic on the mission. They'll all come back in one piece."

"Aka!"

Chaos was in the very nature of conflict, and when lives were at stake, naturally, they fell under the scope of those odds that were never truly predictable.

"Aka!"

However, "Three minutes until brain death," Kagerou was going to be damned if she was going to turn her back on her promise. With Daisuke's head resting in her lap, Kagerou put her all into recovering the brain's functions that had shut down several minutes ago.

"Aka!"

In a form not her own, but one of the brown-haired Moriko's, the disguised medic flooded the body beneath her with an overgrowth of green chakra from one arm; the other hung limply at her side, reattached to avoid blood loss but not yet wholly reconnected to the body. Ignoring the calls from without by her team leader, she single-mindedly refused to see the life before her pass on. Outwardly, the physical body appeared healed to pristine form. However, her continuing diagnostics told her that the brain hadn't made a recovery yet from losing the heart several minutes ago. If she released her chakra now, the body's organs would be failing yet again piece by piece.

"Aka, Nara down," Midori didn't actually care for the life of Mizutani's three guards. No, that wasn't wholly true. He cared for them, but only as much as he cared for the lives of all the others Kiritani had already taken down. He had already accepted their deaths, and so they did little to sway him, but he knew they could be used to sway Kagerou.

Kagerou squinted her eyes shut, forcing herself to focus on the operation before her. Her chakra pulsed larger. It was too soon to start exhausting her resources, yet beads of sweat began to form upon the medic's brow as, in exchange for more time to work on the Senju in her care, she wastefully used the resources inside of her. Her other arm twitched and almost immediately after that, jumped to life to weave through the writing of several seals in the air.

Kneeling on either side of Daisuke as they watched the medic that sat before the head, Hanajima and Ryousuke stared with equal parts anxiety and awe. Ryousuke, rendered speechless. Hanajima, who was usually speechless to begin with, still gripped tightly to her fury and resentment when she saw Kagerou walk free of Kotodori's restraints and torture while Daisuke had a giant, gaping hole in his chest trying to ensure Kagerou's life.

A thunderous explosion from the site of the main building startled two of them out of their intent focus on the operation before them. Kagerou's gaze, for the first time since seeing the sacrifice Daisuke had made, moved to somewhere other than his person, an exhausted fear reflected in her scarlet vision as she recognized the source of the explosion. Ryousuke stood up halfway, ready to defend.

Hanajima, however, didn't care about anything outside of her family. The young hunter snapped, "Stop getting distracted!" her teeth bared in her own violent display of fear and anxiousness, showing a complete lack of concern for anything outside of not losing her squad's leader.

Kagerou wished she could have that sort of focus as she heard Midori's report ring through her head at what felt like light speeds, a series of names and statuses all punctuated with, "Aka... Now." Midori's detachment as well... For a brief moment, she felt that it would be nice to have that, too... Then she saw the life she held in her very hands, and thoughts of such sort were shaken immediately off. Her exhaustion meant little compared to an entire life. Even standing alone, she would not fail. She could not fail.

"Sing: Gilded Cage."

Grasping at the seals written in the air, Kagerou activated the technique with revived determination, splitting her chakra in half with a copy of herself. Kneeling right next to Hanajima, the medical clone placed its hands upon Daisuke and took over as Kagerou released Daisuke from the care of her chakra. She remained at his head, however, in case anything went wrong, but her mind had already focused to the sounds in the distance, the ringing chimes of a symphony of percussion, deceptively gentle compared to the writhing, corrupted tangle of Mokuton she knew they came from. Carefully, deliberately, and yet quickly despite it all, Kagerou breathed in and joined, raising her voice up to the sky, "Kuroi hana / ano koe ga..."

In the room of a hundred seals, several of them burst forth in bright light and green chakra all at once, releasing a dense flock of glowing butterflies into the room. Unnecessary as it might have been, the voice that issued forth from the mass of gold followed protocol as it dictated, "Lights on. Big Brother is watching. Locking the cage." Even as the announcement brought hope(?) to the situation at hand, Kagerou's voice came through louder and clearer as it was transmitted through the dancing golden flock. Another male's voice joined to perform a duet with her, melding seamlessly into the lines sung, the beats drummed, and the rhythm of the swooping butterflies. The attack Kotodori had issued in that split moment of exposure landed with a dead impact on the shield raised in what should have been a blind spot. Though, such a detail was easy to miss in everything else that happened at the time. Easier to notice would be the wounds rapidly healing on all present, including the reconstruction of much of Shiro's face and the Nara's mangled corpse.

In the center of the aptly named gilded cage of jewel-like wood and insects of gold, Kotodori stood, seemingly inert. A look at her eyes as they darted to look in all directions at seemingly once would reveal the true state of her mind. She was simultaneously planning, in quick succession, her next moves and seeing each option foiled before she could act on it. She laughed lightly, knowing what must be happening. In the face of the joint power of the eyes of the Hyuuga and Uchiha, even she would have a difficult time making a move that would not be foreseen, even more so with the injuries she had sustained from her bout with Takeda.

As she stood there, since she could not escape yet, she observed the handiwork of the generation after hers as it was woven before her very eyes. The branching Mokuton created a skeleton while the dancing butterflies provided a canvas for gold and red to etch wards of containment across their length. The combination and collaboration of powers and cryptic spells. Ninjutsu of multiple types, fuuinjutsu, and corrupted nature chakra all started individually and then knitted one into the other to create an integrated barrier with two layers: one immediately around her that was being created as Kotodori analyzed and another pre-built into the walls of the very room they all stood in. In due time, as they all combined into a fine mesh, she would lose her opportunity to slide right past them with her Kuton techniques, and right now, she was unable to take a step forward due to the watchful gaze of the Byakugan and Uchiha. It was a beautiful thing they wrought, but not without its weakness.

Moreover, she didn't necessarily need to leave right now and here. "To save the swallow," Kotodori recited, "starves the hawk. A pound of flesh," her eyes locked onto Takeda, "will kill two if shared."

A caged bird singing, she raised her own voice to contest the three singing against her. Urgency tinging the younger voices, they worked all the more fervently, their volume unconsciously increasing. However, this one time, Kotodori didn't mean to try to interrupt or redirect. Though, it was true that was exactly what she wanted them to think. No, instead, she sang her own song within her cage, defying those that created it for she would not be denied the path she had chosen.

Soft, gentle, and nothing like the vantablack chakra that exploded through the enclosing bars in a sphere that encased the entire room and then some in a variant of the Grand Ballroom technique. As lyrics of falling cherry blossoms drifted through the room, Takeda, standing within this new darkness that wasn't quite darkness, would feel a pull familiar to before when Kotodori had tried to pull him into his own attack. To where, it was unknown, but if he could extrapolate anything from those around him who disappeared quicker than he, then it was to somewhere not within this room.

[77 sentences]

• Kiritani Hidden Technique: Dance of ____ X [Learned]
Type: Korabo
Element: Varies
A technique modified by this korabo changes from its original shape into a controlled burst centered on the user that can spread in all directions up to the maximum range allowed for the rank of the base technique.
E: 10 m
D: 20 m
C: 30 m
B: 40 m
A: 50 m
S: 100 m
S+: 200 m
This is a technique meant to korabo with another technique, known as the base technique, and so it has skewed values. When used alone, it acts as a rank weaker an simply releases a burst of concussive chakra at the ranges prescribed above. When koraboed with another technique, it acts as a rank higher. The element/type of this korabo for the purpose of chakra reductions and the like is determined by the base technique.

▰ Angel's Mystical Hand Technique [ Tenshi no Shousen Jutsu ] | Rank S+ | Iryojutsu | Spiritual
Conceptualized by and developed on the research done by the demon of the hospital and Kagerou's mentor, Dr. Angel, Angel's Mystical Hands is really a technique that was, in all ways just shy of traditional instruction, taught to Kagerou by a non-shinobi. The pinnacle of the healing hands technique line, Tenshi no Shousen Jutsu can regenerate limbs and organs within milliseconds, even when nothing is left. The body is rebuilt using the blueprint found in the DNA code of cells from other parts of the same body, recreating a perfectly healthy and ready to use replacement that even retains any bloodline properties the original had. Any stamina or chakra lost through any tier of status, trauma included, is automatically restored to the patient. If this technique is used on a target which has not endured trauma then they gain stamina and chakra equal to the cost of this technique. If this technique is used on oneself then the stamina and chakra gain is only equal to the rank of the technique.

▰ Kiritani Hidden Technique: Medical Clone | Rank B | Iryojutsu | Spiritual
The Medical clone requires the chakra control and intimacy with the human body unique to practitioners of iryojutsu. By linking the clone-s chakra network with the user's upon creation, the medical clone is able to share the user's energy resources and can continue to sustain itself even when the user is no longer conscious. When the user is conscious, the clone disappears after being hit with a B-rank attack or lower. When the user is unconscious, the clone is easier to deal with, disappearing upon being hit by a C-rank attack or lower. The stability of this clone's makeup limits it to using medical techniques that the user knows and prevents it from creating clones itself. Like a shadow clone, the clone relays information to the original when it is dispersed.

▰ Grand Ballroom [ Gurandobōrurūmu ] | Rank S
The user spills void chakra from their bodies at a rapid rate, this void chakra soaks into everything it touches in a two-foot radius until the landscape is permanently changed into a black mass of Kūton chakra. While within this field the landscape itself is considered a Kūton jutsu that allows one to change the origin point of any Kūton based jutsu to now come from any point the void covers. Lasts for [ 12 ] of the user's posts.

Tenshuyami

 

[Tenshuyami]

「 C K R A : :x3,540 // 5,000 」 tab 「 S T M : :x4,120 // 5,000 」 tab 「 S E A L : :x「 Dormant 」 400/400 」 tab 「 両 : :x107,300 」
tab 「 Monsoon 」 tab 「 S+ 」 tab 「 Jiongu 」 tab 「 Nin / Tai / Medic」 tab 「 Theme: Tanada 」

Some quiet, far-gone part of the jiongu was gleeful over the fact that multiple strikes of his landed against Kotodori, but he was experienced enough to realize that it wasn't going to be that simple. She was a professional Kunoichi, so he knew that every push would come with some pull in return. He wasn't so foolish that he'd push his momentum without expecting a counterattack, but he couldn't anticipate the instantaneous switch in their positions. Given her use of gadgets and physical capability, something like that managed to slip his long list of expectations. His initial attack was quick, just like all his others, and meant to be difficult for the other side to react to. Being suddenly switched on the opposing side of it, Takeda didn't even have half a second to react to the wave of ice and got swept up in his own attack. The chill bit at every inch of his exposed flesh, and he crossed his arms in front of him, feeling his body tense from head to toe. The defensive aspect of his symbiote came into full effect, though at the cost of some of his own control. It was a stupid move, but his instincts worked against his reasoning at that moment. An inky-black shade tinted any visible flesh and slowly crept up his face, solidifying as a mask of sorts about halfway up. He had to look away from Kotodori, lurching over and crossing his arms over his abdomen, then kneeling. Sure, the seal would help if he was alone with Kotodori, but there were other factors at play that he wouldn't be able to consider if he forfeited control.

Takeda could see his breath when he finally exhaled, and he raised his head to try spotting Kotodori. Might as well keep her in sight while she pressed her advantage, right? Surprisingly, things didn't go nearly as expected. Despite the opening that he presented her with, she appeared to be moving away from both of her most immediate opponents. Relief mixed with frustration upon the realization that even though he'd be given enough time to pacify his tendrils, he'd be losing out on an opportunity to make things difficult for the assassin. She appeared to be retreating, and that indicated that she'd been affected in some way by his assault. Regardless of what he wanted, though, making a reckless charge at such a pivotal moment would result in more harm than good. Swallowing his urge to capitalize on the opening, Takeda instead focused on his own control while keeping tabs on his allies' condition.

Breathe, Takeda. Breathe.

Despite his months of training, it wasn't feasible for him to change his wiring when it came to circumstances like that. The instantaneous decision to defend himself with his tendrils was ingrained in him since he was a child. Even if it was detrimental for him to continue doing that, it couldn't be helped. It would take years for something like that to change, and Takeda dreaded the thought of bearing the forbidden seal for that long.

Even now, I still don't have all my freedom. All I can do is get this under control ASAP.

At first, when Takeda felt the ground tremble, his body tensed again, and his breath stopped in its tracks. He prepared to either take another blow or dive in for another's sake. Getting the opportunity to whack at the assassin some more was one thing, but he'd sacrifice all of his control if it meant making sure nobody else wound up dead. Instead of what he anticipated, a wave of relief washed over him rather than one of dread. A sudden attack was launched on Kotodori, interrupting her retreat in a sudden, collaborative effort that was likely the result of the Kiritani's extensive planning. What started as a mokuton cage in the center of the room expanded throughout it as the assassin did her best to avoid capture. Despite her impressive mobility, however, his prior assault proved to be a hindrance, and his eyes scarcely caught the moment she faltered because of her wounded leg. Just as he saw that, however, he also perceived her wind-up. A chill ran down his spine, and he felt something pull from within when he stood up, but it didn't stop him from playing his part.

The only thing that stopped him from charging in with shunshin was the wave of familiar chakra washing over him and a voice that put his troubled mind at ease. Maybe it did so a bit too easily, but the feeling of her chakra, even without any sensory capabilities, reassured him. The momentum hit a distinct turn, and Kotodori couldn't bring it back. Her attempt was swatted aside by the shield that protected Nadeshiko, and with everyone's wounds quickly healing, the Kiritani group held a strong upper hand. The seals being wound through the duet of Kagerou and another were far out of Takeda's depth, so he focused on his own condition instead. The tendrils were receding, and frost no longer suppressed any of his movements. A quick scan of his surroundings let him know that his allies were also back in good condition.

Regardless of the small victories, however, the battle was still at hand. A changing of the tide meant little when the storm still raged on. Kotodori raised her voice in a song of her own, and he was surprised to see her gaze locking with his. Narrowing his eyes in response, the jiongu shifted his stance to one that only presented one side of his body to see. His visible hand was raised in a one-handed seal in front of him, while the other remained out of view. Given his refound control, he pierced the ground behind him with his tendrils and let them get to work. If she tried switching places with him again to put him in her cage, he had something for that.

The actual outcome wasn't one that he fully anticipated, but it didn't land far from the initial expectation. Following the room being swallowed by her pitch-black void, he noticed that strange pull once more. Something severed, and with that, he gave in to her intended act. He wasn't quite in her barrier, but he was much closer to it. Definitely far within the first. If she thought she could escape, the smartest idea would be to either send him somewhere far away or switch places if she could. Instead, she kept him close, and that brought one possiblity to mind. Even though he knew he should have acted with that in mind, seeing her so close, idle and smiling, brought something else to mind. Much like she did earlier, he started to put pieces together, thinking of all the things he didn't directly focus on when he attacked her. Her singing, mentions of mentorship, the involvement of the Kiritani, and the familiarity of her features easily brought something to mind once they all came together, but what he said didn't line up with any of that.

"How do you manage to wade knee-deep through the blood you've spilled with that smile on your face? Do you just enjoy the killing?" He asked earnestly, taking the opportunity to piece together what he couldn't on his own. He'd be a hypocrite to criticize anyone for killing more than their fair share of people, but even at the brink of his sanity, he couldn't imagine taking life with such nonchalance. He'd felt vindicated before, maybe, but never content or happy with what he'd done, and it always came by to haunt him later. "Or is this some gracious act of parenting that I just can't wrap my head around?

show spoilerhide spoiler
HeadlessKoko

 

[HeadlessKoko]

The songs continued through Takeda's question, both the duet Kagerou participated in and Kotodori's opposing solo. However, after but a few moments, Kotodori dropped mid-note and smiled quietly at Takeda. Despite the sudden end, it did not feel as if she had stopped for Takeda. No, had that been the case, then she would have stopped sooner, right? Then, in that case, it appeared she had successfully completed whatever it was she had sung for.

She had kept her eyes on him since she had started singing, and now, while she enjoyed the melody sung by her grown daughter, she continued to watch him, break down each and every detail he presented with severe methodical scrutiny. Disguised with an ambiguous smile, the caged lyre bird delivered her honest answer, "Enjoy it? No, not at all. I am merely practiced in it." Her eyelids half-closed, and between the veil of long lashes, the black widow scrutinized the young man before her.

All was quiet within the cage. Not even a call to discover if Takeda remained within or if he was in good condition. It was eerie. The silence was not the merely the lack of voices or attempts to retrieve Takeda. It was an impermeable silence, the kind that felt like a wall between the room Takeda and Kyoka were imprisoned within and the rest of the world. All that leaked in was the murmured duet between Kagerou's familiar voice and an unfamiliar male's.

Judging from what he said last, it seemed as if he already knew who she was, so Kyoka bothered not to waste any breath on introducing herself. Her time was short, after all. It wouldn't take her long to finish the job here. Therefore, in lieu of an actual introduction, she merely demonstrated in a voice that spun melodic much like the speaker's daughter's words, "Kikuchi Takeda. It has been quite some time since we have seen each other, and yet I see you retain your disregard for respect towards your seniors. I daresay, I hold to my opinion that you are better off keeping your distance from my daughter. She is like fire, and you oil." Her speech wound itself in roundabout shapes, every word a test in and of itself. Under that gaze, even the lack of a reaction could be dissolved into a weakness to use against her conversation partner, and casual hostility of such scrutiny had no attempts made to hide it in this particular instance. "Leave. Kagerou will be in no state to bear yet another's emotional burdens tonight."

Closing her eyes now, Kyoka gracefully lowered herself to the floor and relaxed, sitting with her legs tucked to the side and hands primly resting in her lap. Had it not been for the torn floor and darkening spots of blood that dotted the floor in the pressing light of the seal inscriptions, one would not have thought that the woman so serenely sitting in the center of the seal formation, as if what caged her was actually her shield, was the perpetrator of this destruction.

In the meantime, outside had completely devolved into a chaos of Kyoka's design. What was initially a simple matter of rearranging the seal formula to permit re-entry to finish the capture process was quickly turned upon its head with one report from Kin.

"What did you just say, Kin?" Murasaki's voice, so calm that only family could hear the strain of incredulousness tinting her voice.

Methodically, Kin repeated what he had just said, word for word, "Kotodori has engaged Nori with yet unidentified allies."

The question of how"?" was naturally the first to leap to Murasaki's tongue, but "how" wouldn't solve anything. No matter how it had happened or how Kotodori knew, it had to be stopped but...

"Those must be her puppets. If we stop Kotodori-sensei here, then we'll stop her there."

"We don't know if the one inside might be the puppet. In that case, we'd just be wasting time waiting for this seal to be loosened and opened."

"But if the one inside is real, and the ones fighting that Hyouton user now are puppets, or even worse, human puppets, then we'd be at a steep disadvantage. We can't operate at full power in that hazardous attack environment."

"We rendezvous with the aid we requested and help them hold the line of protection. If they are puppets, we dispose of them. If we find the real Kyoka is among them, then we relay the information so we can adjust plans decisively and accordingly. The client's life comes first."

"Understood."

"Copy that."


[50 sentences]

• Kiritani Hidden Technique: Dance of ____ X [Learned]
Type: Korabo
Element: Varies
A technique modified by this korabo changes from its original shape into a controlled burst centered on the user that can spread in all directions up to the maximum range allowed for the rank of the base technique.
E: 10 m
D: 20 m
C: 30 m
B: 40 m
A: 50 m
S: 100 m
S+: 200 m
This is a technique meant to korabo with another technique, known as the base technique, and so it has skewed values. When used alone, it acts as a rank weaker an simply releases a burst of concussive chakra at the ranges prescribed above. When koraboed with another technique, it acts as a rank higher. The element/type of this korabo for the purpose of chakra reductions and the like is determined by the base technique.

▰ Angel's Mystical Hand Technique [ Tenshi no Shousen Jutsu ] | Rank S+ | Iryojutsu | Spiritual
Conceptualized by and developed on the research done by the demon of the hospital and Kagerou's mentor, Dr. Angel, Angel's Mystical Hands is really a technique that was, in all ways just shy of traditional instruction, taught to Kagerou by a non-shinobi. The pinnacle of the healing hands technique line, Tenshi no Shousen Jutsu can regenerate limbs and organs within milliseconds, even when nothing is left. The body is rebuilt using the blueprint found in the DNA code of cells from other parts of the same body, recreating a perfectly healthy and ready to use replacement that even retains any bloodline properties the original had. Any stamina or chakra lost through any tier of status, trauma included, is automatically restored to the patient. If this technique is used on a target which has not endured trauma then they gain stamina and chakra equal to the cost of this technique. If this technique is used on oneself then the stamina and chakra gain is only equal to the rank of the technique.

▰ Kiritani Hidden Technique: Medical Clone | Rank B | Iryojutsu | Spiritual
The Medical clone requires the chakra control and intimacy with the human body unique to practitioners of iryojutsu. By linking the clone-s chakra network with the user's upon creation, the medical clone is able to share the user's energy resources and can continue to sustain itself even when the user is no longer conscious. When the user is conscious, the clone disappears after being hit with a B-rank attack or lower. When the user is unconscious, the clone is easier to deal with, disappearing upon being hit by a C-rank attack or lower. The stability of this clone's makeup limits it to using medical techniques that the user knows and prevents it from creating clones itself. Like a shadow clone, the clone relays information to the original when it is dispersed.

▰ Grand Ballroom [ Gurandobōrurūmu ] | Rank S
The user spills void chakra from their bodies at a rapid rate, this void chakra soaks into everything it touches in a two-foot radius until the landscape is permanently changed into a black mass of Kūton chakra. While within this field the landscape itself is considered a Kūton jutsu that allows one to change the origin point of any Kūton based jutsu to now come from any point the void covers. Lasts for [ 12 ] of the user's posts.

Tenshuyami

 

[Tenshuyami]

「 C K R A : :x3,540 // 5,000 」 tab 「 S T M : :x4,120 // 5,000 」 tab 「 S E A L : :x「 Dormant 」 400/400 」 tab 「 両 : :x107,300 」
tab 「 Monsoon 」 tab 「 S+ 」 tab 「 Jiongu 」 tab 「 Nin / Tai / Medic」 tab 「 Theme: Tanada 」

"Hm..." He didn't say much of anything in response to her suggestion regarding Kagerou. Not immediately, at least. Instead, he was focused solely on her movements, scarlet eyes not giving an inch of leeway to her. Despite any discussions or the people that such talks regarded, Takeda was on a mission. Far before he considered her the mother of a woman he cared about, he had her marked down as the largest threat on his task. Once she settled firmly into her relaxed position, Takeda finally decided that he could respond to her. "You're quick to speak about disrespect for someone using a name I discarded. If you know the name, you're bound to know why. But that's not really important." He started, clearing that topic quickly before moving on. Takeda didn't know if she called him by that name as an underhanded jab for his initial disrespect or planned on it since the start to throw him off, but knowing the answer wouldn't help him anyway.

If she didn't respond to him, silence would be allowed to linger for a few moments until his voice severed it without preamble. "Maybe you're her mother before her target, but that's not the case for me. Emotional burdens. Ties that bind. None of those have any place in the hunting grounds of an assassin. I'm not going to bog her down, and I won't hold back on account of her feelings either. If it's needed, I'll put everything I have into killing you tonight." He could probably be considered a bit overzealous for making such a bold declaration, but there were no cracks in his conviction when he coldly declared those words. A passing sigh escaped him after, a subtle gesture that showed his displeasure at either the prospect of being stuck with someone like her for a while or that he was left alone with no communication in general.

"Either way..." He started, directing a burning glare towards her closed eyes, putting no filter on his distaste towards Kyoka for a moment. "You're better off keeping your opinions to yourself. We don't mesh well, Kotodori." Yet another opportunity to show her that he saw her as a target instead of his friend's mother. So long as she understood that and stopped trying to bring Kagerou into the conversation, maybe their brief time together could be somewhat tolerable for the jiongu.


show spoilerhide spoiler
HeadlessKoko

 

[HeadlessKoko]

What did those pitch black eyes see when they opened to heed the burning glare boring into her? And what did the mind behind the graceful smile do with that information? The depths of her mind worked more like her daughter's than one could have ever guessed, or rather, the daughter's mind worked uncannily similar to the mother's. However, did the boy before her truly even know enough of Kagerou to wager a guess?

"How adamant you are in declaring your sense of duty," she commented, dropping the haikus of her previous performance. Fear and unsettlement were ineffective here. Giving a small frame of her thoughts, but nothing more to bring it into context, give rhyme, reason, or motive for why she would say such a thing, she enticed with the bare minimum. Did she think Takeda was bluffing? Did she look down on him? Did she say this precisely to do what he told her not to? Did she want to see him defend himself, make a mistake, and then flip him onto his back like a helpless turtle? Was this all simply to observe his reaction? Or, even more simply, was there no meaning at all behind this statement and it was all a red herring?

Those black wells cast down to her fingers, before clasped in her lap but now spread in front of her, raised slightly to pluck and strum the air as if she played a zither. She continued to opine, "Indeed, perhaps it is as you insist and what I once knew is now wrong. Perhaps that kindness within you has grown stale like the Kikuchi and been abandoned. To which, I congratulate you for your splendid growth as a shinobi."

"Indeed, to serve to one's utmost, emotions have no place on the field, nor family, nor friends. Such things are important, but for there to be heroes who can live by such tenets and shine light upon this world, the darkness that is willing to sacrifice for such light is also necessary. Rather than for the many to share such burden and watch their fellows besides them collapse under the strain, it is better if a few endured it all, grew stronger beneath the weight and learned to live an enduring life."

"Therefore, as a mother, I am glad you are here to take the burden of this one's life off of my daughter's hand. To find one who will rip and tear the hopes and wishes she's clutched close to her heart for this past decade is reassuring. A splendid friend indeed. After all, it is inevitable that she will be drowned in guilt. If you do it in her stead, mayhaps she will feel less guilt at the cost of no longer being able to meet your eyes. Indeed, come, kill me if you think you are able."

Her words came never ending, yet for all she spilled and with all apparent honesty she spilled them with, Takeda with his experience would be unable to shake off the feeling that there was something hollow to what she said. As if every word fell empty and without weight, even those that most certainly must have meant something important. When every statement sounded as if it was a lie, but only just barely enough that it didn't feel like such mockery could be intentional, the truth became obscured.

And what was more, as strains never ending ought to be, there appeared no signs of stopping. For as long as Takeda stood without interrupting her, Kyoka seemed content to continue talking.

And for every second she continued talking, Kagerou's voice rang through the interwoven barrier.

[32 sentences]

x x x

Tenshuyami

 

[Tenshuyami]

「 C K R A : :x3,540 // 5,000 」 tab 「 S T M : :x4,120 // 5,000 」 tab 「 S E A L : :x「 Dormant 」 400/400 」 tab 「 両 : :x107,300 」
tab 「 Monsoon 」 tab 「 S+ 」 tab 「 Jiongu 」 tab 「 Nin / Tai / Medic」 tab 「 Theme: Tanada 」

Takeda decided to sit down on the floor with his back against the wooden structure during the spiel. While he would have preferred silence, he was somehow able to hold his attention onto the soft singing chiming in from somewhere outside. It couldn't drown out Kyoka's tangent completely, but it was an escape from having to pay any direct attention to it. "Trauma isn't some heirloom you need to pass down." It was the only response to leave him after some untold amount of minutes that passed within the dark expanse. He wasn't sure how long he sat there trying to ignore her go on, but it was enough to make him want to do anything else. Takeda only bothered looking over his shoulder when he spoke to ensure that she wasn't scheming anything behind his back. He didn't expect to read anything from her expressions. Whereas there was plenty of humanity left in the red eyes he enjoyed gazing back at, there weren't any cracks to be found in Kyoka's frozen smile. "Some Shinobi are born and raised to carry that weight. To grit their teeth and sacrifice all the light they have left to make the world a better place for others. Your daughter's managed to find a way to help people in her way. One that's earned her a title many medical shinobi go their entire lives without seeing—all without having to take a single life. Tch." He exhaled sharply, letting the breath in slowly after that to avoid just snapping at her when he started speaking again.

"It sounds to me like you're only a hypocrite who's burning out. You're not enduring anything. You're rotten from head to toe, and the only good thing about you is your daughter, but you'll see that tainted too in your blood before you walk out the door. It doesn't even have to be on her hands so long as she sees it. I don't care what you say to me. You'll never convince anyone that you're justified in that." Yet despite all those words, Takeda was sure Kotodori knew he wouldn't take her life. Not if she wasn't posing a more direct threat, at least. The assassin was able to keep her easygoing demeanor and spout such self-assured lines because Kagerou was a romantic, smiling, good-natured medical Kunoichi. The Jiongu couldn't spill her mother's blood without it poisoning their friendship beyond repair, and he knew it was because Kagerou thought she could save her.

Yet, even in that hopeless situation, the emotion in Takeda's eyes tempered from anger into something more subdued. Colder. "You know, Kotodori. Speaking of carrying weight, I'm sure there are plenty of sturdy tree limbs in the Land of Water that can hold all of those burdens for you. It's always a reliable option to consider if any motherly love manages to kick back in." With that said, the Jiongu finally turned away for a brief moment to focus chakra, creating a shadow clone of himself with half of his resources. It walked into the darkness and ideally out the room without a word, though the intent was clear: Investigate outside to see what the hold-up was.


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HeadlessKoko

 

[HeadlessKoko]

Deep wells of black shied not from the Jiongu sitting across from her, and just as boldly, fingers gently plucked the strings of the imaginary guqin before the veteran kunoichi. A static smile, even during her silence as Takeda spoke. At last, when he had spoken and she had performed all she needed with her voice, those dead, flawless voids closed. They looked no longer at Takeda. Perhaps, from the beginning, this was all Takeda was worth to her, merely an obstacle to either render obsolete or to use. Perhaps, from this point forth, she no longer wished to risk changing Takeda's mind on her opinion of her daughter. The reason left up to the interpretation of the other who had just wished for the death of this smiling, breathing corpse before him.

Did the sudden chill that ran down his spine come from his mounting suspicions or did the temperature really drop a couple degrees? Or was it because he could hear a seeping wetness in Kagerou's singing? That softest of gurgles at the end and beginning of each phrase. It was a sound far more familiar to him, who once resided in an endless bloody arena, than a sophisticated connoisseur of the arts. As the male voice of the duet ceased to sing, the sound of blood in the song became only clearer in Kagerou's solo performance. She sang until she coughed, the sound wet and painful, and tried to start again only to stop.

Kyoka's fingers stopped plucked only to add the last refrains to her daughter's performance. A chill wind from the east snuck through the wooden walls. The east was where the middle-aged Hyouton, Nori, was stationed, but nary a sound from his fight had penetrated the barriers surrounding this central building until now. With only a moment of peace in the cold for speculation, a cyclone ice and snow tore through the central building in the blink of an eye, hungrily seeking heat to consume all that was warm. The technique homed in on the body heat of the Jiongu and immobilized him with immunity. For one of lesser strength and vitality, crushed and frozen may have been more accurate descriptions. Flame and ice clashing in the distance reflected bright off the sudden snowstorm, turning Takeda's own eyes against him as the white snow filling the building blinded his sights.

Steps soundless and voice carried to all four corners of the building that once was by the whirlwind, Kyoka's voice cut eerily through the clatter and howl of winter's destruction, as clear and pristine as ice. Melodic and lilting, too much and all too suddenly like Kagerou's voice to be but a coincidence, she spoke with motives unknown, "At first, I thought it convenient coincidence that you would so soon have your mind too full with your own matters, but now, I wonder if you perhaps aren't so hopeless. I do hope you will be able to find some time for her, little Takeddy Bear." Thus, finding these familiar winds but a minor inconvenience for a body that felt no cold, she would escape to finish her assignment if Takeda remained unable to impede her path.

[24 sentences]

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Tenshuyami

 

[Tenshuyami]

「 C K R A : :x3,540 // 5,000 」 tab 「 S T M : :x4,120 // 5,000 」 tab 「 S E A L : :x「 Unleashed 」 200/400 」 tab 「 両 : :x107,300 」
tab 「 Monsoon 」 tab 「 S+ 」 tab 「 Jiongu 」 tab 「 Nin / Tai / Medic」 tab 「 Theme: Tanada 」

Why. Why did that damn song have to resonate within the room? Why her voice? It would've been so easy to accomplish his task without a doubt in his mind, but the suffering which infused her song left Takeda on edge. The only reason he didn't act - didn't move - was because she trusted him enough to let him take on Egawa alone earlier. Shouldn't he do the same for her? But what if she needed help? Was some part of her hoping that he'd show up? Was he abandoning her?

No peace followed from the silence which permeated the dark space, for it only presented a more suitable place for his doubts to run rampant. A sharp intake of breath came, then a pointed glare towards Kyoka, a bone-chilling one that didn't reserve any of his emotions anymore. All his doubts and all her pain originated from the woman only a few feet away from him. "You..." He seethed, but the sudden onslaught of ice and snow swallowed the sound of any other words he may have spoken. There was no way he could've predicted it, but a shinobi of his caliber should've had a countermeasure in his pocket. Or maybe he didn't have anything planned to retaliate against such a grand attack? There was nothing in the room to substitute with, and the homing nature of the ambush rendered any shunshin techniques useless. Where would he even go? The frozen storm was assaulting him from all sides. Takeda clutched his chest with his right hand in the brief, fleeting moments before the crash, exhaling slowly. His feet remained planted, and the stillness of his body belied a willingness to escape. Avalanche imminent, with little time to react, all that moved were Takeda's lips, forming words that set the stage for the coming events.

"You deserve this."

The interfering jutsu made direct contact, though Takeda did muster enough chakra to summon a clone - one that Takeda brought into the world simultaneously as another phenomenon took place. The clone rushed out away from everything, making its way towards one of the exits. Its goal was simple enough. Find Kagerou. Help her. Thankfully, the path of ice made the location of the exit quite clear.

Within the room, the ice crashed, only to steadily deplete, swirling into the darkness of the room until there was nothing left. All ice, snow, and debris were gone, including Takeda. The shadowed room remained quiet, but it refused to let its last remaining resident leave. Tendrils shot out from Kyoka's exit, ones darker than the darkened room itself, but they didn't threaten to pull her back in. No, they stabbed along the ground beside her, piercing it before one of them warped and enlarged without prior warning. From it came a monster, one cloaked in black from head to toe, its torso forming from the tendril and lashing out with a point-blank strike that saw a blizzard lashing out at the point of contact - that being the peerless assassin. Blocked or dodged, the rush of ice and snow would still serve to freeze and block some of the paths ahead, making it harder for her to escape.


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HeadlessKoko

 

[HeadlessKoko]

In her calculations, she hadn't expected anyone to catch her in these circumstances, not her daughter, not the shinobi she trained, and of course, such calculations included curse marks activated. Ah... But... It was too late. Unfazed by the monster that stood before her, all of Takeda's spiteful words and heated feelings bouncing off what might have been a brick wall, Kyoka maneuvered as she always did, with elegance and utility. He was not her enemy, not anymore, but it seemed he insisted that he be hers. Unfortunate, but such was how missions operated, full of the unpredictable that needed to be accounted for in one way or another. Kyoka spun from the attack, raising a wall of earth to block the ice and Takeda's field of vision. Both would crack and disintegrate into shards of dirty sleet upon collision, and for once, Takeda would see Kyoka exactly in front of him. Poised on the balls of her feet, she bounced her body ever so subtly in a ready motion. It seemed, she had acknowledged his form worthy of her wariness. Her mouth opened, and even as he rushed at her, she began to sing her own song.

Soft, melodic, a voice too pure for her. Like mother, like daughter, she sang with a voice not quite identical but yet clearly evocative of her daughter's. If he still cared about the objective in his current state, Takeda would find how little keeping Kyoka restrained really meant.

===

Coughing, painful, yet the kneeling girl with hair of brown and eyes of red that wasn't herself smiled, appreciating that she could still feel this pain. That was something to be happy for, she had always felt, that she could endure the pain even when she felt it. It would have been a shame if she had to dull her senses to fulfill her clan's strict requirements of what a shinobi should be able to sacrifice for their village. More coughing, but green light was already shimmering around her throat, trying to heal the damage that it had already been healing, the cramps and tears that had been forming all the while Kagerou sang. She knew already that it would eventually come to this point, over-healing could cause such complications, whether it's minuscule mistakes in the application of chakra building up over time or the body's cells giving out as they're overworked to maintain a halfway decent state.

Now wasn't the time to smile and think through medical theses, however. There were lives on the line and a mission at hand. The coughing stopped as Kagerou healed her throat. Though, the small puddle of blood remained.

She looked around, saw her surroundings were completely empty, and breathed a sigh of relief, the second she had breathed since feeling the weight of Daisuke's head leave her lap, a pulse weakly beating through his body. He had since been moved to a safe place, and the rest of the Mokuton squad had joined to fight Kyoka's newest aid.

Holding a hand up to her neck, Kagerou craned her head up to look into the night sky as she finished healing her torn vocal chords. Every fiber of her being remained on high alert, every sense soaked in all that this pleasant night had to offer. Heat and cold in the distance intermingled into a pleasant temperature. The stars above in this absolute darkness created by her mother shone so brightly. So that she could one day enjoy a night like this with her mother again, Kagerou had to continue fighting.

Her hand dropped lifelessly as her mind shifted back to fighting her own mother. Her head remained raised to take in the glowing moon. She inhaled, and then raised her voice, only to be sent into another coughing fit, doubling over as her just healed throat broke open from the inside again. Had she not used enough chakra to heal it the first time? Her hand raised again to form the seals for iryojutsu once more, and her green chakra manifested around her neck again, but the light flickered faintly, and on closer inspection, one would realize, Kagerou was nearly out of chakra. Not even a tremble in her muscles nor a slump in her shoulders. Not a single drop of sweat nor droop of her eyes. Nonetheless, her chakra flickered as she used it sparingly to heal her own body. There was not much left in her.

[40 sentences]

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Tenshuyami