The morning after was busy. The night before was met without sleep and sunrise was met sooner than later with an excursion to the secret base at the river., Sadayo left her house in the village outskirts to JUEI. The night before was quiet, that is, until the untimely opportunity came into being when Sadayo was alone under a clear sky minding her own. Nights are quiet and without the noise of people they’re perfect to keep to herself and any warm, clear moonlit night was a pleasantry if she could take it. But on that particular night, if Sadayo had not had the brief company of a certain pink chiroptera it was hard to wonder if Sadayo would have noticed Chiba Chio on her own. The little bat voiced its discovery of a “new friend” before it was opting to set off for home.

But this “new friend” was a figure lurking in the darkness. When her cover was blown Chio revealed herself from the brush with her sword drawn. This woman had broken into Sadayo’s backyard at some point but she couldn’t pinpoint when. Her evening of calm flipped dramatically in an instant. The pound of Sadayo’s heartbeat suddenly pulsed in her own ears and her legs felt light. She leapt up from her informal perch on a picnic table. Wide-eyed fear. She was alone facing an intruder.
Thinking of the instance only hours after was surreal. Somewhat. In sunlight things could have gone differently but Chio’s death was certain all the same, right? That’s positive thinking, yes? But how an attempted assassin found her home was far from being forgivable and far from positive thinking.

The walk from work to wherever her destination often led Sadayo for work was nearly not enough to soothe how infuriating it was that so many details have fallen into the wrong hands. Even one, straying detail was one too many. Who knew about her morning routine? Who knew about her preferred route to one destination over the other? How did anyone learn where she and her parents reside? Any average person with a knife to their back might be thought of as paranoid and Sadayo might have been paranoid to some degree. But learning the roots of the why’s and how’s was something she had to learn to approach without disarray, pessimism, and panic. Time, patience, and sometimes a little nudge often had its magic.

From Chio herself, however, Sadayo didn’t waste much on forcing Chio to divulge the details on how she knew where to look. Not from the samurai’s own mouth. At that moment then, Sadayo was on the brink of entering combat at her own house. Chio didn’t waste time. She leapt with a sword drawn and swung. Sadayo’s readiness to dodge instead gave the picnic table the full brunt of a fierce slice. A blade that caught the moon’s glow crashing into a wooden table. In disgust, Chio toppled the hacked table with a kick and stepped finely to face the puppeteer. “For your meddling,” the words Chio spoke still ringing in Sadayo’s head as she recalled the broken, vivid imagery of the fight. “For your meddling in Zaishin affairs. I have been tasked to make sure you pay with our life.” The samurai’s face was somehow vibrant with the hush light of the night with stark shadows aside her nose and chin. In the rush of avoiding injury, it was uncertain for Sadayo to clearly recall when she pulled a puppet into play, but she could certainly recall that her hands were already busy.

Two puppets. Gears whizzing and whirling inside the duo she brought to life. Her own swordsmen Hohoemi and Nirami with the executioner’s firm in the large samurai’s grip. Hohoemi’s head rattled and bobbed with lively taunting turns. “You want to make my waiting worth it with a fight? I heard you’d be easy.” Chio raised her sword aloft before she swung her arm behind, forward, and ran toward the puppets. Hohoemi’s reply came as a lash of his sword toward her as Sadayo pulled the puppet into a forward assault. The segmented blade cackling with electricity. A swing of Hohemi’s sword lit up the yard like a flash bomb.

A metallic pang of blade scraping against blade was a screeching start. Chio’s footwork was fast as she recoiled to avoid a hit thereafter from Nirami’s swing. Chio dodged Sadayo’s swinging advances. The sword-for-hire freed up her arm long for a single swing, like throwing a disc, to launch a zipping flutter of projectiles. Small dark masses whirling and weaving between Hohoemi as he swung for another attack. Chio raised her arm against the puppet’s sword in the moments she had while paper squares fluttered into the shape of long needle shuriken. [1/10 Learning about the puppet] Paper projectiles gliding through Sadayo’s hair and niching her arms amidst an effort to step out of the way. Behind her, Sadayo only had so many feet before she either slipped into the shadow of the workshop building or cornered herself into an exterior wall. The paper creations whizzing back around, rustling against the wind, in an effort to swarm over Sadayo. Paper, flying, fluttering like a mad swarm both smooth and yet stinging with each mark on her arms and hands. Hohoemi couldn’t rightfully remain upright and swing in the proper direction. [2/10 Learning about the puppet]Chio dodged again and managed to inch close enough and kick the laughing doll, all the while Nirami was wildly turned and pulled back to take the defense. That moment was such a blur for Sadayo. Covering her face and trying to find some room to escape was frankly all that mattered. The paper swarm lessened with fluttering shirken failing to the dirt when a heaving crash thundered out.

Two long, shadowed limbs propelling before an equally shadowed form followed suit. In the instance Sadayo could think she nearly had herself believing it some form of the demon fox and Masato had came back from the mountains (although the damage to her own house might have been more severe, actually). But as Sadayo could recover the shadowed mass that was desperately waging war against the samurai with a massive jaw striking and willowy limbs flailing to deny Chio’s attacks became more apparent. The first Tsuchinoko puppet chasing after Chio like a hungry serpent.

Without this intervention from her dad, Sadayo might not have recovered so quickly. The remainder of this encounter was an adrenaline fueled match where Goro Soga gave Sadayo the upper hand of distance through buying her time.
What ultimately did Chio in was Goro, who gave her false hope. “In another life, the Sand called on me to end things quickly and quietly.” His words to Chio after he utilized the twin puppets Kin and Jin in a buried assault. Kin and Jin impaled Chio when they shot up from below in the space between her and Goro. Chio broke free by means of a paper escape but she was sorely weakened. Kin and Jin were treated with a poison of Sadayo’s creation she had locked up, in reserves, in the workshop.

The next thing coming forward into Sadayo’s mind was the finale with Chio bleeding out after escaping Goro’s trap. Bleeding out with a poison in her system wasn’t enough. The sword-for-hire stood with her hand beneath her breast. “A tried and true swor- doesn’t- ie like this.” She groaned and gasped through heaving breaths. Her grip on her blade was struggling to steady as she fought to stand facing Goro and Sadayo. “Ki-l me n-ow. A warri-rs’ death!” Goro’s gruff reply was stale. Not an ounce of remorse in his voice, “gladly.” Beneath the cover of night he turned his wrist as one of his strings tacked onto Chio’s blade from the serpent puppet. Without batting an eye, Goro’s strings turn and thrust the girl’s own sword into her open wound.

Paper and swords: the bare bone details Sadayo had of the woman she came to learn was Chiba Chio. She was smaller, faster, and paid for taking a job that could’ve surmounted a grand incident. Analysis revealed her clients were angry nobodies who wanted to pin a successful assassination on the young Shogun, Musunde, and plummet the nations into chaos again. Unlike with Suestune, Sadayo had requested Chio be converted. She wouldn’t handle the busy work. Dismembering in any fashion for malice and personal gain herself went against her conscience.

Claiming Chio for her own devices was payback for seeking to potentially enable the lives of hundreds to be lost and save hundreds instead with a modified form. Claiming Suetsune, meanwhile, was out of spite in light of his failures to find Sadayo's own Azami to snuff out the child's divine heritage. Her views, still, on utilizing the macabe weapons remain in a dim light. Revolting. Heartless. But invaluable and a key to actually standing a chance to match her title. Chio and Suestune were perfect in their natural form, power, and preserving such should warn challengers of the worst.

In time, Sadayo was crossing the guarded bridge deep within the basin of the Mountain River. Not even half way across and she was greeted by an operative who appeared from leap above. They knelt. "Director, reports are coming back clear for traces of any cohorts of the samurai. You and your family should rest easy. Analysis reviewed she was working alone after entering the country. She passed as a bodyguard to trading merchants." From the previous conflict it was almost safe to have some suspicions about passing samurai. Too bad employing mind readers was a recipe waiting to brew complications and distrust. "I can also report that the completed product was placed in your quarters." The development team provided a detailed outline of her resources. We hope you will be satisfied with the results. Sadayo’s reply was a dry remark of gratitude worn by lack of sleep before she finally progressed into the Intelligence agency.

Inside, passing agents kept to themselves, stopping only to bow to their newly appointed Fire Shadow, acting Director, who still kept an official location of business as if nothing had changed. Inside the Director’s office was a familiar sight of curtains drawn and closed. The silhouette of her desk and chair in front of the wall just as she left it. The aforementioned results await her as a spool of paper defined by a careful inscription of the character for “paper” facing her. Anger building up from the previous night had her feeling eager yet anxious.

With care, Sadayo unpeeled the scroll and listlessly dropped it to the floor. This wasn’t how one should treat new toys but this toy was frankly was guilty of attempting to kill Sadayo just some hours ago. Chio appeared upright. A hat behind her head, swords at her waist, and an empty glare forward. “There. Serves you right. Now the rest of your existence will be to prevent war instead of trying to start it.” Sadayo forced the Chio puppet to glide across the room toward the other wall. There, facing Chio from one side of the room, Sadayo demonstrated full control as her arms slowly swayed and reproduced the act of drawing a sword with Chio [3/10 Learning about the puppet].

Taking control of another bloodline was beginning to be a thrill that overshadowed her modesty. Sadayo scoffed as she manipulated Chio to swing her sword a couple times, “so what? You have a sword and could cut me with some paper.” The puppeteer twisted her hand and bent her fingers as Chio feigned falling on her own sword. “We cleaned you out. Your secrets were practically served up on a silver platter.” After handling Suestune, Sadayo possessed somewhat of a grip on executing things that weren’t innately her own and with a bend of two fingers forced the doll to extend her arm. ”Paper” [4/10 Learning about the puppet].

Sadayo smirked. The surface of Chio’s out-reaching arm quivered until fraying pieces of the puppet began to curl and shutter. For a first try the results of pulling paper were meager like an electric fan barely that only shuttered a punch of sticky notes in a boring breeze. Nothing broke free. Chio was apparently different but alike when it came down to running creations of Ukyo all in the same stroke. [5/10 learning]

With the suestune puppet, chakra (and effort) was generally necessary to spread ink. More effort was necessary to manipulate ink beasts but the tattoo absorption seemed to take care of itself. With the Chio puppet, Sadayo was beginning to find a similar excursion of effort was necessary as if she were directing ink and tattoo beasts into work. With her fingers extended the strings fixated on Chio's arm were trembling. Easing into finding the right degree of efferot, basically, wasn't always the easiest route. There was typically a warning in the back of her mond about how overdoing anything was typically a risk with a connection constantly present. [6/10 learning]

It wasn't just one paper. What was four, five, then became many throbbing floating paper squares came to life. Bit by bit dismantling the puppet's arm in a clean break down literally square by square. "Now bend paper." Fold paper, rather. Like Suetsune, Chio too came with her own praxriced talents. The tattoo artist had a drawing and painting ability (painting familiar images fluidly with a brush an ink was no simple thing, trust me) and last night the samurai shared some skill with origami [7/10 learning].

On the Director’s desk a second gift had been under the scroll. Sadayo freed up a hand long enough to step to one side of the table. She couldn't keep her eyes off the puppet for long. Both posture and arm were bent toward a table lamp until a noisy switch was turned, clicked, and gave the room a warm meager glow. The desk was sufficiently lit. Chio was likewise looking less like a menacing memory even from her distance away. The second gift was a prepared note on new paper with Chio's name. A small booklet, really, prepared by the team who configured the puppet. Up front and ready! There was no wait for an information booklet on a new puppet this time!
Careful scrutiny wasn't spared. Chio slackened like a ragged wanderer ready to collapse as the puppeteer divided herself to open and review the first page. The contents were more like a small, quick reference to briefly occupy the need for a real manual for the complex inner workings. A big book would come later. How kind. Her operatives not only gutted, fabricated the body, and designed mechanisms but writing a whole manual for her. In short, building a puppet wasn't easy. Not even a high maintenance organization could overcome puppet plotting hardships.[8/10]

The paper listed plenty within its first pages but just any old line of print wasn't enough to wiggle the wrinkle out of sadayo's brow as she leaned her attention wholly over the page. Her untethered index finger filing up and down line after line until eyeing:"... a natural affinity of wind and fire." Sadayo exhaled sharply and grinned. With paper in the mix, the two elements sounded a hair's width of being a cursed duo. Paper would just burn up. "The subjects proficiency varies across widely known basics to a collection of techniques possessing the requirements for the following handseals. Memory analysis confirmed…" [9/10 Learning]

Lots of Tiger seals, she thought. Tiger was typically a contrary gesture to the bulk of Sadayo's water repertoire. She paused on a passing thought noting dragon hand seals. They seem to pop up frequently for water techniques. Nonetheless, Sadayo was feeling a tinge of relief among mixed feelings about the agency's findings. Chio was looking like a stark contrast to Suetsune with the big ticket item being the jackpot knowledge in sealing! Sadayo's team managed an outline of intricate inscriptions paved out the likes that was almost like having a personal Lahlil in her pocket. Thrill tickled her again. A lifetime's worth of enacting vengeance was feeling more and more sweet. [10/10]
Human Puppet discovery 10-post requirement met - Chiba Chio is available for puppet good times.

to be continued... maybe...