__ He saw the NCO get decimated by the two mountain crushers he had sent his way. Then every strike he threw out landed squarely on the lieutenant. His flesh was ripped from bone as his hands brutally murdered him. Once the lieutenant collapsed before him he looked down. In the meantime, ash and fire consumed the remaining privates. Shrieks and wails were silenced by these moves. He smelled nothing now but the overwhelming smell of blood and ash, the scents of war. The adrenaline, the smell, and the sight of the corpses overwhelmed him. "This was for justice." He rationalized to himself within a split second before looking towards his comrade, Selina. Suddenly, he heard his Lord Raikage's voice boom out, they had won the battle. He felt glory surge through him, but a sense of loss and guilt tempered it. His heavenly armor and lion fists dissipated as he spoke to her. "Time to go." Their eyes met with a new bond of brotherhood and sisterhood forged in war. He then began his march towards the main town for additional orders.
_______________ ≎Out Of Context≎ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ EXIT
__ Selina landed among the dead and the corpses. So this was the price of war. Her mind recalled the onslaught she saw in Saizen. Her heart cried out in pain that day. Now she stood along the deceased again, but she was calmed. Selina's awakened formed dissolved into pink rose petals as her normal form returned to sight. When Kenshin was ready to leave, she turned to him and shook her head. "We shouldn't leave yet." She called out. She knew that he was in charge, and she preferred that. Kenshin was strong, and his emotions were in check. However, she knew that what they did needed to be balanced with something. "We should bury them. These people may have been against us, but they weren't evil." She explained. She hoped Kenshin would be responsive to this line of thought. If he wasn't, then she would have to bury them alone.
__ Kenshin stopped walking when Selina spoke up. He did not turn around because he did not need to in order to see her. Her suggestion was infuriating to him and he felt himself boil and writhe with rage. "No! We have orders to go to the town right now!" He turned around in anger as he felt his composure completely snap. His deep voice boomed out in the empty farmland directed right at Selina. Killing multiple men, the smell of blood and ash, guilt for rebellion, it was all too much for him to handle. Now Selina was asking him to ignore his directives from his leader, the only strand of law and order he had left to cling to. Those orders and a man to follow were the only pieces of his ideology that remained in the midst of revolution, war, and chaos. "These men wear the standard of those who murdered the children who live in Seizan. Leave them for the buzzards." His voice stopped shaking and regained its calm in this instance. "You will follow me now to answer our Lord Raikage's call or there will be consequences." He spoke with sternness but also desperation to just end this war quickly and reestablish law and society.
__ Selina shook the moment Kenshin shouted. The flare of anger within him startled her. Nevertheless, she planted herself like a tree as she listened to Kenshin list off the reasons why they should just leave, as well as the consequences of challenging the orders. "You're sad, I know you are." She said gently. Her eyes trailed to the ground. "From your emotions, you're someone who knows how to turn their sadness into anger. I can feel it, you know." She said. Selina knew that she never told Kenshin about her bloodline's power of empathy. She figured that he would be confused. "That's one of my powers, to know what others are feeling. That's one of the reasons why I... why I..." Her voice trailed off. "Why I shut down back in Saizen. Everyone was so sad. Everyone hurt that day. We were all not ready to see all of those people who died. All those children..." Tears formed in her eyes. She moved beyond the pain, but not the sorrow. "This is the right thing to do. We are the ones who have to end the fighting once and for all so that no one else has to die." She said resolved. Her tearful eyes focused on Kenshin. "But, we also have to be better than them. Not just because being better than them proves we're doing the right thing. But because, we owe it to the people who were slain. We were the ones who were there to see the massacre. We know how their bodies were treated. It is for that reason that we have to be better. We have to let them know that the people who are avenging them are better than the people who killed them. That's how we make this world better." Selina had these words within her the moment she was ready to come back to the combat. She knew that this kind of situation would arise. When they were within Saizen, Selina sensed the entirety of Kenshin's raw emotions. She was so overwhelmed back then that she was incapable of doing anything except cry. Now that she was resolved, however, she had to try to do the right thing.
__ Kenshin listened to Selina's plight on this issue of burying with dignity and being more upstanding than the enemy. "She can read my emotions?" This was a confusing power to him and he did not understand what the utility of what that could possibly be. Reading emotions offered no help in combat, although it was obvious to him that Selina was more than capable of handling herself with the techniques she used in battle moments ago. He listened to her words which calmed him and struck a chord with him emotionally, although he would deny it aloud. He then grumbled out his next words, almost under his breath between clenched teeth. "Fine. We don't want their rotting corpses sullying good Lightning Country farmland or spreading disease." Kosei also figured that burying the dead after a battle was a part of the duty of the victorious side. He then felt shame for acting in an irrational way and that his superior would want them to handle the dead in a sanitary way. "They're going in a mass grave, we don't have time for anything else before we have to report back." This action was Kenshin's compromise and it was non-negotiable, this is war after all.
Kenshin found a shovel in their UHV battle supply crate that came with the battalion. He found an appropriate spot and spent some time shoveling the dirt out of the way and created a properly deep trench or pit of sorts. He then dragged the bodies and dumped them unceremoniously in a pile of corpses. There was a kind of intimacy in burying these people that Kenshin was profoundly uncomfortable with. He then used the shovel to toss dirt over them. As he was doing so he cocked his head back and shouted towards Selina. "Do some scavaging, see if you can find anything over there we can use. Like technology or supplies." He thought that Shiro would be pleased if they could find something useful. After several more minutes, the dirt covered the mass grave and he used the shovel to flatten out the earth on top of them. It was now a perfectly sanitary and well-treated mass gravesite that left the arable soil still usable. He then dropped the shovel and returned to Selina. "It's done. Well done for advising to be good stewards of our land and country." Even the stubborn Kenshin had to give Selina credit for that. "Ready to move out?" He then asked plainly.
__ Selina smiled when Kenshin agreed. She sensed the flicker of uncertainty within him. He was a good man at his core. Selina nodded with the decision of a mass grave, and the two went to work. Although she did not shovel as swiftly as Kenshin did, she was no slouch either. She poured everything she had. Unfortunately, she did tire easily. The combat took a lot out of her emotionally. It was the first time she had ever used such frightening power. Thankfully Kenshin seemed to take mercy upon her as he asked for her to search for something which may be useful. With a nod and a smile Selina complied.
She searched diligently for something of use. Selina was sure there had to be something. When the destruction rained down, a lot of the equipment was destroyed in the process. Nearly all of their communication technique were heaps of scraps. However, Selina did find something among the rubble which appeared shiny. She bent down and cleared off a gleaming red device. It pulsed a peculiar color as she looked down and hesitantly touched it. When there was no pain, she went to pick it up. The object was heavy within her grasp, and she hurried to Kenshin to see how he completed the task.
Kenshin had just finished when Selina approached. His heart seemed more at peace than it did prior. She felt like it was good for him to do this. He was someone who had to hold onto his resolve, but moments like this seemed to let him breathe. She then smiled widely when she received a compliment. "Thank you Officer Kosei!" She said as she used one hand to make a peace sign. She almost lost balance of the object in her hand, however, which caused her to stumble for a bit before she snatched the object midair with both hands. "Check out what I found! It's heavy, shiny, and it makes a pretty beep. There's no way that it's not important." She said excitedly. Unfortunately Selina had no guarantee way to know what was actually useable, since she had never studied UHV technology. But she hoped to be of help, since she really wanted to be able to meet Kenshin halfway.
__ Now that the bodies were disposed of he waited for Selina to approach him. She seemed to be porting a heavy device and he was a bit surprised that she fund anything of use among the rubble. At least she managed to find some technology in that pile of dirt and blood, although he could not recognize it. The soldier was far from well-versed in UHV technology. He watched her nearly fumble with the device in her hands before listening to her explanation. "Hmm, hopefully it's not a bomb. Maybe the Lord Raikage will be able to identify it and use it." He analyzed it for a few moments and considered taking it off Selina's hands, but decided against it. She was the soldier who found it so it was her duty to carry it. "Time to move out. We're going to rendezvous with the others." He turned around and began his march to answer his leader's summons.
_______________ ≎Out Of Context≎ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ EXIT
Nothing is ever just black and white. {Heritage Rounds Remaining: 1}
A rift would open itself somewhere. A place somewhere familiar. He couldn't return to the start of it all. After all what he considered 'new' Kumogakure stood where the old one was and was swarming with no doubt several people who he could only presume would see him burnt at the stake. None of that mattered though. He'd settle for the next best thing. Seizan. The place where the battle for the land of lightening and the village took place. His first experience of being an actual 'soldier' and not someone who ran the occasional errand. The place where he found himself committing to the responsibilities of a Shinobi blindly and ignorantly. As he stepped out of the gateway to isekai-junsei and back into reality his neon skin would become pale once more and his blood would cease its abyssal boil. He was miles upon miles away from Arashi now and so long as his outfit continued to obscure his identity if he did happen to run into any unknowns out in the open they'd be confused to a varying degree.
He would take a deep breathe. Take in the scenery. Simple people. Doing simple things in the distance. Farming rice. Without a care in the world. Likely the only thing on their minds was feeding the family and living modest. Of course despite reconstruction there were still signs of old battlements. Debris from a what felt like a bygone age now covered in moss and vines. Approaching one of these structures the former Arashikage would sit. As he regained his bearings he'd only be met with ear splitting headache. He'd pinch the bridge of his nose. If growing used to losing your limbs gave you anything it was a tolerance for pain. Still now alone with his thoughts, the cue known as kingfisher almost being used as a cane to keep an old man steady. He began to recount his thoughts.
Only when doing so did he start to feel a pain in his chest. Almost instinctively he'd defer to the book in his possession. The abyssal script. What could be at this point his bible...but as if in a moment of clarity he'd let go of it as if in fear dropping it on the ground as if it were a hot potato and tossing it aside. As it thwumped into the cobblestone wall dressed in ivy it simply plopped on the ground as any other book would. His heart racing his head pounding and voices that seemed to echo in the back of his skull plagued him. Then. There was silence. One deep breathe later and an accusatory look at the grimoire did Toso stand pick it back up and then re-seal it into the confine of his attire.
"The safest thing for the village..is that I stay as far away from it as possible. bloop. Emotional wounds will heal...lives cannot be brought back...at least..not anymore." Toso would recount the project he had done with Kagerou to create a pseudo-immortality. Now that the Rinnegan was no more he believed that so to was Kagerou's ability to bring back the dead. Still. The dead should rest in peace. For only they were truly at peace. The more Toso thought about how he had abandoned everything the emptier he felt. He would take note of a nearby broken sword...he'd walk to it. Stare at his own reflection in the crusted metal, distorted, malformed, but he felt it was an accurate depiction. He would bring it to his neck for the moment close his eyes. Then stop and sigh exasperated. "Truly you are the weakest kage bloop." He dropped the sword into the dirt with a resounding thunk.
Needless to say eventually someone spotted the somber fellow dressed a bit 'too nice' for the countryside. An elderly fellow. He seemed blind but aware still. His eyes however were merely just near shut due to the sunlight and no doubt a hard days work. That was when the old man spoke of a job offering. A peddler of antiquities, a man who appreciated the arts, a person with an infectious jubilance. It wasn't long into their conversation that Toso's worries began to dissipate. He'd follow this man to his shop...but not before stopping midway. Toso would remove his glasses. The 'Looking Glass' the remnant of Arashigakure. The thing that connected him to villages infrastructures and systems. He'd take it in his palm then crush it as it fizzled out in chakra and electricity...yet aside this he couldn't help but feel he was forgetting something, something important...or maybe someone..or maybe someones? He recalled faces but their names eluded him and his thoughts as they were too ensorcelled by this old mans charisma. It was here in Seizan Tosokurui Ashikoki would become the sales attendant, bodyguard, and contributor for Horimoto Antiquities additionally serving as a secondary shopfront within Isekai Junsei. His new name. The one he would provide the old man. Shinsei, and thusly to everyone on this farm Shinsei was one of them. Although he was no fool. The man formerly known as Toso concealed his presence from the Oinin with his scholarly prowess and trips to Isekai-Junsei...but he could not hide one thing. The beast that stirred inside him and its slow but sure devolution into becoming everything it wasn't and slowly leaking that into its host. Would he elude his pursuers for days? weeks? or months? Whenever and whenever that day of reckoning would come would be a glimpse into the scars Takumi left behind more than physical.
But sooner rather than later the time would come that tales of a new villages rising, its assumed leader, and promises veiled in potential lies that the shopkeeper and his new assistant would have their curiosities piqued. - exit
• Strength ► 8 →→ [10] Cloak • Speed ► 8 →→ [10] Cloak • Agility ► 8 →→ [10] Cloak • Endurance ► 8 →→ [10] Cloak , [12] Advanced Cloak Activations & Techniques Used • Arms of The Squid • Arms of The Squid Backlash • Isekai-Junsei • Sumi-Efude(Ink Based Chakra Cost) Reduced by ½ to a minimum of 5 • Art of the Bloop: Ink & Brush Based Techniques Cost [10] less to cast • Art of the Bloop: Every other Technique Costs [5] more to cast • Brushing Up: Fuuin Made With a Brush is reduced by [10] otherwise Increased by [5] • Endai Ika [ Far Reaching Squid ]: As if cracking a whip, the Hojo clan member is able to outstretch his arms up to 10 yards (30 Feet). Disciplines •Heritage Keystone: Isekai Junsei •Mystic Hero •Erudite Scholar
Equipment + Style Training Passives Titles Grandmaster: Chef ~ Seafood Specialist Grandmaster: Weaponsmith Grandmaster: Scrollery Grandmaster: Armorsmith Grandmaster: Toxicologist Grandmaster: Pharmacist Grandmaster: Technologist Grandmaster: Enchanter Devotee of [ The Great Old Ones ] Professor [ All-Rounder ] Trivia: φ Hojo Clan Ink stains can only be removed with hot/boiling water φ Particularly dislikes beings stepped on φ Irrational fear of plastic bags. φ 6' 1 ft, 181lbs: A.k.A~Ika-Sensei, Inkwell-san, Devil-Squid Combat Knowledge: φ Brush φ Critical Thinking φ Fluid Martial Arts φ Tentacles φ Senbon φ Scythe φ Chopsticks φ Shield φ Whip φ Long-Staff φ Wire φ Knives φ Short-Staff φ Shuriken φ Spear φ Scissors φ Tonfa φ Pipe φ Umbrella φ Hammer φ Fukusei; Sumi Nise Bunshin : Replication: Fake Clone Ink • 1: Dirt • 2: Marble • 3: Arashikage's Desk • 4: Steel
Reply
Chakra: