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[Yomi]

Blood cascaded down Yomi’s back as she sat on her knees with ragged breath on top of one of the faceless statues. Her knees, bruised from the length of time spent on them, were of no importance to the woman as she looked to the sky in contemplation. Is that where Rei sat in all her glory and malevolence, with Michi and Ko at her side? Or was Yomi too lofty in her idea of where her Goddess held dominion? Perhaps she should be looking down for a better idea of where her power derived. She smirked and wondered if Michi was proud of her. To know she finally gathered enough strength to properly sanctify her own body in the eyes of their Goddess, Rei.

She was sure in that, if nothing else. Their loyalty and love knew no limits and her only regret in life was that she did not die with Michi and Ko. Her mission was too great, her mission was to important, to be with them now. She hoped that they would wait a little bit longer for her full ascension to Rei’s Great Table to partake in the feast, instead of being the one who provided the spread. The irony was not lost on Yomi that, as Rei’s chosen, she was the one called upon to suffer the most. Here she was stuck in the mortal realm, after long ago proving her worth. She was so sure of herself that she never thought that she would be deemed too worthy to be fully embraced by her Goddess. To the contrary, Yomi was so steadfast in her commitment to her Goddess that her Goddess could not, in good conscious, bring her to her side. Instead, she granted her more power in order to keep her bound to the earth for as long as necessary. Rei’s cruelty could never be questioned.

What was more, Rei had not come to Yomi in too long of a time. Here, in this great valley, bloodied and naked, she hoped that Rei would accept this holy tribute and come to her. She needed the guidance only Rei could provide her. Her prayers, it seemed, were not enough to hold Rei’s ear and so, she presented herself unbridled, in hopes that her Goddess would reveal some truths to her.

Yomi picked up her rod, the only thing besides her memories, of Michi, she had left. She clutched it firmly and continued her sanctification. The waterfall drowned out the wretched sound of flesh being willfully torn from the woman’s back.

Thwack….
Thwack….
Thwack….

New wounds formed where the old ones had tried to disappear. Wounds that were freshly opened became deeper, exposing her white meat which quickly turned a bright red. Tears streamed down her face, though she was far removed from the physical pain. She wept openly for her Goddess to speak to her once more, to give her a sign of something, anything, to help her along her journey.

Thwack…
Thwack…
Thwack…

 

[Tomomi]

YOU HAVE FOUND THE TURTLE CONTRACT! DO YOU WISH TO ACCEPT OR DECLINE THIS CHALLENGE?​

 

[Yomi]

I accept!

 

[Tomomi]

In the Valley of the End, there had been a lot of traffic that had been keeping the animals of the area on high alert. Seeing as the lands of Fire Country in the past had been set ablaze by the filth known as humans in their so-called war against one another and the killings of many animals of the lands, it was understandable for anyone non-human or even partly-human to be a little concerned with all commotion from this human race. Sure, it was mainly little kids with their parents viewing the breathtaking waterfall or gathering berries or flowers for themselves. However, there was one individual that had gathered the attention of many of the animals of these area especially one in particular which seemed like a fusion of a gemstones and a turtle of this land. Maybe, just maybe, the turtle had been born that way or he was involved in a freak accident which made him become the creature that he was today. But in either case, he had grown significantly to be roughly a foot to two feet long with his height being a respectable three feet. The exact estimates of his gem-like shell had never been recorded by anyone including Lord Daihoho.

Back to the situation on hand though, this turtle's attention had been fixated on this strange individual who was sitting on top of one of the statues in the valley. The little creature wasn't entirely sure what the human being was doing up there but once the whipping begun, the turtle just winced with each hit of the item to the skin that created a loud thwack noise. Of course, the turtle would allow the brutal assaulting of the individual on themself to continue for a little while until it appeared that they weren't going to stop themself until their body either gave up or they ran out of energy. Even an animal knew that if someone continued to do this that the person was going to leave lasting results on their body that could eventually kill them if they weren't careful.

But the turtle wasn't entirely sure of what to do since this person was really high up there and the creature was on ground level situated approximately 50-50 in the water and on the land. However, a thought came to the creature's mind which was to move its shell just enough to have the sun reflect off the shell and try to get the attention of the individual. After all, its shell was a gem which meant it would be shiny in the right light, right? Well, the turtle wasn't entirely sure but that is what was attempted to see if the individual's attention could be grabbed.

 

[Yomi]

A bright light hit shined in Yomi’s peripheral. The woman looked down between her slaps of penance. Something glittered in the distance, but she couldn’t quite make it out. As far as she could tell, it looked like a bunch of gems had washed ashore, and the force of the water kept moving it back and forth. It was quite distracting, pulling her from her prayer. Perhaps it was a sign that today was not the day for Rei to speak to Yomi.

As the Goddess stood up the blood freely dripped down her back. She immediately cast a blessing upon herself to stop the bleeding, yet the wounds were still open and grotesque; A visual representation of the woman’s atonement was much more vital than her bleeding out. For she already knew that Rei would not let her die and it served no purpose except to make her feel better.

Yomi steadily made her way down to the basin, half intrigued by what was shimmered brilliantly enough against the sun to blind her half because she had to go that way to get home. As she approached, she began to make out what it was. Not merely beached gemstones, but, a creature with gems protruding from its back. Did gems litter the bed of the waterfall and this poor turtle had grown this way due to someone’s negligence? The medical chief looked at the turtle from a few paces away, in order not to frighten it, before inching ever so closer to properly examine it. However, she did not touch it, for she did not know it’s temperament. For example, like her own pup, unknown people could lose a hand if they tried to touch him. Granted, he was much bigger and more imposing than this turtle, however, the laws nature regarding the handling of wild animals was still the same.

“Well well, what have we here?” She said to no one in particular, as she surveyed the turtle.

 

[Tomomi]

Well, this was certainly interesting to say the least. The fascinating individual that had been hurting herself and seeming to endure it like some sick masochist was heading down from her location and in the general direction of our little turtle amigo. Of course, he wouldn't move as he was relaxing in the water and watching everything that had occurred with a slight hint of confusion and anguish on his face at her beating herself. However, this situation to not move would not be the ideal situation for the turtle as the woman who was showing everything kept getting closer and closer to him as the sun radiated off her skin. It wouldn't take her long at all to be approximately an arm's length away and just out of reach of being able to snap her fingers in annoyance for being bothered. She even had the audacity to look at him and speak to him; she was confident at least.

Unfortunately for her though, our turtle friend did not seem to be in the best of moods as his emotions had switched from being confused and concerned to annoyed as he wanted to only observe. He didn't want to have to talk to her at all especially after what her kind had done during the Fire Country Civil War. However, he would offer her a response which was something along the lines of this: "I could say the same thing about you, Ma'am. You are up there beating yourself like some deranged, psychotic lunatic while you are naked. Do you not have any decency about others around you? For Lord sake, you could scar the children of the area if they saw your body as they don't know any better! Besides, you couldn't just beat yourself somewhere in private like your own home or some secluded area, no, you did it right out in public for all to see. This is why your kind disgust me, you don't even think about anyone else but yourselves! Filthy human scum..."

Our little friend would then scoot backwards from her to keep his distance from her as he stared at her with his gems on his back glistening in the sun. More of his body would be submerged in the water by this point but those gems would continue to shine bright like a diamond metaphorically. It seemed he was being quite standoffish for now and Yomi would need to figure out what was going on with him or she could merely just shrug it off and go about her day. At this point, it was likely that the turtle seemed to want to be left alone more so than anything else, but it was likely that her little "goddess" wouldn't be having that today. No, no, no.

At the end of the day however, the episode would end with a cliffhanger and the announcer would say: "What would our little naked "goddess" do as a reaction? Find out in the next post of A Turtle, a Goddess, and Shiny Gems!"

 

[Yomi]

So much for her being polite. In all of Yomi's life she had never been spoken to in such a manner. Whether or not it was his opinion was irrelevant. There was no reason for him to be this mean to her when she came to him very respectfully. Every fiber of her being resisted the urge to punt the rude ass beast from here to Water Country, but, she would stay her hand...err foot. Clearly there was something at work here that, since she'd been alive, she had never come across. This was a fascinating creature and it probably held some knowledge that could be useful to her. The woman, intrigued by the fact that it spoke to her, would allow this indignation to slide, for now. However the woman would not let it go without first speaking her mind.

"You speak as though you know what decency should look like when it's obvious you do not. Children are born naked and should not be made to feel 'exposed' if they wanted to walk around free because of everyone else's twisted sense of what modesty should look like. If you want to wear clothes, then do so, but don't make it seem like I have to. Further, we are in Fire Country where we tolerate other's religious practices, no matter if you do not agree with them." She didn't tolerate those who believed in Jashin, but, that was besides the point since Jashin was a trash-ass fraud.

"So are you telling me how I am praying is wrong when my religion dictates that do it out here in this manner?" Yomi was not about to be read for filth by this gem-encrusted reptile because he was intolerant. If he wanted they could go back and forth for hours. However, she would not take any more outright disrespect much longer especially when she initially came off very respectful.

 

[Tomomi]

Unsurprisingly, the gem-encrusted turtle would smirk at her as she responded in retaliation for his earlier comments. He certainly had laid the insults hard on her as he thought back to them, but in his mind, he was absolutely right to question this woman for her actions as her kind had a form of dress code that they followed and she was certainly not abiding by this code. In the end though, there was nobody else really around barring some other creatures of the Valley so her scarring image luckily would not be seen by many, but her bitchy response would be heard for sure. But, our little turtle friend really did not care about her appearance as he was more irritated at her kind for their actions in these lands in the past against one another that indirectly affected his friends, family and loved ones. However, he knew that being bitter towards a newer generation was not morally the correct way of handling it but his grudge would not disappear easily.

But for now, he would just push this grudge to the side as he looked up at the woman and her look would match his easily: annoyance, irritation and maybe anger. However being the bigger individual in this situation, he would clear his throat momentarily and then proceed to talk to her: "Look Ma'am. Your opinion on decency versus mine are different if we follow your kind's ideological thinking of the situation, but I am not going to be here and argue with you for hours as I grow old and closer to dying. So instead I will introduce myself to you. I am Akimasa and I am a follower of Lord Daihoho if you must know. I was just basking in this glorious day when I noticed you above me on that statue naked and then I moved myself just slightly to catch your attention." It appeared that he was trying to ease the tension between them by initiating in small talk and trying to show a more reasonable side to him.

However, that would not last long as he would shift the conversation and a hint of his old ways from earlier would showcase itself. If this naked lass was going to get through the day dealing with this turtle, it would be a damn miracle at best. He would say the following: "My only questions are who are you and what religion do you follow that needs you to abuse yourself to please your deity. It sounds somewhat sickening to me, but we both know that you don't give a damn what I think." After he finished speaking, he would prepare for her verbal insulting to begin once again towards him. He was not worried about her physically striking him as Lord Daihoho would protect him if something occurred more than likely unless he was entirely in the wrong which he knew he wasn't yet.

 

[Tomomi]

This Contract Search is now considered a failure. The searcher did not post within a month of the mod and following the FAQ/Rules in the Contract Blog, the search is officially over. However, you may search again whenever as you started your search in August of this year.​