Doctor, Doctor [Requesting Medic, ANBU & Fuu]

[Mikaboshi]

]Nao. Otogakure.

Clearly another shinobi institution... but not one that the memories of Katsuo was familiar with. The five largest shinobi vaillges were extremely well known throughout the world; Leaf, Cloud, Sand, Stone and Mist. Leaf had long since been destroyed years ago by a civil war of some kind and if the stories were to be believed then Mist had been frozen over into a bizarre wasteland of ice and death leaving only Cloud, Sand and Stone remaining as the most powerful of shinobi villages. But what of... Otogakure? Their lack of notoriety implied a couple of things but most likely it meant that they were either too small to be considered by the world stage or that they were insidiously good at hiding their presence and actions throughout the world. Escaping the notice of Sunagakure would not have been terribly hard given it's isolationist policies over the last generation and with the fall of Mist and Leaf to the forces of global entropy that left only Cloud and Stone that this Sound Village would have to elude and if they were sufficiently far away... it was not a terribly hard scenario to imagine.

Fuu described Nao as a necromancer and a master of seals. It would not be the first time that Mikaboshi had run afoul of another being with powers over Life and Death. Even he possessed them to some degree. He could not animate the dead but he could take life away or grant it with a brush of his fingers which was a core teaching to those that studied the powers of Death. It was interesting as she explained that Nao's only friend was the Daimyo... as Mikaboshi had believed originally that Fuu served the Daimyo Ishii Shiro directly. She knew little of Nao's proclivity but Mikaboshi found the information she provided sufficient enough to satisfy his question and, true to his word, slightly turned his hand to the side almost imperceptibly which caused Fuu to lower to the ground... but only a handful of centimeters at best. It was clear now that she would not be free of the vengeful ancient's grasp easily.

"Nao. Tell me of his power. You say he is a master of seals and a necromancer. Explain the depth of his mastery to the best of your ability."

Was Nao the true power behind the Daimyo? And what of this Sound Village? It seemed the more answers he received about who pulled the strings behind the Cabal attack on Sunagakure the more questions arose from the effort. The Cabal answered to Daimyo Ishii Shiro who in turn was in league with this dangerous necrosage named Nao that hailed from an previously unknown shinobi village. He would get there in time... but first he needed to understand this necromancer. If Nao were a master of seals... then he would undoubtedly possess a technique which could hold Mikaboshi in stasis. Perhaps indefinitely. He wondered distantly as he waited for Fuu to respond if Spider had been a student of Nao's. Had he killed this necrosage's protege? It would explain a great deal about the seemingly cowardly sealer's depth of knowledge. Perhaps it was not his knowledge after all.

"And what of this Otogakure? Who are they and how are they connected to the Daimyo and the Cabal attack on Sunagakure?"

Mikaboshi was certain he would not need to remind Fuu of the stakes. The appendage wrapped around her throat shifted uncomfortably but did not squeeze any tighter. It served as a constant but unspoken threat that if he wanted to Mikaboshi could twist Fuu's head off at any time and drink her blood like wine if he chose to. Not that he would, he was not some kind of uncultured hemophage, but the fact that he could was likely intimidating enough on it's own.|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://youtu.be/L9SIS6wBxpI?t=27]SCENE BGM[/url]]"]

Mikaboshi - Ancient Rogue

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

Fuu</COLOR><COLOR color="green">
The Oracle​

Her place shifted, only slightly in response to her reply. A cold shiver ran through her. Her feet still hovered above the floor and her arms were still stretched and locked overhead. The shadows about her neck shifted and slithered, pulling her jaw upward and she looked past the Ancient into the dark distance that seemed endless because it in fact was. She knew who and what Mikaboshi was but she did not know where she was. She maintained a stoic expression the best she could and tried to count her breaths. She closed her eyes to block out one abyss only to see another.

"Nao. Tell me of his power. You say he is a master of seals and a necromancer. Explain the depth of his mastery to the best of your ability."

A voice commanded. "He raises the dead and they do as he bids for an indefinite duration. On the living, he can scribe seals. To resurrect, to compel, to trap, to hide, to break and to mend." She listed only what she had seen him do, she was not his pupil and never aspired to be. She yearned for the knowledge he had, it was archaic and forbidden, lost to the annals of time. She had been sealed thrice herself and she had seen Nao's former protegee learn how to hold an Ancient, at least temporarily. "He is also knowledgeable but not a practitioner of Jashinism," she added. Beyond that there was little to know about his power-set, at least from her perspective. She was not going to remind him of previous slights by Nao's former student in case he still had an ax to grind.

"And what of this Otogakure? Who are they and how are they connected to the Daimyo and the Cabal attack on Sunagakure?"

The questioning continued. "I..." she hesitantly started to reply. In truth, there was much to say about the cursed village and its denizens who corrupted their own lands. Even she did not know the whole story, not yet at least. "...know they live in the valley between the northern mountains of Tea Country and practice cursed arts." She stopped, she was choosing her words carefully. "They know the ninja arts but are not approached for services," she was specific in how she phrased that. Unlike the great nations whose borders were well known and their gates easily discovered, the same could not be said of Otogakure. People did not send couriers or make a pilgrimage to their gates if they were in need, in fact they derived little from the surrounding areas and villages although on occasion a traveling Otogakurian would offer their 'services' for a nominal fee. Their existence is better known over the narrow stretch of sea that separated the peninsula from Wind Country, Tea County was in many ways similar to Soons Haven in that the only true measure of power and authority was the all-mighty dollar. They were not comfortable with these resident, sovereign people who took to the mountains. Rumors of atrocities would follow but never substantiated, leaving most to conclude that those stories were the result of rumor-mongering and gossip. This is where things got complicated, the Daimyō's son Susumu was offered to the Dutchess of Tea Country to create a union through marriage much like the daughter of the Daimyō was offered to the Otokage. The easiest way to find peace between a people is through marriage, ironically it is also the fastest way to have claim to power. "I know that the Daimyō's daughter is promised to their Otokage, Susumu was offered but declined to the Dutchess of Tea," she answered his question only partially regarding how the Daimyō was connected to Otogakure and by extension Tea. How the Daimyō, Nao, Sound and Tea were connected to the Cabal was another story entirely. "The Cabal has nothing to do with your troubles, we have been disbanded for over a year and were only there to acquire artifacts."

His questions were answered, perhaps not fully but that would have taken hours. Were they answered honestly - somewhat, yes. She certainly added information that was unnecessary to her narrative but helpful none the less. Information to her was power in a way and while in this situation be had the physical might, she had the information. It might be the only thing that keeps her alive -- forcing him to wonder, making him ask, proving herself a resource much like she had to the Sunans she frequents.

 

[Mikaboshi]

Mikaboshi took in each answer as it can an linked it together with the knowledge he already possessed. It was impossible to say for certain with what he knew that Spider was directly connected to Nao but the implication was steady enough. The knowledge that Spider had used to detain the ancient could not be described as uncommon or rare; it should not have still existed in the modern age except for in the possession of the most learned of scholars and Spider had not also possessed the requisite amount of power which would have been required of an individual to have wrested such secrets from the greedy claws of antiquity. The places in which that old magic would have been unearthed would be dangerous beyond description; filled with hungry shadows of the past, bound demonic creatures and potentially worse.

Keeping in terms with his deal, Mikaboshi shifted his hand and Fuu dropped another almost imperceptible amount of distance closer to the floor as he ruminated on the information he was getting. There was always the possibility that Fuu were simply lying to him but in this situation she had so much more to lose by lying to him than she had to gain. In the waking world the amount of suffering that Mikaboshi could inflict was great... but limited ultimately by the fragility of the human body. No matter how talented he was at bending people eventually they all broke. But that was not the case here in the dark hall of the mental world he'd conjured. He could harm her for as long as he wished and in whatever way he wished. The threat of her "passing out" was an idle one; she would not pass out unless he willed it. She would instead be awake for each and every moment of pain if she chose to antagonize her captor.

The more he learned of this Nao of Otogakure the more Mikaboshi regarded him as a threat. He feared no man but his history with humanity had taught him one very important lesson about his pride; he was not invincible. It was entirely possible that Nao and Spider had recovered some vestiges of the spell which the Wind of Pestilence had once used to imprison him within the Black Blade and that was a threat to him that he could not simply ignore.

Finally Fuu arrived at the end of his present questions and attempted to side-step the question. To that, Mikaboshi scowled behind his mask and with the swiftness of a viper struck Fuu across the cheekbone with the knuckles on the back of his hand. It was a shot across the bow from him to prove that he was serious; there was just enough held back in the strike to ensure that her ability to speak was not impaired and then as promised she lifted into the air... a few centimeters above where she'd begun. Even though he had been true to his word, he'd never stated by how much each answer would affect her distance to the floor.

"Do not think to play language games with me. You spoke truth but not honesty and gambled on whether I would spot the difference between them." Growled Mikaboshi, his voice husky with the threat of impending violence. "I know that the Cabal served the Daimyo before they threw in with Sunagakure and I know that he was the one pulling the strings behind the Cabal's attack on Sand. The mystic you had with you... I never did learn his name before I gutted him ... he wielded knowledge that was far beyond his ken as well as beyond yours which implicates this Nao of Otogakure. You say that he is a confidant of the Daimyo which means that your organization, Otogakure and the Daimyo are or were connected."

"Now, once again. Otogakure. What is their connection to the Daimyo and the Cabal? How did you come to be associated with a sealer armed with a technique capable of sealing an ancient lord?"|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM4SZ6AzfMY]SCENE BGM[/url]]"]

Mikaboshi - Ancient Rogue

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

Fuu</COLOR><COLOR color="green">
The Oracle​

She let out a yell as he backhanded her across the face, her head turned to the side and a welt depicting the length of his claws started to immediately form along the profile of her face as she was lifted skyward once more. The sounds of her cry would not be heard by the guardians outside of the cell, this was not real. This was simply an illusion and nobody was coming to her aide but it felt real. The sound of her own voice and the resounding crack seemed to reverberate off of unseen and distant walls almost mocking her predicament.

"Do not think to play language games with me. You spoke truth but not honesty and gambled on whether I would spot the difference between them."

"I do not know!" she protested but this time it was a lie. A strand of unruly hair fell into her line of vision. "I do not know," she repeated as she defiantly lied once again. She did not have a sense of loyalty, she did not want to answer him.

"I know that the Cabal served the Daimyo before they threw in with Sunagakure and I know that he was the one pulling the strings behind the Cabal's attack on Sand. The mystic you had with you... I never did learn his name before I gutted him ... he wielded knowledge that was far beyond his ken as well as beyond yours which implicates this Nao of Otogakure. You say that he is a confidant of the Daimyo which means that your organization, Otogakure and the Daimyo are or were connected."

He already knew enough. Her heart seemed to pound in her head. If he knew the answers already, then what was he looking for?

"Now, once again. Otogakure. What is their connection to the Daimyo and the Cabal? How did you come to be associated with a sealer armed with a technique capable of sealing an ancient lord?"

"I am the connection," she relented. She was partially correct, but only because she only knew a part of the story. She was an Oracle, the time before her apprenticeship was simply a haze to her. "Nao was an Oracle from Otogakure and he betrayed the Order before I was even born. I apprentice under another master scribe, Mao." She explained further that Nao was quite old, older than what one would consider conventional for a human's lifespan but she did not know how old that was. "You killed Sho, apostle of Nao." The term she chose was important, it was not student, apprentice, underling or a similar term but rather 'apprentice.' When an Oracle was renamed, they often lost their true identity and were given a name that could be said with the utmost brevity because their names and identities were hardly relevant to the word they were only meant to record. "Nao wanted to teach forbidden techniques and worshiped a Dark God," she continued but was incorrect in her assertion. Nao was not a religious man and she knew that he did not worship Jashin although he brought the religious practice to Sora and said as much. If Mikaboshi asked for the name of the Dark God he worshiped she would give him the name 'Shuten-doji.' Shuten-doji was not a God, far from it. He was among the first men and his name was scrubbed from the annals of history when he was exiled for his ideology that eventually led to the 'fatalist method' to bend, alter and twist mankind into something stronger. This name would be unknown to Mikaboshi as this was never a famous man and he was utterly forgettable in the scope of an Ancient's span all those years ago but he had broken the mystery of life and grasped control of it.

"Nao was banished from the Order, they feared the terrible things he might learn. We believe that information is meant to be shared but we... they saw something dark and terrible in his heart." She averted her gaze, not because she was lying but because she was remembering something awful. "I was young... and it was years later when I was taken. I thought I died. I remember dying. The scriptorium was burnt to the ground. My master and myself inside, Nao outside. From the window I saw him summon a rain of fire that set the building and our records ablaze."</B><i></i> She was not immortal, far from it. She was a fresh kill and she was healed that time but the others stayed dead. She did not understand the purpose of her continued life at the time but she would come to understand it eventually. She was meant to grow-up and she was meant to lead the shinobis to the Palace. She was meant to betray her captor. And she played right into their hands. <B>"I was left to my solitude in the Palace of the Glorious Immortal until I was in my late teens." She would admit that she was hurt or abused to the extent she was asked, but again those factors seemed irrelevant. She was again wrong, how she was taken and how she was groomed created the woman she was today. This will to live and this defiance. This desire to be free. None of it was by happenstance. She was conditioned to be exactly what she was, while humans are known for their choice and their open destiny Nao defied this logic by creating a theory separate from even the immortality and the fatalist methods. That fate was created and that there was no choice, only nature for even man. Both fickle indeed, but utterly 'malleable.' I escaped, or so I believed. I joined the Cabal and they used my recollection of artifacts as a resource as they traveled Wind Country seeking fortune and adventure. Eventually I was found and I was dragged back to Sora. I was sealed and I was ordered to serve as a bridge between the Daimyo and the Cabal, I did as I was ordered and the Cabal was more than happy to work under the Daimyo." She left out some details, they were essentially irrelevant to the narrative she gave. That Shouki was her son, which tied her to the Daimyo. That the Orders were indeed alive and well in Sound and that it was through them that she learned of the other forgotten Orders. Of course things went deeper than that, Wind and Sound had been intimately connected for a long time -- we are just the sort to forget such trivialities.

Still, there was a question unanswered. How was Sound tied to the Daimyo?

They were already bound at the time of her birth. The Daimyo, like Nao was much older than he was credited. While Nao's life spanned centuries and Shiro's still amassed to only decades, their lives both were unnatural. "...Nao came to Shiro when Shiro was simply a young Lord. He owned a small parcel of land in the north. I do not know why or how, it was during Nao's exodus."

Had she answered his question to his satisfaction?

 

[Mikaboshi]

Once more Mikaboshi went quiet as he listened to Fuu's response to his interrogation. Humans as a race had a poor habit of betraying their duplicity while in the heat of the moment through their choice of words or the way their body moved. Fuu was a master of such things but she was matched in a contest of words against a creature that had played such games since long before she was born. She had attempted to lead his line of questioning astray and been caught off-guard when he'd revealed that he possessed more information than his questions would otherwise have let on. This created a circumstance in which she could not safely lie to him without gambling her life on it. She simply had no idea what information he did or didn't possess and betting on the idea that Mikaboshi would not ask a question simply to see if she would lie or deceive him was a bad bet when the stakes were as high as losing her head.

The way she described Nao was... admittedly unremarkable given what Mikaboshi already knew about him. She'd already described him as a master of seals and necromancy and it made sense that he would be interested in an order which described itself as "Oracles". The name stood out in Katsuo's memories as a portion of the ancient Sunagakurian Orders but really Katsuo was only truly familiar with the Ranger branch of them.. and even then was far from an expert on the subject. He knew some basic traditions and history but that was all aside from the fact that the Orders had, for the most part, fallen from practice within the last century or so. That meant that Nao was either a strangely long-lived human or was extending his natural life in some manner but that was not a terribly surprising conclusion given his skill set.

The most important conclusion wasn't even in what Fuu said so much as how she said it. She talked of the abuse she'd suffered at the hands of Nao and the Daimyo... of the games they played with her and how she was bound to their whim and will like a puppet on strings. As she talked through the indignities and loss Mikaboshi found that he recognized the way she spoke.

She was speaking a language of bitterness and regret; of loss and captivity.

It was a language that Mikaboshi who bore the epithet "Betrayer" knew well. He was perhaps the one being in all of Wind Country that understood it the best and in Fuu's anger he found a more pressing question than any of the ones he'd asked about Nao and the Daimyo of Wind. Raising his right hand, the shadows twisted around Mikaboshi's hand revealing a set of wicked talons as he stepped intimately close to Fuu and gingerly grasped her chin with his bladed digits to keep her from looking down or away from him. They did not puncture her skin or indeed harm her in any way; his was a grasp with the practiced grace of a lethal predator that was not known for his carelessness. Indeed as he brought his hand up before he'd even touched her the tentacle wrapped about her throat relaxed it's constriction and withdrew into the darkness from whence it came while the appendages that grasped her limbs brought her low enough for Mikaboshi to look her in the eyes. True to his words her feet were not allowed to touch the ground for that would have been the end to his game but she was low enough now where the possibility that he might set her free seemed more likely than ever... while simultaneously the fact his masked visage hovered only inches from her face gave the distinct opposite impression.

"Do you fear death, Little Bird?" He whispered, gray and black shades billowing from beneath his mask like the condensation of warm breath in cold air as his razor-sharp grasp forced her to stare into the coals of red-gold that burned within the depths of his mask that served as his eyes.|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM4SZ6AzfMY]SCENE BGM[/url]]"]

Mikaboshi - Ancient Rogue

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

Fuu</COLOR><COLOR color="green">
The Oracle​

She could feel herself lower, significantly from the space she had ascended when she earned Mikaboshi's annoyance. Still stretched, she could feel the tendrils that had wrapped around her neck loosen and wither into the darkness. She took a deep breath, the first one that she could take since she had been restrained by her Deep Court interrogator. Sharp talons rested on her submental space, she naturally shied away from his touch. All that she could see in front of her was the mask of a man and the hateful glowing embers that burned from beyond the facade. She did not want to look at him but she could not look away.

"Do you fear death, Little Bird?"

"Only what happens immediately before and what happens thereafter,"</B><i></i> she replied without thought. Death itself was simply a biological end, she was not a spiritual person and did not believe in paradise or hell. She saw death as a final chapter for most, just not for her. She knew that Nao had sealed her and that she would not die even if she wanted to. If she could die, she might even look forward to it. The life of a slave or of a toy is not a good life to live. The only thing worse was what awaited her after she died, her autonomy was lacking but at the very least she had it to some extent. A belief that she had a choice, albeit a small one where she could rebel and try to perhaps not make amends but at least seek an outcome on her own terms. The pains of death are also something to avoid, while fear might not be the appropriate word she was well aware of the human body's durability and endurance. Someone can hurt an awful lot before they die.

<B>"Both you and I know... there are terrors far greater than death," she concluded. She was not referring to any one particular threat, she did not need to. Sandworms, Ancients, artifacts of forgotten power, even man -- each terrible and terrifying in their own right.

 

[Mikaboshi]

"There certainly are." Mikaboshi said, his voice heavy with what sounded almost like regret.

That was all Mikaboshi offered to Fuu's statement of terrors greater than death. After all, at the hands of humanity's mercy Mikaboshi had languished for generations within a prison of his own mind which was certainly a fate less preferable than true demise. The ancient had no true way of knowing what came next for beings such as he but certainly he would choose that over the same type of imprisonment he had been forced into once upon a time. She recoiled from his touch but to her credit Fuu did not shy away from him in the way that he'd expected her to.

"Yes, you are very afraid. But not of me, are you?" He asked, the question almost rhetorical as he shifted his claws and forced Fuu to turn her face slightly or else be cut by the edges of his razor-sharp talons. "Fascinating."

Humans feared Mikaboshi out of a primal sense of danger. He was one of the greatest predators to ever have hunted humanity and was certainly the only one of those legendary apex hunters which had survived into the modern era. He was the thing which went bump in the night or at least was one of the things which inspired the stories of those things. Boogeymen, monsters, wraiths... many of those stories could trace their origin to the black wings of Mikaboshi. But Fuu did not suffer that affliction like many did. She knew his reputation, certainly. It was why she had attempted to flee him when their meeting had first begun. It had not been a gut reaction but rather one born out of pragmatism; she'd fled not because he was scary but for another reason. Her first answer could have implied that she feared seeing the afterlife above all else but in the context of her second answer there implied an honesty behind those truths. She wasn't afraid of death, she was afraid of what other consequences death could have for her.

How curious.

"If that is so then tell me; what do you fear? Certainly my threat of taking your life has found some purchase in your heart so if you are not afraid to stand before your Maker and be judged... then what fear is there in death for you?"|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM4SZ6AzfMY]SCENE BGM[/url]]"]

Mikaboshi - Ancient Rogue

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

Fuu
The Oracle​

"There certainly are."

The burdened Ancient Lord replied. The burden on one's past is often terrible but it is never 'too terrible' because that past forges the man or the monster one becomes. Be it a man of myth that would leave a tragic legacy or a valiant hero -- both necessary because you cannot have a protagonist without an antagonist. Fuu was merely a mediator and a spectator gifted with vision of places, lives and possibilities that she would have to sift through in hopes of finding a favorable outcome. There was nothing favorable to be had here, in the dark gloom of a place she did not recognize and there were many things for her to fear.

"Yes, you are very afraid. But not of me, are you?"

Only what he might do.

She did not answer the rhetorical question as her eyes warily scanned the uncanny space. The building was massive and poorly lit, it was as if she was in a living nightmare. She counted her breaths, she found it comforting in a strange way. She was not immune to the pains of death and the trepidation built into every organism to attempt to avoid pain. In fact few were immune to pain and she felt that many of those who professed otherwise merely suffered from a terrible hubris and they bore false witness even to themselves or perhaps were fools - pain and fear are necessary biological safeguards but for some they could be more. Agony and shame were felt by everyone, even her and for good reason, it was fear that kept most people alive. She did not have anyone in her life that she found important -- she never forged those kinds of bonds with other people. In a way it was lonesome but it was also better that way. The closest thing she had to a friend was a person she did not even knew the true face of. It seemed ironic if not sad that those who she might have grown to care for would as soon as see her dead if she was no longer a resource to them. She had no love for the Daimyo or even her own son, she did not miss her former mentor or the childish family she could barely remember. She had no affection for anyone, less the curiosities that keep life interesting and unexpected. A set of sharp talons led her face firmly and forced her gaze forward, back to the glowing depths of those eyes behind the mask. "It is illogical to fear something, only the consequences of meeting that something," she answered with a strained voice.

What was there left to fear? What was there left to keep her alive?​

"Fascinating."

Even death to her would have been a relief in so many ways. She did not believe in eternal damnation or a paradise waiting but she was not too proud or not enough of a liar to claim that the pains of death were something that she was unconcerned with. The burden of disability or the disgrace of being maimed were things to truly fear yes, but she was not a beautiful woman nor was she particularly powerful. Modern medicine was a true marvel as was chakra. She did not place a high value on beauty or aesthetics like others did, but she understood their value in terms of assessing others. How people, herself included silently assess and calculate others in terms of health, durability and intellect. But, no she did not fear either. She would rather avoid it - yes. She understood the overall value and benefit of being utterly average -- she hid well in plain sight, it was how she had survived as long and as well as she had. She could slip into almost any crowd and fade away.

"If that is so then tell me; what do you fear? Certainly my threat of taking your life has found some purchase in your heart so if you are not afraid to stand before your Maker and be judged... then what fear is there in death for you?"

Nobody wants to die," she answered immediately in an attempt to deflect the question but she already knew that it was not going to get her anywhere. She was not actually trying to lie but an omission or distraction was often no better than a blatant lie, but she was having a hard time quantifying her 'fear.' The one thing she had left to fear, beyond pain that was barely a deterrent considering the fact that she goaded Kasha to attack her, was a fate she knew she would one day face and she only sought to delay the inevitable. The arcane seals Nao had placed were either beyond her scope or they were of a nature long forgotten or yet undiscovered by Oracle scribes. She had tried to determine their genesis, determine their making, determine how to break it without suffering a kick back or expediting the effect but she could never find a definitive answer. After a moment of contemplation she answered simply after taking a risk assessment in her mind. "The loss of my autonomy when I die," a truth that she made no effort to hide because it was more a boon than a dark secret. She would nod if she was capable of doing so to her left side in a downward motion. Her hip, well lower abdomen was sealed with a strange seal that only a few could recognize -- namely dark sages. Mikaboshi might recognize the symbol from a different time, it was not a Dark Sage marking but rather an Earth Ancient seal burned into her. It was odd in that it was 'wrong,' the seal was intended for the dead and she was very much alive and the seal was also twisted strangely. It was still recognizable but it was adulterated. "When I die... I will come back." She would affirm the part that Mikaboshi would already suspect but this would be one case where Mikaboshi would know more than an Oracle.

Katsuo saw the effect of this seal, while the seal itself might have been unseen when they destroyed the eye of the maelstrom it was a well know fact that said Sunahoshi was 'missing' and presumed dead a long time ago. His presence and his youth did not line up with the man they saw at the heart of the storm who matched the long-dead heir to a 'T'. The Sunahoshi did not seem to be able or perhaps willing to fight the band of reckless adventurers that sought the source of the diamond maelstrom, at the time it was impossible to determine. "And when I come back my will shall be tethered to Nao," she explained solidifying perhaps a conclusion for the Deep Court Lord that she knew nothing of. This fact was beneficial in its own way, making her death less desirable to her potential enemies or those who saw her as a neutral spectator but even she did not truly understand or grasp the enduring effect of Nao's seal. Not only was will lost but so was aging and decomposition. Was it a side effect? Was it an anticipated reaction? Why would it matter if your undead dolls outlived their natural span as they would outlive their master as well. It made no sense. Still, what Katsuo saw also demonstrated a limited scope in terms of Nao's power-set. The Sunahoshi's actions were limited be it by the will of the once great man or by the ability of Nao to command it but there was nothing to indicate that Nao had the ability to control his dead from afar only 'pre-program' them.

So the question was: did Fuu already have a program in place?​

If there was a program, the Oracle was unaware of it but she had seen in part what happens when the dead rise. How an army of undead without a mind or a will of their own amble off with their unknown ambition and how she never saw any of them return. So yes, there was one thing left to fear. Something more terrible than pain. Something more terrible than loss. Something more terrible than death.

 

[Mikaboshi]

The ramifications of Fuu's words were staggering. She'd already told him that Nao was a self-styled necromancer of sorts but the idea that he could scribe seals which would remotely reactivate dead bodies and then bind them to his will across leagues of distance was very dangerous indeed. But despite his initial thought to dismiss the idea as a concept as a terrible lie perpetuated to frighten the Daimyo's agents, Mikaboshi found that the memories of Katsuo were in support of Fuu's story. He recalled the memory of the battle against the creature which was the source of the Diamond Maelstrom where Katsuo had first fully awakened his reality-bending power. The creature in question undoubtedly wore the visage of Sunahoshi Daisuke, Katsuo's estranged uncle that had wandered off into the desert following the assassination of the last Kazekage Sunahoshi Hiro... and the connection was clear between them. The Diamond Maelstrom had been a storm of sand and fulgurite on a gargantuan scale that made desert travel extremely difficult in the best of circumstances and nearly impossible in the worst of them. It had taken the combined might of Katsuo, Sousuke and two mercenaries which had thrown in with their mission to bring down this "Storm God". Now Fuu was telling Mikaboshi that Nao had been in control of that facsimile of life and that it had not simply been a recreation of Daisuke but rather the animated corpse of the wayward Sunahoshi himself.

The first thing that was immediately clear about this to Mikaboshi was that his enemy was far more capable that he'd been giving them credit for. If Nao and by extension the Daimyo and this Otogakure had the ability to reanimate and control a person who was capable of creating a natural disaster the size and scale of the Diamond Maelstrom then they were significantly more dangerous than he'd originally judged. Prideful as he was, Mikaboshi was also pragmatic and there was no amount of hubris which could cause him to overlook the obvious implications of such a revelation. Suddenly retracting his claws from the edge of Fuu's unbroken skin, Mikaboshi gestured and the appendages holding her hostage lowered her to the floor and allowed her to stand of her own power or rather held her if she could not.

"As promised, I grant your debt to me repaid with the knowledge you have given me." Mikaboshi explained to her, his attention seemingly elsewhere in the moment that the appendages released their grip on her extremities. He did indeed recognize the seal that was burned into her skin; it was similar to the sealing language which had been used to imprison him during the Cabal occupation. It was heavily inspired by the language of ancient kind; words that held power just in their very expression but also changed and bent to a purpose that was not their own. "But before I take my leave of this place, I have an offer for you. I possess something that you desire a great deal and I am curious to know what price you would pay for it."

He then waited for her to ask him what he could possible have that she would want from him before turning once more to regard her, his offer heavy with Faustian temptation.

"Your freedom from Nao."|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM4SZ6AzfMY]SCENE BGM[/url]]"]

Mikaboshi - Ancient Rogue

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

Fuu
The Oracle​

Everyone had logical fears -- the fear of pain, loss and the unknown. They can be translated for specifically in many cases: the fear of drowning, the fear of blood, the fear of torture. While specific they could still be reduced to the same three things. It would be a lie to claim she did not have her apprehensions about such things, even a true masochist has a limit to their endurance. Her fear was of 'loss' because pain was unavoidable at this juncture and she was a woman of logic and had resigned herself to this state of affairs some time ago. She was not afraid of 'not knowing' because she always knew and when there was that impossible moment or circumstance, it was her duty and calling to learn the truth not run from it. For a woman who has lost everything -- her family, her name, a life of normalcy, she still had one thing left (even if it was only partial) and that was her autonomy. She had no hope or even ambition for a normal life with friends and a family, the best she could hope for was a long life rife with memories, experiences and perhaps before she died she would see the world and learn everything the world has to offer. She knew her hope was lofty, impossible in fact, but it was the only dream that made sense to her.

He would see the mark seared into her flesh through the charred, thread-bare shirt she wore. The mark was simple enough, but it had a greater meaning to her and to Tao. There were also words in a runic script, one she only knew the roughest interpretation of that heralded back to the dawn of mankind if not before. It would have an air of familiarity for the Deep Court Lord and indeed also the body of the man Mikaboshi inhabited that certainly was not dead -- although death would have been kinder as he recovered the memories of Daisuke and the terrible maelstrom. Fuu's breaths would be shallow as the thick talon-like claws of the the Ancient lingered perilously close and when they finally retracted she took in a deep pair of breaths. Her feet touched the ground and as her own body weight was progressively returned to her bearing her knees buckled and a dull ache could be felt in her arms. She was capable of standing, albeit exhausted but did better with support.

"As promised, I grant your debt to me repaid with the knowledge you have given me.

As odd as it was to admit, there was a sense of relief. She was outmatched and she knew it. She had an eidetic memory in terms of memories details that anyone else would forget and a skill for writing with photo-realistic skill, but she was not much of a fighter. She understood the concepts of combat, but she was better at hiding than fighting. Spying than intervening.

"But before I take my leave of this place, I have an offer for you. I possess something that you desire a great deal and I am curious to know what price you would pay for it."

"There is nothing that I want," she answered. Well, nothing she wanted that was in fact possible. "Wealth... Power... Love... Fame... I have no want for any of these," she claimed and for the most part it was the truth. There was always a lingering want for acceptance and authority but they were things she never actively sought, perhaps it was not in her nature or perhaps she was conditioned so deeply in her youth that she found such wants irrelevant. "But, I believe you want all these things," Fuu added. It was not meant to be taken as a defiant statement, rather it was the lacking filter on her words as her mind was to to better use as she attempted to understand or rather predict Mikaboshi's offers. "But, I am curious... what is it that you feel I lack?" She understood fully that at this time he had the upper hand, that there was a good chance that she would not survive their encounter and it would be a child's task to force her or anyone in her predicament to agree to terms but that once they were no longer tethered they would disappear into the shadows. Undoubtedly Mikaboshi knew this, so what did he have that would make her willing to risk a return.

"Your freedom from Nao."

Her eyes widened. He could do that? It was impossible but a large part of her hoped. How? There was a bitter taste in her mouth. She did not want to know hope only to lose it. Still, if his words had a ring of truth to them she could not let the opportunity pass. She only had one question -- "how." Not 'what he wanted,' because if it was indeed within his scope she would complete her task whatever it was. She was curious and perhaps hopeful that there might be a chance so her question was -- if so, how would he do it? ...why was it something within his scope of power?

 

[Mikaboshi]

In the face of her potential freedom, Fuu's dispassionate facade crumbled and in the single word that she used to respond to Mikaboshi's declaration he heard a glimmer of hope that she did well in her attempt to hide it. It was perhaps the most honest and genuine thing that he'd heard from her thus far. The information she'd given him was by and large accurate but never honest. She tried to play the game as close to the chest as she could knowing that at any time Mikaboshi could grow tired of the game and decide that he'd rather have supper as opposed to information and Mikaboshi admired her for her conviction in that. Many before her had crumbled in the same situation and become simpering messes which begged for their lives rather than playing the game and Mikaboshi grew terribly bored with that sort of thing at a lethally rapid pace. In the genuine hope that crept into the sound of her voice Fuu answered Mikaboshi's question about what she would pay for her freedom with only that single word of questioning.

Anything. Everything.

"After everything you have seen and know of me..." Mikaboshi loomed imperiously over where the shadows had allowed Fuu to come to rest on the ground before him with his fingers clasped behind his back. "You ask how?"

Mikaboshi unclasped his hands and reached up to his face, plucking the mask from the connectors which held it in place and nudged his hood backwards before tossing the mask away from his person and into the shadows where it disappeared. At that moment Mikaboshi's presence spilled outwards like a crushing wave and all the while he held his stare on Fuu as he transformed. Eerie emerald flames licked at his feet as a pair of gargantuan leathery wings unfurled from the shadows behind him and the chilling presence which normally followed about the ancient lord disappeared, replaced instead with one of warmth as the element of fire in his shadows became the dominant aspect and his armor melted away in favor of taut porcelain skin and black fur. The transformed state of this body -- of Katsuo and Mikaboshi's forms -- very much resembled the lost prince and by extension his family line going all the way back to Primus himself but was also distinctly Mikaboshi as well.

"Your necromancer is powerful but only because he borrows power from an age which is beyond him. His words are my words. His spells are my spells."

Oddly enough the shadows did not cringe or fall back from the flames that burned around Mikaboshi's hands and wings. Billows of flame rushed around his form but they almost seemed to make things darker rather than lighter as flames typically did. To Fuu, he extended one hand with his clawed fingers offered in a rare extension of aid.

"If you take my offer, you will join me in the shadows as a part of my court. You will serve and aid me as I require. And in return I will give to you the freedom you seek."

Such an offer was once in a life time. No, perhaps a hundred life times. But he would need allies if he were going to go into the war which was coming. Sousuke was one thing but the more he discovered about the Daimyo and his plans the more it became apparent that his current power would not be enough for him to stand alone. Sunagakure had it's useful pawns but he needed pieces which could be maneuvered which were not best served as blunt instruments. Roku was powerful but best utilized when pointed at an obstacle which needed to be demolished. Kuro and his house were likewise. Mikaboshi suspected that Fuu knew much more than she was giving him and sought to gain the key to the lock around that knowledge by dangling a carrot before her which was unlike any other. Much as he had forged Tama and made the young man into a hybrid creature, Mikaboshi would do the same with Fuu and bind her to him in an intimate fashion that did not steal her freedom in the way that her binding to Nao did. In return for her loyalty she would likewise gain access to much of the knowledge that Mikaboshi would never have given to another, much less a mortal scholar. She would very likely become the foremost authority on ancients in the Wind Country.

But even given the scale and breadth of the bounty that Mikaboshi offered, he also asked much. What would Fuu say to such a Faustian pact?|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM4SZ6AzfMY]SCENE BGM[/url]]"]

Mikaboshi - Ancient Rogue

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

Fuu</COLOR><COLOR color="green">
The Oracle​

Her stance wavered, braced by the shadows that held her upright. She was exhausted by this point, it was really pure adrenaline that was keeping her going. She was suspicious but also hopeful when she heard those four words she did not think she would ever hear: your freedom from Nao." She was first and foremost a scholar and a student, the world and its many things were hers to learn and while it was a lofty goal she hoped that there would be one day when she knew everything there was to know. That would be a good day, but for now this was a good day even if she was left in the darkness with a devil if such a fiend could grant her liberty.

"After everything you have seen and know of me..."

That was true, but she considered herself well-learned and one of her foci of study was certainly her personal afflictions but her efforts never bore any fruit. The words were too old -- forgotten. The seal was too alien according to the dusty tomes. Her only option was to try to live for as long as she could to delay the inevitable and to hold onto as much of herself in the process as possible.

"You ask how?"

She nodded an affirmation, it was a statement of pride for her.

Mikaboshi then revealed himself, or at least his present form which was an amalgamation of man and Ancient twisted and contorted into someone one would only read about in a book. She had never seen his face and she was undoubtedly curious but even if she was not she would be compelled to look at him all the same. She recognized some of the features from her books, not the characteristics of a Deep Court Lord although he was the first she had ever seen she had seen many drawn in her ancient texts by hands even more skilled than hers but rather traits that were distinctly Sunahoshi. Her eyes widened at what she spied, it was one of those troubling sights that was so terrible that one could not pull their gaze away as they gazed upon a tragedy? A symbiotic union? She had heard rumors about a Sunahoshi heir, the last of Primus' line. She had searched for him, spied him from afar but she had never made contact with him. She saw Naganisa at his side, it was a strange friendship or relationship in her eyes considering how they interacted and she briefly wondered why but their love life was not a part of her directive. He disappeared without a trace or a word, his disappearance would not be silent, however. Naganisa made a ruckus searching for him as the surface was set ablaze by an unknown arsonist although there were some allegations made that the firebug was none other than Mikaboshi. Are you a Sunahoshi? She wondered in silence.

"Your necromancer is powerful but only because he borrows power from an age which is beyond him. His words are my words. His spells are my spells."

He claimed and she believed him, he had no reason to lie and would not benefit from such a deed in a place where he held all the power. His massive talon-like hand was extended within her reach, the fearsome curved blade-like phalanges while threatening where her only way out her only chance at survival. She was a woman whose choices were dictated primarily by logic, not ambitions or whims or even emotions such as love, fidelity or friendship.

"If you take my offer, you will join me in the shadows as a part of my court. You will serve and aid me as I require. And in return I will give to you the freedom you seek."

She would accept his hand readily and without hesitation, she had much more to gain from this deal than even a Lord of darkness. "Without vacillation I accept your terms." She did not know exactly what Mikaboshi had planned or what he expected from her but she was well-versed in the various Courts, she understood their nature better than some Ancients did. Still, she knew better than to simply trust that she knew everything because she did not -- if there was a way to safely remove these seals that she was not aware of, perhaps there is much more to these courts than the scholars ever understood.

 

[Mikaboshi]

Fuu set her hand in the extended claws of Mikaboshi and in a moment the pact was sealed. For his price of her life, he would free her from the shackles that Nao had put around her soul. Closing his claws around her hand with surprising gentleness, Mikaboshi guided Fuu to her feet and then suddenly pulled her close to him as though to embrace her even though he did not. Gone was the aura of frigid hate that normally permeated the air around the Deep Lord, replaced instead by a smoldering intensity which could not be mistaken for anything short of raw power. Mikaboshi's huge wings curled around and trapped her close to him and in the moment that this was transpiring Mikaboshi whispered a single sentence which Fuu would be able to hear without fail.

"This will hurt a great deal." He promised.

Leaving no time to reconsider her position, suddenly the space between Mikaboshi's body and his wings where Fuu ignited and filled with the same black and green flames which had curled at Mikaboshi's feet and danced about the tips of his wings. The flames would not burn her flesh even though their touch was excruciating and they devoured what remained of her tattered clothing in an instant. Every nerve in Fuu's body would be screaming in pain by this time as Mikaboshi poured the essence of his power into her through the contact with the flames. It seeped in through her skin and filled her lungs as she breathed in the billowing black flames. A skilled human sage might have examined the wording and phrasing of the seal that Nao had placed upon Fuu's body but Mikaboshi's approach was a considerably more direct one. By immersing her in his flames Mikaboshi invaded her body and worked to scour Nao's influence from Fuu in both body and spirit. He mingled her own soul essence with his own and in doing he searched through her soul for the strands of power that Nao had placed there so that he might dissolve them.

The unfortunate by product of the process was the extraordinary pain that Fuu would be experiencing as Mikaboshi went about his grim work. The seal which Nao had placed upon her was one that mingled with her very soul and such a brand was extremely difficult to remove without damaging the person it was bound to. For Mikaboshi's part, he did not concern himself with damaging her. Rather, he burned the strands of Nao's power away where he could and in the places where they were too entrenched to normally remove without endangering her he simply repaired her as he went with vestiges of his own strength. When Mikaboshi had promised Fuu that she would join him in the shadows he had not been speaking abstractly; he was worked in her with the intention that he would transform her similarly to how he had transformed Tama and how Shiori had transformed her ward. What was it that she had said?

A half-blood is better than no-blood.

When his work was done she would be like him but only by half. He would make her a hybrid creature, partially human but also partially ancient. If Fuu survived the process she would find herself stronger for the ordeal but also changed. She would share Mikaboshi's paradoxical penchant for deception but also his predilection for keeping his given word and his affinity for the shadows. She would be the first being to be expressly inducted into the Deep Court in generations and signaled the beginning of a movement that Mikaboshi had thought long on for some time.

It was time that the Deep Court counted more than only it's Lord within it's ranks.|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM4SZ6AzfMY]SCENE BGM[/url]]"]

Mikaboshi - Ancient Rogue

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

Fuu</COLOR><COLOR color="green">
The Oracle​

Fuu's golden eyes widened as massive leathery wings closed her into a place darker still than this illusionary crypt as they closed over her, making her feel quite small in comparison. There was a thrumming sensation that emanated from the Deep Court Ancient, it was a raw energy that seemed to leak from his very pores and its escape felt stifling. She felt as if she could not breathe, as if the air was pulled from her lungs and fresh air refused to enter the vacuum. It was hot there in this black, shadowy cocoon and she instinctively pulled herself away from him. Even if her basic sense for survival failed her, her logical mind would scream danger but she would find wings to her back. Despite the protesting voice in the back of her mind she was not about to renege on the deal she made but there was a sense of dire apprehension that would prelude what would happen next.

"This will hurt a great deal."

His promise was not a prevarication as the darkness was swept away by an eerie emerald flame that pervaded her body. It burned away the tattered rags she wore, what little remained after her previous brush with deaf. Most of it already burned away and the flames licked at her flesh. A searing pain could be felt through every fiber of her being, she was not even aware that hair could hurt and she let out a shrill but rattling scream as she choked on her own saliva. Air still seemed to deny itself passage into her lungs or that was how it felt, but black smoke invaded her plural spaces. She would try to cough up the tainted current of air to no avail, her cries muted from lack of breath the threads that bound her to Nao were calcined one by one. The pain was indescribable because even when someone was burned alive their flesh and nerves would wither away and become ash so there would be nothing but not in this suspended state of anguish that seemed to last for weeks although the passage of time could have been as brief as seconds or as long as hours, she would not know the difference.

Nao was meticulous in his work. These tendrils of ink and shadow and frost would shy away from the invasive force that breached their host but to no avail as vital threads that both kept her alive and intrinsically linked to Nao were severed. She would almost die again and again as these constitutive threads were replaced with something inhuman and cold. There was little left of Fuu's humanity when Mikaboshi finished his work, her will and life so intimately tied to the great necromancer sage there was little beyond her mind and bones that was truly hers. When the flames receded as they eventually would, her hands would be clutching Mikaboshi's waist but she was still standing although only barely. When the wings retracted, the air felt icy in comparison but she greedily consumed what air she could and released the offensive smoke with a wheezing cough. Her grip tightened with the hacking cough that made her knees buckle but not fall.

She would not see the change, not at first as her gaze saw only the dusty and cracked floor as she cycled air through new lungs. The shadows seemed livelier than they used to, almost tangible. Her eyes fixed on the terrible writhing of the shades beneath Mikaboshi's feet and the verdant flames. She felt different, she did not expect to although she did not know what to expect. She looked at her hands as she relinquished her grip, these were not her hands. They seemed normal enough but they were not hers. She would look down at her bare torso, the seal was gone but she did not look the same. "It is gone," she affirmed. "But who am I?" What would have been a better term, but she could not possibly know the depths of the change that transpired that altered her at a biological level. She was no longer human but she was certainly also not an Ancient, she was something in-between. Something she was unfamiliar with, half-breeds had mated many times over since the reign of the Ancients so the Ancient influence was diluted many times over on any live specimen she had crossed and so many generations had elapsed the Ancient influence could have been nothing more than rumor and speculation. What she saw would be new to her.

You know the routine: pick a new face claim.​

 

[Mikaboshi]

With his grand work done, Mikaboshi breathed deep and the tenebrous conflagration ceased nearly immediately as though he'd inhaled it straight into his lungs and body. Then for a moment they stood completely still before Mikaboshi finally opened his cavernous wings and allowed Fuu to take stock of the changes that he had wrought upon her as a by product of the process. His will had traveled through her, seeking the places where she had been touched by the necromancer Nao and purged them... but he had not stopped there. Where he'd found weakness, he had strengthened it. Where he'd found Nao's pollution, he'd cleansed it. But also... where he'd found humanity, he'd uplifted it. Ancients did not reproduce biologically as humans did even though they were capable of creating half-breed spawn if they so chose to. For an ancient to create another it was simply necessary for them to divide their essence and set it free. This act was not forbidden to any of their kind but most lacked the power to do so without tearing themselves asunder in the process. This was one of the great qualities that set an ancient apart from an ancient lord; the ability and skill necessary to divide and retain a sense of self while also producing a powerful spawn was rare even among their talented kind. In this case Mikaboshi had not created a pure blood ancient; he wasn't even sure if he truly could in the state that he was. Instead he used Fuu's spirit as a framework and worked within it by infusing it with a portion of himself.

Spoiler

Lifting his claws once more, Mikaboshi reached forward to touch Fuu's face and as he did the wickedness of his full transformed state crumbled away leaving behind the pale and possessed visage of Masashi Katsuo. He felt the coolness of her skin as he touched her on the chin and guided her face slowly from the left to the right, examining his work before taking a step backwards and allowing his gaze to wander downwards. In a human man such a behavior would have been overtly sexual in nature but within this context Mikaboshi was not sizing her up as a conquest of lust but as an artisan examining their craft. While he could not deny that there was a part of the biological form which he inhabited which was very much interested in her nudeness, Mikaboshi snuffed the ravenous humanity in the back of his mind to focus on the present.

"Our bargain is complete." He answered somewhat obtusely to her question. He did not answer it immediately, absorbed as he was in critiquing the work that he had done on her. "What you are is this; mine. I have remade you in my image to free you from the shackles of the necromancer and you have given your loyalty to me in recompense for that great gift. My aims are your aims. My enemies are your enemies, though I suspect that much was already true as it was. When I call, you will answer and you will serve. Such is the terms of our relationship."

Then with a snap, the dream world was no more. Shattered into memory by Mikaboshi who chose that moment to return to the waking world. Fuu would then awaken once more to the darkness of the cell that Kazuki and Roku had left her in with the ANBU that had been set to station over her still fast asleep with only moments having passed between when Mikaboshi had initiated the dream walk and the present. She would however find herself physically changed just as he had been in the dream world with her features altered, her woulds healed and most importantly cleansed of Nao's filth. Towering over Fuu, Mikaboshi had his hands clasped behind his back at first with his imperious gilded stare fixed downward at her as she lay on the ground. In a gesture which would seem out of character for any who knew him, Mikaboshi would reach forward and offer her a hand to stand.

"But as for who you are... that is up to you. As long as the terms of our bargain are respected, I will respect your choices as your own." He stated with surprising candor. Mikaboshi did not expect that Fuu would follow at his heels like an obedient vassal; any further value she had to him was wasted that way. He was truthful in his statement that he intended to let her free will be just that as long as she stayed within the confines of their agreement that she serve him loyally in furthering the interests of both he and the Deep Court. Deceit and mischief was a part of her being now more than ever but as long as those things did not infringe upon the nature of their relationship then he saw no need to govern her. After all, she had struck this bargain to win back her freedom. Still, there was an implicit warning within the statement that he'd just made; cross me and that respect for your choices will vanish.

"Now. What shall I call you?"|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM4SZ6AzfMY]SCENE BGM[/url]]"]

Mikaboshi - Ancient Rogue

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

Michi​

The woman formerly known as Fuu was dead, she was destroyed but in her place something new was reborn from the ashes. She was far from human although she looked the part well enough with her fingers and her toes. She was naked, not merely in the sense that she lacked clothes beyond the burnt rags Kasha carried her here in but she lacked the marks. The marks that made her his. No mark replaced the ones that were stolen from her, so she was free. At least she was in a sense, to be released from the shackles of Nao's perdition she had to make a deal with a new sort of fiend.

His wings lifted from her and the cool prison air felt warm in comparison. She did not cower or try to run this time, if he had wanted her dead she would be so already. His hand reached for her jaw and she calmly allowed her face to be guided to either side. He did good work. She did not recognize herself when she looked at her own body; except for her eyes. Those stayed the same. Perhaps if she was younger still she would have seen more similarities, he had taken a middle-aged woman and brought her back to the peak of her youth. Come to think of it, her hair was dark when she was young, before she dabbled in the arcane and before it bit her for her hubris. She was still her, but she was different in so many ways. There was a chill in the air that permeated the space she occupied, a trademark of the Deep Court. There were other changes as well, they were more qualitative.

The image of the monster faded away, leaving only the visage of the errant Sunahoshi. Her breath left her as she uttered simply, "you?" There were people looking for him. People who needed him and he was here the whole time.

"Our bargain is complete... What you are is this; mine. I have remade you in my image to free you from the shackles of the necromancer and you have given your loyalty to me in recompense for that great gift. My aims are your aims. My enemies are your enemies, though I suspect that much was already true as it was. When I call, you will answer and you will serve. Such is the terms of our relationship."

She was on the ground in the same place Roku had left her. She should be in pain, she had nearly died twice. She was not in pain. She hesitantly sat up, still painless.

"But as for who you are... that is up to you. As long as the terms of our bargain are respected, I will respect your choices as your own... Now. What shall I call you?"

"Michi," she replied. It was the first name to come to mind, it was not an obvious anagram or a word with an obvious of a covert meaning although there was an unconscious lean. Intellect. But her name was hardly important, he was the only one that knew her face. She was more interested in his hidden face. "Sunahoshi Katsuo, why?" The endless crypt was gone, leaving only the office she was revived in. The broken, overturned chair and the discarded cushion on the floor. A bloodied pen. A desk in disarray. This was where she was supposed to be. This is where she was this entire time and she was here with not only the Lord of the Deep Court but also the one king. The one thing the Diamyo feared and he was hidden away -- WHY.

 

[Mikaboshi]

Fuu... no Michi rose to her feet with the aid of her dark patron and as she did the shadows draped her, forming into attire that suited her new form and outlook. Mikaboshi once more clasped his hands behind his back as he turned towards the door of the sealed cell. She seemed stunned that behind the mask of Mikaboshi lurked the possessed visage of Sunahoshi Katsuo; a man who by all accounts was a hero and one that was sorely missed by the people that he'd helped bring to the surface and free from the tyranny of the Diamond Maelstrom. For a moment, Mikaboshi stopped and seemed to genuinely consider her question as if debating how to answer it. In truth, he debated how much to answer it. The full depth of the truth was that he had used Katsuo's possession of a nearly infinitesimal sliver of the power that Primus had used to bring the era of the Old World crashing down on the heads of ancient kind to divest himself from the very nature which had chained him to the command of Kazekage Takahashi Sousuke.

"He possesses a unique power that I desired for myself." Explained the Deep Lord without turning his head towards Michi... at first. Then, slowly turning to regard her he turned his head enough so he was looking over his shoulder only faintly but that did not lessen the impact of the gesture. "But candidly? Because I could."

Punctuating his statement, he unclasped his hands and in a swift motion which sent crackles of angry sparks through the air Mikaboshi gestured with his hand as if he were striking a person with the backs of his knuckles and the door of the room creaked under the stress of his power before being sliced away and falling to the floor in glowing hot pieces. Bolts of black and gold lightning danced like spiders across the place where Mikaboshi had shattered the door before he took a short hop over the slagged debris and landed on the other side of it facing Michi with his hands clasped once more behind is back.

"Leave the sleeping idiot, we must respect our pact of non-aggression with Sunagakure for now. I trust that the two men Sousuke placed in command of the ANBU would not be so incompetent as to leave this place entirely without fail safe. They will be aware of our egress."

[Leaving Topic with Michi]​

|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM4SZ6AzfMY]SCENE BGM[/url]]"]

Mikaboshi - Ancient Rogue

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

OC: A quick departure thread because it is time to have everyone show up... everywhere

IC:

Michi​

The answer did not fulfill her lust for knowledge but few things did. She knew that something terrible was about to happen, she had received her summons and she failed to arrive as scheduled. She had a feeling that neither of the men she siphoned information into were going to harness the information she had given them. She did not know that it was intended to be her last trip but she knew that the war was soon, that whatever the Diamyo's end game was that it was to happen soon. She hoped they listened and made their way to the Diamyo by now, otherwise it would be too late.

It was too late, she just did not know it yet.​

<i></i>

She was pulled upright and given something suitable to wear. Even in this new form she would surely attract unwanted attention. Mikaboshi splintered the heavy metallic door, on the other side was the guard. The guard was not conscious but he was alive. Her gaze paused as it passed over him.

"Leave the sleeping idiot, we must respect our pact of non-aggression with Sunagakure for now. I trust that the two men Sousuke placed in command of the ANBU would not be so incompetent as to leave this place entirely without fail safe. They will be aware of our egress."<i></i>

Wordlessly she followed.

[Topic Left]