Kinjutsu: Dark Sage
Home is where the heart is.
If that is true, then this was certainly not home. Home was likely with her aunt and uncle, she felt safe and happy there. At her actual residence with her 'parents,' there was a looming sense of dread and regret she could never quite pinpoint. Certainly she felt insufficient... inadequate even, coming from a family such as hers she felt that there was a level of expectation that she was unable to meet on a consistent basis. When she came home she not experience the excited sense of taking on an unbeatable foe, rather she experienced the kind of sensation where the pit of your stomach goes sour and you can taste bile in the back of your throat. She hated her 'father' for a multitude of reasons. Part of it was likely because she was denied the affections a parent often offers their child, but she always knew that she was not his and simply a resident. It could be a childish need for paternal love, better known as "daddy issues", but it was not. There was something specifically about Jinsei that made Shiori sick. Her mother, on the other hand, was cold and distant and despite her relative indifference to Shiori she had a similar sensation when she was in her mother's presence as well. Her parents were not ones to show affection, not even to each other.Today Shiori felt lighter, much lighter than she had felt in a long time. She was going to leave Sunagakure for the first time in memory and she was going to find Sousuke. She just needed to get some supplies: clean underwear, deodorant, hair scrunchies and if she had space perhaps a few bottles of water and a sandwich.
Recently, as in over the past few hours, she started to remember something from the time before she was a Takahashi. Her life was truly a blur but aspects of her being became more significant as of late. With the passage of these hours, there was more questions than answers. How had her 'parents' truly come upon her? Had they stolen her from her actual parents? She always knew that she was not theirs and that she was never claimed, it was because of their 'benevolence' that she was allowed their name and she lived out her childhood in their home. They never had children of their own and they never seemed to like her yet they kept her and she enjoyed the benefits of the steward family. She was not even the same species. Did they know this? Was there some benefit in keeping her? Why was it so hard to remember and why did it seem like she was forgetting something significant.
It was rare but she actually wanted to see them, her parents, she wanted to face them before she forgot.
"Father? Mother?"</B><i></i> Shiori called into the parlor, her voice reverberated off the walls and down the halls through cracks in open doors to hidden places only she knew. They did not need to answer, she already knew where they were: having drinks in the study. She disliked this place, the halls were long, wide and lonesome. Her steps echoed, the distant rooms seem with utter clarity. "There you are," she called. She made her way up the stairs, her heels clicked on the cool white marble surface. The gilded molding and ivory paint was accented by dozens of priceless paintings and shelves displaying busts of famed men, ancestors and beautiful women. Father was a collector of art and mother was a collector of cats. Both were uselessly abundant in the spacious mansion. Cats did not like her, they had a way of scurrying away before she even entered a room and made her feel uneasy due to their talent for walking with such stealth that they would almost come upon her before she would even take notice. "There you are,"<i></i> she repeated as she carefully shut the door behind her and listened for the tumblers to click in place.
"Home?" Jinsei mumbled, he was reading a heavy book or at least that was the pose he elected to take when she entered the room. "Took you long enough," he commented without sparing her a glance. Mother did not say a word, she seemed more interested in the fireplace and the warm crackle that came from the slowly dissolving wood.
"You omitted something of great significance all these years, father,"<i></i> Shiori announced with her approach.
"Really now?" Jinsei replied, uninterested.
"Humor me... edify me,"<i></i> she rumbled. "I am starting to remember, save us both from this needless prattle."<i></i>
"I owe you nothing," Jinsei seemed to remind Shiori as he clapped his book closed. "You used to be POWERFUL and GRAND and since then you became... THIS... whatever THIS is," his voice laced with annoyance as his hand waved in her direction. "As a human child you were WEAK and incapable,"<i></i> he shrugged his shoulders. "Being burdened with you, my only hope for respite was the fact that I thought you would put on a spectacular show. Instead you became a barely proficient medic and you only obtained that through my familial connections."<i></i> He scoffed, "so yes... congratulations for remembering, should we get a cake? Balloons? Perhaps we can invite the friends you do not have..."<i></i>
"Why do you hate me so much,"<i></i> Shiori frowned. She could always feel his and to a lesser extent mother's revulsion.
"I am prevented from answering that," Jinsei responded, "as is Nagomi." He placed his book on the shelf, leaving his chair momentarily vacant. "The dead are prevented from discussing the circumstances of their death, it is a pact the dead make when they return to the mortal coil," he explained as he made his way back to his chair. He was dead, he had died two decades earlier and it was a claim he could not make because of the circumstances of his continued existence. The circumstances of his death were that of murder, he and Nagomi were killed on a scouting mission deep within the caverns beneath Wind Country's surface. Their murderer was standing in this very room. "I never wanted you in my home."<i></i>
Shiori had taken everything from Jinsei, even fabricated a life for him to act out. She was a liar and the greatest lie she ever told was the one she told herself. "I do not need your affections," she lied. A part of her screamed for his acceptance but she was a liar by nature, something would would soon rediscover.
"You never noticed the fact that your energies were diminished?" Nagomi injected. "That we are simply shells of our former selves?"<i></i> She stated cryptically. True,their lives were lived in leisure, but their deeds as shinobi predated Shiori's presence in Sunagakure. "We're dead, but frankly I benefited from the ordeal," she shrugged as she invited a fluffy cat onto her lap. It let out a loud purr as it kneaded itself a proper bed. "I got the Takahashi name out of it,"<i></i> she announced as she pet her cat. Nagomi was a Jounin-ranked shinobi from a low caste, she was a street-rat who learned how to manipulate her own chakra. With the right family and better resources she would have been heralded as a genius. She married Jinsei in a 'private ceremony' shortly after Shiori was invited into their home and took his name. They were not actually married, in fact they had no affections for each other but the burden of their secret bound them. She took the Takahashi name, maintained appearances and enjoyed the benefits of being a member of the steward clan.
In short: Shiori KILLED her 'parents' Nagomi and Jinsei and brought them back. The above is contingent on an application for a CPRJ: LINK
"What can you tell me?" Shiori asked Nagomi. It seemed that Nagomi was more interested in sharing, unlike her father.
"Just because my death proved better than my life does not mean that I am willing to share anything with you," Nagomi answered as she stroked the thick fur of the feline curled on her lap.
"I will recollect soon enough," she announced as she turned her back to her 'parents' and left the study. She could hear them talk, it was almost amusing how people forgot about her keen sense of sound. She could still hear the beat... no, wait... she could not hear the hearts. Their breath? No... How could she have missed this? Their vitals were absent. She stopped in the hall and she concentrated hard. Se could hear them move, her sonar watched them as they moved, but they lacked the functions of life.
"If we told her, she would probably go away."
"We cannot tell her, you know this. Telling her would be the second death of us both."
"The circumstances of our death cannot be discussed."
"Yes, but the circumstances of our continued existence is another story."
"That may be true, but she has been sustaining us for years without even realizing... if she becomes conscious of her skill, she might rescind us."
"She's been useless since the accident, my only concern is when she remembers who she is rather than what... We have lived long enough, longer than we should have. We could just end this with three words."
"I have no interest in dying again, but you can do as you please Jinsei."
She could only make inferences, their statements were cryptic and carefully considered but not for her, rather the evade the actual circumstances of their death. What she did know was that they were alive in a sense because of her. They held a grudge against her, that aura of rage was not a product of an overactive imagination. But the most important thing to consider was the fact that they knew who she was and it was the who that was the most disconcerting.
She was capable of many new things as of late, her mind was starting to open and her skill set was changing at an alarming rate. A part of her was hopeful that her sight would return along with everything else, what she did not know was that her lack of sight was not a product of her blood but rather a consequence of a sin she would likely repeat time and time again. She tried to bring her brothers back and she failed, her blindness was perhaps some sort of cosmic penance. If she could only understand her role in life and death, perhaps she would better understand who she is or at the very least be able to harness her potential.
She started to sing her requiem. She pulled a spirit from the twisting nether as she had so many times before. It was a blind man who emerged from the nothing, previously it was a man in shackles. "Specter, tell me the circumstances of your death," Shiori queried.
"That I cannot answer," he responded. The blind man had gaunt features, long thin white hair and the regalia of a warrior. A blindfold covered his eyes making his affliction obvious to the woman.
"Can you tell me the circumstances of your blindness?"<i></i> Shiori then asked.
<B>"I performed the taboo of bringing back the dead, only I tried to bring back a dead that wished to remain buried. We both tried, then came the circumstances of my demise." He replied, only giving Shiori half of what she wanted to know and adding even more questions.
"I don't remember you," Shiori admitted.
"You should not try to remember things that have been locked away, there is always a reason," he warned.
"I cannot move forward without the truth, remind me of my deeds," she commanded.
"That is beyond my capacity, but you can remind yourself. There is a technique that allows you to 'show' your memories. Cast the jutsu, designate it for two decades ago. That will remind you of the circumstances of your 'parent's' death, you will have to go back much further to remember your blindness I am afraid. Two centuries maybe?" He explained before he excused himself back into the void. "Adieu."
A simple enough task, the jutsu was a remedial skill she could never remember learning. She did as suggested. She went back to immediately before her earliest memory. She killed them... She really did... She then pulled them back, she could feel her movements and smell their blood. That was how she did it and why. This changes everything. But why would she want to forget. Oh yeah, there was that.
Shiori killed Jinsei and Nagomi for the expressed purpose of reanimating them and being taken on as their child. She had suffered grave injuries attempting to bring back Homura and Fuujin from the dead. Her efforts cost her not only her strength but also her physical maturity. Without "caregivers" she would likely die before she could fully recover. She had enough strength to overpower the shinobi pair but the fight was in her favor, she sealed both of them with a cursed seal after poisoning their drinks. Their strength was sapped and she took the opportunity to kill them in their weakened state. Bringing them back was not an easy task for the already debilitated ancient, it cost her a great deal of her mental fortitude. These years have allowed her to recover most of her physical maturity but her power remains greatly diminished.
In short, Shiori is rediscovering the art of necromancy and regaining her skills as a sealer.