Get out [Class]

[Eishi]

A smoke was all I needed to keep me warm as I waited for the kidlets to show up. It was cold enough as it was outside and I hadn't even been asked to help in building this death trap to warm myself up. It reminded me of why I really hated acting as a human. They were all so squishy and temperamental to everything around them, and it was downright annoying. I mean, at first I had thought it overwhelming, but soon enough I figured it all out and it didn't take me long to feel apathetic to my new senses. I could only sigh as I acted the instructor once again. I didn't really want to, but I was resigned in my role. After the last class, the two of us had been reprimanded for sending a kid to the ICU and the boy's wages were cut to pay for some of that. He had been more livid than he let on when he heard that. I could tell he wanted to argue, yet still accepted the consequences without much more backtalk. It was good he was self-aware.

Either way, it was only a matter of time before someone came to attend this class. The bait was too good calling it a 'challenge course', it was likely to get the reckless and overconfident. The abandoned building behind me in the middle of this forest should make it clear to anyone who came out this far into the dense thicket that the meeting place wasn't random or happenstance. It had been denoted since our previous encounter to mark this class as 'potentially dangerous' on top of everything else and from the bits I saw, that was an understatement. My master really was a sadistic fuck when he let his creativity flow. Enough so that my entire job for today was to shadow the course takers to make sure they don't die a horribly painful death being caught in something nasty.

For now, it was just a waiting game. I already knew what I was supposed to say when they all showed up and, if possible, I was meant to scare them off. It seemed it was important to relay the dangers for 'liabilities sake' if what the boy had said was true. I didn't really get it, and I honestly didn't care. This was a human problem, I'll be content with my own worldly problems being connected to a miniature sociopath. I just hope the kids had 'fun' in today's lesson without missing any limbs at the end of the day.

OOC I'll post again tomorrow at 0:00 Wednesday aka ~27.5 hours from this post

Spoiler

 

[Shinrya Riko]

Why was there a class in the middle of the forest? Rumor had it that students got lost in here all the time. It really did make Ai feel sort of nervous. As she walked through the darkness alone. She paused when she realized she wasn’t following a path anymore. She punched a nearby tree, causing vibrations to rumble across its greatness. She was about to be one of those statistics it seemed. Instead of being early she just got herself lost. She should have waited until someone else had shown up. She pulled back her hand and looked at the blood trickling down her fingers where the bark had cut her knuckles.

”No!” A voice called out of the darkness. Ai raised an eyebrow and looked around. Nothing.

”Who’s there?” Suddenly something perched on her shoulders. She staggered a bit, being taken off balance by the sudden shift in weight, but she was a sturdy girl and was able to keep herself steady long enough for her balance to stabilize.

”Bleeding is not good okay?” the girl told Ai. She sniffed the air. ”They can smell it. They want to lick it.” The girl leaned over until she could look Ai in the face - even though she was upside down. Her long red hair was full of brambles and briars and her breath smelled somewhat like death. ”Komora knows.” She whispered.

Can ya not do that? Ai pushed the girls face away - her face turning a slight shade of green as she leaned against the tree as she fought the urge to puke her guts up. She sucked in deeply once she regained herself and looked at the girl - wild. Her clothes were rags but her teeth were sharp like knives. She seemed to be looking around. ”Ahm just looking for mah Class. Ahma student - .”

”Komora already knows. She’s not stupid you know?” The girl waved her hand and rolled her eyes like Ai was some kind of idiot. It really grinded her gears somewhat - but considering that this strange woman had lived in the forest for who knows how long she thought she should err on the side of caution. Komora pointed. ”That way. No more getting lost okay?”

”Y-yeah...you too.” Ai was sort of creeped out at how the girl was squatting on the ground on her tippy toes rocking back and forth while she hugged her knees. She walked several feet in the direction she had been directed and when she looked back, Komora was gone. Ai shook her head and questioned if following the guidance of a crazy jungle girl was really sound advice. That is, until she reached the destination she had been looking for all along.

There it was. An ominous building in the middle of the forest.

Now were we suppos’ ta go inside? Or wait outside? The giantess crossed her arms as she considered the prospects.

 

[Byakko Yukiin]

"He would like to state that your last injury is mending nicely." Tsurara announced as the puppet and puppeteer emerged from the forests to meet the instructor, though they were already a bit familiar accounting for the fact that one party had penetrated the other. It was an unwelcome sensation and he touched his free hand to the lingering wound, currently stitched shut as he'd attended to it himself not wanting to attract any more attention by showing up to the hospital twice in a month. No, once was about the maximum number of hospital visits he was comfortable with and the less rational part of his mind was very keen on returning the stabbing incident with a blow of his own, reigned in by the civil mind's reminder that it was not considered polite to punch puppet claws through people's kidneys...he resolved to fix that if he was ever Raikage.

Yukiin flexed his command hand, invisible strings moving as he cracked his knuckles uncomfortably, not quite yet decided on which part of his mind was going to win this conflict of instinct over sense but the presence of another party diverted enough of his attention to remind him of how he'd received the injury in the first place...dividing his attention between his enemies and his allies. His mistake and he didn't plan on making a repeat showing, his fingers staying curled like a dead spider, ready for motion as it was required. The Genin's eyes remained locked on the woman though the puppet turned its head towards the girl and vocalized on the puppeteer's behalf. "He would like to instruct you, fellow student, that the last person to be in your shoes wound up hospitalized and that we have no intention of intervening if you find yourself in a similar position. Please attend to your own wellbeing."

His mind wound back in time like a tape measure snapping, recalling the intricate pains of pinning and stitching himself shut after the first course. It was miserable work, made only tolerable by numbing his flesh under the extreme cold of his manifesting Hyouton abilities, and while as a shinobi he had the luxury of being able to withstand and recover at a heightened rate compared to the common masses it was still unpleasant work. Directing chakra to his wound had been able to largely seal it and accelerate the recovery but the scar remained and would take some time to mend, not to mention he would have to pull those strings out sooner rather than later...a thought that pursed his lips like the bitterest fruits.

The Genin's mind recoiled back into the present and he flicked his hand out, manifesting his strings visibly as a flash of their silver appeared in the air, gaze trying to peel back the layers of the woman in front of him. "He doesn't understand your abilities and was not presented the opportunity to ask. No strings, Kugutsu or otherwise, link the flesh and the weapon and they lack any distinctive markings of a seal or tag to channel chakra...what makes them move?"

[WC 521]

 

[Eishi]

I simply smiled at the repeat offender. He had balls, this one. It was a good quality to have in a man. Hell, he was legal and he might have even been my type if I hadn't already been attached at the hip to the boy. That thought put me back into a somber mood,

"Well said Yukiin," I responded, remembering the name of the teen who Eishi had passed off to me to submit paperwork for passing the class,

"This was listed as very dangerous for a reason. I will not tell you why but know that you will likely find many places like the one behind me in your travels. The task is not easy and to reflect that, your goal is a very simple one," I admonished, moving my body out of the way, so I could show two pictures nailed to the side of the house behind my back. I took up the space on the other side of the door frame, giving the two a closer look at the two pictures.

"Those two keys are in the basement and the attic respectively. You must bring them back to me to pass. You have an hour whenever the first of you enter," I said leaning my back into the side of the house as I waited for the two to inevitably approach the house. They had all the rules as of right now and so my job was done outside of collection at the very end. Well, that was as far as they knew. I was still expected to tail them in case they got caught in a trap and could be saved. If they died from a blow to the head, not much point to intervene then.

"As for your question, I'll tell you once you bring me back the keys. It'll honestly ruin the fun if I tell you now," I smirked, giving the little psychopath a wink a smile, seeing if I could unnerve him a little. I knew I was hot by human standards, so why not try to fluster him.

OOC Split up, go together, doesn't matter, do what you want. You will not encounter anything until you reach either the attic or basement.

 

[Shinrya Riko]

OOC: We splitting up.

”’scuse me?” She asked looking at the puppet user as it addressed her. She gazed at the lifeless puppet and then the lifeless puppet of a boy. What could have made someone so cold that they would talk out of a puppet and ignore human contact? The creepiness crawled up her spine and she furrowed her brow as she considered her own thoughts. She brought her attention back to the present when the person started talking. She started to approach to the house as she seemed to be invited by the instructor..? Well this person seemed to be the only one that knew what was going on and puppet boy seemed to know her as a teacher.

Still Ai was feeling doubts by this points. As she approached the criteria for passing were established to Which Ai reeled back internally. A test!? This was supposed to be a class. They didn’t even teach her anything! Now she is being tested on skills she didn’t even know. This wasn’t a class at all. She frowned, still going along with things as she peered at the pictures. That's why she had had it. On one of the photos was a picture of her father. A corpse. She wasn’t sure how in the however many hells there were they had gotten a picture of her father, let alone one where that seemed straight ripped out of her memories.

There he lay but instead of fields of barley he was laying there on the basement floor, fresh blood oozing out of his wounds. Her blood was already boiling, but she locked her jaw shut when she caught the woman winking at the puppet boy. Ai slapped her face and hummed to herself briefly. Enter the house and head to basement in search of an unclear objective in a dangerous place? The actual Shinobi training she been given warned that this was a trap. If the objective was clear then maybe the risk would be worth it, but she quickly ran out of justifications to take this test.

”Ah see.” She tried to control her voice and the emotion that was threatening to swallow her up. ”An hour right?” She took a deep breath as she took a few steps away from the house. ”Welp. Maybe I’ll be back by then.”

She spun on her heel and shook her head as she walked into the forest. She paused only a moment thinking of heading back, but ultimately she shook her head. It didn’t matter what the logical decision was in this case. She just couldn’t get head around how angry she was. There was no way she was going to turn around. She just kept walking.

[Exit]

 

[Byakko Yukiin]

Yukiin? He hadn't offered his name. He never offered his name. She knew it regardless and that raised an eyebrow, the flirting following it raised both of them and he couldn't help but feel an unwarranted and unwanted flush of heat in his body. His pale features made it much more difficult to not notice or to conceal a red-tinted face and he promptly broke eye contact, pulling his face into his collar. Fortunately, he had a convenient distraction from that with the reaction of the other party, gaze transferring eagerly as it gave him the opportunity to not look in the instructor's direction.

Giving her a proper look she seemed odd, quite tall but still bearing the features of youth. A great deal of youth, actually...how young was she? That kind of rapid growth must've been agonizing, even for a shinobi. A child growing at such an alarming rate wouldn't have the benefit of chakra to help them until the damage was done. The idea of being trapped in one's own body while it expanded painfully and without your opinion on the matter sounded very unpleasant but he supposed being trapped in other things was worse. Maybe she had her own bloodline giving her powers in exchange for it, they were all, after all, trapped in their own blood-directed fates after all and those could be quite painful.

Whatever was eating at her though seemed to be more in command of her fate that her heritage however and she saw something in those photos, something horrific. Yukiin watched her go through several stages of thought before apparently...departing? An...unusual choice of tactic. He couldn't quite puzzle out what the strategy here was or if he was just under the influence of some strange Genjutsu. Maybe that was it.

The Genin put down a hand to his thigh, an ice needle congealing out of the air as a thick, frosted, fluid before the bitter winds condensed it into a solid weapon that pushed its way into the flesh. As the blood drew out, captured and swirled into the ice, he felt nothing different. Typically pain could pierce an illusion but here he was and the girl was gone so...maybe not an illusion? Yukiin officially did not understand what was going on and felt a lot like the last child in an exam with his test paper still empty.

"He...doesn't understand this tactic. He must admit it is new." The puppet chattered on its master's behalf, though he did not dwell on it much further as he pressed on to handle the matter of retrieval and mission completion himself. He couldn't depend on whatever odd strategy was being employed and if she'd just abandoned her mission...well, that couldn't be it. That was unbefitting of a shinobi, a weapon of war does what its told to do. Weapons are tools, they exist to be pointed and utilized, but maybe she hadn't had that drilled into her head yet. She'd get there, or she'd be on the receiving end of several disciplinary actions in her career.

Once he'd crossed the threshold of the building he inhaled deeply, building frost spreading once his lips parted to coat the steps to the upper level and replace the flimsy wood with a more sturdy glacial construction. Yukiin didn't believe in taking risks he didn't have to and rather than step his foot through bad wood he would rather make his own stairs. Tsurara ventured ahead of him, stepping on each step before he did while remaining several ahead to ensure if anything was triggered it would ideally miss the puppeteer and only damage the puppet. Nothing came of it though and he made his way to the attic hatch uneventfully, casting a burst of frosted air over the room he now occupied in search of any wires or strings but found them similarly absent.

"...odd." The puppeteer remarked, concerned but still committed to doing his best to avoid being caught off guard. The puppet was directed at its wielder's behest, grasping the hatch to the attic and prying it open, Yukiin frosting and moving up this new set of stairs to enter into the area proper. His fingers curled around a handful of the icy projectiles he'd created earlier, drawing them out from the blood at his hip to produce glacial red senbon-like protrusions but his primary weapon, Tsurara, remained at the ready as well. At close range or far he was prepared to eliminate anything or anyone that interfered with his mission.

And then find out what was going on with these string-less not-puppet metal automatons...not because he liked her or anything...because he didn't. That was how rumors started. Yukiin didn't like rumors...just like he didn't like the instructor. Exactly. Any flushes of red were a figment of an overactive imagination or a powerful Genjutsu, certainly.

[WC 811]

 

[Eishi]

"It seems the boy does have the ability," I smiled at his flush before he entered the house.

"Best of luck," I got out as the door slammed shut without my input. It seemed Eishi was telling me to knock it off with flustering the students. Well, student as it were. The other one chickened out I guess. I wondered what about the picture of the keys got her so worked up. Either way, this meant the original plan was gonna have to be nixed. I had hoped for a bit more of a showing to ease the burden, but honestly, to expect them to be down for this kind of risktaking was probably dumb on my part. It seemed Eishi agreed with my assessment of the goal as I was bombarded at that moment with a message to get the traps in place for the attic. He was gonna be busy setting them all off in the basement and getting ready. I could only sigh, once again finding myself resigned to my fate. I took a couple good leaps up the side of the building as I went through the 'secret' double padlocked entrance on the third floor. I hadn't needed a key to get in, though neither did my master.

There I waited, in the walls of this old house, reinforced behind the attics metal frame and between the walls of the self-contained room. The actual attic was only slightly larger than the room that Yukiin was probably just about to enter. I looked at the mass of different water pipes and sprinkler systems to make sure nothing was leaking. The door was heavy and set to close once entered. I only hoped Yukiin didn't do something foolish like try and keep the door open. The mission couldn't start until it closed again from the way I remember it being set up and I'd probably just will it closed anyway, with a little bit of a mental push. Regardless, Yukkin would find an empty room, with the walls, ceiling, and floors covered in bricks of the normal red coloration and not much else. The only thing that would stand out in this room was the metal box plastered and bolted to the center of the room and a single metal pipe hanging from above. If Yukiin looked at any of the walls, he'd notice pretty quickly that every brick in the room had a name of 'something' inscribed on it.

"So you decided on the attic, aye? Well, here's the deal," A voice came over the intercom in the corner of the room, a loud crunching noise could be heard as the voice took a bite of something. It sounded weird over the speakers, but I knew it was an apple from back when he had first recorded this part. Yukiin had best listen if he wanted to survive.

"There are five riddles inscribed on five special coins in only five bricks on the walls, floor, and ceiling of this room. Find and break all of them and stick the coins into the slot in the center of the room. From there, simply take the key and leave this room." The voice concluded as a small siren horned once before silencing a few seconds later. There was silence in the room beside the sound of water filling some pipes above the room. A moment later the single hose of water started to pour down a steady stream of water. Yukiin probably wouldn't know, but it had been measured out that that stream of water would fill this room in roughly three hours. It was leeway to give to test takers the chance to be wrong, because every time they broke an incorrect brick, as Yukiin was likely to soon find out, another stream of water would fill the room. By the time they made their tenth mistake, the room would fill in only a matter of minutes. The voice would come on about thirty seconds after water started to fill the room. There was little doubt in my mind this was deliberate just to be cruel to make the student's panic.

"Why don't you start with the brick that has the word 'Hope' inscribed on it?" The voice chuckled before cutting off into silence once more. If Yukiin had no trouble finding the one brick in a room with over ten thousand of them existed, he would find inside the brick the first riddle he'd have to solve.

The man who made it, doesn't want it for himself. The man who buys it, doesn't buy it for himself. The man who needs it, didn't know he needed it. What is it?

It would hopefully be at this point that Yuukin realized that this was not going to be a quick task. This room was roughly eight meters by eight meters and had bricks everywhere. It was a test of nerves under pressure in this room. Brute forcing would only lead to a quick 'death', but that was why I was here. I'd fail him after I let him pass out from drowning. He didn't need to know that though, better he thinks this was completely life or death.

 

[Byakko Yukiin]

"The wrong element to pressure me with..." Yukiin remarked, casting his eye on the pipe and its flow with an expression commonly used for children who step out of line in some minor but humorous fashion. How was water going to prevent him from doing anything? It was well within his domain of influence, changing the chemical composition of water was step one out of several dozen to manifest his ice after all and since it was natural water he didn't even need to knead in elemental chakra to produce it himself. In fact...it would actually be quite helpful if he wanted to accelerate this process.

He had no intention of picking through hundreds of bricks just to find internal contents, it was easier to just break them all open and see if they contained what he was looking for and to promptly replace the damaged components with more ice so the structure of the room wasn't too heavily damaged...well, if that was a concern it wouldn't be flooding so maybe he could just skip that step. It was the same as he'd said before, the easiest way to win a game of Shogi is to not play by the rules in the first place.

Yukiin pressed his hands together, several slow, deliberate, seals assisting in the process of molding and generating the chakra he needed to use for this task. It would've been easy to make a small amount without handseals, it was innate after all, but for something this large he didn't want to risk any accidents and preferred to take the 'traditional' route. Energy from the body was drawn out with energy from the soul, intermingling the two in their proper ratio before guiding it through its network and out through the shinobi's mouth. A buffet of bitter biting air slithered out of the boy's mouth, curling and coiling currents of glistening ice attacking the faucet like a hungry swarm and converting it into more of itself, stretching out the frosted infestation over the walls until the entire room was coated. The crackle of ice soothed the boy once it had finished, taking a couple minutes to manage as he chose to favor efficiency over speed by allowing the water to come in and be usable rather than to create it with his own chakra, but he was far from finished.

He spread out his arms, guiding the ice to pull itself out much like an iron maiden, a room full of inward facing spikes, a cluster of them for each brick much like the spikes he'd held in his hand but which he had discarded to perform his seals. Yukiin smiled to himself, "Anything for success, even massive property damage."

With a shattering crack the piercing spears that faced towards him punched into the bricks like a jack hammer, puncturing and shattering the brick's faces as the ice fell away in one smooth burst. The room was coated in fine red brick dust and silver ice, Yukiin gathering it all up with a swoop of the hand into a small, condensed, sphere that hardened and was set down at his feet. If he wanted to replace the damage retaining the materials would help but he'd be doing this building a favor, his ice was much stronger than its original components. He wondered if the instructor had caught onto that fact yet, he'd gone blow for blow against metal with it, but somehow failed to account for the fact tha-

The pipe groaned, angrily, roaring like an animal as it vomited out its contents.

Scratch that...some consideration seemed to have been made because shattering the room produced a torrent of water that he found himself knee deep in. Yukiin spread out his chakra, taking command over the situation by converting it all into spreading ice, holding back the tide by force as he directed Tsurara to gather up the revealed keys. The pressure of the water trying to punch through and devour him was...uncomfortable. It felt a lot like holding back a tiger with your bare hands, and since he could only ignore so much of chemical law the amount of ice produced continued to increase and he could only compress it so far. At some point it would become too much and it would spread to him.

Thankfully that didn't come, with the coins extracted by the puppet's icy claws digging them out of their revealed hiding locations, he went to insert them into their container and paused. It would've been a lot easier to just break the key container open...this entire plan was needlessly excessive...why hadn't he just done that? Why the more complex, less efficient, plan? He chastised himself and agitatedly retrieved the key from its resting place.

With that in tow the water wasn't stopping though and he'd pretty much given up on fixing it if the instructor and the boy on the intercom, whoever that was, were happy to flood and trash the place...instead he'd have fun with it. With a thrust of the shinobi's arms the ice wall that had by now filled up about half the room was pushed out, smashing through a section of the exterior wall before Yukiin allowed it to revert to water.

If he'd aimed correctly, and he usually did, this would be creating a rush of water exiting the room from the pipe through this newly created release hole...right above the instructor's head. Yukiin hoped they liked cold showers because this was going to be a bitingly cold shower.

[WC 934]

 

[Eishi]

He had been right about it being a shower and I was impressed he could sense me through a solid metal. I think he expected the wall to be punctured a bit more than the fifteen centimeters or so diameter. it broke itself off pretty quickly as water came pouring down on my head. It hadn't been like I had interfered with this test thus far, so kudos for this kid. Likely Eishi had thought of this possibility and installed a drain pipe in this outer shell of the attic. The water went down the drain and gurgled into the walls of the abandoned mansion. Though it was coming out of the metal room at a considerable pace, it went down the drain harmlessly enough. I was soaked pretty thoroughly, the temperature didn't really bother me as it would a human. I was a weapon, after all. It's not like you'd ever see a sword recoil at the touch of near-freezing water, right? Regardless, I wasn't going to stop him from escaping by whatever means he fancied. He never had to do it the correct way, but there were consequences for the brute force method. He was still in what was essentially a metal cage of pipes, ice, and bricks, surrounded by a layer of solid metal to keep the water inside. It was easy to see he hadn't expected it to fill up so quickly. Eishi had really, thought ahead it seemed.

"Congratulations," I spoke somewhat derisively into the mic stationed near the outside of the metal box Yukiin was currently in,

"You created a hole in the metal casing, stopping your own doom, temporarily. Now you're stuck between the ice. brick pieces, and a pressurized door. You have fifty-five minutes to escape this house," I cut off from there, taking up a seat a bit further away from the false inner room and waiting to see how he was going to proceed. I needed to dry myself off either way. I was lucky enough to find a towel stashed under the emergency control panel after only a few seconds of looking. It smelled slightly greasy, but I didn't care at the moment.

 

[Byakko Yukiin]

With the water funneled out the pressure of the room filling up was sorted handily and now he just had to part the ice and waters to access the hatch below him, inserting the newly retrieved key to the door and relinquishing his control of both so that the water could rush past him down to the floor below. Much more room to spread out, less in his way, and he could make more ice stairs on the way down. Yukiin descended from the attic and considered that he wasn't really certain who was supposed to pay for all this property damage or what this house was built for in the first place, hopefully training purposes and under the village budget...

He paused, looking down at his hands like they were a foreign entity. It hadn't been too long ago that he'd graduated and become a Genin, barely able to muster icicles, but now...now he could create, control, and convert in ways that would've seemed impossible weeks ago. Was that something normal? Was it supposed to be this...easy? None of the others of his rank seemed to compete, he never saw them manifest an advanced element or do it like second mature so perhaps he was alone, save for the other Byakko wherever they were...he needed to find them. He needed to understand more fully what was happening exactly, these classes recently were pushing his Ninjutsu more so than his Kugutsu but both were becoming...potent.

Yukiin wasn't sure if this was his own body at this point, he wasn't the same. Was that what it was to become a real shinobi? He didn't...dislike it...but he certainly didn't have a firm grasp of it. His superiors were much stronger than himself so they could probably do much more damage, could they crush a whole building like this in ice? Would he be able to do that at some point? Did he want to do that?...no. Probably not. Becoming a living weapon was something they'd mentioned several times in the Academy but it hadn't quite clicked at that time.

He looked at his puppet, wondering what exactly was seperating the two of them. His strings were just as hidden as the puppet's but he was guided along none the less by stronger forces, a weapon to be pointed at a task and the more powers he manifested the more likely it was that he would be pushed into situations that would require it. The puppeteer wasn't averse to killing, it wouldn't be the first time, but these were individual deaths...what if that whole room was full of people and it was job to crush each and every one of them in a blast of ice? It was something he'd never really considered as a realistic possibility but the more rapidly his Ninjutsu advanced...soon it wouldn't become a question of if he could but when he would be told to do it.

It was a somber mask that draped over his face but it didn't prevent him from making his descent, crossing the floors to the bottom and staring at the door in front of him. That girl out there...she hadn't been ready to do her task. Yukiin reassured himself that when the order was given he would follow it, if not because he was trained to do so then because there were so many others who couldn't or wouldn't. His power would shape the world, create an unavoidable truth for those on the recieving end...

He hoped, silently, a crack in his somber mood, that something living was beyond the door...he was getting tired of spilling his own blood. The Genin had the ability to make it someone else's blood now and he intended to find out what that felt like for once.

[WC 648]

 

[Eishi]

I opened the door and found myself looking at the dude I had seen in my last class. It seemed he was done away with the attic, quicker than I had expected, anyway. That was surprising because it meant he had to have brute forced it. I chuckled and shrugged indifferently, internally, though, I knew that meant time I'd have to put some time in repairing whatever damage he caused.

"How'd he do?" I finally asked my weapon. She seemed to be doing her utmost to adhere to shinobi as she silently came up behind Yukiin in tow. I tossed her the key from the basement room's puzzle and closed the door behind me as I pushed past Yukiin and her, back up to the front door.

"Brute forced it. Didn't even hesitate to do it the correct way and just dusted the majority the brickwork. He has a good affinity with Ice, neutralized the overall threat pretty effectively," She paused for a moment thinking over if she forgot anything,

"He was able to puncture through the metal casing," She concluded as she headed back upstairs to the door of the house. She motioned for Yukiin to follow before falling in line herself.

"Well, luck is a skill as any. I'll just reinforce the walls of that room. Add another two inches and suddenly it's a scary death trap again. On the bright side, the basement puzzle is pretty fun. The test run seems consistent with the other runs when it's done correctly, anyway. I'm a bit peeved at that earlier wuss, though. We only got this guy," I said my honest thoughts pointing towards Yukiin as I waited for the spear and him to put the key in the door.

"Ad said I'd pay a small stipend for this class and the dangers it represented, regardless of if you got lucky in a fifty-fifty gamble," I said to Yukiin, finally acknowledging him. I was still pretty salty over his destruction of the entire attic trap room if my spear was to be believed. I wasn't saying that I didn't think he could do the other room, he just wouldn't have been to complete it in ten minutes regardless of whether or not he tried to brute force it. Either way, he finished the task so he gets the gold star. I already knew I probably should've just let him do the full course alone and made him sweat on the time limit, but an hour doing it 'correctly' was actually pretty tight by my estimates and I had made the decision to at least be merciful nine minutes ago. Was I too soft? I thought in wonderment as my spear finally got to the task of putting the key in the door and unlocking one of the two locks. We could always go to the attic escape hatch, but that seemed tedious at this point. I would rather just wait for Yukiin to complete his mission and leave. I was likely going to continue hanging around after the class was over, I needed to go assess the damage.

 

[Byakko Yukiin]

The pair seemed acquainted and while he couldn't quite gauge the relationship their conversation gave the impression that it was not a mutual level of power, one of them held the other in some control as he asked questions and got answers while the other party didn't even ask. Much like a subordinate and superior, this image came to the puppeteer's mind clearly but the exact type was not possible to discern with this much information. The boy though was a strange combination of things if he was indeed a superior in their relationship, he was very...small. Unimposing. Barely a man's height, not that he himself had much room to comment on that, but his face gave the impression of being a rily youth, a snake being wrangled by some desire to pretend to be professional.

He spoke to him as if Yukkin was also an inferior, or at the very least someone owed little to no respect, and implied that this entire arrangement was at his behest or, perhaps, that he was in charge of operating it. This conflicted with the fact that the woman in front of him was the one offering all instruction in this and the prior class. A deception perhaps? He hadn't really investigated much about her, he wasn't a very adept sensor after all, but it was possible she might've been concealed or a clone or something else...but for what purpose? It didn't serve much of a purpose at all to conceal yourself from your kinsmen, if you can't trust the people around you then who else can you?

The Genin wasn't standing still and thinking to himself though, he was following the motions to leave as he tried to puzzle his way through these things, reaching no adequate conclusion. More half-information...still, it was better than no information. A comment was directed at him but he didn't fully understand it, the puppet over his shoulder twisting its head and moving its jaw to speak as normal. "He believes that luck was being born into his bloodline, anything past that point was ambition. Amateurs gamble, professional's rig the dice."

Yukiin and Tsurara took their bow, extending the courtesy of assuming that the boy merited it, and the pair took their leave shortly after. He'd decided that the mystery of how the woman's powers worked was something he would crack on his own, if they were going to learn his powers through demonstration then it felt only fair to do the same when learning theirs.

[Exit]
[WC 422]