Mission i want to bleed this city black

[Komorebi Rin]

There were many perks that came with being a Genin-ranked Shinobi in Sunagakure: namely being the higher level of missions you were able to take when trusted to your own power. The pay was better, the reputation was firmer, and the risks ... well, they were more exciting. Nanaka Chikamatsu - as she was now - was not so much a daredevil or thrillseeker as she was constantly seeking either a) meaning or b) satisfaction. She didn't need anything complicated to wile her time away with, nor did it always need to be the most exciting thing - it just needed to be something. New experiences and tried experiences both. The only factor that mattered was interest.

This was was one of her favorites, and it was becoming readily more available as throngs of brigades found themselves unsatisfied with the idea of upcoming peace. This asked, therefore, for more qualified Shinobi to keep that peace open - by freeing the space of dissention. A direction was not specified when asked to run them out of town. Nanaka preferred 'down.'

This was how she - and her favored partner in crime, for however he would explain away the menial work of street cleaning banditry - found themselves in the ruin district, priming their claws against tattered walls in preparation for their havoc to be raised. For Nanaka's graces, she licked hers. Popped her lips off a clawtip to confirm its sharpness and flexed her knuckles for the invisible weave that wound around its length.

"You're quite ready, young lord? There should be no more than five. If you wish, I could simply cleanse the area myself." Decrepit scents and sounds hung around them as the shifting light hid them in shade. She gave a grin - small, fanged in the night - and purred. Ground her heel into the unsettled bricks she leaned on. "I know my way around the rabble."

[ D-Rank Modded / 1.1k WC (2x) Target ]
[ 321 ]

 

[Shikabane Ryo]

Akizuki Shiki was thirsty for excitement. A distraction from the mediocrity and tedium of family duties he would begrudgingly fulfil day after day. Despite his ploy at obedience the collar around his neck would not loosen. His father was still hindering him - the stain on his legacy. The boy that should have never been born. So, in an act of open rebellion, he would set out on a mission of his choosing, accompanied by his favorite plaything. A less than reputable stray to be sure, but one that would match his tempo no matter the dance. A dangerous carnival that would eviscerate any poor soul that happened upon their path. A king has a duty to clear out the dredges of society. To maintain law and order from the scum that would see an empire crumble for personal gain. That's what he would tell himself, but his motivation was far simpler. He really needed to blow off some steam. He needed toys that he could break without repercussions, far removed from the judgmental eyes of peasants.

He stands, arms crossed with his claws tapping into his moonlit, bronze skin. The shine and luster of the moon and stars only capturing the intense bloodlust captured in his crimson eyes. He was watching their prey, following every twitch and movement they made in the shadows of the ravaged Ruins of Old Suna. A tempting purr rings out through the vivid calm before the storm. "Hm? As much as I relish the idea of sitting perched on my throne while you slaughter my enemies..." He leans over, taking her chin in his claws to pet like an obedient feline as he gazes into muddied hazel with a fanged grin. "I'd hate to miss out on another dance with you. So, come. Let's indulge ourselves a little."

[303]

 

[Komorebi Rin]

He was so very ahead of himself - wasn't that exciting? A mutt playing at Kingdom. A kingdom for a stray. They had fun together. She loved how their bodies, their voices, moved at this same tempo - this waltz - and it had yet to become boring. Oh, for both their sakes', they should sorely hope interest didn't wane. Neither was in the market to be disappointed. She looked him over as her head tilted with a rumble down the length of her tongue in his palm, blowing from pursed lips to tickle his fingers on exhalation. "If that is what you wish, young lord. I doubt they last long enough to relish, regardless." Her eyes would lilt, angled at the ends for things that rarely ever open full. A burning within hazel. Gold - regality - in a heavily scented smog.

She detaches herself from him with a languid slope of her body and spine, stretching back her arms up onto toes that briefly lift her taller than her companion and then slant her back out - enough for a bow. A curtsy. And then a disappearance, the feline off to the races on hunt for just a lick of that feeling. That release. That need.

She was ruthlessly efficient in grace - but she toyed so easily in action, the drag of her arms trailing a thread behind each knuckle while she stalked across a rooftop. She was above two of the unwitting pack, with a handful more scattered in odd directions off of them, and she was turning it into a little game of her own. Who would dispatch more of them? They weren't told to kill the banditry - as lowly scum as they were, with very little of really criminal acts beneath their belts - but they weren't told not to. They were told to clear the area. All they had to do was get them gone. Well, she would do just that ~.

It was a pirouette off the ledge she peered over, falling silently to dive through the night with only the glitter of her web to betray her descent. Her arms moved fast, attaching a selection of wire to the wall to control her position while the rest were sent to begin their aggress. They encircled the two figures, eliciting grunts of confusion that bled so heavenly to disoriented shouts and screams. The game had been set. Start. Match. She couldn't stall there, could she? They would be readying their counter attack as the cat on the wall would flick out her wrist to garrote a single of her victims in a vicious splatter, while the other was met with a loop around its terrified throat. Squeeze.

[ 774 ]

 

[Shikabane Ryo]

Oh, how every movement the stray made enticed him. Every little rumble and purr an alluring performance. What a good kitty she was. "Enjoy yourself, little stray." A command and a bow to match her curtsy at the massacre ball. The masquerade was no longer necessary for the scandalous revelry that awaits them, but it doesn't hurt to maintain appearances. The glimmering stars reflected in the murky gutters would be the only witnesses, enshrouded in an opaque veil of fog away from prying eyes. It went without saying for the two stalking the ruins in search of prey. They would kill all of their targets for no other reason than they desired so. A king bestowing merciless judgment upon the useless dregs of society.

Shiki traverses long the crumbling rooftops as hushed and nimble as a wolf skulking through a forest in search of meek prey. His ears perk up, trained to the sound of trash conversing with one another. A quick hop to perch on rusty metal overlooking the them with hungry scarlet eyes peering down at the scum merrily joking around. They didn't realize they were already trapped in a web, ignorant to their impending doom. Let's change that, shall we? A simple motion to form the proper handseals and make them aware of the nightmare they were trapped in. A sprawling web that shrouds the fragmented walls and ground. A bloodcurdling scream rings out, echoing, harrowing, until it finally ceases. The two men jolt up in attention, rushing to the dying cries of their comrades. The little stray was certainly inspiring, crawling along the walls like a black widow, every swipe of her paws a lethal bite.

Shiki dives to the ground, a flurry of seals to put the vision of a giant spider in his targets eyes to accompany the web he so graciously laid out. They scream, they shout, but they can only flail at the phantom images that leave them completely vulnerable to the real predator. He silently prowls forward, a prideful strut to snuff out grating yelps as he readies his spear. He lunges, eyes of the beast fixed on turned back as it pierces through the first bandit's chest, releasing his grip on the weapon to ready his hands for seals. The second bandit swings wildly, pleading for his life as the illusory spider comes for him. Slowly, but surely tip-tapping closer. Skittering and clicking along its web until finally it punctures through his gut, draining out nourishment in a pool of stained water.

He rips his spear from mangled corpse, rending it further as he scans the area. He let loose, but it wasn't quite out of his system yet. Shiki was looking forward to finding the last mongrel, but perhaps he would allow the stray the pleasure. For now, it was probably best to regroup with his subordinate.

[779]

 

[Komorebi Rin]

He was a sight upon the battlefield - one that every blink from Nanaka would snapshot when she wasn't busied by the rabble that pawed and clung at her ankles, a thought given only to toss out her fingers and dismiss what remained of their meat. Let them be eaten, ruled the Queen of Hearts. She would laugh. It was a joyous sound. It was light, rising with the smoke from scattered fires and meeting the yells and screams they drew at the top. Everything coalesced to a single macabre orchestra that she fell inside, feet first, hazy air rippling away from body when it touched ground. Not even the heat wanted to touch her as she was. Bright-eyed. Full-fanged. A hand marked in blood and quivering at the tips would press into her cheek and frame her hungry expression in the unhallow of the evening. They were going too far. This mission was already completed. They had scared off the banditry and no one remained to challenge their authority.

And yet. And yet. She quivered, small, bare shoulders heavy with the incandescence that seemed to smother her. She laughed again, louder. They tore from her throat until their pitch became a dog whistle, terrorizing a man on his back with crabbing hands and legs trying only to create further distance - and she saw him. She watched him, one fully opened eye and the other shining through the boughs of her fingers. Ultraviolet and pinneedled. The shape of her in shadows and firelight shuddered, a movement so ecstatic and feral and quick that vision could barely keep up with how she suddenly appeared atop him. Her scent was rustic on inhalation, sour and copper, that miasma that clung to her every breath overpowering in his face. He couldn't handle the pressure. He was reduced to flailing his arms to try and get her away from him, shrieking bloody murder on every swing and back-pedal, and she allowed him his troubles before - in mercy - she silenced the roar.

Any stragglers were left to the King's judgment. For her case, she was holding her knees and rattling out gasp after gasp as she brought herself back under control. Her breath threatened a wheeze. Her body threatened a collapse. Her mind was not faring much better in the adrenaline, burning through her gaze until that same bloody hand shoved at her head to screw it back on straight. Here, kitty kitty.

Here, kitty.

The slope of her stand was slow and methodical, and she sought out her partner in this revelry after a few skips of silence more. "Are you quite done, young lord?"

[ 1214 ]

 

[Shikabane Ryo]

He leisurely paces through the battlefield, towards the sound of shrieking laughter from a feral kitty possessed. By what? Shiki could hazard a few guesses. The white noise of terrified screams, the smell of blood and rust mixing together in foul alchemy and the silhouettes of mangled corpses painted in along the crumbling concrete. Shiki didn't give a damn about protecting Sunagakure. The entire reason he became a shinobi was because of his family's "obligations". Well, that's not quite true. If it was simply a matter of being told what to do, he'd sooner die. Spite and the desire to carve his own throne out of whatever dark corner he could, until he was able to proudly claim himself the king of everything. That would be his miracle. They were simply reclaiming their rightful territory from the fiends and vagabonds squatting here in the discarded trash and decaying ruins. They? When did he start seeing the stray as a partner? A queen, perhaps? She certainly had the... form of one. Shiki laughs, boisterous and loud as almost a taunt for any lurking assassins to take their best shot. "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!" The queen is the most powerful piece and the king was the most important. It was a crucial distinction. He was no fool. He wanted... whatever she was, wholly wrapped around his finger and so he would continue to dance with death - the benefits well worth the risks and so, yet again, he would make his command, gambling on the certainty that she would revel in the masquerade that permitted her to wear her true face.

Lucky me~ He could smell the fear in the air, the shifting atmosphere as a dead man walking makes his final stand. It was amusing, a bandit of all people deciding to face an honorable death, the rest either gobbling up in the cat's cradle or long fled from the ballroom massacre. "Hahahaha! You will find no reprieve here, mongrel. The only think you will receive is a swift death." His eyes glare through the rugged man tightly clenching his blade. He must not have been one for small talk, simply rushing forward with a bloodcurdling battlecry. Nobody likes a hero and miracles don't exist for people like him. "Perish and curse the misfortune of your very existence." A maelstrom of signs, wringing chakra through his core as he casts a simple genjutsu. The bandit drops his weapon, screaming as if his hands were in searing agony and he persists nonetheless, winding back for a dynamic punch. The king readies his spear, twirling it with perfect grace befitting a monarch as it slices through the bandit's hand. The screams are always better when they're the genuine article. Blood sprays from severed hand, the will to fight draining along with it. The moon catches the glint of sharp fangs even as the man cries out, pleading for his life. The sentence must be carried out. A fool of a hero that deserves a pitiful death. He plunges his spear through the helpless mongrel's chest, piercing his heart in one fell motion.

He retracts his spear, wiping it's crimson-stained blade on the recently deceased mongrel as the stray skulks from the shrouded curtain of penumbral borderland. "I am satisfied for now, stray." A thorough evaluation from royal ruby, taking in the stunning visage of his partner in crime. "From the looks of it, you are as well, yes? Come. Accompany me a little longer." A bow and an extended hand for debauched camaraderie amidst the carnage wrought.

[1371]

 

[Komorebi Rin]

A revelry in debauchery. A festival of clowns - and oh, the victor held the spoils of masks both happy and sad. Fettered fingers drifted aimless threads that held no more puppets, no more jesters, no more victims or toys but the empty air - all quiet, save for their daring carnage. All silent, save for this unholy night. Their laughter - their mirth - rang louder than any roar of fire, blood or scream, and the antagonists of this play were fully cleared from their plates and the board before them with a final flick of satisfied wrists. The heroes won again. All villainy in Sunagakure was destined to fall ... fall ... fall in the face of such virtue.

And oh, how virtue could often have the cinch of a vice. Did she feel it now around her neck? The corpse at her feet surely had. That was almost freeing. Off with their heads, the King had declared. The Queen was all too equally eager to lay claim to each unbeating heart. They were better without the sound. There was always so much noise. Her leg shifted, as if she was all about to topple over at the weight of a single thought. Ringing in her ears. She held herself upright with a hand in bloodstained hair, her face split in teeth too sharp and a grin too wide to be human. A cat's tail flickered. She had to gasp down her last breaths, eager for nothing. Eager for everything. Eager to run. Eager to fight. Eager to cry. Eager to scream. EagertokilltolivetodietowintolosetobreaktobendtoSHATTER--

A straightened shadow, and a slope to lips that fell into their manicured place - once more the phantom of a smile, and the eyes of one in tow. "Quite satisfied, my lord." She purred at him, turning on her heel with a resounding click of its own that all but silenced the rest of the racket. "It goes without saying, of course, but you were a vision Akizuki Shiki. Should we find room in our busy schedules for another outing such as this ...," and she didn't so much as glance back as they set off to report the good news.

Ding dong, the scum are dead. Long live the scum. "I think we'd find our time well spent. Sunagakure is blessed for our involvement in its affairs, young master."

[ 1608 | Modded D-Rank Done
topic exit ]

 

[Chikamatsu Shin]