It was cold…
Like really colder than usual…
Maru usually take the mountain paths since his weather manipulating youkai made it easier for him to travel around Monumentum Deo but the cold now wasn't the diamond dust-harmless stuff but he was hit in the face with a freaking blizzard! It's a good thing Maru had furry tails to wrap around himself plus the fox fire that constantly lurks near him otherwise he'd be toast right now. The snow fell thick, the lens of his eye mask was beginning to fog up making it difficult for him to see so Maru simply removed his mask since he had a second one without lens on underneath his… Mask. He didn't know what was up with the weather, it felt like if the temperature dropped any lower that it'll be as cold as water country. Trudging through the thick snow with his back straight and his hands in the sleeves of his kimono in an attempt at looking elegant he could hear a whisper in the snow. It was low at first, the snowflakes changing shapes as the song that came from everywhere but nowhere at the same time. It almost started off as a hum of some kind so Maru figured that it was some kind of snow spirit so he decided to spread his aura of fear in an attempt to draw in some of the creatures fear. His aura pulsed out once, only once, making the snow move in a large circle around him as if there was a large explosion and him being the shockwave in the center. Large snowflakes in the shape of butterflies quickly fluttered away from Maru, flying off then shattering turning the magical ice elemental into snow. Now knowing that he wasn't alone, he looked at his hand seeing that his aura however successfully scared off the familiars he haven't drawn any life force so he figured that it wasn't a shinobi level creature that was following him. It was all creature..
Maru decided to go on a journey into the blizzard to find whatever it was that was turning this land into a frozen hell. Moving against the snow he looked in front of him to see a humanoid shape of something in the snow… just standing there. Raising his hand through the bitter cold he yelled out to the thing he believed to be standing there. "H-HEEEEEY!!!" Maru called out to whatever it was in front of him but it didn't seem to be responding to his words so he moved as quickly as he could, not wanting whoever this was to die out here in a surprise blizzard. As he approached whatever it was, the blizzard seemed to grow more intense, so intense that he had to stop to use Immolation Armor to increase his body heat so he didn't get frostbite from the cold. The thing in front of him still stood there, Maru starting to move a little faster now that the cold didn't feel too aggressive. The blizzard that was growing aggressive suddenly calmed a bit, making the image of what he found change his mood from concerned to quickly turning into the dog that he was. Before him was a beautiful pale lady wearing an extremely thin kimono, so thin that you could actually see through the kimono as though it clung to her bluish gray skin. Something that didn't seem to be good for being in the middle of a blizzard. Long snow white hair with eyes of a deep violet, her stare made the fox yokai from her bone chilling aura she was giving off.
Maru knew what kind of spirit it was, this was a Yuki Onna! He knew just how to get this spirits aid since he needed a few elementals in his group however he spread his aura of fear just to be safe in case the snow woman got violent. After asserting himself as the superior animal here, Maru raised his hand. "Well, well, well never thought I'd come across a Yuki Onna in the middle of summer. What brought you around here?" asked Maru. The snow spirit was surrounded by these weird ice butterflies that glowed a light blue color, the elemental slowly raising her hands above her head then instantly dropping them down as she formed a spear made of ice then pointed her weapon at the fox youkai. "Goodbye…." said the Yuki Onna as she proceeded to hold her hand under her mouth to blow a vapor like chakra at Maru to attempt to freeze him right then and there. After the Yuki Onna froze the kitsune where he stood, the illusion was dispelled to reveal she was under one of Maru's genjustu. However he wasn't done because he hammered into the snow woman's mind again with his reapers gaze. The fear caused the snow woman to freeze where she stood, feeling like there were hundreds of demons behind her. She could kill them all with her chilling winds of death but she could no longer move at all, her storm, the elemental shroud.. all just vanished and now she felt like she will soon be executed. But obviously this was just to calm her down….
"Hey, chill out. Don't wanna kill an ally would ya?" He said, feeling that it was much less colder after he used his genjustu on her. Look, I don't care how many people you been taking but you know that there's a monster hunting branch specifically looking for rogue critters who are aimlessly slaughtering people right? See people investigate and I bet you were to pretty busy with consuming humans." he looked at the path to his home wondering if he should just tell her to go off to water country since the winters never end there or recruit her into his group of youkai. "If you join up with me, I'll make sure you won't like melt away or that any people would come looking for you. You'll be pretty safe at my place since I live in the Spine Of The World, sure could use a weather manipulating spirit to keep people away so how about it?" He asked the Yuki Onna. She looked at him with a blank expression, then narrowed her eyes as if it is trying to figure out if he was luring her into a trap or not. This made Maru chuckled then he raised his hand dismissively waving, dropping his reapers gaze genjustu to release her from his fear. "Trust me I don't have anything up my sleeves, I just wanna help a tormented soul. Common what you got to lose?"
Nodding the Yuki Onna blue her frigid breath on her hand to produce a crystal shard, it was blue diamond gem of some kind and she held out her hand to for him to take it. "The shard of the elements… if you seek for me be your contract you will take the Aqua Shard since my elemental abilities come from water. Infuse your chakra into the shard the pact will be complete." as she said that Maru's heart jumped, how many of these shards where out there, if he hunted for more elemental beings he might could find more but he guessed one would do for now, need to see what kind of power it had first. Taking the gem from the hand of the spirit, Maru looked at the jewel from all sides to study it. He gave a shrug then channeled his corrupted energy into his hand then infused it into the shard. The gems core began to convulse then the Aqua Shard simply stayed the light blue, almost similar to the butterfly familiars. Now that the pact was complete Maru could see that his gem soon transformed to infuse with his nails making ice elemental tongs for him and he felt almost immune to the cold that his contract gave off like how his elemental was immune to his aura of fear. "The price has been paid… power is yours...." said the Yuki Onna. Confused, he saw that the pact with the felines float up towards him since he wasn't faithful to the only two summon rule. The contract with the felines frozen, shattered, then blew away in the breeze as though it was going to another person who was more deserving of the contract. He felt a little bad for Yami Maru, but although he was skilled the kind of elemental powers that Yuki Onna provided couldn't be passed up. With a sigh, he turned his tongs back into the Aqua Shard then placed it into a pocket inside of his kimono. "Common, let's head off to the Spine. I believe you could help me relearn something I lost." He said, then he lead the spirit to the Spine where he would begin his training in a different practice of the Sage Arts.
WC:1517
Using Discovery of Contract of Your Choice Card for an Elemental Contract summon.
Link to purchase: https://www.ninpocho.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=53856&sid=c175c73ce25ad730523634617f5cbc33&start=180#p334597
