He had slipped away from the Renmei group, being small enough to navigate forward tunnels without having his mobility impeded. With his respirator on his face and water up to his thighs, he moved through a tunnel that didn’t follow any of the known maps. The chakra produced from his respirator's artificial carmot crystals provided ample light in the tunnel. He had already marked three new offshoot channels using seals his clan carried, did not explore those pathways. The water flowing within this offshoot tunnel moved faster with the current near his boots pulling at his footing. A low pressure hummed through the water, giving his senses the kind of feeling he’d only ever felt near unstable drops. Before he could react the rock beneath him gave way within the tunnel's entrance. Stone cracked and water erupted upwards from the lower pressurized tunnel that had been compromised. The suction formed pulled Tsumugu into the awaiting current while parts of the lower tunnel wall collapsed around. He forced his body still and let the current carry him while his mind raced to catch up with what was going on. Although he was thrown around the seals of his respirator also held which maintained his ability to breath underwater. The tunnel opened suddenly with the current hurling him outwards into an opening then down. This is how he discovered that the tunnel opened into a cavern so large the light from his chakra could not make the walls visible.
Water filled the basin from shaft tunnels seemingly emptying out into this large cavern. Tsumugu simply was left to tread water within the large body of water. The water seemed to have immediately shifted like something had moved to look at him and Tsumugu would use his chakra to stand on the water's surface. He took a moment to look at his surroundings noticing a small shimmer deep beneath him in the water. The glow beneath circling for a few moments before suddenly the light scattered. They were small and at first only a few dozen, then hundreds of tiny fish shaped lights each one surrounded by a shell sculpted from chakra, their bodies luminous. They swam in wide circles around him moving as one. They moved with harmory as if they were all of the same body. Tsumugu took note of this, observing that their movements in the water was so tranquil that the water was undisturbed by the swimming motion. The individual fish flowed together into a mass that condensed into a single enormous shape. A large creature of mass and chakra, long and sleek. After combining into the great fish before him, awe gave way to something colder and a more dangerous thought. He was lost. He had no idea how far below the surface he had been dragged. There was some certainty that he had gone well beyond the limits of the clan's tracking technique. To this thought he reflexively clutched at the necklace around his neck, the carmot crystal emitting a constant light glow. He forced the fear down, but it didn’t vanish. His reality was brought back when he realized that the great fish circled him, closer.
The presence of it made the cavern feel impossibly smaller in that moment as even the shadows of walls he could not see closed inwards. Shifting his weight, his body lunged backwards to make some distance. All he could do was stare, breath trembling, mind stretched between wonder and the reality that beneath Sunagakure, far deeper creatures existed. His body would move before his mind could form the command, muscle memory triggering as he moved airborne just as a stream was ejected upwards from where he was formerly standing. This stream of water was followed by another and multitude more, each arcing towards his position. It was immediate though that Tsumugu realized that this wasn't an attack as he wouldn't be easily avoiding such moves had it been. A point no sooner proven than had crossed his mind, as a stream of water went unnoticed underneath. A voice reached him through the current as if many mouths spoke from the same thought. “Small one… how does a child of the surface come to swim in the forgotten deep? Your path should not have crossed ours. Yet here you are… and alone?"
Both eyes would open, finding no air above as he had been dragged into the cavern basin's deep by the entity. In that moment lights no longer circled or swam, it faced him and the many eyes could all be felt keeping him in their gaze. Tsumugu steadied himself in this moment, the faint glow of chakra and carmot light reflecting off the dark metal of his Renmei respirator. Inside the chamber, the device filtered the water’s pressure and oxygen content, keeping his breathing slow and controlled despite the depth. The massive shape of the summoning drifted closer to him after going unanswered, the countless small ice fish composing its body moving in perfect, formation. Its presence was overwhelming and strangely yet impossibly calm. Then the voice touched his mind yet again after observing his form after coming within his personal space. “Your breath is borrowed from craft and will.”
Tsumugu’s stiffened his shoulders and turned his head slightly, blue eyes glowing faintly behind the crystal lenses of the respirator while looking out into the water. He had no sense of direction anymore aven the tunnel which spat him out into this place had no bearing to him. This creature had the power and control here, not him. “A Renmei clan design,” he answered in thought. “It lets me stay… where I need to be.” Tsumugu only thought about how he answered after the fact, realizing it sounded as if he was meant to be here, as if this wasn't all an accident. "Even if lost", he quickly added. "You are lost”, It said gently within his mind, a reaction he had not expected as the great fish paused before him. “I need help,” he thought, his facial expression flooding with doubt easily seen through the mask. “I don’t know the way out. The tunnel I was exploring floor collapsed. I am to far away for my tracking technique to work, let alone my team's. I can’t stay down here forever...” For the first time since he had fallen here the fear surfaced clearly in his mental voice. It was not panicked, but honest. “I want to go home. I don't want to die here”.
The great fish drifted closer to him enough that their faces touched, its body shedding a soft blue light across the cavern. The water around them grew still, as if the deep itself were listening. “We can guide you, we know the paths of the water. We know where the stone still breathes to the forgotten seas and oceans. But nothing in the deep is given without balance.” Tsumugu looked, eyes shining behind the crystal lenses of his respirator. The shoal within the great form shifted, the countless small fish separating and reforming, their movement slow and deliberate. “When the waters of your village are threatened,” the entity said, “When the currents are wounded and the stone begins to fail… you will call to us.” Images flooded his mind in this moment of collapsing tunnels, poisoned springs, burning heat above the sand, the village he had sworn to protect. All things he realized was internal fears of his, extensions of his upbringing that the Renmei had instilled brought to a mental surface. These thoughts in this moment and his upbringing being telepathically shared between himself and the creature(s). They shared a common communion with the water, it's nature and it's reverence. “You will become our voice, our eyes, our ears on the surface. A bond. A responsibility.”
Tsumugu straightened in the water, the weight of the water around him pressing equally against his chest. “I already am,” he thought quietly and truthfully as he was thinking about the embrace of water in that moment. “That’s my job and my birthright as a Renmei.” The cavern deep seemed to warm in response to their mental conversation. The great fish’s glow deepened, and the shoal flowed outward, surrounding Tsumugu in a gentle spiral of light and motion. What had been a single shape unraveled into a current with hundreds of ice fish separating from one another and streaming forward through the cavern abyss. They did not scatter as individuals, they aligned, forming a flowing path of light that cut through the darkness like a river made visible. The pathway created winded through the water riding a rising current. “Follow,” the voice said gently inside Tsumugu’s mind. He hesitated only for a moment, then kicked forward letting the current guide him. The fish moved ahead of him as the cavern began to change. The group would split at intersections, signaling dead ends and unstable routes. At one point, the passage narrowed sharply, the ceiling jagged where the collapse had torn it open. The water roared unstable and hungry. Before Tsumugu could adjust his position, the shoal surged forward, chakra flowing from each fish as an individual mass, freezing the turbulence in place into a passage.
“Move now,” the creature urged. Swimming upward and gradually, the water warmed around them. The pressure eased and ahead of him, the swimming would begin to slow. The ice fish gathered once more to reform into the great fish. “Here the path returns to the hands of your kind.” The group surged upwards with ice spreading across cavern stone redirecting pressure and pushing water to flow cleanly upwards until breaking open into the floor of an above tunnel. A narrow but stable opening formed where none had existed before. The great fish turned back to him one last time after recollecting itself from enough individual ice fish that it fit comfortably within the smaller passage. “Remember the balance and call when the water is wounded or in need.” A single individual fish would break apart from the greater mass, placing itself upon Tsumugu's left palm and leaving behind a seal which would slowly fade. The group of fish would break apart into numerous individual's, each glowing of pale light chakra that disappeared into the water leaving the tunnel quiet and Tsumugu alone. Tsumugu hovered there for a moment, breathing steadily through his respirator after climbing onto the tunnel floor, staring into await passage.
There, yards down the tunnel rested a glowing seal...a tag he had left before being sucked down into lower tunnels.
[WC: 1763]
[Using Discovery of Contract of Your Choice ASP Card - Finding Fish]
Water filled the basin from shaft tunnels seemingly emptying out into this large cavern. Tsumugu simply was left to tread water within the large body of water. The water seemed to have immediately shifted like something had moved to look at him and Tsumugu would use his chakra to stand on the water's surface. He took a moment to look at his surroundings noticing a small shimmer deep beneath him in the water. The glow beneath circling for a few moments before suddenly the light scattered. They were small and at first only a few dozen, then hundreds of tiny fish shaped lights each one surrounded by a shell sculpted from chakra, their bodies luminous. They swam in wide circles around him moving as one. They moved with harmory as if they were all of the same body. Tsumugu took note of this, observing that their movements in the water was so tranquil that the water was undisturbed by the swimming motion. The individual fish flowed together into a mass that condensed into a single enormous shape. A large creature of mass and chakra, long and sleek. After combining into the great fish before him, awe gave way to something colder and a more dangerous thought. He was lost. He had no idea how far below the surface he had been dragged. There was some certainty that he had gone well beyond the limits of the clan's tracking technique. To this thought he reflexively clutched at the necklace around his neck, the carmot crystal emitting a constant light glow. He forced the fear down, but it didn’t vanish. His reality was brought back when he realized that the great fish circled him, closer.
The presence of it made the cavern feel impossibly smaller in that moment as even the shadows of walls he could not see closed inwards. Shifting his weight, his body lunged backwards to make some distance. All he could do was stare, breath trembling, mind stretched between wonder and the reality that beneath Sunagakure, far deeper creatures existed. His body would move before his mind could form the command, muscle memory triggering as he moved airborne just as a stream was ejected upwards from where he was formerly standing. This stream of water was followed by another and multitude more, each arcing towards his position. It was immediate though that Tsumugu realized that this wasn't an attack as he wouldn't be easily avoiding such moves had it been. A point no sooner proven than had crossed his mind, as a stream of water went unnoticed underneath. A voice reached him through the current as if many mouths spoke from the same thought. “Small one… how does a child of the surface come to swim in the forgotten deep? Your path should not have crossed ours. Yet here you are… and alone?"
Both eyes would open, finding no air above as he had been dragged into the cavern basin's deep by the entity. In that moment lights no longer circled or swam, it faced him and the many eyes could all be felt keeping him in their gaze. Tsumugu steadied himself in this moment, the faint glow of chakra and carmot light reflecting off the dark metal of his Renmei respirator. Inside the chamber, the device filtered the water’s pressure and oxygen content, keeping his breathing slow and controlled despite the depth. The massive shape of the summoning drifted closer to him after going unanswered, the countless small ice fish composing its body moving in perfect, formation. Its presence was overwhelming and strangely yet impossibly calm. Then the voice touched his mind yet again after observing his form after coming within his personal space. “Your breath is borrowed from craft and will.”
Tsumugu’s stiffened his shoulders and turned his head slightly, blue eyes glowing faintly behind the crystal lenses of the respirator while looking out into the water. He had no sense of direction anymore aven the tunnel which spat him out into this place had no bearing to him. This creature had the power and control here, not him. “A Renmei clan design,” he answered in thought. “It lets me stay… where I need to be.” Tsumugu only thought about how he answered after the fact, realizing it sounded as if he was meant to be here, as if this wasn't all an accident. "Even if lost", he quickly added. "You are lost”, It said gently within his mind, a reaction he had not expected as the great fish paused before him. “I need help,” he thought, his facial expression flooding with doubt easily seen through the mask. “I don’t know the way out. The tunnel I was exploring floor collapsed. I am to far away for my tracking technique to work, let alone my team's. I can’t stay down here forever...” For the first time since he had fallen here the fear surfaced clearly in his mental voice. It was not panicked, but honest. “I want to go home. I don't want to die here”.
The great fish drifted closer to him enough that their faces touched, its body shedding a soft blue light across the cavern. The water around them grew still, as if the deep itself were listening. “We can guide you, we know the paths of the water. We know where the stone still breathes to the forgotten seas and oceans. But nothing in the deep is given without balance.” Tsumugu looked, eyes shining behind the crystal lenses of his respirator. The shoal within the great form shifted, the countless small fish separating and reforming, their movement slow and deliberate. “When the waters of your village are threatened,” the entity said, “When the currents are wounded and the stone begins to fail… you will call to us.” Images flooded his mind in this moment of collapsing tunnels, poisoned springs, burning heat above the sand, the village he had sworn to protect. All things he realized was internal fears of his, extensions of his upbringing that the Renmei had instilled brought to a mental surface. These thoughts in this moment and his upbringing being telepathically shared between himself and the creature(s). They shared a common communion with the water, it's nature and it's reverence. “You will become our voice, our eyes, our ears on the surface. A bond. A responsibility.”
Tsumugu straightened in the water, the weight of the water around him pressing equally against his chest. “I already am,” he thought quietly and truthfully as he was thinking about the embrace of water in that moment. “That’s my job and my birthright as a Renmei.” The cavern deep seemed to warm in response to their mental conversation. The great fish’s glow deepened, and the shoal flowed outward, surrounding Tsumugu in a gentle spiral of light and motion. What had been a single shape unraveled into a current with hundreds of ice fish separating from one another and streaming forward through the cavern abyss. They did not scatter as individuals, they aligned, forming a flowing path of light that cut through the darkness like a river made visible. The pathway created winded through the water riding a rising current. “Follow,” the voice said gently inside Tsumugu’s mind. He hesitated only for a moment, then kicked forward letting the current guide him. The fish moved ahead of him as the cavern began to change. The group would split at intersections, signaling dead ends and unstable routes. At one point, the passage narrowed sharply, the ceiling jagged where the collapse had torn it open. The water roared unstable and hungry. Before Tsumugu could adjust his position, the shoal surged forward, chakra flowing from each fish as an individual mass, freezing the turbulence in place into a passage.
“Move now,” the creature urged. Swimming upward and gradually, the water warmed around them. The pressure eased and ahead of him, the swimming would begin to slow. The ice fish gathered once more to reform into the great fish. “Here the path returns to the hands of your kind.” The group surged upwards with ice spreading across cavern stone redirecting pressure and pushing water to flow cleanly upwards until breaking open into the floor of an above tunnel. A narrow but stable opening formed where none had existed before. The great fish turned back to him one last time after recollecting itself from enough individual ice fish that it fit comfortably within the smaller passage. “Remember the balance and call when the water is wounded or in need.” A single individual fish would break apart from the greater mass, placing itself upon Tsumugu's left palm and leaving behind a seal which would slowly fade. The group of fish would break apart into numerous individual's, each glowing of pale light chakra that disappeared into the water leaving the tunnel quiet and Tsumugu alone. Tsumugu hovered there for a moment, breathing steadily through his respirator after climbing onto the tunnel floor, staring into await passage.
There, yards down the tunnel rested a glowing seal...a tag he had left before being sucked down into lower tunnels.
[WC: 1763]
[Using Discovery of Contract of Your Choice ASP Card - Finding Fish]