Meeting of the Deep Court [Private]

[Sand Council]

Naganisa's Aquisition
Kaito's Aquisition
[col3]

Naganisa
Former Cabal Member​

|

Michi
Oracle - Former Cabal Member - Member of the Deep Court​

|

Kaito
Former Cabal Leader​

[/col3]

The Red Scorpion Bar, a small worthless-seeming bar with watered down drinks and the closest thing to live-music the establishment has ever known is the wino at the counter screaming the only drinking song he knows. The barkeep, a large hairless rock of a man, huge even by an Akamichi's standard has always been able to (thankfully) keep this patron's shenanigans at bar with a steel look. Criminals have always flocked to this establishment like moths to a flame. It had nothing to do with his wares but rather the location, in the heart of the Black Bazaar many unscrupulous individuals use this bar as a center of operations. Since the collapse of the ceiling by Barynx destroyed most of this establishment's competition, the bar has been packed wall-to-wall. The densely populated space does not seem to deter the growing crowds that last until morning. Thankfully Michi would arrive before most of the drunkards, it was the early afternoon that she had requested a meeting between herself and a pair of pardoned notorious criminals plus one.

Everything and I mean EVERYTHING comes with a price. From the baubles and trinkets that the merchants sell to allegiances and favors from friends and peers. The Cabal had wrought great destruction on the place many called home; her alleged guilt would be by association despite the fact that she had not caused harm to a single denizen. Until the other day Sunagakure was housed inside of a fragile bubble and once offense met such a delicate balance, the bubble *popped.* It seemed fitting that the worst portions of Sunagakure were the ones that were saved such as this. The Black Bazaar was one such place, where the cretins and degenerates would gather, fester and grow in both numbers and strength like a disease. Many of their establishments were buried still and rescue workers would likely save them last, but despite the dead below their feet still to be recovered, the cave-in was actually an improvement. The shoddiest of structures now leveled, only the strongest and heartiest survived.

Michi told herself that she was doing the community a great service, riding Sunagakure of the perils they were too slothful to stand against. She knew that she could not depend on Sunagakure to face the Daimyo, despite her efforts they had done nothing. She also knew from Mikaboshi's experiences that Sunans could not be trusted for their word. Naganisa entered before her, she cleaned up well enough for a madwoman but she still looked nuttier than a squirrel. Her eyes darted back and forth and she paced impatiently. "WhereIsHe...WhereIsHe...WhereIsHe..." she muttered this chant.

Michi walked over to the barkeep and whispered something in his ear. He nodded and made his way to the door. The barkeep would wait for the other two to arrive and then lock the door. This was intended to be a private meeting and he was about to be paid handsomely for his compliance. The other bartender, that old crone, and his wife would be pleased with the profits he made on this day despite the risk. What was hidden in that book was something valuable indeed. Something she had hidden there in case it was needed (diamonds) and their value exceeded that of this run-down establishment. While he waited by the door Michi would busy herself pouring a few pitchers of drinks. She had worked here briefly while under a henge while she gathered intelligence on this community so she knew her way around.

A few minutes early still, Kaito would arrive. He would appear pale but be walking without so much as a limp. He cancer was far from cured, he was still a dead man walking and both of them knew it but that would not matter for much longer. "Good to see that you could make it Kaito. I have a very important person that you must meet."

"Aye," Kaito would grunt as he pulled a fag from his pocket and lit it with a snap of his fingers.

There would be a brief awkward silence. As much as she liked to talk, she did not want to repeat herself. She offered the pair a drink while they waited, there was something fruity and strong and something bitter and stronger to choose from. They would not be left waiting for long.

"Lord Mikaboshi, thank you for coming."

 

[Mikaboshi]

[col]Indeed it was hard to know just how long they'd been alone in the first place. Such was a talent of the dark king; to appear in places where shadows hung heavy without warning or sound. It was a talent that he'd used to his advantage many times in the past and now was no exception. As Michi spoke her greeting to the darkness around her, Mikaboshi made his presence known through a shift in the way the gloom clung to the room like a spider plucking on the strands of a web. Leaning against a far wall, Mikaboshi was outfitted differently from the last time that Michi had seen him at the meeting with the Kazekage and his court of fools. Gone was the nostalgic gear that recalled his time as the director of the Sunagakurian ANBU, replaced with a long black coat which was almost more cloak than coat and a suit of tactical gear that hid any number of potentially dangerous items. Even his mask was different now. The mask that adorned his hooded face was bone white, just as the first one was, but instead of the facsimile of a human face this mask was clear in it's imagery of a grim-faced skull.

It was clear: this was a Mikaboshi geared for war.

Unfolding his arms from where he'd crossed them against his chest, Mikaboshi moved forward with the practiced grace of a seasoned predator as he took in the imagery of the two that Michi had called him to meet. Kaito he knew already, they'd exchanged words not long ago when Mikaboshi had relieved him of the artifact which powered his dangerous transformed state as payment for the indignity he'd suffered during the Cabal occupation of the city. Naganisa he knew as well but only from the memories that he'd pilfered from Katsuo's mind. There was a part of him which languished in suffering from the human infection that was Katsuo's humanity was pleased to see Naganisa unharmed as it seemed as though Katsuo had developed a genuine fondness for the basket case and somehow that soft spot had been passed on to Mikaboshi to some level through the way Katsuo's humanity seeped into his consciousness like an oil spill.

"I see you have brought to me two more poor unfortunate souls."|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2JjjSKh6jM]BGM[/url]]"]

Mikaboshi - One and Again Lord of the Deep Court
King Under the Sands, The Great Nightmare, The Night's King, Eldest Shadow

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

[col3]

Naganisa
Former Cabal Member​

|

Michi
Oracle - Former Cabal Member - Member of the Deep Court​

|

Kaito
Former Cabal Leader​

[/col3]

The shadows and chill heralded his presence. She did not know how long he had been there, watching... waiting. She did not care because she had nothing to hide for once. In fact, today was about telling the truth, not a version of it. The truth was something required on this day because she intended to conscript her former cohorts into the Deep Court. She knew that it was likely that Kaito had met the Deep Court Lord before but she assumed it would have been years ago and not something quite so recent as Avaron's assault. As for Naganisa, she knew about her illicit relationship with the Sunahoshi host. She knew about the face beneath Mikaboshi's carefully chosen mask - a human face under the guise of a human face where both hid the true creature but failed to obscure his intent. She knew Mikaboshi's history, both the legend and the lore as well as more clinical recollections but she had only come to understand the Ancient recently. Mikaboshi was not unlike most humans, he had a desire to live and a passion for his people as well as an intense loneliness that no other human could fully appreciate. He did not lose a family, a clan or even a race, Ancients were referred to in the past tense. They are so obscure and rare that legend is more abundant than fact. He was among the last of his kind, not his family. He did not lose some friends, some neighbors but everything he was attached to. Everything he knew. He was ripped from his time, left in the purgatory of a Journeyman blade for centuries only to emerge in a new world where those he considered animals for the most part now ruled the world.

She understood him but he did not have her sympathies.

Naganisa was a wretched woman from the time she left her mother's womb. She lived an impoverished life and it was no surprise that she spent her youth in a brothel. She was never quite right, if it was a result of nature or nurture she would never be sure. She was the kind of woman that fell in love too easily and the landing was always hard. She had a thing for bad boys and idiots with terrible hair. Her taste was terrible and her heart was broken each and every time, as she slowly approached middle age her best years were behind her. She even almost found possible love, that was until Mikaboshi took this one away from her too. Fuu knew that Naganisa was still in love with Kasuo, she mourned the man like a martyr. She knew that Naganisa would do anything to be with him, even the vestiges left behind. Of course Fuu, or rather Michi was banking on a few things -- the duplicitous nature of the Deep Court and her ability to tell a lie with only truth.

Kaito was dying. His love for those cancer sticks was going to be the end of him, a rather unusual thing considering the fact that most shinobis fail to live this long. Perhaps it was a testament to his stubborn nature - he was unwilling to die. Still, he had perhaps a few months left at best. He was an experienced fighter, years past his prime. He had a wealth of experience not only on the battlefield but also hunting, not for men or beasts but for things that have been lost and forgotten. He was an asset, one best left not dead. But he was also a proud man, one that did not want to accept help from others. But he had one flaw that was deeper than pride, his wrath. She had been keeping several secrets from him, secrets he would never forgive her for but he would tolerate her all the same because of the things she knew. The fact that the cause of his wife's death was still alive. The fact that the storm was not a mistake or an act of nature. The fact that everything up until this point had been planned and that they, yes even they were merely the pawns in something much bigger.

"I wanted you to meet your next inductees into the Deep Court," Michi announced calmly. There was no hubris or authority in her voice as she said this, she simply stated it as if it was a fact.
[col]"What?"|"Not a chance."[/col]

One questioned and one denied. "It will happen," she affirmed. The possible scenarios that could follow ran through her head. She knew that the reaction from Kaito would prove dangerous, the one from Naganisa less so. Naganisa was not a particularly intelligent woman in Michi's opinion, but she was loyal to a fault. She would start with Naganisa. "Naganisa, would you do anything for Katsuo?" Michi asked, her demeanor calm and the question seeming random.

"Yes," Naganisa affirmed as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"If Katsuo needed you to be something you were not, would you become it? If Katsuo were able to make you stronger, more capable but different... would you want it?"

"I'd do anything for Mister K," Naganisa frowned. "But I do not understand why this is a thing. He ran out on me and you know it," she seemed irked.

"Katsuo did not walk out on you," Michi attested. She was not wrong. She approached Naganisa, in comparison Naganisa was a rather tall woman. Michi had to reach up to touch her face, "but you are getting old... you cannot keep this up forever."

Naganisa's thin, arched brow twitched. "Bitch say what?"

Naganisa was not one for impulse management, perhaps that was one of the things Katsuo enjoyed about her. Naganisa swung at Michi and the newest Deep Court hybrid ducked below her arcing attack and swept her leg across the ground to knock the 'snake bitch' off of her feet. Michi or Fuu was actually a rather proficient martial artist, all things said. Better than the skill-set she had previously displayed where a loss was more beneficial than a win. As Naganisa fell, Michi's balled fist struck the descending former Cabalist in the ribs. She could feel them crack beneath her knuckles. Naganisa would land on the floor hard and she would immediately notice that it was hard for her to breathe. One of her broken ribs had pierced her lung and it was filling up with blood. Naganisa's palms planted on the floor, panting she mustered the strength to rise. As she did so, Michi attempted to follow-up with an additional blow to her sternum but her attack was deflected by Kaito.

"Have you lost your mind!" Kaito snapped as he rebuked her.

Naganisa took this time as an oppertunity to draw her weapon, a curved dagger and pour a strange oily substance onto the blade. "You will have your oppertunity shortly," Michi promised as her hands ran through an array of handseals. There were some tricks she had always made apparent. A wave of paper that seemed to be kicked up by a windstorm came out of seemingly nowhere and wrapped around Kaito. The attack was powerful, but time-consuming. Those three seconds were more than enough time for Naganisa to lunge at Michi with a knife drawn. Michi tried to avoid it like the fist attack but failed to do so. The sharp edge cut into her skin and left a large open wound on her flank. There was this searing pain, Fuu recognized it immediately. This was one of her 'special' poisons. She did not even see Naganisa pack it when they left her ramshackle apartment. Michi struck at Naganisa's extended arm as the weapon cut her, causing her elbow to bend unnaturally. With uncanny dexterity she grabbed hold of the barely held blade and plunged it into Naganisa's chest.

Time would seem to stop for a moment. There was a look of shock and horror in Kaito's eyes, he screamed at Michi. "FUU WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!"

Michi seemed surprised with herself. She had never killed anyone before, or at the very least never almost did. She dropped Naganisa's dying form and raised both her bloodied hands in the air. Naganisa crumbled to the floor, her blood poured from her at a dangerous rate as she chocked and gasped for air. "I took the fault and the blame," she announced as she carefully took a step back. There was not much time for her to explain herself. "She was getting old... and ugly and you know it," Michi announced in a cold and calculated manner. "And she is in love with you, Katsuo," she called Mikaboshi Katsuo. She knew that Katsuo was only a meat puppet being driven around by the Ancient but it mattered little. Katsuo was not rotting away so she knew he was very much alive. She also doubted that the mind of a Sunahoshi could be so completely overwhelmed and consumed by an Ancient. If they could, then every account written by an Oracle on the matter was a lie. "There is often a soft spot in someone'e heart for what someone was. That erroneous belief that when you love someone you do not want to change them. That is untrue... we just do not want to be blamed for the change. So, I have taken the blame but I have not taken away your choice. Save her if you will, make her like you... she will regain her youth, gain longevity and be with you. She loses nothing but the looming promise of death, decay and abject loneliness. You... gain a friend. An asset. Someone who would kill and die for you." She took another step back, "The choice is yours m'Lord."

She knew Katsuo would not let her die.

She knew that he would hesitate to add her. To take away what she was, Naganisa was more than an asset to Katsuo where Fuu was a utility. She did not resent the distinction, she simply understood the difference. It was unlikely that Mikaboshi would have even shown Naganisa his true face, without that Naganisa would never request. Never insist on being something every sane person feared. Tales of such monsters as these were told to children to make sure they would sleep the night tucked into their little beds. But she would do it and be happy to do so if she knew everything.

Meanwhile, Kaito continued to scream at Michi.

 

[Mikaboshi]

[col]Mikaboshi understood what Michi was getting at almost immediately as the scuffle began between her and Naganisa. When he had created her she had glimpsed inside him just as he had seen into her and within him she had seen the dormant heart of Katsuo. She alone knew the secret that Katsuo still lived deep within the darkest depths of Mikaboshi's existence, locked away behind bars of shadow beneath an ocean of hate. Still, even despite that his power and his humanity still leaked forth. Katsuo was a man unlike most others -- descended from the greatest king to ever have walked the Wind Country, Katsuo possessed enormous amounts of spirit and even the vast power of Mikaboshi could not keep him quarantined entirely within his own body and mind. Though he would never admit to it, cracks were beginning to show in the prison that he'd put Katsuo in allowed the last Sunahoshi to manifest himself enough to prevent Mikaboshi from striking down a handful of others. It was infuriating to say the least. While he had been able to turn Michi without interference from the dormant prince of mankind, there had been mitigating circumstances within that moment. Mikaboshi knew that there was no way Katsuo would ever allow him to turn Naganisa in the same way that he had Michi and it appeared as if Michi also knew that.

Allowing himself a wicked grin behind his mask, Mikaboshi quashed the rising urge to leap to Naganisa's defense and crossed his arms across his chest as he watched the battle between them. Her end game was to mortally wound Naganisa and to force the subconscious of Katsuo to accept that the only way to save her life was to turn her into one of them. That wasn't necessarily true really but ultimately truth was what one made it. With Kaito restrained, Michi made short work of her confrontation with Naganisa by plunging her own dagger into the woman's chest and leaving her to crumble to the floor in a heap. She then turned to Mikaboshi and made her case to him though they both knew that she was not speaking to the Deep Lord but rather to the barely conscious mind of his captive host.

The choice is yours m'Lord.

He could feel the presence of Katsuo stirring in his heart as he stepped forward without a word, uncrossing his arms from his chest and letting them fall to his side as he made his way to stand over Naganisa's body. She gasped for air on the ground, looking up at him with eyes full of fear -- it seemed as though she was not entirely ready to see her way to the other side. But as Mikaboshi looked down at her, the most unexpected thing happened; he felt pity for her. His mind raced at the sudden and terrifying realization and as he locked eyes with her he had only a moment to recognize that he and Michi had made a terrible miscalculation. The light stirring that was Katsuo's presence in the back of his mind was suddenly a powerful thrashing and outwardly Mikaboshi lost control of his own energy as his stolen body rebelled against him. His right hand pulled at his mask and with a flash of bright light and golden lightning, crushed it in his grasp revealing a face that was distinctly not Mikaboshi. Straining as he turned his head to Michi, Mikaboshi could only manage a single word before he was lost;

"Flee."

[Return of the King]​

|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [BGM]"]

Mikaboshi - One and Again Lord of the Deep Court
King Under the Sands, The Great Nightmare, The Night's King, Eldest Shadow

[/legend][/col]

 

[Mikaboshi]

[col]

[Return of the King]​

The transformation wasn't instantaneous but there was a clear moment of transition where Mikaboshi was subsumed by the revived consciousness of Katsuo and the dark armor and cloak around his body burned away by Katsuo's gilded lightning, replaced by the transformed state that Katsuo had become during the battle against the zombified remains of his uncle Sunahoshi Daisuke. Stained black hair, green eyes and pale skin gave way to the golden spikes and healthy glow of his transformed state and in a matter of seconds the Lord of the Deep Court was gone; replaced by a seemingly revived and very angry Katsuo. Still looking at Michi, Katsuo brought his arm up and spiders of golden lightning ran down his forearm as he pointed at her. Here in the flesh was a vision of the past stepped into the present; a descendant of the One King wielding his power and raiment as well as possessing a likeness which echoed features of that long-dead demigod.

"Don't move. Don't even blink. Do it and you're dead." He growled. This was not the Katsuo that Michi would have known from the stories. They all told him to be a generous hearted man with a wide capacity for forgiveness. There was a hardness to his eyes and expression that betrayed no reservation about his words. He had not made a threat but rather a promise. It was hard to tell whether Katsuo was simply letting his rage get the better of him or if Mikaboshi had rubbed off on him in a similar fashion to how he had influenced the Deep Lord's demeanor but the consequences of interfering any further were clear.

Kneeling down next to Naganisa, his expression softened as he looked down at her. In this moment, words failed him. In normal circumstances he would have reached out to life her head for her but he knew that in this state he could not for his very touch was rife with electrical current. If he reached out to touch her she would find her body connected to the dynamo of electric current which was his body at the moment and he might harm her considerably more. He couldn't express how sorry he was for allowing himself to fall under the control of Mikaboshi and for the suffering he'd caused as a result of that failure.

"Hey. Hey stay with me. I'm here." He said softly, his attention split between Naganisa and making sure that Michi did not make any attempt to stab him in the back while he was occupied. "This is going to hurt a lot and I'm sorry for that but I have to do it or you're gonna die. I just need you to stay awake, can you do that for me?"|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmU9e67EfmI]BGM[/url]]"]

Mikaboshi - One and Again Lord of the Deep Court
Sunahoshi Katsuo - The Last Sunahoshi

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

Michi
Oracle - Former Cabal Member - Member of the Deep Court​

She knew exactly what she was doing when she betrayed her former ally. She knew what it would take to force the Lord's hand, although even she could not... would not have been able to hypothesize this outcome. As Michi drove the blade inside, she expected Mikaboshi to react negatively. Perhaps even attempt to stop her, but she knew if he tried he would be too late and he would be left with an 'impossible choice.' Mikaboshi, the elder shadow would have no qualms in turning a potential asset but the Ancient also knew very little of the middle-aged whore that laid on the ground. Naganisa would prove a stalwart ally in the coming battle, especially if she knew who was behind that mask. She knew that Katsuo would save his dear friend and she was calculating enough as to risk her life to meet the ends she knew she wanted. She steeled herself for his initial anger or indignation, she had already calculated the possibility being near 50% that he would lash out on her in a blind rage before he realized that his former lover was dying on the ground even if he tasted a moment's vengeance. He would then turn to the damsel in need of aide, that was the sort of thing that he would do despite his driver's more callous personality.

Kaito would come at her, before she knew it she would be sailing clear across the room. She would crash into a far wall and the entire structure would shudder.

It would be then that Mikaboshi did neither, he did not rush to the young woman's side nor did he attempt to extract blood vengeance from the Oracle. She was surprised. The chances of this were less than 10%. Yes, there was a chance that he would do nothing, not react in any visible way. There was a chance he would hem and haw, needlessly torturing himself with the decision to make her into something 'different' or to let her die naturally even if it was tragically before her time. Even if he did weigh out the two options she felt that Katsuo's passion would grant Naganisa a stay of execution. Life was a precious thing meant to beheld. People had a hard time with the concept of death and decay, with loss and the passage of life, even age. Rather he would pull off his mask, revealing a recognized face beneath, one that Naganisa was likely to recognize also belonging to Katsuo. The mask would shatter in his gloved hand, white porcelain pieces broken on the floor.

His face appeared pained.

Was he mad?​

No, that was not the expression of anger. In a low voice, only one world was uttered:

"Flee."

Fuu's eyes widened. She saw what was happening and while she had never seen it happen before, she knew what was about to transpire. He was being ripped apart and something was coming out. Fuu slipped on Naganisa's blood as she attempted to regain her footing as she attempted to scramble to her feet. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she was breathing heavy, but neither of these were symptoms of exertion but rather a dire sense of trepidation. For a woman that is used to knowing everything, for having such a grasp on not only history but the nature of others that she could scry the future would relatively certain percentile chances of the prescribed outcome. She grew pale in the face of uncertainty, her mouth agape she looked down at Naganisa bleeding out and back at Mikaboshi as a blinding light broke through his carapace.

She had to stop whatever it was. She cupped her hands together and attempted to complete a rather complex handseal array before she would attempt to subdue the fracturing Deep Court Lord. "Lord!" She shouted, her voice actually had a hint of emotion and a sense of desperation. She had gotten past fearing for her own life some time ago, she had learned years ago that there were a great many things to fear more than death. She was going to attempt to tranquilize him and hopefully whatever was trying to rip itself out from the inside. A part of her assumed, even hoped that it was Mikaboshi tearing his way from a cocoon, having then just completed his metamorphosis but that would not have been preluded by the demand that she flee. She feared something terrible was clawing its way through their combined forms.

But what and why... Two unknown variables.

That would be until the transformation completed and the man, or rather popularized legacy of a legendary hero stood before them in this cheap, battered bar in the midst of the Black Bazaar. She knew his face, lines she had memorized from various Oracle texts. He was Primus.

"Don't move. Don't even blink. Do it and you're dead."

He growled. There were a number of tales about Primus, many of which were true but almost all were romanticized. Primus was first and foremost a fighter, a gladiator from Homura's Courts. He was a celebrated hero, a leader among men and the paragon of human physical potential, but none of these things meant he was a good or even a tolerable man. His back to her he rushed to Naganisa's side, "I... cannot abide," Fuu responded hesitantly. "Time is moving too fast," she reminded him "if you do not interject she will die in under one minute." She did not want Naganisa to die, she wanted to save her as odd as that sounded. "She needs to undergo the hybridization process now!" She shouted, yes she shouted. Her voice even cracked as she uncharacteristically shown something beyond mechanical restraint.

---

Kaito
Former Cabal Leader​

Kaito pulled his eye-patch off his his face to reveal a secret of his own: a sharingan implant. The dark tomoe was already swirling about its unseen axis. He was a man who bought most of his skill, he paid in sweat and blood for these earnings. "I said stop it!" With agility that betrays his actual age he attempted to wrestle the knife from the determined Oracle but it was too late. He would attempt to strike at this version of Fuu, she was different. She was wrong. She was an abomination! "GET AWAY FROM HER!" She would sail across the room, her body would crash into the far wall leaving an indent where she landed. Dark energies rolled off of him, he had a killer's intent. Something a being such as Mikaboshi would likely be able to smell. He did not attack her further however, rather he knelt alongside Naganisa. "Naganisa..." he cradled her head with one hand and with the other he tried to stop the bleeding. "Do not die on me now you old bitch."

He turned his head away to cough, a mist of blood marred the blood.

"Stay back!" Kaito shouted at Mikaboshi. He had no idea what he was going to do if he did take a step closer. He pressed harder on her hemorrhaging wound. "Don't you fucking dare die on me," he hoarsely told her "...and that's an order." He was shaking as he grit his teeth. "Stop bleeding," his voice begged.

He did not even notice Mikaboshi pulling the mask away until after it happened. After he told his newest, traitorous subordinate to flee. But then he saw Katsuo's face. They had met before, he owed the boy, well man his life. He had no idea that they were one in the same. Of course he was wrong, he had no way of knowing that Mikaboshi has been piloting Katsuo's body for these past few years. He could feel this indignant rage boiling up inside of him. But then, the face and the body changed. A bright light erupted from within the dark creature and something else... something new clawed its way out.

Kaito was not nearly as learned as Fuu, but even he recognized the avatar of Primus.

Kaito pulled out a cigarette that he placed in his mouth pinched by his yellowed teeth and with a snap of his fingers the end was lit. He chewed on the cancer stick and muttered out loud. "Well, we're fucked." His free hand was hot and sticky from Naganisa's blood. He was not doing much but delaying the inevitable it would appear. He still had to try.

---

Naganisa
Former Cabal Member​

Fuu plunged her own dagger into her chest. She really took the 'backstabbing bitch part literally.' Naganisa's claws attempted to cut Fuu, or rather 'Michi' since that is what she seemed to want to call herself these days. She could not say much, the pain was intense and it was hard to breathe. She collapsed onto the floor. She could feel someone holding her, in her dizzied state for a moment she thought it was Katsuo. She smiled despite the pain, "I knew that you would..." and then she saw Kaito's concerned face looking down at her. Disappointment would wash over her as a wheeze left her lungs. "I thought you were Mister Kay," she announced between gasps.

He begged her to not die. It was one order she was unable to follow, "Sorry sir." Her body was wet and cold, her breaths had become even more shallow as her lung filled with blood. She was restless, it was common among the dying. The both of them had seen this so many times before. "M-my bag," she mumbled. He would know the bag, it was a bag she always carried, each vial was one virulent brew after another. She was a poison specialist and that was her arsenal. "Finish it," she tried to act brave but she was terrified of dying just like anybody else. She was not entirely sure of which part she feared more: the process of dying or the hell she would likely suffer in after she died. She was not particularly religious but there was this small part of her that always feared that those religious fanatics might be right.

She was losing her grip.

She would not even realize that Mikaboshi/Katsuo/whats-his-face had also come to her aid.

 

[Mikaboshi]

[col]

[Return of the King]​

Michi wasn't even allowed to finish her thought before she was cut short by a peel of vicious thunder that shook the entirety of the bar as Katsuo snapped her an icy glare over his shoulder. Katsuo was a little disorientated but he understood the situation well enough having seen it through the eyes of Mikaboshi. His mind hadn't been fully conscious but that didn't mean that he wasn't able to perceive what was going on. Michi and Mikaboshi wished to transform the remainder of the Cabal into hybrid ancients like them. Like... him. Tightening his fingers into a fist, Katsuo knew he'd need to face the reality of what bonding with Mikaboshi had done to his own physiology at some point but at this point in time there was nothing more important than saving Naganisa's life. She was only in this situation because Katsuo had failed to protect her. He'd lost his battle with Mikaboshi and been bonded to the dark creature by force as a result. That event led to Mikaboshi kicking off a personal war of revenge against Sousuke for his slights and eventually brought them to where they were standing today. Naganisa didn't respond to his words; she was going into shock and likely didn't recognize him as a result. He was familiar enough with her brand of lethal toxins from their time together and knew that if the knife which Michi had stabbed her with had been poisoned, which knowing Naganisa there was no reason to assume that it was not, then Naganisa had less than a minute to live.

Mikaboshi had used the power of the spark of Primus to change Michi. Katsuo wondered if Michi knew that. Mikaboshi was powerful, to say the least. But the reason he'd commandeered Katsuo's heart and body was to own the power that he wielded. It allowed him to manifest his will on the world around him; to slay the very concept of what "is" and impose upon it his version of "could be". In that way he could manipulate the potential of things which he touched to any degree which his will power would support. This power had manifested previously in the form of raging storms and potent lightning. It hadn't been until he'd witnessed what Mikaboshi was capable of with that power that he'd really understood what his power was. It wasn't just control over storms or manifesting his will. His was the power of the King. To make a demand of the world and have the world acquiescence to that demand.

In the back of his mind, images drifted to the surface that Katsuo recognized as fragments of Mikaboshi's subconscious bleeding into his. He saw a beautiful woman with long turquoise hair face down in a steaming pool of her own blood. He felt shame and anger at the betrayal which was allowing her to die and raged at his powerlessness to bring the situation to a halt. And in that moment, Katsuo understood Mikaboshi. He understood the reason that the ancient had commandeered his body and his life. It wasn't just the revenge that he was seeking, even if that's what he told himself. He sought the power to make it so that he would never suffer like that again. That he would never again be powerless to right what he saw as wrong. And in that they were the same.

"Damn you." He glowered almost non-verbally at the non-present Mikaboshi. He could feel that this was what Mikaboshi had wanted even though the Deep Lord had not predicted that Katsuo would so suddenly wrestle control from him in such a manner. Using the power of the spark, he might have been able to unravel the poison but it was a gamble and she didn't have time for him to try a half-measure like that. Looking to Kaito, Katsuo gestured with his head as he reached forward to scoop Naganisa into his arms-- one hand behind her head and one underneath her legs. "Move."

Lightning from Katsuo's body would immediately begin pouring into Naganisa's body as Katsuo touched her but that was what was needed for what he thought to do. He would do what Michi and Mikaboshi wanted to save her life but he would do it his way. When Mikaboshi had forged Fuu into Michi, he had done so with the intention to create a weapon. She was free of the burden of the necromancer Nao's influence but where Mikaboshi had truncated her humanity to add the piece of him which made her Michi he had given her a dark side and a lethality which had not been there before. Katsuo had no need to give Naganisa any more capacity for violence; she was capable of that enough on her own. In fact, he did not wish to change her the way Mikaboshi had changed Michi. He would give to her a part of him and she would make what she would with it with his help. The air around them filling with the mixed smell of burnt skin and ozone from Katsuo's surging presence, he closed his eyes and poured his energy into her in the same manner that he'd saw Mikaboshi do. With Mikaboshi bound the way that Katsuo had been before, Katsuo possessed a similar conduit into the memories and experiences of Mikaboshi and used them as a guiding hand for his work. The energy coursed through Naganisa but rather than burning away what made her the person she was it cleansed the poison where it found it and repaired the damage that it caused as it passed.|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmU9e67EfmI]BGM[/url]]"]

Mikaboshi - One and Again Lord of the Deep Court
Sunahoshi Katsuo - The Last Sunahoshi

[/legend][/col]

 

[Michi]

[col]

Naganisa
Former Cabal Member​

---

Michi
Oracle - Former Cabal Member - Member of the Deep Court​

---

Kaito
Former Cabal Leader​

|An unintended outcome. She planned to reach out for Katsuo's spirit, to manipulate him into compliance and prevent the ghost from within from staving the Elder Shadow's hand. She knew full well what Naganisa meant to him, how he would have stopped the transition. Something that she could not allow, forcing her to commit an unforgivable trespass. Dizzy still from being knocked across the room, she staggered forward. "This is not your fight Kaito!" Michi shouted.

"It became mine when you attacked an ally," Kaito replied as she continued to try to apply pressure to Naganisa's wounds. He stiffened himself and readied herself for her attack.

"You cannot save her, not with a bit of pressure and a few good sentiments," she reasoned. "She will die regardless of what you do... regardless of what he does... she will cease to be, but she does not have to remain dead," she explained as she gestured towards the infuriated avatar of human divinity. She knew he was angry. She knew that killing her would be considered a reasonable response and that he might not even be in a sane mindset increasing the probability for violence. Still, she did not want Naganisa to die. "She will die in less than a minute without your intervention," Michi announced. "And I know that you do not want to watch her die, and you will unless you change what she is. Change the rules so that the same rules no longer apply," her tone was acerbic. A passionless being previously, it was hard to say if it was the dangerous nature Mikaboshi instilled in her or if it was fear for the fact that she had done something terrible that she would soon not be able to take back that gave her such a sense of panic and trepidation.

What she was saying fell on deaf ears and her hands began to run through an array. Anyone who was a healer would recognize the series of handseals she had accomplished with what appeared trained proficiency. There was not a healer in the room so almost anything could be presumed. There was no formula to assess what she might do, her sudden attack of Naganisa was unexpected and something a betting person would not have wagered on. The equations had changed. The probabilities have been skewed and they were not in the house or the player's favor. It was like playing a game of solitaire with two decks.

He would not hear her.

"Move."

He demanded. Kaito refused, he did not say as much but he was no coward and he had seen enough death in his lifetime to fill a hundred. While he was capable of killing indiscriminately, there was a difference when they were those he did not know, those he was not in the trenches with, shared a meal with and bleed with and for. "Hang on Naganisa," he begged. Katsu-boshi tried to lift the dying former Cabalist and as he did Kaito swung his leg around and attempted to kick The Deep Court Lord turned First King in the face with the bottom of his foot with astonishing flexibility and speed for a man his age. If his foot made contact or not, the arcing current that sparked off of him and made the air dangerous and hot seeded into him. The electricity surged through his body causing his body to involuntarily contract and go numb while his hands gripped her damaged shirt hard, he had lost his hold on her and Katsuo/Mikaboshi lifted her from the floor. "You're killing her!" He shouted as his body involuntarily spasmed on the floor.

The air stunk of burnt meat and cloth as energy rained from the barely conscious Cabalist woman. "Get away from her!" Kaito screamed.[/col]

The electricity was burning away at her humanity. At her disease and her poison. At what biologically made Naganisa the monster she was, the woman Katsuo knew and the friend Kaito appreciated. There were parts of her being reduced to ash, but they were being replaced. Renewed She was dead or at least parts of her would be, but there was always a legacy left behind. Often in ones deeds, friends. Her legacy has been death, mayhem and pain in her youth and as of late obscurity. Was she a bad person - yes. Was she redeemable - perhaps. Whatever she was, her choices had been made and the victories, the failures and the consequences of both have already been suffered and remembered. She was gone, but something else was being made with what was left. The energy would seem to thrum from the gilded monster or possibly hero causing a moment's pause for both Michi and Kaito.

Naganisa would indeed both live and die.

The wound would blacken and then fall away. She would awaken, there would be pain and it would be blinding. Being born was never an easy task. There would be screaming. There would be tears. She would gasp for air and take her first breath in a stranger's arms. He did not look like Mister K. She would flail when she recovered, possibly fall onto the floor, possibly be held tightly for the first time in months.

She would still know who she was. She still would have lived the same life she had before. She would remember each act, those that were good and those that were bad. The times she sat in the scorner's seat or held the cynic's ban. Yet even with the sum of her life's experiences, she too much like Fuu would be forever changed. Renewed in more ways than one, but also replaced in so many more. In life there are constraints, be them physical shortcomings, bodily consequences of bad choices, or even chemical and biological responses to your day to day choices. Those propensities we misconstrue as free choice even when the choice is illogical. The choice is the result of a whim, a lapse in judgement. So minor and so tedious. Naganisa was not a killer by nature but by circumstance and habit. Now there was something else seeded there between those dark and looming shadows.

And so this would be his... Katsuo or perhaps Mikaboshi's lot. They will have to separate the bad from the good. The terrorists from the innocent. Like Anubis he will have to weigh everyone's heart alongside that of a feather. To not trust deceivers. To not become a deceiver. If mankind's hearts become heavy, he... they will be their last defense against oblivion or the cause of their demise.

---

You know the routine: Find a face.

 

[Mikaboshi]

[col]

[Return of the King]​

Naganisa cried out as Katsuo held her close and he did his best to shut out the torturous noise. He knew that she was in immense pain. The transformation process she was undergoing was one which demanded that a fundamental part of her be destroyed so that it could be rebuilt in a new way and that was not an experience which was in any way pleasant. He knew that pain himself. In the back of his mind, he remembered how it had felt when Mikaboshi had turned Tatsumasa's edge, charged with the spark of Primus, on his own essence and carved out the part of himself that tied him to his own nature. That moment changed Katsuo's physical body in ways that could never be undone and had made him like them. Not ancient but also not entirely human. They were... something else, now. She struggled against him reflexively but despite her strength she could not break his grasp.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly underneath the vicious popping of the electrical power around him, his eyes closed as he spoke. He didn't need to look down and see her; in this moment they were connected in a way that transcended a limited sense like sight. The seconds seemed to drag on as the power at his command suffused her body and soul in crackling arcs and snapping pops of energy but at last the light surrounding them dimmed and then all together was simply... done and in Katsuo's arms was an alive and rejuvenated Naganisa.

Long green tresses had returned to the healthy and light color of her youth along with the brightness of her eyes and a pale smoothness to the surface of her skin. The transformation could not take away the hurtful memories she had of her past but no longer would she bear the scars and blemishes which had been inflicted upon her body from that time of her life. Her previous clothing had burned away during the process, incinerated as the suffering and pain of the vicious poison in her veins burned away along with it, now replaced with a white garb that was trimmed with a golden material that seemed to, for the moment, still thrum with a remnant of Katsuo's power. Lowering her slightly, Katsuo would allow the transformed Naganisa's legs to slip from his arms to the floor while still allowing her access to his shoulders and other arm to help her stand if she required it. The process had been painful and despite it being short in real time would almost certainly have felt as a lifetime to the tortured female. It certainly had for Katsuo. Most curiously she would find herself immune to the voltaic touch that his skin brought with it, at least for the moment.

"How do you feel?" He breathed, taking in her new appearance. Naganisa had been attractive for her age before the ascension and now she was nothing short of resplendent with the way that his lightning still danced in a few places about her features and hair. Even in this moment when he stood in the presence of an potential enemy and only recently freed from months of mental imprisonment he could not help but notice her beauty. She might not have recognized him previously but there would be no mistaking his identity now after having gone through that mutual experience together.

Naganisa​

|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzmaKbl6ZBg]BGM[/url]]"]

Mikaboshi - One and Again Lord of the Deep Court
Sunahoshi Katsuo - The Last Sunahoshi

[/legend][/col]

 

[Michi]

OC: Finally, an avatar with a lot of source material.

IC:

It felt like she was being ripped apart. She was certain she was dying. Every mortal fiber of her being screamed out in pain. The sound that escaped her was ugly, it sounded like the howl of a wounded beast. The electricity that ran through her body was both killing her and renewing her at the same time. What she was would burn away, all the the poison and the years. But her life being saved was only a part of this transformation, there was a moment of shared consciousness. There was a moment when he saw what she did, it was only fleeting still images that he saw. Some of the things he knew. He knew about her early life as a slave, he might have even known that she begot a son in her youth. She never knew what happened to him, he was taken shortly after he was born. He would see the branding of the Journeyman symbol in her flesh, his toes might even curl in response to the searing pain or the smell of one's own burning flesh as it filled his nares. She was four when it happened. As for her mother, she barely remembered her. She was a raving lunatic that spoke of angels and demons and a weapon that would break everything. Would unravel the fabric of the world. She would never give it a name, a place, even a designation. Just mutter and babble just above a whisper when their handlers were not near. She was not the only one of course, many of the older women had the same debility of mind.

With sharp edged wit and pointed poise,
it can settle disputes without making a noise.
Its undoing magic, the harbinger of new life.
He's coming. They're coming! The herald of strife.
Hush-hush now you. Shhh. Remember.
No! Don't, you do not remember!​

But that was only a few hours, a few days. What was she doing there and how did she become so practiced in poisons? What did Shouki see in her when he rescued her. Why did they sear that symbol into her flesh? What was she before? And of course, why.

The secret is the soul.
A weapon is useless without one.​

People have a habit of asking the wrong questions. Of looking for close-ended answers that gave you little more than affirmation or refusal.

Your soul and your blades'.
Everything has a soul, this is the one truth.
Shh! Not a word! Dawdle. Babble.
Be forgettable and unnoticed. Shh!​

The Orders were long forgotten, and the Journeymen like the Rangers and the Oracles were disbanded only a mere handful of decades ago. It was written in here genes what she was, what she could have been but these were images that she could not share because they never happened. But still, Katsuo would see something. A number of things, and with each troubling image he would be left with another question. All of which Naganisa would be unable to answer but Katsuo would know one thing for certain -- absolutely everything is connected. There is not a thing that has happened that was unintentional. The placement of an Oracle. The placement of a Journeyman, yes a Journeyman. The missing Ranger. All together in the same village at the same time, their paths not guided by divine happenstance but certainly by a purposeful guide. Fuu was already aware, she knew exactly what Naganisa was. She knew what was being burned out, things Naganisa did not even know were buried in there.

Hey babe. Got another mission.
Some Sandy hole in the ground, bet you heard of it.​

[col]|

Where?​

[/col]

Sunagakure. Heard they have kids.
You like hurting those, right?​

[col]|

I like burning the pretty ones.​

[/col]

Love it! We will paint the city red.​

Everyone in that harem had that same symbol, a mark placed on them by their masters. It was done when they were young, he would remember Naganisa's branding as a young girl. He would see the branding of several others, none likely more than five. That there were no children in the harem, that they were taken away from their mother still raw from birth in many cases. That only the boys were taken, the girls were allowed to stay. Perverts yes, that much was obvious. But why maintain a generational legacy of slaves in a land where lives were cheap and others could be added but none ever were. That Naganisa never trained or studied a day in her life. She was always good with a blade and just as skilled at concocting poisons. Her lethality was a natural propensity and a trait she alone did not possess. What ever happened to those little boys? Perhaps they were left in the desert to die. Perhaps they were given another purpose.

Have anything but a boy.
Anything but.​

He would see Shouki barge into the harem, he was a customer their savior. He killed the keepers. He killed most of the girls but not before he had his fun. Naganisa was there alone, there were perhaps one or two other girls. All liberated, they went their separate ways once he freed them. She was hurt by Shouki by her former masters and she was taken to Sora. She was left in a terrible place worse than the place from which she was taken. Shouki nursed her back to health. They hurt her. She remembered mirrors. Shouki is one of the only friends she could ever trust.
[col]|

A job? What sort of job.​

[/col]

Sunagakure - the source of all our pain.​

[col]|

Say again?​

[/col]

Sunagakure, the prodigal village that buried its head in the sand when the storms came.
The village that let your wife die. That rejected Urufuu. That holds demons in its Sennin ranks.​

[col]|

Demons?​

[/col]

Yes, the Toraono clan is a demon clan and one of them has become the border Sennin,​

[col]|

And you brought who?​

[/col]

I have three allies who very much share your vision:
Naganisa - a woman who excels in poison, stealth and knife combat.
Aiko - an inside man. He can get us inside.
...and Shouki - he is strong. He carries a giant blade and has been blessed by Lord Jashin himself in this endeavor.​

Her whole life flashed before her eyes in that short time. The good. The bad. The ugly. There were gaps and holes all over the place. Memories that were not hers but she could not tell the difference. But like all things, this too came to pass. The pain. The change. She would not know she was changed, she would not feel anything difference except for a numbness that seemed to replace the ache and the fact that she was no longer bloody. But she was different, forever changed. There were so many things that he could not erase. There was no vile magical influence that reseeded her thoughts. There was no necrotic energy that permeated her being or hidden seal that forced her to heed some monster's call. But she would see things as well. She would see the world through his eyes. The eyes of not only a hero but also a legacy to a man he would never be able to reach but he would be compared to his entire life. Have an impossible standard synonymous with his name. A life preordained. It was not something she could fully appreciate but it was something she could understand, his life clearer than hers it ran like a movie.

</B>

Then it ended​

<i></i>

The sparks would cease. Whatever damages and changes he would do were done. Naganisa gasped for air still hot from his energy. Her feet would touch the floor but she would be able to stand under her own power. She had two instincts:

1. Kill Fuu... Michi... whatever the hell she wanted to call herself these days,
2. Bang the ever living crap out of Katsuo.

Neither were entirely possible after just being born sadly, so she picked the third option. (Refer to the right =======>)<B>Mister Kay! It would be a rib shattering hug if it was not for the gilded armor. There would also be tears, and while she might have a pretty face she did not cry pretty. Her face contorted into something awful as she grabbed hold of him tightly and cried into his... uh less than comforting or comfortable metal shoulders. Ithoughtyouweredead.Whydidyounleaveme?Don'tleavemeagainMisterKay." yes, even monsters can fall in love or have a sense that they were alone.

Meanwhile...

Fuu/Michi and Kaito stood there awkwardly and watched the emotional exchange.

 

[Mikaboshi]

[col]

[Return of the King]​

As Naganisa crushed his body against hers in a huge, he allowed it just as he always did. At six feet and two inches, Katsuo was quite a bit taller than Naganisa and was physically built for strength in a way that she was not even if she was still a skilled fighter. In all likelihood he could have stopped her from hugging him in this manner but he never did. It seemed to make her happy and that was well enough for him. When they'd first met, Naganisa was a broken woman who had been convinced by the worst sorts of people that she was no good and deserved nothing and Katsuo had taken it a bit upon himself to try and help her recover from that. He'd made a deal with Kaito that in exchange for a cessation of hostilities between the Cabal and Sunagakure that they would join forces to make the Wind Country a better place and in Katsuo's mind this was a part of that. Through their experiences together he knew that she'd developed significant feelings for him and he couldn't deny that there was something there in him as well. He could never take away the misery that had been her past but he could do everything within his power to help her future be better.

"Forgive me for worrying you." He said quietly to her as he reached up and rested his hand on top of her head and ruffled her hair a little bit as he returned the hug.

Everything was still for a moment before suddenly the proverbial light in Katsuo's head went out and the transformation ceased. The golden spikes of the transformation gave way to the stained black hair that Mikaboshi's presence had inflicted upon his body and once more his skin took on a paler hue, his energy receding in a heartbeat. Struggling to stand, he wobbled to the side before catching himself on Naganisa and looking at her.

"Hey, I'm... gonna have to be right back... don't do... anything I wouldn't... do." He said with a grin before his eyes closed and he was out cold. Seemingly drained from the process of rejuvenating Naganisa, Katsuo fell forward entirely on to her completely unconscious as the strain of the effort he'd put into saving her life was too much for his his body which was already tired from the strain of maintaining the high-energy transformed state.

Darkness receded and was suddenly replaced by light as Katsuo came back to consciousness once more. His vision slowly righted itself and once more he focused his attention on the task in front of him: defeat the living darkness that had taken up residence in his body and heart. Standing before him with gargantuan wings spread and wearing Katsuo's face was that living darkness which called itself Mikaboshi with a frustrated snarl upon his features. Black and green flames licked at the air around his twisted bat-like hybrid form as Mikaboshi reached forward and wrapped his long, clawed fingers around Katsuo's throat. He'd tried to resist, his mind having given the command to move but his body was too heavy. Too tired. This was a battle that he felt like he'd been fighting for days when in reality it had only been a few minutes.

"What is it about you, human?" Hissed Mikaboshi as his head cocked to the side in a distinctly avian manner. "You are beneath me. Weaker than me. Unworthy of the power and titles you wield. Yet I find that no matter how I destroy your form, you return to vex me."

Pain blossomed in Katsuo's chest as Mikaboshi sank his free hand into the man's flesh and pulled his beating heart free from it in a shower of red blood and gore. For a moment Mikaboshi switched his attention to peer at the slowly dying muscle before crushing it to pulp in his hand and tossing Katsuo's beaten corpse backwards through the air several feet. It landed with an unceremonious thud and slid to a stop where it ceased any movement for a few heartbeats before the hole in Katsuo's chest sealed and breath returned to his body in a jolting, sudden moment as if he'd just revived from a nightmare-ridden sleep.

"How many times do you think we're up to now?" Mused the ancient lord out-loud, potentially to Katsuo but just as possibly to himself. "I think we're up to six."

Six times. That was how many times Mikaboshi had killed Katsuo on this spiritual battlefield where they clashed. The battle they fought was taking place within the mental landscape of Katsuo's consciousness while his physical form knelt in the same church where he'd done battle with the diamond golem to claim the power that Mikaboshi had possessed him in an effort to take away. After regaining a sense of himself not long ago, Katsuo understood that there was no way he could simply abide the arrangement as it was between he and Mikaboshi. Eventually the recently re-crowned Deep Lord would find a way to undo the bindings which kept him in check or he would simply overpower Katsuo in a heated moment just as Katsuo had done to retake control. That moment could take place any time he was not fully in concentration to keep the King Under the Sands subdued and was just too much of a risk to take. He'd let enough misery happen as a result of his first failure against Mikaboshi, he wasn't about to let the creature out for a come back tour so soon.

To that end, Katsuo had delved into the halls of his own mind to challenge Mikaboshi directly for supremacy and just as before when they'd battled in the heart of the Obsidian Palace, Katsuo was finding the ancient king too overwhelming of an opponent to defeat on his own. Katsuo knew that if he could bring the power of the transformed state he'd faced the Storm God with against Mikaboshi that he could triumph but he simply did not know how to control that power. Mikaboshi however seemed to know much more than Katsuo where controlling the power that he'd inherited from his ancestors as he'd wielded it proficiently enough to boost his already prodigious strength through a grim transformation of his own which melded aspects of his beastial form and Katsuo's own physical form.

"But really, the most perplexing part isn't even that I can't destroy you. It's that you keep standing back up. Again and again I send you back to oblivion and then knowing that you cannot defeat me you turn around and match back into my waiting teeth." Mikaboshi continued, taking slow steps towards where Katsuo was rising from the blood-slick floor. His eyes narrowed dangerously as his gore-soaked claws fell back to his sides and he stopped a few paces before where Katsuo once more began to rise from the floor. "Why?"

Lightning ran down Katsuo's form as he got back to his feet and wobbled for a moment before the forced rejuvenation of his mentam form completed and he was back to a fighting ready state. He could feel the power of the spark but it was distant enough from him that he could not reach it. His fingers brushed against it and the power he gleaned from that limited exposure was what kept him alive and coming back for more but it didn't seem to be nearly enough for him to overcome Mikaboshi. Especially not here in a place where Mikaboshi was the most comfortable; a spiritual realm where the laws of reality could be easily bent and broken.

"Trying to bore me to death now?" Breathed Katsuo as he brought his arms up in a defensive stance to be ready for whatever the dark creature before him threw at him.

In response, Mikaboshi shrugged his shoulders causing his cavernous wings to shift and tighten in closer to his body as he blew an exasperated sigh.

"It seems that we will be doing this for some time. Apparently I cannot slay you and you certainly do not have it within you to defeat me or you would have done so by now." As he spoke Mikaboshi took no aggressive stance which might betray that this new chattiness was anything but a ruse to make Katsuo drop his guard but that was nothing to rely on with the King of Shadows. He could go from a non-aggressive stance to flying through the air with Katsuo's head in his claws in the blink of an eye. "So while I wait for you to tire out so that I can extinguish your flame for good I am interested in satisfying my curiosity. You know you cannot defeat me so why choose to continue walking that path of perpetual failure?"

Mikaboshi's words were rude but Katsuo didn't get the feeling that he necessarily intended them that way despite the creature's abrasive nature. The way he described their struggle so far was accurate; perpetual failure was certainly an accurate if not bleak way of analyzing how the battle had gone thus far.

"You... really don't get it, do you?" Katsuo said, still searching for the deception in Mikaboshi's query.

Mikaboshi didn't answer in words but the way his vision snapped back to Katsuo with a preturbed glint to his eyes told him enough. Mikaboshi wasn't human, after all and there were things about being human that the creature simply didn't understand even after the time he'd spent with Katsuo's subconsciousness leaking into his own. It seemed as though their short chat was over for the moment as Katsuo's words had touched something of a nerve which was apparent in the way Mikaboshi flared his wings and took another step towards Katsuo before he was suddenly upon Katsuo in a flurry of angry claws and blistering green flames.

"I was old when your kind crawled from the muck and into Wind Country! I am greater than you! More powerful! More cunning!"

Furious now, Mikaboshi's claws slipped through Katsuo's defensive stance after a few moments of furious exchanges of blows and lifted Katsuo from the ground before flinging him across their battlefield and into one of the many large stone pillars which dotted the room with a wet smack and a dull thud as Katsuo fell to the ground and struggled to get back to his feet. He wasn't sure how many of his bones Mikaboshi had just broken but he knew from experience that he'd almost certainly just punctured a lung from the way his breathing had suddenly become so difficult.

"I am Mikaboshi the King Under the Sands! I am He Who is Called Hahvulon! The Eldest Shadow and Great Black Wolf! Tell me, gnat! What is it that I do not "get"?"

"But... you're alone..." Wheezed Katsuo, rolling to his side and moving to sit with his back against he pillar as his labored breaths came hard to him. Wracked with a short coughing fit, there was nothing he could do about the blood that bubbled up from his body and oozed from his lips. Mikaboshi had done a great deal of damage to him with the strength of that throw, it seemed.

"What... did you say?" Mikaboshi's voice was low and suspicious as he stopped his raving and grew very still for a moment like a predatory cat waiting for a moment to strike.

"You're... all of those things... but you're... alone. And it's... lonely at the top... isn't it, big guy?" Even through the pain, Katsuo grinned slightly at the way this exchange was chaffing at Mikaboshi.

"I must admit that I am amazed you have the energy to laugh at your own demise." Glowered the dark king with violence heavy in his voice. Just because he couldn't kill Katsuo didn't mean he couldn't make him suffer.

"I'm not... insulting you. It's just... there's nobody... but you." Katsuo's statements came in gasping bursts as he struggled to get enough air into his body to not pass out. "But... but me? I've... got people... I need to fight... for. Made... promises. They're all... waiting... for me to... come back to them." Katsuo's chest heaved at an uneven rate as the "physical" portion of this construct slowly died. "]And it... doesn't matter how... much stronger than me... you are. You could be a hundred... or a thousand... or... or... a million times... my strength. I won't... let them... down."

Mikaboshi's face changed from angry to a disappointed scowl as he relaxed his stance and took a few steps towards where Katsuo lay slowly dying and crouched down to bring their faces to level.

"That's it? The 'power of friendship'? That's your theory?" Scoffed Mikaboshi. He clearly was not buying it even if it was the truth. Katsuo came back again and again because he was determined not to be sent back into the mental prison a second time. "What heroic nonsense. You're regenerating because of the sliver of Shoki that exists within your soul. It is transforming your determination into power and reigniting your mind every time I extinguish it."

He was rationalizing now. What he said wasn't wrong but it overlooked the underlying reason for why it was happening. The sliver of Shoki that Katsuo had inherited from his family wasn't the cause of his regenerations, it was the means by which it transpired. But each time he "died" it took every ounce of his willpower to reconstitute himself. Each time the energy that was Shoki asked "do you want this?" and Katsuo had to answer "yes". Once more as Katsuo's chest cease to rise, the question was posed and with significant difficulty the answer was again "yes". With that, the damage inflicted upon Katsuo's body knitted itself and suddenly his chest rose sharply as a gasped and as awake once more.

"Seven, now." Sneered Mikaboshi through the stolen features that mirrored Katsuo's. It was surreal to see his own face smirk so maliciously at him.

"You think it's bullshit but it's not." Katsuo scolded, his voice gravely serious. He didn't dare try to move. He knew that the moment he did, Mikaboshi would pounce once more and he'd be back in a wounded state regenerating. "I promised Sousuke and Kaito I'd help them make Wind Country a better place. I promised Naganisa that I'd help her be a better person. They believed in me."

Against all odds, Mikaboshi seemed legitimately taken aback at Katsuo's adamant words. He'd never encountered a man with such willingness to die over and over for the others in his life. To keep his word to those people. He suffered and struggled against torture and death but still refused to give leave of the promise that he'd made to the important people in his life. And it was in that moment of uncertainty that Katsuo sensed the power of the spark in his grasp. Mikaboshi had allowed himself to be too preoccupied with the mystery of why Katsuo kept fighting and lost his total dominion over the power that they fought for control of. In a blast of golden lightning, Katsuo suddenly stood and Mikaboshi was sent careening across the room and into another one of the large stone pillars in the dark cavernous room they battled in. Feeling that thread of power in his hand, Katsuo grasped and pulled as hard as he could allowing it to flow into him once more and with another blast of voltaic energy Katsuo was transformed into the same golden visage that he'd wielded previously against Sunahoshi Daisuke's animated corpse in the Diamond Maelstrom.

"For everything you've put me through, I owe you some gratitude. I would never have learned how to control this if you hadn't shown me how to do it first when you fought Sousuke." Katsuo remarked as Mikaboshi rose from the dust and debris from where he'd been thrown. Following the battle with the Storm God, Katsuo's body had been in open revolt against him as the power he'd unlocked was rampant. He'd had no idea how to wield that strength and it wasn't until he'd fallen under the control of Mikaboshi and the ancient creature had used it's vast knowledge to subdue that power that Katsuo understood properly how to wield it. "And like I said, it doesn't matter how much stronger than me you are. I won't fail the people who believe in me. I won't stop fighting. Not now. Not ever."

"Boldly said. I have to admit, up until now I've been dissatisfied with how things were going. It's been too easy. What is victory without hardship? What is triumph without adversity? What is the hunt without the chase?" Mikaboshi loomed large in the dust and debris that surrounded where Katsuo had thrown him, his massive wingspan erupting from the veil that surrounded him and his eyes burning like cinders within the cloud. "This is how it should be, after all. It's easy to see why they think of you as their hero. Has anyone ever told you how much you look like Him?"

Katsuo curled his fingers into fists and flexed his muscles sending spiders of electricity across his shoulders and playing down his arms. He knew about it. Sousuke had told him after the mission to the Diamond Maelstrom that Katsuo had transformed into a vision of the One King himself. Really the "transformation" wasn't much physically aside from the hair and clothing. Katsuo already bore an uncanny resemblence to many of the popularized visions of Primus in different ways. Certainly towards his Sunahoshi ancestors.

"Perhaps now when you see how powerless you really are against me you will accept your place in oblivion." The ancient growled as he stepped forth out of the debris, flames licking about his features as he did.

|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzmaKbl6ZBg]BGM[/url]]"]

Mikaboshi - One and Again Lord of the Deep Court
Sunahoshi Katsuo - The Last Sunahoshi

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

It was a happy moment for two of them. Naganisa did not seem to notice or particularly care about the transformation she had underwent. She hugged him tightly and he ruffled her hair like she was a sibling. She expected one of those sweep you off your feet moments where they encircled some unseen axis in a moment of unseen bliss. She had seen it before in the pictures, romantic films were a secret guilty pleasure likely because it contrasted so heartily her life and her experiences. She has never been lucky in the lot of love and she has had her heart broken more than once. Each time it is shattered into a million little pieces and no matter how many horses and how many men are called upon to piece it back together again it was never quite the same. It was never quite right. She had a twisted sense of love and how to display it, it was for the most part physical but she loved him as much as she could the only way she knew how. While much was repaired, that was the one thing that could not be magically healed by some contrived plot device, convenient seal, or forgotten relic. It was time and legitimate friendships that would bind and tether those broken pieces together.

Her heart ached, but that was because it had been broken for so long it did not know what it was like to be intact. She laughed, it was a charming sound unlike the raucous sound she normally made. It would be shocking the most to her, she did not recognize the sound or the voice because neither belonged to her. "Who?" That was the voice, that strange foreign sound that spoke when she did. She would look around now, the first time since her rebirth where she only saw Katsuo. She would look down at her hands. Were these her hands? She did not recognize them. Nor the sleeves and the arms they covered. A sense of panic and dread would surge through her, not that it was a displeasing site only that it was a shocking one. Was she dreaming? Was she in fact dead and this was simply her mind's way of softening the blow? This would be heaven then because he was there. No, she did not deserve heaven and she knew it. Still, she looked at her hands and down as far as her feet before looking up at him. He was Katsuo, she knew it, but he looked wrong. All shiny and new and not Katsuo-like at all. This was some strange pent up fantasy even she did not know existed.

For sex fantasy, the scene was odd. Why were Michi and Kaito there? She did not want the woman who murdered her there and having old old boss-man watch was just weird. She tried to will them to disappear. Nothing happened, they still stood there with mouths agape and wide eyes staring at her... at them. Not a dream. Not some sort of fantasy. A genjutsu? She was almost hesitant to make it end, but paradise in a false reality was Eden lost to her. The willful woman tried to cancel whatever spell someone placed on her mind. The walls did not fade away, the people there stayed where they were. Time seemed to slow as she realized that whatever was happening now was real. She did not understand what happened or why. She knew that she was dying. That the backstabbing betrayer Fuu had allied herself with the shadow-monster former Sennin himself in an odd sort of union she intensely distrusted. She was not a particularly 'smart' woman but she had street smarts that could undermine even that cocky oracle if given the oppertunity. She did not trust Mikaboshi, she knew all about that lore mumbo-jumbo that Deep Court Ancients could not lie but she felt that it was a crock. It might be true for some, but she did not trust Mikaboshi any more than Shouki could pass up a slaughter. She did, however trust the man beneath the mask. She did not understand the concept of possession or melding or whatever it is that happened between them; only that during her resurrection and reformation that she saw Katsuo inside. That she knew he was there, even now in this third face.

It was then that Katsuo wavered and he swayed. With ataxic and stumbling step he staggered forward into her and she caught him in her arms. "Katsuo!" Her voice broke as she shouted at him before he could say anything.

"Hey, I'm... gonna have to be right back... don't do... anything I wouldn't... do."

He would collapse but she would break his fall, despite their disparity in size and weight. The gilded robes would fade away as would the tanned flesh and the flaxen tresses. The armor and its splendor would wither and disperse into mist, almost like a cruel joke. In her arms was, partially to her relief but also horror was Katsuo in her arms. His torso bare and his legs covered in a simple dark pant. The vestments Mikaboshi had otherwise worn were apparently not there. She did not care about the transformation, the loss of the sparkle and the splendor. Naganisa let out a wretched scream as she lowered him to the floor and tried to desperately shake him awake. She would call out his name and she would feel it again, that terrible ache in her chest.

Fuu never left although a part of her wanted to. She would finally peel herself from the back wall once she knew it was safe. Once she knew Katsuo expended whatever strength he had. She had used him to make her, knowing if anything short of a move of desperation would have staved Mikaboshi's hand. The Deep Court Lord was in control most of the time, but during her transformation there was an intimate moment that they shared. It was the sort of thing that did more than whisper dark secrets and intentions into her head. She knew things. Things she should not know. Katsuo's presence and continued interference was once of those things. She wanted to know how awake he was and he was very much alive and watching. He was capable of taking control, even if it was for a short time but all in all he was no Ancient Lord. He was a legacy certainly, a standard he would always aspire to but never reach. It was time, her turn. "It is said that you can die of a broken heart — it's scientific fact — calm down. Your heart has broken and keeps breaking with every man you meet. He will be fine. Just calm down. I know that you can feel it now, that aching deep beneath your breast, beating a desperate rhythm." She would kneel next to Mikaboshi as she considered him and she would plant her hand on his chest. Naganisa would attempt to scratch at her and make the Oracle back away but Michi seemed indifferent to Naganisa's panicked attempts. Her hands possessed now an eerie strange glow.

 

[Mikaboshi]

Return of the King​

Spoiler

Katsuo said nothing further. Words no longer had meaning between them. They'd both said their pieces and neither of them were willing to listen. With a shockwave of power, Katsuo's body flickered and he crossed the distance between himself and Mikaboshi in the space of an instant with a blade of thrashing light present in his hand as he brought it down in an overhand slash towards his opponent. Expecting the aggressive move after his taunt, Mikaboshi shunted himself backwards with a burst of air from his wings and leaned forward with his maw open, cinders burning in his throat as he unleashed a torrent of roaring green and black flames from his mouth which engulfed where Katsuo had been standing in a ravenous inferno. Pouring his energy and attention into the gushing flames erupting from his mouth, Mikaboshi was unprepared for Katsuo to emerge forward through the conflagration and grab him by the face with his palm before using the momentum of his movement to carry Mikaboshi backwards and into the ground behind him sending the gout of flame up into the air for a moment before it dissipated from the surprise of the attack Katsuo had launched against him. Singed certainly, Katsuo seemed otherwise unharmed by the attack and as that registered in Mikaboshi's mind he recalled his original analysis of Katsuo during their first battle. It had been his assessment then that if Katsuo were able to fight to his fullest potential then he would almost certainly win a confrontation between them. He'd been counting on Katsuo being unable to tap into the power of his blood fully.

In that moment of uncertainty Katsuo pushed harder on Mikaboshi's head into the ground, tearing the ground beneath them asunder in a maelstrom of expressed power and forming a large concave in the ground where he held Mikaboshi to the ground. In a normal battle this sort of situation would hardly have been the end of things but the struggle they were engaged in was one of morale and determination as much as it was actual power. With Katsuo in such a dominating position, Mikaboshi's sudden realization that he could actually lose put him on the back foot of the encounter and suddenly found his power torn from him as the black fur and dragon-like wings crumbled away into ash leaving him a pale imitation of Katsuo pinned under the weight of the real thing's physical power by his right hand.

"... how... where did you... find this strength... ?" Hissed Mikaboshi from beneath the weight of Katsuo's grip.

"You don't listen. I have things I have to fight for. People that I can't let down. You fight only for yourself. The only thing that drives you is your revenge. Can't you see how small that is? How limited that makes you?" Katsuo told him, pressing down with his arm as Mikaboshi tried in vain to strike Katsuo and break his grip. With his own transformed state broken, Mikaboshi could do little to harm Katsuo much in the same way that the shoe had been on the other foot not even minutes earlier. "And I can't lose to someone like that a second time. I've seen your heart just as you've seen mine and I know you have every right to be angry but I can't let you keep taking your unhappiness out my people anymore."

"And what... of my people?" Mikaboshi's reply was quieter but no less full of vitriol. It was a fair question. Katsuo had seen Mikaboshi's memories. Experienced how humanity had turned on him for the crime of enforcing the terms of their pact. Men had transgressed the territory of the Deep Court and been hunted as a result which Sunagakure took as a threat to their sovereignty and retaliated.

"Your kind gets what it gives. If you live by the sword, eventually you'll die by it."

Mikaboshi's mocking laugh was pained and forced.

"Even you can't be... that dense. You've... seen how they... pick fights and then blame... us. Humanity wants this war... as much we do."

Katsuo didn't have anything to say to that immediately. Within Mikaboshi's memories he could recall the last meeting that Mikaboshi had with the lords of Sungakure and how it had ended poorly. Kazuki had provoked Mikaboshi by laying hands upon Michi and when things got heated as a result they had collectively blamed Mikaboshi for the tumult as if it had been his fault that Kazuki thought it acceptable to restrain a representative of a group that Sunagakure was at truce with. Guilt nibbling at his conscience for how his fellows had acted, Katsuo lifted his grip from Mikaboshi's head despite his better judgement. He wasn't sure if he'd find himself faced with the same problem of Mikaboshi being unable to be destroyed but he did not want to take that step unless he was absolutely sure.

"So I should just let you hurt people? That's your case? You've been wronged so the world has to burn?"

"You and I both know it is not as simple as that." Admonished the Eldest Shadow as he sat up from where he'd been pinned, looking up at Katsuo with his stolen eyes.

"The break it down for me Bats." Katsuo remarked, sitting down upon one of the larger formations of jutting rocks created when he'd smashed Mikaboshi into the ground. The golden power surrounding his body sparked for a moment and then faded as Katsuo released the transformation in a gesture of good will. "It's not like you've got anywhere else to be."

They could not read each other's minds here in this world but generalized emotions were possible to feel through the air and as Katsuo's hair returned to the dark green color that it had been before Mikaboshi had stained black and the golden finery of his transformed state melted away into gilded dust Katsuo could cleanly feel open surprise from the ancient who sat a pace or two away from him in the dirt. Clearly Mikaboshi was confused and surprised that Katsuo would stand down even though he possessed such a clear and overwhelming advantage.

"And what then if I decide that I would rather continue fighting?" Questioned Mikaboshi, blood trickling freely down the side of his face. To that Katsuo offered no audible response. Instead he only shrugged his shoulders and held his arms wide as if to say "alright, come and get me then" and his point was made. Mikaboshi was a prideful creature but he was pragmatic enough to know that he was at enough of a disadvantage that continuing the battle now was ill-advised. If Katsuo were looking for a cessation to the hostility between them, even if temporary, it was to Mikaboshi's benefit to take advantage of that naivety. "Very well. What do you desire to know?"

"Everything, I guess. If I am going to untangle this mess then I should have all the information."

It was a surprisingly valid perspective, Mikaboshi found himself reflecting. He'd originally regarded Katsuo as a big-hearted fool but now that he was finding himself in a position to benefit from that strange quirk of personality he could not regard it with as much derision as he had previously. He started at the beginning-- the war, Fuujin and Homura and the uprising of humanity. Katsuo knew most of this already. It was ancient lore but the timeline of events was reasonably well established. It wasn't until after the war that they got into topics which he couldn't recall ever having heard about. The Deep Court's pact of non-aggression with Sunagakure, the terms of the pact and the eventual betrayal of said pact. Katsuo had seen the story when Mikaboshi had told it to Sousuke but it had been like trying to remember a dream from several nights past. Eventually they arrived at the topic of the current era and Mikaboshi was surprisingly candid about his intentions. Perhaps because he knew that lying to each other in this place was difficult if not possible. This was, after all, Katsuo's heart. He was angry with Sousuke for having treated him like property and was taking out his pent up anger towards humanity on him as a result.

As Mikaboshi explained, Katsuo's mind explored the memories that the ancient brought to the forefront with his words. He watched through the eyes of the Deep Court as humanity turned on them with the words "brought this upon yourselves" upon their lips. He experienced what it had been like to serve faithfully as Sousuke's right hand until the day that Sousuke made clear how much he trusted the creature. The landscape around the two shifted in real time until they were standing within a replica of that moment which was frozen in time as though it were a set on the stage of a theater house. The memory of Mikaboshi knelt ignobly before Sousuke with a look of frustration and humiliation on his face as Sousuke rushed to the aid of a woman... no, another ancient wrapped in the guise of a woman that lurked in secrecy within Sousuke's life.

"Even after I'd done so much for him, I was nothing but a weapon to him. And he treated me that way. A possession to be wielded and discarded at his discretion." Reflected Mikaboshi as they looked upon the scene.

"Is that what you see?" Katsuo asked, his elbows on his knees as he looked from the materialized memory to where Mikaboshi still sat upon the ground. "Sousuke is many things but a tyrant isn't one of them. He just... struggles to relate to others. To him, you were threatening a cousin that he loves."

"The intentions of his actions are irrelevant. There is only what he chose to do and nothing more."

That was a fair statement even if Katsuo didn't want to give it to him. There were a lot of things that Sousuke could have done rather than barging into the situation without all the information. There was a saying that Katsuo recalled hearing once that went something like "when all one has is a hammer all of their problems begin to look like nails" and that aphorism applied here. Mikaboshi certainly could be more understanding about the incident but given his questionable history with humanity it stood to reason why he was not taking it well. In that moment, Katsuo was reminded of the personality conflict between Sousuke and Kaito. Early on both of them had ardently refused to make any sort of peace between them, each citing the mistakes and atrocities committed and allowed by the other as a reason to keep fighting. Ultimately it wasn't until Katsuo had put his foot down and forced them to a table did they find some form of common ground in the enemy that was the Daimyo of Wind Country, Ishii Shiro.

"I suppose that brings us back around to the starting line. I still don't agree with the decisions you've made but I can understand better where you come from."

"Your approval is not a factor." Glowered Mikaboshi sourly as his eyes narrowed towards Katsuo.

"Maybe not but I think it's fair to say that this war of yours has been unproductive to say the least." Katsuo reasoned, knowing that a logical creature like Mikaboshi would not be able to deny the facts even if he loathed them. "I think maybe it's time to call the score even and move on."

"The debt owed to me by man-kind..." Mikaboshi began to say before he was swiftly interrupted by Katsuo -- an experience that the Deep Lord was unaccustomed to. In this world and at this moment Katsuo held the leash as sure as if Mikaboshi's head were still under his boot heel.

"...has long since been paid. You've spilled an ocean of blood trying to fill the hole in your heart left by the death of your friend."

"How dare you --" The Deep Lord hissed as he began to rise, the shadowy energy around his body boiling with his anger as stood once more.

With the razor-sharp crack of thunder, Katsuo rose to his feet and crossed the distance between them in the span of a heart beat. His arm snapping forward, Katsuo's fist tore through the veil of shadows that rose to oppose him with ripples of furious lightning coursing through the quasi-physical barriers that reached for him. The blow connected solidly with Mikaboshi's jaw, hurling him backwards towards the lip of the crater he'd been sitting in and up over it with sparks of energy crackling over his body from the impact.

"I dare because I understand that feeling better than you'll ever know. You're not the only one who's ever lost someone they cared about. Who wasn't strong enough or quick enough or clever enough." Katsuo breathed, each word heavy with outrage.

"And yet... your kind is everywhere. I am alone in this world." Coughed the prone form of Mikaboshi as Katsuo crested the lip of the crater. Wracked by the pulses of lethal energy that coursed through his spiritual form, Mikaboshi could not rise from the place where he'd been planted yet. "Understand that, human. My kind is dead and they are not coming back. I bear the burden of my misjudgment in trusting you."

"Your kind isn't gone. You have Michi. And Suna." Katsuo counted off of his fingers as he walked slowly towards where Mikaboshi had been laid out. "And now Naganisa... and I guess me, too. I know we're not the family you want but nobody else gets to choose who they're related to."

"Plus we know from Michi that bastard Ishii Shiro has been using ancients to create his Sovereign warriors. If you need someone to direct your grudge towards, why not him? Why keep fighting this meaningless war?"

Mikaboshi did not respond. For the first time in many years, Mikaboshi was made to face a situation where he was powerless to affect the outcome. He'd inadvertently maneuvered himself into a position where he could not overcome Katsuo now that the last scion of Primus had learned to control the power he'd been born with. To add to that, he was being lectured on his own failures by the very same man which had him at his mercy. It was the ultimate humiliation.

"Yeah, I get it. You can't admit you were wrong otherwise everything has been a waste. That's fine for now, I just need you to listen for a bit anyway. Here's where we stand. I can't let you free to roam or you'll just go back to what you were doing before we had this little chat. We both know that, I think. But to be honest I don't feel good about doing to you what my ancestors did which puts me in a little bit of a bind."

"So here's the deal. I'm willing to call us even from here forward provided you put this grudge you have against Sousuke and Sand to bed."

"Just like that? You forgive me and expect me to do the same?" The incredulousness which crept into Mikaboshi's voice was surprising given his condition but what Katsuo had suggested was pretty looney.

"Just like that."

"You are a fool." Mikaboshi's reply was biting and disappointing. Katsuo had really hoped he was getting through in some way. "I am your enemy. I've killed scores of your people and would have done much more if you had not stopped me. And you forgive me? I simply do not understand you, Sunahoshi."

Moving at last, Mikaboshi slammed one of his fists into the ground and suddenly the presence of the Deep Lord was everywhere once more. Illusionary winds whipped up around them and in the span of time it took Katsuo to glance around to take in his surroundings and make sure that there wasn't some kind of sneak attack coming Mikaboshi was on his feet once more with shades wreathing his form in a burning haze.

"I cannot accept those terms. I will not simply be forgiven as if I were a child who knows no better. Take up your sword Son of Primus and we will settle this as kings. The one who still stands afterwards will decide the fate of us both as the First Law dictates."

Survival of the fittest. The strong live and the weak die. That was the First Law. Even though he was unbound from his nature as an ancient Mikaboshi still clung to that philosophy as his guiding force and as he stated his counter-terms to Katsuo's offer Katsuo realized that this was Mikaboshi's way of accepting his offer. Mikaboshi was not a creature that could simply surrender. His pride would not allow it. Katsuo had to earn the right to decide that the blood feud between the Deep Court and humanity was ended. In a move that surprised Katsuo deeply the flames consumed Mikaboshi's form and once more emerged the dark king's winged transformed state.

"Yeah." Agreed Katsuo, nodding his head as the energy around his own body came to a crescendo once more and altered his state back to that of the avatar of Primus. "So be it."

Bringing his hands forward, Katsuo expended them outwards from each other and there in the space between his palms extended a blade of the purest lightning that hovered in the space before him for a moment before he grasped it with his right hand and held it before him in a ready stance. Likewise Mikaboshi gestured and the tenebrous flames around his body roared into the shape of a curved blade of his own-- a dark reflection of Tatsumasa just as Mikaboshi's form mimicked that of Katsuo. Each raising their sword in time with the other, Katsuo and Mikaboshi both swung their blades from a distance of a few paces away from each other unleashing a torrent of their respective elemental force in a howling rush of power. Raging black flames crashed into explosive thunderous force as the two warriors stood resolute in this key moment where their determination and will clashed against each other.

For a short time they seemed evenly matched but the tide quickly turned against the torrent of fel flames that Mikaboshi had unleashed for this was not his world and he could no longer draw upon the seemingly depthless pool of power that was the fragment of Shoki. Even though they could both see the writing on the wall neither of the warriors relented as they had promised to settle things as kings. With a final peal of cacophonous thunder the resistance against his attack was broken and the flames of Mikaboshi's attack went out and Katsuo's assault overwhelmed Mikaboshi entirely, blasting him from his feet and tearing the energy which formed his transformed state away from his body leaving him a crackling and burnt mess lay out upon the floor of the mindscape they battled in.

With a deep breath of exhaustion, Katsuo let his own transformation dissipate and for a moment he wobbled on his feet as the exertion of battling Mikaboshi was certainly taking it's toll. The power of the Spark of Primus was great but Katsuo himself still had limits and could only control so much of it before it threatened to overwhelm him. Regaining his composure for the moment, Katsuo made his way over to where Mikaboshi's charred body lay once more defeated upon the ground.

"Finish... it." The ancient managed through a pained cough.

"Nah." Said Katsuo as he plunked down next to where Mikaboshi lay in the dirt. "We agreed that I get to choose, didn't we?"

Mikaboshi coughed weakly once more in an attempt to say something but found that he could not muster the energy in that moment to do so.

"So in accordance to your First Law, this is what I choose. I choose for us to put the past behind us and for you to lend me your strength to help take down Ishii Shiro."

"Then... I am a... slave again."

"I don't need a slave. What I need is an ally. I don't know as much as I should about ancients and to be honest I'm not sure I'm strong enough to do this alone so I need you to help me just as much as you need me right now because as far as I know there aren't any soulless bodies lining up for you to take possession of."

Mikaboshi audibly sighed but Katsuo took that as a good sign. Either the ancient was too exhausted from their battle to continue debating or he'd resigned himself to the possibility that the battle he was fighting no longer had any meaning.

"Very... well." Mikaboshi said at last, breaking a very suspenseful silence between the two. "My power... is yours."

And with that, the darkness took Katsuo and the mental landscape melted away as he felt Mikaboshi finally acquiescence to his control.

With a sudden and deep breath, Katsuo emerged back to consciousness on the floor of the dingy bar where Michi had called the meeting of the Deep Court and the remainder of the Cabal only minutes after he'd collapsed even though the exchange between Mikaboshi and Katsuo had seemed to take much longer than that for them. Much like the interrogation of Fuu which had ended with the former Cabal agent being reborn into Michi, the confrontation on the spiritual and mental landscape between the two had not taken very much real time at all. Looking from Michi to Naganisa, Katsuo reached up towards her to touch her on the side of her face with a goofy but genuine smile on his face.

"Hello beautiful." He coughed, his body heavy and tired. It seemed like the battle had certainly taken it's toll even on his physical body. "Sorry about that... had to see a man about some real estate."

There was no presence of Mikaboshi within his words or his eyes -- no trace of him save for the pale shade of Katsuo's skin which lightened with each passing minute. Even the darkened color of his hair began to slowly lighten -- first shifting up to a gray color and then finally a vibrant blonde color similar to his hair color when he was transformed save for without the golden sheen and crackling energy.|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzmaKbl6ZBg]BGM[/url]]"]

Sunahoshi Katsuo - The Last Sunahoshi

[/legend]

 

[Sand Council]

Naganisa​

|

Michi​

|

Kaito​

Naganisa shrieked at Michi, her long talon-like claws wild and thoughtless in the way they attempted to scratch and tear. Naganisa had lost her focus and without that she was no threat at all to the methodical Oracle who was significantly more capable of keeping her passions at bay. With a free hand, Michi would catch Naganisa by the wrist and twist her grip without looking up from her fallen leader. "It is an arduous endeavor to have my attentions so divided," Michi announced as she attempted to revitalize the unconscious Ancient. Their biology differed from theirs on a very basic level, but there were many facets that remained unchanged between man and Ancient even if neither were willing to see their common ground. "I am trying to save a life," she announced although was she saying that for Naganisa's sake or more for her own, so that she did not lose sight of her personal mission.

Kaito warily made his way to Naganisa, his body convulsed as he made a series of hacking coughs. Blood sprayed from his parched lips, which for some might have been alarming but not for the former Cabalist who knew his days were numbered. He was not the warm sort of person so it was perhaps uncharacteristic for him to try but he did so anyways, his arms reached out from behind the wailing woman and he hugged her tight. He smelled like tobacco, his clothes were thick with the scent. He would try to muffle another cough, causing a strange muted sound to rattle his chest before he spoke with a raspy and tired voice. "It is OK... It is going to be OK..." He lied, he had said the lie a thousand times before and he knew he was far from convincing but there was still a sense of comfort he derived from saying it and if one would be so bold as to say, there was a calm that came from hearing it even if it was not the truth.

"No, it won't. She killed him! SHE KILLED HIM!" She screamed as Kaito rocked her back and forth.

"She didn't... She wont..." He replied, a hint of uncertainty in her voice. "She has a big old brain a-and she has had the chance before..." He shook his head, he saw what Michi did. They might not be the same thing and that was what worried him the most. She was always something to be concerned about but she was always inert. She had all the facts before everyone else and yet she never used them to betray her peers, to sell them out. She also never attacked one of her own before either, what she did to Naganisa was a first. It was a desperate move, he understood that but Fuu was not a violent woman. This thing, whatever she was, that claimed what once belonged to Fuu seemed to have no qualms invoking violence. "There had to be a reason... A good reason." He reasoned, trying to convince himself more that the sobbing woman in his arms.

Naganisa was calming but she was also in immense pain. She was still crying and she was trying to say something but the words made no sense between the gasping, sobbing breaths.

"He is not arousing," Michi announced, her voice did not have the same passion as Naganisa's but there was a hint of sadness or perhaps regret. She let out a sigh, a few minutes was like an eternity to a shinobi, she invested an even greater sum of her chakra into the fallen Lord. Her brow misted in sweat she continued on with her endeavor, not knowing what else to do and nothing nothing of the psychic struggle between the pair. "But I am trying to save your lives," she commented with a gruff voice, she had grown more expressive since the change. "He... that is Katsuo would never have allowed you to be changed. He never would have allowed you to be transformed, but you have reached your peak a long time ago Naganisa and while you may not believe me when I say this... you would have found yourself in a downward spiral in regards to your power... your might... your potential. You were already withering away pining for what you had lost. I saved your life and I woke up the last Sunahoshi in the process." It was a raw, unfiltered truth. Naganisa had buried herself in the corner of the world and was simply waiting to die. She was getting older. She was getting weaker. Then there was Katsuo, one of Mikaboshi's best kept secrets -- he was using Katsuo's body as his own. Katsuo, being one of the last Sunahoshi, was the product of myth but that did not matter because it was what the people believed that mattered. The Deep Court Lord was a being Fuu, or rather Michi owed so much to. She owed him her life, much like Naganisas owed her life to Michi now even if she did not fully appreciate that. There was something that Mikaboshi did not realize, not that Fuu or Michi was a fatalist, but some things seem to simply fall into place and this was one of those things. Mikaboshi needed Katsuo and Katsuo needed Mikaboshi if either hoped to forge a brave new world. They needed to do this together. She never would have though literally, but here they were...

Eventually Kaito's grip on Naganisa would break and she would rush to Katsuo's side. "fix him!" She demanded.

"...Trying" She replied with an exasperated voice. It was then that he woke up, not that Michi could take any credit, although perhaps she could it was a relative unknown. She backed away, not knowing which would arouse. She knew when his attentions were focused on Naganisa. That was Katsuo. A thin, worried smile would form on her face. She needed not one but both. Knowing now that both were alive, she would need to separate them somehow-- but how?

There was that tender moment between Katsuo and Naganisa. There was the predictable happy tears and messy embrace. All things Michi knew were going to happen. The variables had become predictable again as she backed away. She had no intention of keeping Katsuo out or locking Mikaboshi away, but she was going to appeal to whomever was driving at the time. "My apologies Sunahoshi Katsuo," Michi announced as she bowed her head. "I knew you were still in there... alive. There is something of dire importance I need to say before I am submitted to your wrath or mercy," she announced as she raised her hands in a surrendering posture.

If allowed to speak she would tell him the truth. "I am an Oracle. The last Oracle and it is my solemn duty to chronicle the world around me for posterity. Those of my Order besides myself were slaughtered when I was very young and I have been a tool of the Diamyo's most of my life. The Diamyo is planning something terrible, some I am sure you are aware of. He has consolidated the power of Wind Country less Sunagakure, the final sovereign city. He has raised an army by feeding Ancients to create hybrids, a practice considered taboo and the methods locked away by my predecessors centuries ago. However, a man named Nao knew of this practice. He shared these secrets and more with Diamyo Ishii. His army is ready to strike, however despite the great number of men under the Kazekage's authority... they will lack the strength to hold back the Diamyo's onslaught alone and will perish. However, it has come to my attention that some Ancients still exist in Sunagakure. Deep Court Lord Mikaboshi and Earth Court Suna. If you can find common ground with them, they might be able to fortify Sunagakure's forces and perhaps in time cease the antagonist relationship between these worlds because I feel that a symbiotic relationship is feasible." She stopped for a moment and glanced in Naganisa's direction. "We may have to forego our humanity in doing so, but we are still the same people beneath it all." She nodded in Naganisa's direction. "Besides how she looks and what gifts you have given her... how much about her has truly changed?" She knew that she would not have long to convince the One King, that his wrath might be swift. She also knew that the Sunahoshi might not maintain control for long and she needed to say her piece before he slipped away.

 

[Mikaboshi]

[col]

[Return of the King]​

Katsuo listened and politely let Michi finish what she had to say as he got to his feet with the help of Naganisa. His entire body hurt just like it had after the mission to the center of the Diamond Maelstrom where he'd transformed for the first time into the Avatar of the First King. It hurt to let Naganisa cling to him the way that she was but for her sake he bore it with as much of a grin as he could manage through the pain. He wasn't the king but he understood that burden well enough. They needed him to be alright. Right now Naganisa needed more than anything to have someone that she could rely on and Katsuo meant to be that no matter how hard it was. It was that conviction that had seen him through the battle with Mikaboshi and turned the key in the lock to giving him control over the extraordinary power he'd inherited from his ancestors. Looking finally away from Naganisa as Michi gestured at her, Katsuo raised his hand at last.

"Yeah, I know who you are Michi. Mikaboshi and I shared the same head. I've been asleep but not unaware of what's going on." He explained. He knew all of the information that Michi had given him already because Mikaboshi knew it. And as for her point about Naganisa... well. There was nothing for that, was there? They were both changed in that regard. Katsuo knew that the biology of his own body was fundamentally different now just as Naganisa's was. "I also know that you have a penchant for manipulation that your boss gave you. You don't have to convince me of anything -- Mikaboshi and I are on the same page regarding Ishii Shiro and for now we've struck a bargain to that end."

Breaking from Naganisa for the moment, Katsuo turned to face Michi and for the first time she would get the full measure of the man as he put his entire attention on her. Even without the galvanic currents blasting about his form in chaotic bursts or the chilling darkness of Mikaboshi draped about him, Katsuo cut an imposing figure. His combination of broad shoulders, well muscled body and height made it was easy to see why Naganisa was so obsessed with him physically but at the same time it wasn't simply his physical stature which gave him gravitas. The look that lingered in his bright eyes was not one of maliciousness or bloodlust but it was nothing if not resolute. His was the gaze of a man descended from a long line of brave and proud kings. The golden blonde had fully dissolved away by now, revealing his originally strange shade of green colored hair that framed the steely gaze that he centered on Michi.

"I know you swore an oath to protect Mikaboshi's interests and for now our aims are aligned. Whether or not you want to honor that oath and be a part of our bargain is up to you but I'm only going to say this once. No more of what happened today. If I come to think for even a second that you might hurt one of the people I've sworn to protect again then I will take you out without a second's hesitation. I need to know that I can trust you going forward."

The hard look that Katsuo leveled at her was as good as a signature at the bottom of a declaration. He was dead serious in his words. He very much did not want to fight with Michi and he knew that Mikaboshi would not approve but he was still recovering from their battle as well and could not be present to leverage in getting Michi on board with "The Plan". Katsuo knew that Mikaboshi had infused her with the essence and nature of the Deep Court which meant that deception was as a part of her as breathing was but he knew from first hand experience from having just come to an agreement of sorts with it's Lord that the Deep Court's pragmatism could override it's less honest impulses when necessary.

"Can I do that, Michi?"|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzmaKbl6ZBg]BGM[/url]]"]

Sunahoshi Katsuo - The Last Sunahoshi

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

[col3]

Naganisa​

|

Michi​

|

Kaito​

[/col3]

Naganisa held onto him tight, she felt as if she let him go he would disappear again. A part of her would probably always fear that after everything that has happened. She did not care about the thing she had become or the fact that she had nearly died. Kaito had backed away and found a stool, he was more dumbfounded than anything else. He was not entirely sure why he was even brought along, but considering Fuu or rather Michi's unpredictable new nature he was mildly concerned.

"I also know that you have a penchant for manipulation that your boss gave you. You don't have to convince me of anything -- Mikaboshi and I are on the same page regarding Ishii Shiro and for now we've struck a bargain to that end."</B><i></i>

He was right, there was there were a few 'small' changes. She had a passion she previously lacked and yes she newfound predilection towards deception. Not that she she unwilling to deceive before, but it was contrary to her objective of dissemination -- spreading half-truths and misrepresented facts was the antithesis of what it was to be an Oracle. An Oracle was about the dissemination and preservation of information and truth, not the creation or perpetuation of lies and untruths yet here she was. "Heard," Michi echoed with a thin half smile. She could not think of a man she hated more than the Diamyo... perhaps Nao, but even with Nao his actions were done for the Daimyo's sake.

The final Sunahoshi broke away from Naganisa, she did not stop him even if she had a near immediate ache. A large part of her feared that he would not return so she watched with her new wide, golden eyes as the scene played out. Her every muscle tense as if she was preparing to pounce on Michi if she gave any inclination of violence. Katuso was much larger than Michi, even as Fuu she was a small woman but it seemed in her next life she became even more compact but she did not shy from the progeny of Primus. She had learned a long time ago, it was okay to feel feel but she could never show it. She steeled her resolve and fixed her unwavering gaze on the gilded king, counting her breaths as she did so. She needed to stay focused. She needed to remember her mission.

"I know you swore an oath to protect Mikaboshi's interests and for now our aims are aligned. Whether or not you want to honor that oath and be a part of our bargain is up to you but I'm only going to say this once. No more of what happened today. If I come to think for even a second that you might hurt one of the people I've sworn to protect again then I will take you out without a second's hesitation. I need to know that I can trust you going forward."

"After what Mikaboshi has done for me... to me... He will find no better benefactor," Michi claimed. It was the utter truth, there was no word play in what she said. There was no hidden intent. It was not necessary. For months, years in some cases she was feeding choice Sunans information about the Diamyo, not only risking herself in the process but reducing her already scarce options each time she had. Despite her efforts they did nothing to end the Diamyo threat, she held that against them. She was not concerned with her safety or even her life, she considered herself in a state of limbo awaiting a death that would prove to be nothing more than a fresh state of servitude. She hoped things would be different with Mikaboshi, thus far they were not very different in his overt actions against the Dimayo and his men but he gave her something that made it possible for her to do it herself. He granted her the freedom a majority of her life so dearly lacked.

Could she promise that she was not going to hurt anybody else - no. Katsuo would be a fool to think destroying a madman would be a simple task where there would be no blood. No loss. No regret.

"Can I do that, Michi?"<i></i>

But he did not ask if she would preserve his allies, he asked if he had the capacity to trust. He could trust her -- that much was certain. He could but he would be wrong to do so. She was not out to harm his allies, rather bolster them. She saved Naganisa from herself, she was spiraling out without him. She was waning - her age was going to slow her down and she would deteriorate. Now, with this oppertunity... yes oppertunity everything was reset. She would be a loyal ally to Mikaboshi and Katsuo both. Naganisa would protect them, she would fight for them and she would kill for them. That sort of loyalty cannot be bartered or bought. Yet the answer was simple to his question -- does he have the capacity to trust her. That indeed was the importance of asking the right question. <B>"I am most certain you can Lord Katsuo."

She would wait for a moment. Perhaps he had more to say.

"I am sure that you are already aware of this then, what I seek to ensure our salvation. The races of men, which most of us" less Kaito "no longer are... are in great peril. As the Diamyo consolidates his hold over this country, his gaze and his reach will extend beyond our borders." This was not a lie. "It is through a process of hybridization far removed from the process done by an Ancient that the Soverign derive their power, making them anything but human or Ancient. This process fortifies them in ways that human biology alone fails to. This is not a war that can be won through playground rules." She warned, a sense of urgency in her voice. "Consider the merging of kinds a gift to a dead species and an act of preservation for a dying one." She nodded her head towards Kaito. "Naganisa will be a life-long ally to you, but he could be also." Yes, she was referring to the former leader of the Cabal that threatened to overwhelm Sunagakure a few years earlier.

Kaito's expression changed, he looked concerned. "Keep me out of this," he announced.

She paid him no heed. "He is dying... of cancer. No need to me to stick a knife in him, he is almost dead but I am sure you will not have the same sense of dire urgency," she mused. "But if there is one thing i can attest of this man, despite the horrors he has wrought. He is the loyalest man I have ever met." She would take a backwards step, gaining distance if possible between herself and the awakened avatar of Sunan rule. "A wasted oppertunity if you let him die." She might not have said it outright but she felt that he understood her intent. Now was the time to build his army. Find those loyal to him and his cause and empower them.

As for her, she had a great many other things to do. "As for myself. Permission to take leave?" If consent given be it a curt nod or a single word, she would bow her head slightly and depart through the doors she came. She knew full well she would not survive the war, her chances were in the single digits. As for Sunagakure's chances in this war -- the changes were variable.

 

[Mikaboshi]

[col]"No, see this is what I'm talking about." Interrupted Katsuo as Kaito interjected his disapproval for the idea of being turned into a hybrid. "You play by your own rules and then tell yourself that the ends justify the means but I won't do that."

She tried to step back from him and Katsuo's hand shot out as quick as the strike of a viper and attempted to grab her arm and hold her fast. He wasn't done. He'd asked her if he could trust her, she'd told him that he could and then she'd went on to imply that he do the same thing to Kaito that she'd done to Naganisa and Katsuo wasn't going to have any of that.

"I want Ishii Shiro out of power as much as you do but I won't fight this war looking over my shoulder at you wondering who you're going to stab next to manipulate me into doing what you want. I'm not one of your pawns and not one of Mikaboshi's either for that matter. You want my help in this battle then you got it but let's be perfectly straight here. No more tricks. No more lies. No more manipulations."

"No. More."

It wasn't just that he wasn't willing to engage in battle with the Daimyo's forces while keeping one eye on Michi -- it was that he could not. They both knew that if they were going to be victorious in the up-coming conflict then it would require every ounce of their cunning and concentration focused on that. If Katsuo were constantly concerned for the well being of anyone who was in the room with Michi or trying to keep ahead of Michi's -- or Mikaboshi's -- games then they would almost certainly fail.

"And that goes double for you too, Bats." He sent inward towards Mikaboshi. The Deep Lord had still said nothing as of yet but that didn't mean he wasn't listening. Perhaps he couldn't say anything? Time would tell on that front.

"You got it right when you said that it's going to take everything we've got to take the Daimyo down and we all need to be working towards the same goal here which means I have to know that when you tell me something that you aren't trying to push me along some kind of agenda."|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUcZBcP8D0E]BGM[/url]]"]

Sunahoshi Katsuo - The Last Sunahoshi

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

[col3]

Naganisa​

|

Michi​

|

Kaito​

[/col3]

"No, see this is what I'm talking about."

"Hmmm?"

"You play by your own rules and then tell yourself that the ends justify the means but I won't do that."

The ends always did to her. She was willing to die to end the Daimyo. She was willing to end what few liberties she had and suffer an existence of damnation to exact justice on Nao and Shiro. This was not some romanticized account of the past where the heroes always won, the princess was always saved and the evil tyrants were expelled from the lands heralding an era of prosperity and happiness. No, she knew the gritty truth about those days so long ago. His hand gripped her wrist and tugged her back as he demanded an answer. "Do you honestly think that you can win this war by playing fair? You are fighting against a man who considers lives to be nothing more than a commodity. You are allying yourself with men and women who have their own ambitions and none of them will match your own." She debated. Wind Country was in turmoil and there was not going to be some easy fix, a crusade where a party of adventurer heroes traversed the desert and faced off against a tyrant king in a battle where good people did not get hurt. "People are going to get hurt. People are going to die." Her voice cracked as she said that "...you're going to die." The Oracle claimed. "You need allies as strong as if not stronger than yourself. You won't find that through fair play," she argued.

"I want Ishii Shiro out of power as much as you do but I won't fight this war looking over my shoulder at you wondering who you're going to stab next to manipulate me into doing what you want. I'm not one of your pawns and not one of Mikaboshi's either for that matter. You want my help in this battle then you got it but let's be perfectly straight here. No more tricks. No more lies. No more manipulations."

"But..."

"No. More."

He demanded and Michi gritted her teeth. He was stubborn as a mule and as mad as a hatter. Next to him her son appeared sane. He was not going to win, not without making some sacrifices, Not without cutting some corners. And she could not promise him that she was not going to deceive him, it would betray her nature. The nature that Mikaboshi had imbued her with when he liberated her from Nao's grip. There was a time not that long ago where she would have held the same standard, the same romanticized view of justice but she did not any longer. She could not even if she wanted to, She let out a sigh, she wanted to help desperately but she could only make promises she knew she could keep. "I cannot lie, but I can deceive. Like the shadows beneath your feet, they are always a true reflection but at times they will appear to be what they are not. I cannot change my nature" it was both a burden and a boon. She could have tried to say something that made it seem like she was willing to play his game, save her life and maintain her liberty. "I cannot promise you that I won't be trying to guide you down my path, but there is not a person in this world that you can say will never try to push onto you their own agenda." Her pose relaxed "But I can offer you some advice when it comes to me, ask the right question."

"You've changed Fuu..." Kaito complained.

Michi nodded. "I am doing what I have to. Something until recent the both of you were willing to do," she contended. She was referring to their quest for vengeance against Sunagakure. Naganisa tortured and killed hundreds and Kaito facilitated the destruction of not only much of the village's infrastructure but also took partial indirect responsibility in the deaths of those within those spaces. She was merely complacent. "Maybe it was you who changed, Kaito." It was the Deep Court side of her that was talking, that was where all this anger, passion and cold calculating planning came from.

"Maybe I did, but I don't consider these changes to be a bad thing,"

"Kaito, I have been your friend for years," yes this was the old 'trust me' speech.

"No, Fuu was. You aint her," Kaito contended as he pulled a fresh cancer stick from his pocket and lit up. "And it is a shame you aint, she was a helluva lady."

"You do not mean that," Michi frowned.

"You got it right when you said that it's going to take everything we've got to take the Daimyo down and we all need to be working towards the same goal here which means I have to know that when you tell me something that you aren't trying to push me along some kind of agenda."

Her shoulders slumped. She was not looking for a fight but she could not lie either. "I cannot control what I am, but I am trying to work with you the best way I know how" she attested. She was not looking to be the next ruler of Wind when the dust settled, she just wanted to return to some semblance of a life free from fear and pain. She had no hope or ambition that a relationship could be reconciled between herself and her son, he was a madman and she was partially to blame. In fact, her life was full of regrets but she had a feeling that she was not going to regret this one even if her former allies harbored an animosity for the rest of their potentially short lives. She had already tried to defend her actions but they seemed indefensible. Perhaps they were right and she was some sort of monster - did monsters feel regret or remorse? She did not think they did because she did not. She was hurt by their sentiments strangely enough and wished there was another way but she felt the love lost was not more important than a victory as sad or as lonesome as that might be. She would do anything to win.

 

[Mikaboshi]

[col]Again Fuu refused to fully agree to Katsuo's terms and for a moment, Katsuo weighed the odds of letting her walk out of the building. She could very much be a liability to the budding state of their resistance against the Daimyo's regime if she decided that her way of thinking was superior and was constantly trying to steer him towards her own ends. He didn't act immediately but listened to what she had to say as he considered his actions before he felt the touch of something about his shoulders. Instinctively Katsuo knew that it wasn't a physical sensation but rather the feeling of a presence welling up and surrounding him. It looked like Mikaboshi was awake or at least trying to communicate with him. Letting his eyes leave Michi, Katsuo looked to the floor and let Mikaboshi's presence "in" to give him the connection that he felt the grasping cold reaching for.

"Even now, you are doing it." Sent the Deep Lord, "words" forming in the back of Katsuo's mind. It was a very strange sensation -- it felt as if he were hearing his own thoughts echoed back at him. "You say you want peace but then judge us for what we are. Michi can no more promise what you are asking from her than you could breathe underwater. It is not a compulsion. She is not sick or addled."

"You made her that way." Katsuo sent back, countering Mikaboshi's logic that they simply had to accept the faults of what she was as reality and move on. "And you broke from your own nature. Couldn't you--"

"Yes. I could repeat what I did to myself for Michi but ask yourself this, Son of Primus. Would you discard your humanity if I told you that it would secure you victory?" The answer was "no" and they both knew it. A victory earned under such terms would only mean that the Wind Country had traded one sadistic master for another. "If that is not a sacrifice you are willing to make then how could you ask it of us? If that is how you wish to forge peace between us know that it would only be the peace of a master and a pet."

There was an undercurrent of bitterness behind the words that bubbled up from Mikaboshi and Katsuo understood why Mikaboshi was disappointed. In the eyes of the Deep Lord, he'd just done the same thing that humanity had always done. They made pacts and deals but then discarded the terms of those deals when the nature of ancient kind became inconvenient. With a deep sigh, Katsuo looked back to Michi without responding to Mikaboshi immediately. Kaito and Michi were arguing now about how she'd changed and were still battling over their dueling philosophies.

"Then how do I ensure the safety of my people knowing that Michi is potentially a threat to them?"

"You must be the king you were born to be."

And then Mikaboshi's presence was gone once more. What the hell, thought Katsuo indignantly. What sort of response was that? "Be the king he was born to be". It wasn't the first time that he'd heard words like that. When he'd first decided to challenge the legacy that his parentage had laid before him, Katsuo had come across an automaton born from the Diamond Throne that had said something much the same.

You must learn when to use your heart and when to use your head. Too much of either makes you a fool or a monster. But together, they make you a king. This is your path Sunahoshi Katsuo, Son of Sunahoshi Hiro and Masashi Inara. Make it a journey.

The words of the diamond amalgamation came back to haunt Katsuo as he listened to Michi and Kaito bicker. Was that what Mikaboshi was referring to? Was Katsuo using too much of his heart here and not enough of his head? Michi had said "you must ask the right questions". Blowing another long sigh, Katsuo concluded that dealing with ancients was an exercise in growing a headache. That much was certain.

"Arright, I get it. I'm coming at this from the wrong angle. Square pegs and circular holes." Katsuo remarked at last, rubbing the back of his head. "I get that to some level you can't help the trickiness and if we're gonna make this peace thing work then we need to be able to meet in the middle somehow but at least... I need to know that you aren't going to hurt any more of my people or let them get hurt through inaction when you could otherwise help them."|[legend="[[b][u]OOC Notes[/u][/b]] - [[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUcZBcP8D0E]BGM[/url]]"]

Sunahoshi Katsuo - The Last Sunahoshi

[/legend][/col]

 

[Sand Council]

[col3]

Naganisa​

|

Michi​

|

Kaito​

[/col3]

"'Fraid I do," Kaito replied chewing on the end of his lit cigarette. "You see, men like me often lack standards in a lot of things but there was one thing I ne'er skimped on and that was who I considered a friend," he took an ever-healing drag from his cancer stick.

"I am helping you. I am saving you both," she argued.

"No, I don't think so. You're helping yourself." Kaito replied. He was not wrong, her keen interest was not purely based out of the kindness of her heart, if it was she would have brought Mikaboshi to the hospice ward at the Omni Prime Medical Center. There were droves of men and women who would do anything for a second chance at life, people who were far more deserving than he. "You know as well as I that I don't deserve a second chance. It aint a self-depreciating thing to say that. We both know it to be true." He let out a sigh as he exhaled a ring of smoke.

"I do not want to see you die," Michi protested.

"Not your call to make." Kaito concluded as he crossed his arms over his chest. Not everyone was meant to live forever and not everyone wanted to. Sure, he feared death. He had done enough wrong in his life to feel some concern for holy retribution, but he was not going to cheat death. He had already become a monster once for the sake of vengeance, he was not going to do it again for the sake of fear.

Michi, Naganisa and Kaito did not know about the conversation going on inside Mikaboshi/Katsuo's head. The journey Katsuo was making to become king. While some would think it was his destiny to become the kazekage, they were wrong. That was not where he was intended to sit when all of this was done. Where was he going? What was the fate the Oracle saw? It involved a throne, just not -that- one.

"Arright, I get it. I'm coming at this from the wrong angle. Square pegs and circular holes... I get that to some level you can't help the trickiness and if we're gonna make this peace thing work then we need to be able to meet in the middle somehow but at least... I need to know that you aren't going to hurt any more of my people or let them get hurt through inaction when you could otherwise help them."</B><i></i>

<B>"Not a problem," Michi replied immediately, her hands cupped in front of her in a polite, gracious pose that seemed eerily reminiscent of another Deep Court character if they were placed behind her back. "My job is to repay Mikaboshi for his kindness and to undo the damages Daimyo Ishii Shiro has caused... My agenda should align with your own." She paused for a moment before she added, "and your goals can become the same as so many others because your war is their war and they have been fighting it for years without ever realizing." She was referring to Naganisa and Kaito at this moment but she had others in mind. The war between Ancients and humanity was nothing more than a distraction, the lines had been blurred centuries ago if either side would be willing to let go of grudges so old neither could remember the true genesis. Looking at Kaito she let out a sigh as her hands ran through an array of handseals in a methodical manner, "the storm might have been ignored by Sunagakure but it was created by Nao's construct under the command of Diamyo Ishii Shiro." Sheets of paper started to surround Kaito as she said the final words with hesitation in her voice. It would have been less painful for him to think it was some monster working independent of all things and that only Sunagakure failed him, but no the storm was a purposeful and planned creation. "It would have been a kindness to force it onto you rather than to make you ask, but I have been asked to not hurt you when I could otherwise help. So no fighting... no tricks... vengeance is why you will accept and you will do so with enthusiasm."

Kaito let out a roar of frustration and anger, his cigarette still clamped between his teeth. "You fucking bitch. You knew!" His words had a venom to them that had not been heard since his defeat, that angry old soldier was still in there and Michi always knew that. "You knew this whole fucking time!"

"Yes," she admitted saying just the one word.

"I am going to rip you apart!" He screamed, his voice hoarse.

"Kaito... You will try, but fail. The bind is so you don't hurt yourself, your body won't be able to support this ...vigor for long." She looked over at Katsuo, "Kaito will ask for it now so he can kill me. He won't succeed so don't deny him for my sake... He will want to use me to unravel the Daimyo, what I know is the only thing that has kept me alive and the only thing that will. At least for a little longer." Her statement was ominous but that was because she already saw her own end, or at least her most probable cause of death. Will it be worth it? Yes. Thanks to what she had become, she was no longer afraid to die.

She was right about Kaito, he started to cough and wheeze and as he did Michi's papers started to fall away. Kaito fell to his knees, muttering as he did so between gasps for breath and harsh retching coughs his new-found hatred for her, It actually made her sad, it made her regret the course of actions she had chosen but it was the only way. She had to hurt the few people who ever cared for her now rather than later, they won't miss her when she is gone. "Sunahoshi Katsuo, you are the intended king. This is a fate I see, the only thing that is unclear is the area about your throne -- I see it gilded and beautiful in one, surrounded by loved ones and friends and in another I see red. I see a lot of death and I see a lonesome king. Empower your friends now to fight by your side, if you try to fight alone they will still come and if they do so unprepared they will die because they will not let you fight alone. Daimyo Ishii is the genesis of these terrible things but to get to him you will have to fight his army and you will not be able to do this alone. His most trusted adviser, Nao is more powerful than the rest because he is not... not right. While Ishii Shiro is the leader, watch Nao."<i></i> Katsuo knew everything that Mikaboshi knew. He knew all of the data shared in the Kazekage tower.