[Mission] [Yumi] Not Lost

[Samejima]

As Yumi got closer, she'd be able to make out the dog's full shape and color, as well as catch sight of what seemed to be a scroll tied to the dog's right foreleg.

The dog didn't seem to respond to the sign being pointed at it at first. Then, as if it realized something, it began taking a few steps back, retreating into the Fall area. The fire around it did seem to bother it, and it was cautious as it continued stepping backwards before stopping just beyond Yumi's reach with the sign-spear.
[col]

Tachibana Sora​

|The girl was getting closer to it! What was she thinking? After seeing the flowers have no effect (granted, they were just flowers) she'd taken steps towards getting closer to it instead of away. Awed by her courage, not knowing she's had training as a shinobi, he stood there quite still until something happened.

[legend="Distracted"][progress]40[/progress][/legend]

He thought over the dog's reaction to the flowers, and then again with the fire. It didn't flinch when faced with a ranged attack, but the things it was already in contact with had an effect on it, such as the ground and the fire. If it would just step a bit further back, it would come into contact with the sign, and he'd be able to test the theory... But even if the sign could touch it, that would still mean they had to fight it at close range, which wouldn't be good for anyone.

And why wouldn't it move further ahead? Sitting ducks as they were before, why didn't it attack them before now, or even pursue them?[/col]

The dog evaded the sign expertly anyway, which was coincidentally also in flames.

 

[Kazumi]

She wardingly swung the sign around a little to try and keep the thing at bay. "Try to run on past while I get its attention," she called out, not diverting her eyes from the thing. It doesn't seem to like fire. That made sense, as far as she knew, animals didn't like fire. How much illusionary animals didn't like fire was the real question. So, Yumi stepped to the side and tried to edge the beast back away from one side of the path so taht he, and with a little luck she too, could skirt on by him.

Her eye latched onto the scroll momentarily. Was that something important? Well, if must have been... why else would iit be there? Even so, could she do anything about it without a proper weapon? She shook her head and reaffixed her stare on her opponent. There would be time for that once he was safely through the threshold. Maybe she could catch it off guard if it tried to go after Sora and give it a sound bash across the head.

 

[Samejima]

One thing to notice about it was that its gaze did not follow the sign as a regular animal's should have.

Just as Yumi finished formulating her last sentence, the creature took a few steps backwards, seeming to give in to the warding... With not much of a warning before it stopped its retreat, it lunged at her, attempting to tear through her neck.
[col]

Tachibana Sora​

|Not wasting a second, and trying not to pay attention to the fact that she told him to run for it while she distracted it, he tackled the creature down mid-lunge with the right side of his body. A sharp pain pierced through his stomach as he crossed the end of the path, and as he attempted to recover from the tackle, a loud rumbling could be heard from his abdomen.

[legend="Distracted"]N/A[/legend]
[legend="Hunger"][progress]70[/progress][/legend]

He kept a sharp eye out for any further moves it might make, being especially careful about how close it got to the both of them and staying in front of the girl. "Stay behind. Can't die here right?" he said, attempting to look cool as he reached for the sign she held.[/col]

With a few shakes of the head, it got back up and was now snarling at them, tail swishing like nobody's business. The leg with the scroll was held close to it, as if it was something it would die to protect, and it would twitch in whichever direction they moved in, signaling that it was poised to strike whenever either one decided they were to step away.

It didn't do anything as Sora spoke however...

 

[Kazumi]

Seeing that he was certainly more capable than she, Yumi allowed him to take the sign from her with no protests. Her attention once again shifted to the inviting scroll attached to its leg. Surely it couldn't simply be there to get them to kill themselves... "Sora, can you knock it down or pin it for just a moment?" That certainly was a tall order, given that they were just only managing to not get mauled or eaten. "I want to see what is in that scroll. It might be instructions on how to leave." Or it could be another cruel joke by the creator of this little illusion...

If he would comply, she would do her best to try and swivel around to his side, keeping close enough so he could use the sign to defend her if necessary. If nothing else she might serve as a decent distraction to get the hound to let its guard down... if it didn't kill her first. Should any reasonably safe opportunity to try and grab the scroll arise, she would make a quick grab for it. If she managed to get it she'd bolt down the path they had originally intended on following, calling after him to continue. That is, if all went according to plan.

 

[Samejima]

[col]

Tachibana Sora​

|Nodding, he moved his arm to better support the incoming blow, and prepared to try and strike it down. "Now!"

[legend="Hunger"][progress]65[/progress][/legend]

Right leg behind him as soon as he said it, as he dashed forward his arms raised the sign above his head to try and pin the creature to allow the girl a chance at taking the scroll she spotted. He brought the sign down on it, which should effectively bash its skull in. And it did, rather well.

Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to keep it down, and the moment the girl got around him to try and position herself for any scroll-grabbing, it lunged at her once more, this time with Sora in mid-recoil from the most recent blow. Unable to think of another way to stop it from reaching her, he brought the sign back up, uppercutting the canine and causing it to fly backwards.[/col]

Surprisingly, it did nothing as Sora dashed forwards, and gave a little whine as he attempted to crush its head, but the moment Yumi stepped around Sora it went back into feral mode. This time, it didn't seem as hesitant in attacking Sora, and while he was recovering from the force of the uppercut it scrambled back to its feet and went for him instead, jumping to try and claw at his head to bring him down before it went for the neck. Succeeding, Sora was now losing blood in buckets and the creature seemed to step back in horror, as if that blood staining the blazing autumn ground was coming from the wrong person.
[legend="Blood Loss: Sora"][progress]20[/progress][/legend]

 

[Kazumi]

"Sora!" She called as the crimson pool came into existence from their clash. There wasn't anything she could do to help. She looked around the area as quick as she could, but she expected it would result in nothing useful. She looked towards Sora and then the beast. It was Sora that was bleeding, she thought, and while she was no medic... that might have been a fatal amount. It hit her again that this was still all just an illusion. If they escaped, then perhaps all the injuries would vanish. He had said it was real in a sense, but she couldn't see how such a thing could really be true.

All she had to do was get in, grab the scroll and get out without being pinned or having her throat ripped out... yeah, real simple. Her heart was beating almost too quickly to count and the seconds felt like hours as she momentarily delayed what she thought she had to do. This would be reckless, but Sora could get killed if she delayed. As soon as any sort of opening occurred, Yumi would dash forward to try and knock the creature over. With a little luck, she would be able to grab the scroll without suffering any injuries, but if she had to take some in order to get it she would. Sora did it for her, so she had to do it for him.

 

[Samejima]

[col]

Tachibana Sora​

|Blood... blood pouring out... all over the place... It was sufficient to distract him from any and all other sources of discomfort, and bits of his memory of his time at the prison came back to him as he struggled to get up, now supported solely by his right arm.

It was a cold area. Very cold. What level did they say this was...? It's cold. Why am I here? I did nothing wrong... Nothing... I did nothing... Routine mission, ambassadorial duties... I was tagging along for research, and they were all being so understanding of my lack of tolerance for the heat... What happened...?[/col]

The creature was knocked over in its daze after having attacked Sora, but Yumi was unsuccessful in actually removing the scroll from its leg. What happened instead was while she reached over to the scroll, it snapped at her arm and ended up biting into her torso from misjudging the distance, headbutting her in the process. Having been bitten, there was now even more blood on the ground, and it was Yumi's.
[legend="Blood Loss: Sora"][progress]40[/progress][/legend]
[legend="Blood Loss: Yumi"][progress]15[/progress][/legend]

 

[Kazumi]

As she reached to try and grab the scroll the beast managed to spring back up with surprising speed. Instinctually she pulled her arm back away from its razor sharp jaws. She just barely managed to avoid having her arm practically bitten off, but she was still soaring forward from her unsuccessful grab attempt and her torso landed right in the thing's jaws. She let out a pained scream as it bit down, the two slamming together which only made the bite worse. Thankfully it also kept it from keeping hold of her in its jaws.

She stumbled backwards away from it, her hand reaching down to cradle her bleeding side. That pain was certainly real. That agonizing pain was certainly real. Her blood was most certainly real. Was she going to die here? After everything she had done and worked towards... was it all going to end like this? As her blood dripped to the ground from her side, the crimson liquid covering her hand as she tried to hold it all in. She could feel her heart racing, sounding like a war drum in her ears as her life threaten to begin slipping away.

She didn't even realize she was still screaming in pain between ragged breaths as she watched the beast recover itself. Time contained to pace by at ever increasingly slow steps as she looked between Sora and the beast. A sharp sensation of pain shot through her side and her eyes momentarily closed from the split second of shock.

 

[Samejima]

[col]

Tachibana Sora​

|Covering up the wound with what cloth he could rip off his sleeve, he tried to slow the bleeding, wooziness slowing down little by little as the blood was prevented from gushing out as quickly.

Explosion... There was an explosion, and I was the only one out of the line of fire... Only survivor? And what kind of explosion was that? I don't think I've ever seen that kind of explosion, not even in my practices with Fire Release jutsu... Could never perfect using them, but supplementing them was easy enough, and there were always new things to learn about them... But why was I thrown in here...

Regaining his bearings, he stood up and tried to make his way to the girl, having seen her get bitten. "Press wound- will hurt, but bleeding slows..." he offered, voice trying to be clear but coming out rather weak, hoping to at least stop the girl from bleeding too much before a plan was thought up.[/col]

Tail still swishing, it seemed like it was gauging its chances of killing them both right now. It had taken a few steps back and was now glancing between the both of them. If neither did anything in the next few seconds, the first one it would lunge for was Yumi, with Sora's blood loss clearly not giving him much longer to live.
[legend="Blood Loss: Sora"][progress]55[/progress][/legend]
[legend="Blood Loss: Yumi"][progress]30[/progress][/legend]

 

[Kazumi]

Sora's words were only barely as the pounding in her ears got louder. Her hand pressed hard against her side where the teeth had ripped more than a dozen small holes in her flesh. That only made the pain worse of course, but she wasn't thinking very well. Unfortunately, that lack of thought didn't help her avoid the beast as it moved to lunge towards her. Stray thoughts danced around in the back of her mind. Images of playing in the snow. Curling up on her father's lap as he read some book in front of the fire. Her mother's tender embrace when she skinned her knee on a rather sharp rock...

 

[Samejima]

[col]

Tachibana Sora​

|There wasn't much more he could do at that point, useless as he already felt. Between his limited chakra, the bleeding and the current state of fear, all he could really do was try and recall how he'd even gotten into this situation.

Ah... The others back home... Must have wanted to keep me from returning. Sent word not to let me go back no doubt, after hearing about the explosions... They must have thought I caused the others to die, they've always been paranoid about betrayals...

It was getting rather hard for him to move at all, but he tried skirting around the canine to reach the girl, hoping to somehow carry her out of Fall at least. There were a few Medical jutsu he knew would help, but at the moment...[/col]

The lunge could not be avoided, and a chunk of Yumi's right shoulder was bitten, though thankfully not ripped off. Skidding to a halt as it recovered, it spotted Sora trying to reach Yumi, and that made him its next target.
[legend="Blood Loss: Sora"][progress]70[/progress][/legend]
[legend="Blood Loss: Yumi"][progress]40[/progress][/legend]

 

[Kazumi]

Another cry of main echoed through the illusionary forest as the thing tried to rip a chunk from her right shoulder. Thankfully, it didn't manage that much, but now her blood was streaming from the grievous wound on her shoulder. She stumbled backwards, collapsed to one knee and arched over as she grabbed onto the damaged flesh with her left hand. By this point most everything except her upper left side was stained crimson. Her heart continued to race as she felt another beat slowing. Distantly she could feel it... it was not her own heart... it was Sora's.

Tears streaming down her face she looked up towards the beast as it readied to lash out at Sora. His heartbeat was weakening... slowing down as it tried to pump the remnants of his blood through his body. She could feel it surging through his veins with each pulse. She could feel it pooling on the ground around them, seeping into the soil, standing the earth red. Her vision began to darken as she began to hallucinate the sky turning red. The forest around them darkened and lost all its color as it blackened until the branches on the edge of the path silhouetted the crimson sky above them.

As the hound pushed off the ground to leap at him she felt it all slow to a crawl until it was all frozen. The grass, the trees, the beast and Sora were all locked in time, but she still felt her heart pumping blood through her. She had to do something. It would kill him... She had to-

Blood from her shoulder gushed out over her left hand as she pressed onto it it. Pushing herself to her feet as fast as her body would move, she leaped forward towards the beast. Her left hand pulled away from her shoulder, her life blood formed around her hand, surged most of the way up her arm until it covered it like a writhing sanguine mass. As she neared the beast in the middle of its lunge she thrust her left hand out towards it, the blood on her hand solidified into a bestial claw as it tried to impale the creature's side with the razor sharp blades that extended from the unholy looking appendage.

 

[Samejima]

[col]

Tachibana Sora​

|Eyesight was fading, and he couldn't be sure among the life he was seeing flash before his eyes, but did the girl just materialize a weapon...?

The prison... which level was it... I can't remember... But all that thinking, all that time... all alone... If I was never getting out anyway, I wanted to do... something... Something about wanting to pass a thought on to others... What was it... I can't pass anything on if I just die here... Even if it is a gen...

A thought seemed to hit as he thought of it. Wasn't the last thing he remembered doing a genjutsu? If it was his, he'd be able to dispel it rather quickly... But what was this... He couldn't move at all now, whether it was from the fear of the dog having turned to attack him, causing an instant death, or from the lack of blood he now had.[/col]

It was all the creature could do to try and swivel away in mid-air as it sensed Yumi leaping towards it, some kind of weapon in her left hand all of a sudden. Its tail, which appeared to be made of a soft metal, as leverage, was dragged across the ground as if it were an anchor and allowed it to turn, facing Yumi with its jaws wide open, stopping just short of Sora and his near-death state. The blow connected squarely with its snout, and pierced right through its head, causing it to whine a bit before dissolving into what looked like crackling black and white smoke... Static.

The scroll remained, and there seemed to be a very small piece torn out of it if it were to be opened. It was all in Runic Terran.
[legend="Blood Loss: Sora"][progress]85[/progress][/legend]
[legend="Blood Loss: Yumi"][progress]60[/progress][/legend]

 

[Kazumi]

Yumi stood, hunched over with her clawed arm extended out, still stabbing the air where the smoke/static lingered. Her mind was clear... focused... empty...

Her breaths came slow, and her wounds no longer hurt. Both continued to bleed, but the sensations no longer seemed to bother her. She was aware of this, and yet it did not seem to trouble her. She knelt over and picked the scroll that remained in her misshapen crimson hand, which looked to be almost twice its normal size, yet moved as naturally as her hand did before it. She brought it to her eyes and worked to pull it open with her hand.

As she finished reading it she felt... something. In the back of her mind she could still feel that pulsing nearby... It tugged at her for some rea- Sora! Dropping the scroll to the ground she turned back towards him and rushed over. The blood that had formed into semi-solid state around her arm suddenly melted away in a single instant and fell to the ground as she went to his side, the remnants of the liquid still clung to and dripped from her arm as she tried to see if he was alright. "Sora!... Sora!"

 

[Samejima]

[col]

Tachibana Sora​

|That was it. There wasn't much willpower left, not much at all. He dug through those dark weeks in the lower levels of the Obsidian Palace, trying to figure out what it was that he wanted to pass on since he was never getting out anyway.

What did I go through, what was it... Betrayal, due to inaction, due to weakness... But I can't tell this girl about all that, she's...

She just took out that guard dog he put up in the genjutsu, which was to guard the scroll so that it didn't fall into the hands of some looter. If she wasn't strong enough now, she definitely would be strong enough soon. "Trust and courage... Trust and courage." He coughed, neck still gushing blood despite the pressure he was putting on it. Granted... there wasn't much of it now.

"Scroll... Take to Scroll Locker. Final area is winter, can go from there... Sor...ry," he wheezed, before losing consciousness. A very faint pulse remained, but it wasn't likely that Sora would be getting up anytime soon.[/col]

The area around her seemed to dissolve, autumn leaves turning grey along with the rest of the trees. Looking back and at the rest of the paths, Winter seemed to be the only one which retained its color, or lack thereof.
[legend="Blood Loss: Sora"][progress]100[/progress][/legend]
[legend="Blood Loss: Yumi"][progress]70[/progress][/legend]

 

[Kazumi]

She knelt down by him, the scroll nw covered in her blood as it lay on the ground just behind her. "Sora... Sora!?" She shook him a little, the pain in her side and shoulder still being blocked from her psyche. Even without checking for a pulse she could still... feel it. It wasn't something she understood, but somehow she knew.

It was all an illusion... right? If she could break it, they would be fine... right? Bit by bit the clarity of her mind began to muddle with worries, concerns, fears and panic as she turned from him and grabbed the scroll. Running as fast as her body would still allow she rushed through the Fall area and into Winter...

 

[Samejima]

And just like that, as soon as she crossed the threshold into the Winter area, she seemingly made it back to the Obsidian Palace. Bodily wounds closed, clothes were back to normal... But the pain was still fresh in her mind, and though she should feel rested after waking up, a sense of being worn out should also remain, as if one had been working all night and slept, only to encounter a nightmare and wake up from it still tired. Finding that her skin wasn't cold, but she still felt cold, it would be very disorienting at first, especially since the scroll was still in her hand.

The draft was gone, and if she were to check that section of the wall again, she'd find that it was solid, as if there had never been a hole there. And indeed, that was how it truly was. The area around her was still deserted, and there were still crack of light here and there. Checking the table and the bed which were both where they were before, she would find that everything was in the same position they were in before all the madness with the genjutsu...

This extended to Sora, who was lying in bed, face still covered by the sheets. Sleeping soundly, pulse slightly faster than it should be while one was sleeping... But alive. Trying to wake him would come to no avail, but this wouldn't be necessary. The central column was now in operating state once more, and its doors opened, likely for a routine check. No surprise would be garnered from the guards, who were told to leave the girl here until their next check while she searched for that scroll which was rumored to have been stolen by one of the escapees before coming back here, for some unknown reason. The official statement would be out of being driven to craziness no doubt, after all those days in one of the lower levels of the Obsidian Palace.

Upon opening it, she would be questioned as to the state the scroll was in. Being one of the older documents, any sort of tear it could have gotten would be purely from the outside... And there it was, torn in one of the areas which had words on it, important words. "Were there any other scraps of paper anywhere you found?"

 

[Kazumi]

A shiver ran down Yumi's spine as she crossed the threshold, as if she had just passed through a wall of cold water. She looked down to her hand, seeing the scroll in it... not covered in blood. As the feelings of panic slowly subsided the sensationf os pain began to trickle in more quickly. She winced and reached over to her shoulder to hold the wound, but she found it had dissapeared. As fatigue and pain set in, so too did recollection. This was all a... mission. She had been here to try and collect something... Yumi looked at the scroll again. She was here to collect this..

To assure herself it was all over she went over and found that the wall was indeed solid, and that Sora was asleep. Her memory was still foggy, but at least she knew enough to know that it was all over. SHe took a slow look around the area, then to Sora. A faint smile traced her lips. He was still alive... if he had ever really been in any danger at all. Perhaps that was something she should find out.

Making her way over to the guard she handed the scroll over to him, a weary look on her face. She waited silently until he posed his question. A black look crossed her face until realization sparked across it. She reached into her pocket and pulled out that scrap of paper from before. She took a look at it to see if the writing was still there before she handed that to him as well. "Just this here.... so... what happened? I can't really remember... everything. Was everything in that a dream?" No, it couldn't have been completely. She had that scroll, and she would swear she had never seen it before.

 

[Samejima]

Everything was indeed, as it was before she entered that wall, with the exception of the still-sleeping Sora. The place had been in disarray ever since the escape in any case.

The guard attempted to piece the scrap of paper together with the scroll, and finding that it fit handed it to the other guard who presumably took it back to be fixed. "Good job. Well, there's no one here right now so you wouldn't have been attacked, aside from that one. Weird that he came back, but that's one prisoner we don't have to track down." Shrugging in response to the girl's question before tossing a quick "maybe a genjutsu or something", he left the door open for the girl to follow him through to the outside world.

Having returned the scroll with all its pieces, she had successfully completed the mission... And discovered a hidden power.

[col3]|[legend="Mission Complete!"]Tsukino Yumi has received the following:
- 5,000 Yen
- +10 stat points
For completing a D-Rank Solo Modded Mission.[/legend]|[/col3]