[Tsukumogami Application]
Thousands of icy vines erupted from the ground, wrapping and knotting the icy rocks that littered the mountain’s floor. Crushed boulders and chunks of snow exploded in impact, creating a true hail storm. Several foxes scurried out of their burrow to see what was causing the havoc, but were forced to abandon it when a huge chunk of ice buried the entrance. However, one such young fox was unable to avoid the fatal blow. The ice debris crushed the fox across its right shoulder, ending its short life with its last breath.
Ki could only stare at the scene. He was standing in the middle of the entire storm, but no harm was done to him. The chunks seem to just miss him through what it seemed like several hours of time. He couldn’t move. How could he when his death was only inches away? How could he when he just saw what the storm was capable of?
He couldn’t. He wouldn’t dare. He could only bind in fear of what was to become of him; it could be just couple seconds, minutes, hours till his death. In the corner of his mind, he cursed his fate. No, it was too early. His brother and sister were coming back from the military after five long years in service next year. He still had to apologize to Aketa for ruining her dress this morning. He still hasn’t tried out the entire sour candy flavor in the sweet shop in town. He still hasn’t… Ki wanted to see their faces one last time…
Memories of his past flashed in his head along with his dreams of his future. He wanted to connect his past and his dreams and experience the feeling of walking across its bridge. Ki slumped on the floor, depressed knowing that he knew that he would never have the chance. He could only look up at the sky and scream as loud as he could in desperation. Immediately a voice echoed back. It was faint, barely audible, but Ki managed to decipher the word.
”Kallias”
------
”Come on, you idiot, wake up already!”
Ki’s eyes opened. He was lying in his room, the sun blinding his face through the window. Next to his bedside was his friend Aketa, who looked rather angry for some reason. Once Aketa realized that he was finally conscious, she grabbed him by the arm and sent him crashing to the floor. Ki rubbed his head and scowled at her, obviously mad for her aggressiveness.
”What the hell was that f-“
”You promised to meet me at the elders’ place today at ten, didn’t you?” Aketa scowled.
Ki sighed. She was right. He had forgotten about the meeting with the village’s elder. They were supposed to meet the elders to finish their genin certification exam. Now that they were half an hour late, their promotion was at risk. Ki knew that he could always retake the exam, but failing because of lack of participation was one of the worse things they could do to their initial reputation. Last thing he wanted was the word “Lazy” added to his name for the rest of his life.
”Right, right… sorry Aketa.”
The boy quickly jumped into his training uniform before briskly walking out the door. Aketa followed closely behind him, throwing accusations and complaints about how they might fail their exam. She was obviously still mad at him for waking up late. Ki ignored her in annoyance and walked faster to distance slightly away from her. Aketa, noticing this, yelled out angrily from behind.
”Don’t ignore me, you prat. You could at least tell me why you woke up so late.”
”I was having a bad dream, ok? It won’t happen again, I swear.”
Aketa sighed.
”You know, for your information, I had a really bad dream too. And I managed to wake up half an hour earlier, thank you very much.”
She then proceeded to explain her dream about meteors and lava and the points of which she came close to losing her life. Ki rolled his eyes, with her like this; she could go on like this for days. Aketa was always buried deep into ancient books holding lores of the past. Whenever he saw her in school, he would never fail to catch her hauling one of those giant books in her tiny arms.
”Alright, I got it… you had a bad dream too…”
Ki paused at the end of his sentence. Why did Aketa’s dream sounded so similar to his? He looked back and stared at her, who was now babbling about how she swiftly dodged a rock fall. The catastrophe they experienced was different, but the foundations of their location were the same. He held his breath as Aketa finished describing the ending Ki has missed from his own dream, a battle between the mythical beasts, the Phoenix and the Ijiraq.
Aketa stopped for a moment when she noticed Ki was staring.
”What?”
Ki blushed and focused his attention back towards their run.
”What are dreams? Do they foretell the future of our lives?”
The girl laughed.
”What is this, did you hit your head in the morning?” Aketa smiled. They were running side by side now, gathering speed every second. At this rate, they would reach the headquarter in ten minutes.
Ki scowled at her.
”Right… Well, if you have paid attention in our opening ceremony, dreams do not necessarily tell us what is about to become of us. Dreams are just a manifestation of your heart.”
”What do you mean?” the boy looked puzzled.
”Dreams are your personality. Dreams make you who you are. It was once said that dreams were once tangible and were part of a human body.”
Ki’s eyes widened.
”Like another organ in the body?”
Aketa shook her head.
”No, it’s unclear what it actually looked like. But it was said that Dreams were uncontrollable and brought many destruction to the past lands. The Gods, once realizing this, forever enslaved the Dream into a deep corner of a human’s mind. The Gods ruled that the Dream may only speak when humans are unconscious. “
He wanted to ask her more questions, but they have reached their destination already. In front of them was a vast forest crowded with thick trees and vegetations. Many academy students were waiting around the area as more students scattered to fill the gaps. In a matter of seconds, a gong echoed throughout the area.
An elder, dressed in rich emerald robes, stood in front of the crowd. He surveyed the crowd, holding a moment of silence before raising his hand.
”Let the Genin Examination begin.”
-----
Ki and Aketa exited a tent together, each holding their own shiny head protector. They had passed the Genin exam. While Aketa looked thrilled at their accomplishment, Ki could only look at his in disappointment. The Genin exam enforced team in their testing which forced them to take the exam together. Aketa managed to keep her own very well, even managing perfect scores in some of the tasks. However, Ki did poorly in most of his tasks, only to be saved by Aketa’s superior marks to bring their average above passing.
He opened his mouth to express his concern, but then closed it. It was a trivial thing and Ki was sure that he could make it up to her in the future.
But it never happened.
Aketa always overshadowed him during the missions and competitions. She was the one getting all the praise and accolades while Ki was just thrown to the side even though he managed to fulfill all of his obligations. At first, he brushed it off and applauded happily for his friends, but his jealous soon grew after his continuous failure to bypass her accomplishments. His smiles vanished, replaced by an invisible mask pretending to still be the comrade Aketa knew long ago. In Ki’s vision, she was an enemy to his future. To him, he saw her as a person who seeks to steal his accomplishments away from him, a person who will do anything for power.
One such mission confirmed his theory.
The mission objective was to take down a bandit leader in a nearby swamp who was causing trouble for the trader in leaf… or something like that. Ki didn’t really pay attention to the details of the mission. Aketa was leading the duo group and all he could think about was how to outshine her in the mission. If he could take down the leader before she could, it will show them that Aketa isn’t the only capable shinobi in the group.
The initial part of the mission was very simple. Ki and Aketa were accomplished in armed techniques and were able to dominate the bandit guards that remained in the swamp. The two lieutenants and the leader, however, proved to be much more difficult. The lieutenants, the leader especially, possessed high amounts of agility and speed. It wasn’t too long after when they were unable to keep up with their movements.
”Ki! You still haven’t awakened your ability yet? You could at least slow them down!”
Aketa, who had already awakened her Santaru ability, was channeling a huge lightning storm in the area to keep the bandits within distance. Her eyes looked tired and more so as the battle dragged on, her abilities demanded large amounts of chakra and it was starting to show.
”Don’t you think I would have done so if I could? I can’t do this.”
”How much longer are you going to stop letting your ability come to you? You have the power already, you been training it for years. Just accept it!”
But Ki had no idea what Aketa was talking about, no matter how much he called, his powers just refused to surface. He could only hopelessly deflect his opponent strikes with his feeble attempt. It was just matter of time when both them were heavily injured with poison and cuts. Ki himself was slipping between his unconscious and conscious state.
Then it happened.
His conscious mind was unable to hold back his power with the poisons slowly drifting him into death. He felt the chill enveloping his body, an almost choking atmosphere in his throat as the cold vapor rose to his head. He felt a vibrating sensation in his hook as if it was signaling him that the time has finally come. He let the chill ride out his arm and as if he was commanding an army, the boy uttered a single word.
”Freeze.”
Thousands of vapor escaped Ki’s fingertips as it enveloped the two lieutenants and the leader. The bandits tried to escape the jutsu, but it was far too late. The vapors were already encasing the bandits and hardening into ice crystals. It didn’t take much time until they were finally encased inside a thin prison of ice. Not wanting to miss his chance, Ki warped to each of the two lieutenants and struck a decisive blow to the hearts. The leader, however, was much quicker than the two of them and managed to break out of the prison. With his eyes filled with fury with the loss of his two best men, he sliced his dagger towards Ki’s neck. The boy managed to dodge the blow and hook the leader’s right leg towards him. When he was close enough, Ki swiftly drew a dagger from his belt and started to plunge it towards his heart.
Suddenly a flash erupted in front of Ki, blinding him before he could strike his foe. The boy shook his head, surveying the area. In front of him was the bandit leader, who looked as if he was struck by a spear. To the left of him was Aketa, who had her finger pointed towards the bandit. Electricity was running through her arm and that was all Ki needed to see. She detested him, he knew it. She didn’t want him outperforming him so she took the kill away from him.
”AKETA!”
A word of rage left his mouth as he warped behind his friend. Using the same frozen dagger he had used to kill the lieutenants, Ki struck the blade in her heart. Aketa turned her head slowly and stared at him as if to question why, but she soon collapsed on the floor. Ki, who was unable to keep up with the poison, followed shortly after.
---
”So you are finally here.”
Ki slowly opened his eyes. Around him were frozen vines and walls, all scattered around the large mountain area. This is just like my first dream. He did it, he finally managed to awaken the power within his bladed hook. All he had to do was follow the symbol in his dream. Ki, contempt with himself, smiled as he faced the shapeless icy spirit in front of him.
”I did it. I killed her, just like in the dream I had when I was a child. Now I can finally see you, Kallias”
The shapeless spirit slowly collapsed into a visible form, a solid figure like a dire wolf.
”Correct, but you have no idea how much you have just lost.”
Ki scowled.
”She was an enemy, Kallias. She wanted all the fame to herself and none to share with me. She was selfish and act only in her behalf.”
Kallias’s eyes turned darker.
”Kallias was originally two different weapons. Kall is the bladed hook you are holding right now. Ias is the dulled shifting sword that Aketa once held. They both represent the Ijiraq and the Pheonix respectively. Both of these spirits were regarded inseparable, held together strongly by their friendship.”
The boy looked confused.
”Friends? But Aketa’s dream showed them as enemies.”
Kallias stared at Ki.
”Humans are so foolish. They only care about what benefits them in the Dreams; they choose to ignore the direst messages inside them. Didn’t Aketa tell you that Dreams are just a manifestation of your heart?”
”What do you mean?”
”I’ll show you.”
A wave of images flashed before his eyes. It was like watching a flipbook of images slowly rifting through the pages one by one. Finally, he saw a scene he recognized. The initial dream that led him here in the first place. The sequence of events happened just as he experienced initially until the images flipped to the ending he had missed, the battle between the two beasts.
Ijiraq was seen standing his ground in the edge of a cliff. The Phoenix was flying on top of the wolf, flapping its electrified wing angrily towards the beast as if it wanted to push him off. Ijiraq pounced on the Phoenix in response only for the Phoenix to dodge upwards at its claws tore its tail. The events were just as Ki had expected, but one small thing struck him. The ice ledge Ijiraq was standing on had a massive crack in the center and was slowly melting against the sun. He noticed that the Pheonix was standing with its back turned to the sun, in an attempt to slow the melting process.
The images flipped forward to the swamp where Ki was about to strike a blow towards the leader.
Ki’s blade was inches away from striking his heart, but near his back was a shadow clone with a blade drawn back towards Ki’s neck. Knowing that a blade strike would not disperse the shadow clone due to slow death, Aketa shot a lightning rod towards the bandit, instantly killing him and dispersing the clone.
”In addition to these events, she attempted to save you from harm many times. Unfortunately, you were so blinded that you could only look up and not see the things beneath you. You might have gained me, but you have lost a true friend.”
Ki looked at the floor, tears welling up in his face. Everything he believed in for all these years only lost him his friend. His inability to see around him has caused his downfall. How could he ever make up for this? He looked up at Kallias, his eyes searching for an answer.
Kallias picked up both of the weapons dropped on the floor and merged them together with a chain. A small bolt of electricity was seen running through the chains, binding them into one. He held the weapon out to Ki.
”You know what Aketa wanted to protect, you know what she wanted. Do not make her attempt go to waste. Use it to become the person that was worth protecting for.”
Ki took the weapon with his shaky hands. A voice echoed.
Remember the Dream
[WC: 2783]
