Poor smelly-smelly Surutameni... Poor beat-up Tenrousei and Xei... Poor splintery door... Today was a bad day all around.
"I... I think I am okay?"
Other kids announced similar sentiments, while still others moved no more. This was not an event that one would get out of without at least a few fatalities. When the dust settled, it was astonishing that
any of the students survived. These survivors really did show some promise. And what of the man that fled the scene, this Aburabuta with the strange and terrifying worm invention? Shiori had crossed paths with this man in the past, but he was always an inert force of monetary influence than physical violence. This display today brought forth a latent fear that Shiori was likely not alone in. She had only heard rumors of Hirotomi's predecessor, Yutaka. It was said that Yutaka owned the village at one point, the concept of owning an entire community might seem like an urban legend to some but the authority that man wielded at his peak seemed to be more myth than fact or so she had hoped.
"You knew that guy."
"No!" Shiori shouted reflexively as the little girl pulled Shiori from her train of thought. It was untrue, she did know him, well at the very least she knew
of him.
"Oh! Yeah, I only met him twice, and one of those times was today." Shiori admitted when her brain finally formatted Ten's question. Hirotomi was the kind of man you heard of, perhaps even seen in a photograph or afar. The fact that a man with a reputation such as his would show up in a place such as this suggested that he was in desperate need of something money could not buy. Stranger yet was the fact that despite his resources he was still slumming it with the Sunans rather than living it up in Soon's Haven.
"What the hell. Why in the world would he pull that stunt. We could have all died. Xei could have died!"
"No idea," Shiori responded quietly. It did seem rather uncharacteristic that he would even bother but he did make mention of
another machine, worm, prototype,
something being repeated but having a specified weakness for whatever reason. She scratched the side of her head thoughtfully as she reviewed the recent series of events in her mind. She was just dropping off some kid she nearly killed, she had no intention of fighting off some mechanical monster after finally besting the door.
"If he really wanted everyone dead he would have..." she trailed off, no wait he DID do that. In fact, he made quite a sow of it, it was mentioned just about everywhere that HE was hosting this event and that HE would be speaking. WHY would be make such a fuss only to kill everyone that showed up. This was making even less sense the more she thought about it.
"You have some connection to him, don't you? So, what the hell?"
"Hey-Hey! I just guarded a few crates of his while on a mission,"</B><i></i> Shiori debated the future interrogator, why was she getting lumped in with that nut-job?
"All I know is that he was a friend of Doctor Akira Sato's... I think,"<i></i> her face contorted slightly into a perplexed expression. If Hirotomi's game is changing so much that he is now outright attacking children tere had to be some sort of end-game, but what was it?
<B>"Is anybody here related to someone rich, powerful or influential?" She wondered out-loud. She was probably the most 'influential' among them and that was not saying much, being the adoptive cousin of the Kazekage does not pull nearly as much weight as some people might think and she was pretty much the only target
excluded from combat.
"So, who exactly WAS that guy? I don't think I have ever heard of his family before... Then again I probably should know his family... I guess I just live under a rock."
"Just a guy with way too much money and it would seen too much time on his hands also."/color] Shiori sighed. "Have either of you ever filed a report?" The Kazekage tower was gone and much of the shinobi forces housed within these caverns had been decimated by this invasive force. She was NOT sending them to the tower, no... She was sending them somewhere out of the way, someplace where they would get a level of protection. "Have either of you ever been to Senti-Mints?" It was a super-secret bunker more than a bakery these days, but it was a safe-place and with the dangers looming around every corner of the city it was probably the best place for them. "It is serving as a temporary headquarters while the Kazekage Tower is out of commission," a half-lie as it was serving as a home base for the resistance forces, it was also a safe-haven for civilians and that was what these kids were. They had not taken their oath and for now their lives were their own to live for as long or as little as they had left.
[MFT]
WC: 848
OC: I can write one out in the bakery OR let you guys join up with one of the Cabal story threads. Preference?