When First Learning Kensei
No More String's
About a couple days after his resurrection, Maru was sleeping within a cave he had been hanging around since he got here. The GunBlade at his side began to glow a faint green color as it began to form into a new weapon that Maru didn't have before. While Maru was dead sleep, the young mercenary began to have the strangest dream;
…..Maru……
…..Hey Maru!....
After his name was called, Maru opened his eyes to look ahead. He could see that he was in some strange dream world he haven't seen in a while, broken dolls littered throughout the ground like some kind of doll graveyard, there were many different puppets around including some that he used to own and some that were destroyed a long time ago. The sky was a dark grey with a few ravens circled over his head, then Maru fell backwards into a pile of doll parts from leaning against a wall that clearly didn't exist in this world before hopping on his feet crushing wooden heads on his landing. He looked around, trying to see if he could see anything or anyone when he felt a sharp metallic hand poke him on his shoulder and he jumped back in surprise. Who he turned around to see was pretty shocking… considering that he lost that doll a long time ago in a battle.
“Kawaii? Aren't you supposed like gone?!” He said, the sinister doll covered her mouth to chuckle. “Weeeeeeeeeeeeeell…. I was never really gone considering I'm apart of your body. Remember when you went looney and gouged out your eye to put my eye in? When you got burnt with that spirtiual fire, you and me became two separate souls!” Maru brought his hand up to his chin, thinking how he was back then and he was pretty looney to do something like that.
Flashback: Maru sat in his study solemnly, he sat with his legs crossed, he was face to face with his beloved puppet Kawaii. Her face was joyful but she had the blank expression of that of an expressionless doll. Her glassy eyes stared deep into the boy's soul, they had been locked in the staredown for almost two hours now and it was going strong. As Maru strained his eyes to stay on his unmoving target, Kawaii remained sitting there waiting for the boy to crack. Suddenly he felt himself blink and rub his eyes, Maru cursed under his breath as he realized that it had been a while since he blinked last and was in the middle of holding his breath to match his Kawaii puppet. Kawaiis voice boomed from her speakers, Maru making her hop to her feet in triumph making her tease him! “HeHeHe...! See Maru you can't beat me at a staring contest, Hon!” The doll said to Maru, the boy acted as though he was angry at her but truth be told it should be expected. Maru continued to make his beloved doll tease him a bit more. “How did you think that was going to go?! i have no actual fleshy eyes like you SILLY! Also you tried to match my not breathing even though I don't have lungs…” She giggled, Maru began to drop his fake angry act to smile. He honestly found his doll’s gloating kind of heartwarming.
The boy decided to speak back to his companion “Yeah, yeah, I knew you'd win. I was just testing you so stop rubbing it in.” The boy said that with a sly smile, Kawaii giggled again. “Good game though two hours is a pretty long time for someone who is limited as you ...and you know what that means you have to put the eye in!” Her sharp mechanical hand gestured to a one of her spare dolls eye, it was shiny… beautiful… very beautiful. With that particular eye he'll be able to be halfway like Kawaii, well less than halfway but he wouldn't have to worry about losing to kawaii in a staring contest in at least one of his eyes. That's the main thing.
Maru began to smile to himself, looking at the dolls eye… he grabbed the shiny cold orb, examining it with from every angle.. Bringing his hand to his face. “Dolls are everything that I want to be…” Maru said, his index and middle finger reaching up along with his thumb. “Dolls aren't bound by a limited lifespan, they don't feel pain. They can be built and improved in hours...” He pushed the upper eyelid with his index and middle fingers, and the lower one with his thumb.“Dolls are hollow, seeking to fill their emptiness… “Gradually, he revealed the slick, shining eyeball. “With that emptiness, I will fill that void with hatred.” without a moment's hesitation he stabbed his fingers into his right eye, slowly digging it into his eye, and tore it right out! The eye falling to the table. Maru started to place the dolls eye in his empty eye socket. There was a squishing sound, and drips of blood, the dolls eye fit perfectly in his empty socket. He blinked a few times, his chakra infusing with the eye so he would be able to see you of it…
Maru grinned at his Kawaii who was smiling right back at him. Blood began to come down his face like the cry of an angle, simply asking his puppet… ”So am I beautiful like you now?”
Present:
Yeah that probably wasn't the best idea but then his doll continued. “You've fused with your weapons on more than one occasion but I was always the puppet who had been alive, to put it in simple terms you and me have been kinda sharing a soul for a while and thanks to that guy fusing your hearts to your weapon we could finally be a team!” Weird, it was always a childish dream of his to be a team with his weapon, before people used to say that he was too attached to Kawaii… that he is gonna have to learn to stand without her. But now he had that golden opportunity to rely on his weapon as if it was a actual person, like he always wanted. In a way it kinda made sense, how when he holds a certain weapon it heals him if he needed it, how certain weapons have that ability to take chakra and life energy every time he did damage. “Oh! Almost forgot you need to actually know how to use me properly!” She raised her hands, the broken doll parts coming together to form a giant doll monstrosity. Kawaii began to glow twice, transforming into a pair of pistols within Maru's hands.
'When dealing with a single opponent, damage is key but you can also counter attack with dual weapons as well…’ the doll creature raised its big hand, attempting to crush Maru in which on sheer instinct Maru attacked the beast with his duel weapons. Shooting one hand to knock its hand away from its target, breaking its hand! 'Good! Now counter the next move by attacking it.’ The creature attempting to blast Maru with a flamethrower, Maru acted quickly and “attacked” the flames causing them to dispersed. The creature attacked again, Maru combining his needle shower with his Flurry Shot to fire at the creature repeatedly before hopping backwards. The creature beginning to fall apart now had created five versions of itself, Maru beginning to hear his dolls voice once again. 'There are a lot of goons here, try fusing me together then blast em all!’ Maru smashed his duel pistols together, his guns beginning to form a pretty huge rifle in mid battle, the puppet creatures rushed at Maru and the gunslinger began to take aim and fired at the big doll monster.
Click clack
Blam!
He fried at the small monster which shattered on impact.
Blam!
Click clack
He blasted the second copy.
Blam!
Click clack
Here's number three!
Blam!
Click clack
That's four down!
With the last one pretty close, Maru smirked as it continued to charge then… Blam!
Click clack
The huge doll creature was far from finished with Maru, he could see the core that kept it coming at him and Maru had an idea to blast it, but then Kawaii’s voice came through. ‘If you wish to, you can also combine a ninjustu AND a Taijustu together to do a nasty amount of damage. This is known as a Omni-Flash.’ Maru already came up with an idea on how to use it, channeling the non-elemental Justu with his destruction powershot. Maru aimed his weapon at the doll creature, before unleashed a large beam at it…. Then… KABOOM! The doll creature was scattered throughout the doll graveyard, broken and melted doll parts rained from the heavens. Maru chuckled, then separated his rifle back into duel weapons. “I think I'm liking this partnership.” he said, but it was no time for celebrating. The ground began to rumble, then all the doll parts began to move then began attaching themselves themselves, each part making horrific clicking sounds to look to see that there was a army of broken dolls. This kinda reminded him of a manga he saw about a man going against people from all villages. This world maybe against him, but it probably wouldn't be fair any otherwise.
“Could use another Omni-Flash right about now.” Maru said, the dolls beginning to build themselves up. ‘Well right now you can't use it as you are, but you can fuse with me and we'll take care of the rest.’ He could merge with his weapon, that's pretty awesome so he decided to go with it. “Alright, let's fuse.” He said as his weapon began to perform a technique allows the Maru to merge with his weapon, fusing into a new form the grants the Maru all of the abilities his weapon has. Forming his arms into a huge cannon… Maru blasted the army of dolls Omni-Flash, then everything faded into the light of Maru's new favorite move….
….
Maru woke up from his dream! Holding his head, he looked at his GunBlade which was now in the shape of his duel pistols and he looked around the cave. There were numerous bullet holes on the ground hand huge holes which showed to outside making Maru's cave a bit colder. “Sleep shooting, damn.” He rubbed both of his shoulders to get warm to travel deeper inside of that cave. He couldn't have just dreamt of the whole thing, that training with becoming one with his weapon, the abilities and strategies it taught, surely it couldn't all be a dream. Perhaps this was how it was meant to be from the beginning, not leaning on other people but always leaning on his weapon for support.