The Devil's Trap [Anarchy!]

[Mikaboshi]

People went missing every day in the Black Bazaar. Perhaps the most wretched hive of scum and villainy this side of the Wind Country, it was no secret to anyone that the Bazaar was a cancerous tumor on the underbelly of Sunagakure and it was from there that a steady stream of poison flowed into the rest of the city. But today was special in it's own way.

This was the first time that a monster went missing in the Bazaar.

On the third floor of one of the many abandoned and decrepit stone buildings of the Bazaar in a windowless room, a thin barrier of periwinkle blue energy shimmered in a large cylinder around a very angry Mikaboshi. Stalking back and forth like a caged tiger, Mikaboshi's uncloaked form paced around the circle in an endless loop as his eyes darted from place to place at the writing just outside the layer of energy that trapped him. Just a few feet away from the edge of the circle sat a hooded and cloaked man, his legs crossed and his hands held together in front of him in a prayer seal as he hummed a low but steady tune.

"This is fascinating work." Growled the captive ancient, begrudgingly commenting on the craftsmanship of the barrier seals which encircled his cage. "I wasn't aware this sort of knowledge was still around. This isn't shinobi jutsu. This is old magic. Almost as old as me."

The characters which comprised the outer most ring of the circle were the most familiar to him. Written as runes in his language, the tongue of the ancients, each was a word of power which was used to reinforce the already powerful magical script comprised of ancient Wind Country text. The ancient language possessed a great deal of power in it's own right. Though it could be spoken with no effect on the surrounding world, if they were uttered with intent or desire it was possible to inflict effects similar to the power of shinobi ninjutsu with relative ease. Trained speakers of the ancient tongue could do works of great might with nothing while armed with nothing but their voice. As it was, the spider which had spun the web that was trapped in now had combined a primitive dialect of the ancient language together with his own script of sealing to reinforce it. Clearly his jailer was taking no chances with the possibility that Mikaboshi might escape.

"But I suspect you already know all about me." Mikaboshi observed as he continued his endless trek around the edge of the cylindrical enclosure. "You've gone through an awful lot of trouble to get me here. The fake report of spirit activity... the location far from prying eyes... and now this energy trap reinforced to the maximum to keep me from escaping. What is it that's going on out there that you don't want me involved with?"

The sealer stirred slightly, the hum of the low note that he'd been making since the trap had been sprung put temporarily on hold.

"Your shinobi regime is finally going to get what is coming to it." The sealer said at last with a sneer.

"A revolution is it then?" Mikaboshi stopped to consider the implications. If they'd gone to such lengths to isolate him then that was a solid possibility. This wasn't about him necessarily. It was about the state. The fact that the Steward-Kazekage of Sunagakure had a powerful monster working at his hand was not a secret by any means. In fact, Mikaboshi had gone to great lengths to make it widespread knowledge to put the fear of Sunagakure into any groups which might be contemplating such a move as what was happening now. Admittedly he had not expected an organization would exist which would possess in it's employ a master of spellcraft which predated most of known history. "And what if I escape?"

'You won't"

"Humor me."

"There is no reason to humor you because there is no scenario in which you escape this trap. I've used it to hold hundreds of demons and spirits before you. Even some of your kind, ancient." It was the sealer's turn to growl, his sneer turning to accusation snapping. "None have broken it. None have even scratched it. So do your worst, Mikaboshi the Impotent. I don't fear you."

Mikaboshi had nothing to say to that. The sealer was right in that there was very little he could do from inside the cylinder. Those seals were air-tight. They even reinforced the material above and below the trap preventing him from doing something as basic as cracking the floor or ceiling and breaking the circle which formed the basis of the seal. For now, he would have to wait and observe. He was not completely out of options but for now there was nothing to do but wait.

 

[Mikaboshi]

Shadows swirled like mist within the circular cage that Mikaboshi was being kept in as he leaned against the far edge of the shield away from his captor which he'd begun to refer to as Spider in the moments which he considered the enigmatic individual. It was an apt name for him. Like a patient arachnid Spider had lurked in the darkness waiting for Mikaboshi to come to the abandoned house and before the sennin could ascertain exactly what he was dealing with disabled him with some strange device and sealed him within the energy cage. Since the last time they had conversed, a great deal of time had passed but it was impossible to tell for sure how much time given that the room was featureless save for the runes and ancient lettering carved into the floor and ceiling that pulsed with the same somber blue of the energy trap's shields. With his arms crossed against his chest, Mikaboshi seethed in thought. The desire to escape the confines of his prison consumed his mind as he kept his eyes fixed upon the seated figure of Spider through the azure of the trap. Upon realizing what sort of ritual he was dealing with the ancient had set about examining the runes of the seal in great depth for any errors in phrasing or tense which might weaken the shield. The ancient language was notoriously fickle with the immense power that it contained. A single mispronunciation of a syllable or failure to scribe a rune properly could bring the entire structure of a spell matrix down if enough stress was placed upon that syllable.

Spider was more than capable in his knowledge of the ancient language. His tenses were perfect and his phrasing ideal. It had taken Mikaboshi what felt like hours of pacing and examining to find even the slightest error in his work and given that Mikaboshi was a master of the language that was quite a feat. A small piece of him was curious enough about where a human had learned so much ancient magic that he almost wanted to spare Spider in order to find his teacher or at least the place where he'd gleaned such secrets. That piece however paled in comparison to the wounded pride that burned white hot in the back of Mikaboshi's mind. Though his words betrayed none of his fury, the idea of being kept in a box by a human was enraging to him. He had already endured hundreds of years of captivity due to human treachery and had no intention of enduring any further tenures as a human captive. At least in his pact with Sousuke he was granted near full autonomy.

"Tell me. How do you think your revolution fares?" Mikaboshi asked at last, breaking the monotony of the low-key hum that Spider emitted in his concentration. "How many of your allies do you think are dead by now?"

Spider said nothing but the hum halted for a moment before returning to it's constant tone.

"Ah, so. The silent treatment. That's fine." Sneered the sennin as he pushed off of the shield and stepped forward with his eyes still upon Spider's unmoving body. "If I were to guess, I would think that they are likely coming to discover their folly soon. Your leader is cunning and wise, that much is clear. But you've made mistakes already, my friend. Mistakes that will cost you bodies in the end."

"Tough words from a fiend sealed in an energy trap." Responded Spider, finally rising to Mikaboshi's goading words. For a moment the caged ancient wondered if Spider's group had prepared him for actually coming face to face with Mikaboshi. Spider claimed to have trapped hundreds of demons and other beings in such things as the energy cage but there were no such beings as Mikaboshi in the world. "If we planned to neutralize you, don't you think we had plans for the others?"

Mikaboshi assumed that the "others" referred to men such as Sousuke and Kuro-- the other high profile fighters of Sunagakure. The Village of Sand had garnered itself a reputation of isolationism and being withdrawn in the last few years but rumors and stories still filtered out from the Maw of Barnyx about the Steward-Kazekage and his entourage of monsters and demons. Mikaboshi had made sure of it.

"Certainly. Credit where credit is due, you did know enough to cage me before actually bringing any attention to yourselves. But that does not prove that your group is over-competent. Only that you are not incompetent. We both know that I would make quick work of your little rebellion. It is why I am in here." Continued the sennin, slowly drawing closer to the center of the enclosure as he spoke.

"Then enlighten me. What mistakes have we made?"

"The most obvious one is that you truly believe you could pull this off. Sunagakure is an institution that was born battling beings far beyond your ken. The rest of your kind? Still the mewling apes that you've always been."

"Careful ancient. You tread dangerously close to praising humans with your words."

"As I said. Credit where credit is due. Even for monkeys." Mikaboshi actually laughed, his mirth manifesting as a dark chuckle which reverberated off of the inner sides of the energy trap's shields. "But all of your research and planning means nothing if you lack the power to stand up to them in a fight. The shinobi of Sunagakure will eat your allies alive."

It was Spider's turn to laugh now and it was a mocking, hollow noise.

"You say this? You say this even as you languish behind my spells? How interesting. They did not warn me that you would be funny, ancient." Spider spoke through stifled chuckles. "You think to talk me in circles so that I will reveal you to something which you can use against us in the future but I will tell you nothing. Though even if I did such information would be useless to you as---"

It was quite likely that Spider was about to say something about how Mikaboshi was trapped forever within the energy trap. But as he continued his thought, Mikaboshi quickly whipped his right hand up and in that moment the fog-like shadows which hovered around his feet coalesced into a large talon-like physical shadow and raked against the space between them leaving behind a trio of sickly green gashes in the blue of the energy shield. At first they glowed brightly and then began to fade as Spider realized his mistake and immediately began to concentrate a great deal of power into the shield. The damage was done, however. Despite his renewed and focused concentration the trio of slash marks remained visible-- their black and green presence marring the perfection of Spider's spell work.

Even though it had taken a great deal of time, Mikaboshi had found something to work with. One of the runes was etched incorrectly in nearly every way save for the alignment of the rune itself. As it was the mistake was nearly non-existent in nature but it was enough to give the sennin an opening if he could find it. From the beginning Mikaboshi had wondered why Spider stayed with him in the room rather than leaving him to his own devices. The cage was secure enough and Spider was certainly confident in his work. So then why stay? When the slight imperfection of the rune had come to Mikaboshi's attention he understood why for the blemish was situated directly in front of where Spider was sitting. The mistake was so small that even Mikaboshi's well studied eyes had missed it many times over before eventually finding it but it seemed that Spider was leaving nothing to chance.

He stayed to constantly pour energy into the trap's shield to strengthen it so that even if his captive attempted to exploit that ever so slight weakness he would find no success in it.

"I'm sorry, that was rude." Whispered Mikaboshi, his voice going serious as he dropped his arm back to his side. "It looks like I've gone and scratched your shield. Your second and more important mistake was thinking me helpless only because you have the advantage for the moment. I will be free sooner or later. This is fact."

Spider said nothing in response, likely to avoid being goaded into losing his concentration and allowing Mikaboshi to strike another blow against the now weakened portion of the shield, and that was fine to Mikaboshi. He had made the point he'd wanted to make and put a reasonable dent in the shield of force which served to hold him captive. The damage was far from extensive but that he had been able to damage it at all was a success in itself meaning subsequent attempts would only be easier. Returning to his far side of the shield, Mikaboshi crossed his arms once more and put his back against the shield as if the exchange between them had never occurred with only the wicked slashes in the shield to prove that it had happened.

 

[Mikaboshi]

"Have you ever given any thought to why the spirits of Wind hate you so much?"

Mikaboshi's question wasn't rhetorical despite the confidence he felt that Spider hadn't as most humans never did. In their collective mind, humanity was the center of the universe and any being which existed that might mean them ill was an agent of pure evil and destruction. In the case of Mikaboshi, he was certainly the latter to them. Long ago he had hunted them with impunity and without remorse but no more than he did any other beast of the natural world. He never partook of the spiritual essence of another ancient as was the code of his kind but there was no other creature in Wind which could call itself safe from his predations. He treated them as fairly as the sandworm or the wolf and they never forgot it.

"No, need to answer. I know you haven't. Your kind never does." He reflected, voicing his thoughts out loud as he brooded against the azure of the energy trap's shield.

Spider said nothing but Mikaboshi did not expect him to. After the short exchange they'd had earlier where former ancient lord had proven to the Cabal agent that he was playing with a different sort of fire than he was used to by trapping Mikaboshi within the seal, Spider would likely not risk being distracted like that a second time. It was likely that Mikaboshi had shaken his confidence a great deal by that one simple feat of raking gouges out of Spider's shield. Even now, a few hours later, the dark green and black of where Mikaboshi had raged against the shield still burned in the way of four great slash marks. The sealer likely believed that any further lapses in concentration could result in the release of his captive and in that Spider was absolutely right. There was more than simply a phrasing weakness in the shield now. With the structural integrity of the shield compromised even a small amount Mikaboshi could collapse the entire apparatus with the proper application of force if Spider were not actively reinforcing the shield.

Mikaboshi could see that his opponent-- and this was nothing short of a battle despite nothing but words being used as weapons --was putting every inch of his concentration into maintaining the barrier. Even if he poured all of the limited power that he could muster while trapped in the seal at the crack he'd created Mikaboshi would be battling against Spider's will, the power of the seal and at a handicap to boot. But inevitably Spider would tire. Eventually his need for rest would get the better of him and Mikaboshi would be free. And so he waited. Like himself a large black spider waiting on the underside of a rival's web, he waited for his enemy to grow weary so he could pounce.

"Some of us hate you because you are lesser creatures than we. Because you aspire to a place higher than where you belong. But that is not why I hate you."

Mikaboshi's voice lower as he spoke, the shadows floating around the floor of the spirit cage roiling as the mood of their master shifted.

"I hate you because it is in your nature to defy our nature. Where there is order, you exist to undo it. Perhaps that is what Homura and Fuujin saw in your mortal hearts when the first of you apes came to our lands so many years ago. They were the first advocates of your subjugation, you know. From the first contact they knew that they wished to see your kind in chains. Would that I knew then what I know now so that I might have advocated for your eradication."

The sennin shifted and began to pace about the cage once more as he told his tale. It was impossible to know if Spider was even truly listening but really Mikaboshi was only talking to alleviate the boredom he felt while he waited for Spider's mind to wander from exertion.

"I didn't always hate you, of course. Once upon time I regarded you as I would any other beast of the desert and cavern. I hunted you because your spirit energies were the sweetest. Spiced with life experiences... love, hate, fear... so different from the essence of other animals who knew only instinct. But never out of malice. Not truly. Even when the war came, I did not fight because I did not see a reason to. If your kind proved itself worthy to break the yoke we'd put upon you what did it matter to me? The darkness would hunger for you just the same as it always had. In my youth I was so full of naive mercy towards you. I even had mortal consorts, if you can believe it."

Mikaboshi didn't elucidate on the topic but once upon a time even the terrifying Hahvulon had found a level of companionship with a small handful of mortals which had been cunning predators in their own right. Hunters which understood the axiom that the weak lived to feed the strong by which the Deep Court lived.

"There was a time where I considered myself an ally to the young Sunagakure. Even a friend. But your kind took that friendship and used it as a vessel to slip a dagger into my back. For the crime of being what I was created to be and because of my goodwill towards you I found myself incarcerated in a prison of my own mind for years. Alone in the void of the Black Blade I had ample time to reflect upon the mistake of creation that humankind is and to rid myself of any lingering tolerance for you that I suffered."

By now the specter of Mikaboshi had drifted close to the place where his claws had wounded the energy shield and slowly he reached out with his right hand to run his fingertips over that place. The conflicting energies crackled angrily with visible arcs of power that danced across his hand as it passed. Showing no facial reaction to it, if Spider bothered to look upon the countenance of Hahvulon he would see the fires of the ancient's eyes stoked with the kindling of a bitter anger centuries in the making as he stared at the wound he'd created in the shield. Looking up suddenly at the man that knelt near the outside of the shield, Mikaboshi fixed the intensity of his glare upon the mystic who betrayed his own uneasiness with an involuntary shift backwards in reaction to Mikaboshi's jerk of movement.

"You must already know how this ends. Even if your allies take a victory over Sunagakure it will ring hollow for you. When this shield comes down, I will take your life from you in payment for the sin of once more daring to imprison me as though the numerous injustices and indignities perpetrated against me by you and yours were not enough already. You think that you have me trapped here but really you've only trapped yourself here with me. Are you looking forward to your victory now as much as I am?"

There was palpable stress in the air between them as Mikaboshi stared hatefully through the blue of the shield expectantly. Would Spider even respond? It seemed the answer was "no". But at least Mikaboshi had succeeded in distracting himself for the moment. The fleeting victory in giving Spider a start would satiate his boredom for some time while he awaited his release from the trap.

 

[Mikaboshi]

My name is Torusuke Kohako and I have been an exorcist for hire since I was a young man.

In my years I have faced all manner of men, monsters, demons and everything in between those definitions. Once upon a time I was considered the brightest and most skilled exorcist of my generation by my peers and I had both the skills and ego to back that reputation. Time and time again I went into battle against threats supernatural and natural and emerged the victor with nothing but my own power to rely on.

I will be fifty seven years old this year and have been considered the best at what I do for over twenty of them.

Before me not ten feet away is perhaps the most fearsome creature that I have faced in my entire career despite the fact that he wears the guise of a mundane human being and between us is my life's work: a spirit barrier incorporating every element of my various studies over the years whose sole intent is to imprison monsters the likes of which are currently contained within it. He stands not even six feet tall and wears a simple leather cuirass beneath a heavy leather coat-- an ornament of his station as the leader of this shinobi village's military police I am lead to believe. When I'd been approached by the men calling themselves the Cabal, they'd told me that my sole responsibility would be the capture and containment of an extremely dangerous spiritual entity that the Kazekage kept as a man servant. They told me it was a demon of darkness that called itself Mikaboshi after the Ancient Lord of legend and carried itself as if it were it's namesake returned from the mists of antiquity for revenge against humankind. I agreed to the arrangement not because I believed in the goals of this Cabal group but if only to remove a dangerous malignant entity from the service of a powerful man. If the Kazekage truly were keeping demons as pets then he was a dangerous man that needed to be removed from power regardless of the fallout for simply leaving him in control of a village of shinobi would inevitably prove to have disastrous consequences for not only Wind Country but potentially the world.

Together but separately we infiltrated this village seated in the shadows of the underground and went about our business. In my first few days, I scouted an appropriate location for the trap. It would need to be a place secluded from prying eyes to prevent not only rescue but potentially being stumbled across by know-nothing fools that might interfere with the containment process. The Cabal had not shared much of what they planned to do in the city but they had told me enough for me to know that the city would be plunged into utter chaos shortly after the take-over began. I supposed then that I would need to take care of them as well after dealing with this "Mikaboshi" creature. After all, I had no intention of letting Sunagakure trade one evil master for a group of them. After finding the perfect place in a corner of the city the locals called the Black Bazaar, I laid my trap and summoned the military police with a twist that I knew a spiritual predator the likes of which my quarry could not resist.

And he did not disappoint me.

He arrived like I'd expected him to do cloaked in the spiritual darkness that I'd been warned he could command but it had done him no good. With some clever trappings and bait, the monster had walked right into the middle of the room and into the center of my sigils which triggered the moment he crossed them springing the spirit cage and slamming shut the door behind him. At first I'd been surprised at the visage that lurked beneath the menacing hood and trappings of a wraith that the spirit-creature wore. Wearing the face of a young man not even thirty years old, the beast bore no other defining marks that he was not in fact a human being. His skin was unblemished and lacked the type of demon tattoos or symbols that their kind usually emblazoned into the hide of their hosts and with the shield in place I could no longer feel the chill of his spiritual presence around me. I'd almost begun to think that I'd trapped the wrong being until he looked upon me and for the first time I saw his eyes. Red-gold flames churned behind the lenses of his eyes in an otherworldly manner and in that moment I had begun to suspect that perhaps the stories about him being a fake claiming to be a former ancient lord were not simply stories. His were the eyes of a being that had seen a decade of time for each year that I'd lived and in the depths of those burning embers I could see the hatred he held not simply for me but for what I was.

Despite the creature's menacing eyes and aura, I had no reason to think anything else of it as I knelt before the shield and began to focus on maintaining it. The shield was self-sustaining for the most part but in these scenarios I always enjoyed the process of studying my own work to identify possible vulnerabilities for the future and to work on my craft. I'd thought this particular circle to be a masterwork of my art. Perfectly self-sustaining in that it drew energy not only from the world around it but also from it's captive and impossible to break from the inside due to the dampening effects it had upon those trapped within it, I was totally absorbed by my belief that I had captured this creature claiming to be Mikaboshi the King Under the Sands.

I'd been prepared for him to be powerful and intimidating. I'd been prepared for him to be fearsome in the ways that the Demon Sennin of Sunagakure was. The Cabal had told me that once I was finished with this one that there would be compensation in order for me if I managed to deal with the other one as well but he was not my priority. But in the end I had not been prepared for him to talk. Most demons raged against the bars of their cage. Even the ancients that I'd trapped within the shield had usually spent their time throwing impotent blast after impotent blast of dampened energy against the shield attempting to break free using their brute strength. Many of their kind were so used to being powerful that they'd forgotten what it was like to use their cunning to solve a situation. He talked and talked. Asking me questions, mocking my "allies". Asking questions about the revolution going on in the city. And then suddenly when my attention was drawn away from the shield and at the moment where I'd allowed my hubris to subsume my concentration completely, he struck and damaged the cage I'd put him into.

Since then, I had not spoken again to him. He'd told me his story of how humanity had betrayed him in the past. How he'd once been our friend and we repaid that friendship by incarcerating him within a prison of his own mind and soul. He explained why he hated me and my kind. And with as little indifference to the statement as one might have towards detailing what one is going to have for lunch, he explained to me how and why I would die. Since then he'd stood still with his right hand resting casually against the shield where he'd wounded it, the trio of viridian gashes ominously shimmering every few minutes at random intervals. Who could say how long it had been since then? I had stopped focusing on anything else but maintaining the structural integrity of the shield.

Only in the last few minutes have I begun to understand the reason that I am here. The Cabal sent me here alone to contain this creature, this Mikaboshi, because they knew this to be a suicide mission. They knew that I would only be able to hold him for long before inevitably his years of hate and anger empowered him enough to emancipate himself from whatever bonds I put him in. They had left me to hold shut the jaws of the crocodile knowing full well that if I let go the beast would surely drag me beneath the water and kill me but also knowing that I could not hold his jaws shut forever.

I do not even need to spare the creature a moment to know that his burning gaze is still upon me. Since his wounding of the shield, his spiritual presence has begun to leak into the room around me and it is both suffocating and chilling at the same time. It tastes of despair and death. My breath has begun to come slower in what feels like the last hour or so. It is becoming harder to hold my concentration and keep the necessary strength to ensure that the beast does not escape my grasp and devour me. For the first time in over a decade, I am afraid.

Feeling a growing pressure around me, I glance up to him and with a hard swallow witness as he slowly but surely presses the palm of his hand through the shield and waggles his talons at me insolently as if to say "Soon" before returning his hand to the confines of the trap without actually saying a word. He doesn't have to. With the rakish grin of a hungry wolf, my prey-turned-predator patiently waits for me to tire enough for him to simply step through the shield and eviscerate me.

My name is Torusuke Kohako and in that moment I realized the stories about the beast's identity are true and that in my arrogance I believed I could hunt a predator that has been stalking the shadows for longer than history can remember.

Primus help me.

 

[Michi]

She had stumbled through the allies, small passages and forgotten holes, she had poked her head in through broken doors and windows, many by her own hand. She was searching for someone. In fact, she was searching for a very important person, she was looking for Takahashi Sousuke, her adoptive cousin, best friend and future husband. Sadly, Sousuke was unaware of the final fact as of yet. It was her greatest fear that the errant Kazekage was dead, buried beneath the rubble of a dismantled tower, within the confines of a collapsed tunnel, perhaps even in the hands of the Cabal. She could not find a trace of the Sousuke, his places of leisure nothing more than the crumbled remnants left from a better time.

Her hands were cut and sore from sifting through the fragments of the Communications Center, her head weary from this unrelenting search propelled by a clamant sense of urgency. She needed to find the absent Kazekage. She was exiled from dozens of private residences, driven from the hovels that housed miscreants, destitute and affluent alike. Even the aristocrats had taken to hiding, perhaps hopeful that with their stores they could weather the pandemonium. Some were right. Undeterred by her numerous and persistent failures, the Medic continued her search.

"Sousuke!" She called out into the barren street, only cluttered with refuse. There was no answer but there was never a response. She tugged hard on a door, the hinges creaked in protest but refused to give way. She pounded her fist into the insubstantial door, it broke around her fist in a shower of splinters. She released a shout into the door, her voice reverberated off the walls and the floors. This house was completely empty. She shook her wrist to relieve it of a few stubborn miniature wooden stakes that pierced her hand. She moved on to the next house. In a similar manner she interrogated the next home, a few vagrants had found refuge in this one. She scattered like roaches upon her intrusion. In the next, a women let out a shriek that saved Shiori from releasing her voice. None of them even remotely resembled Sousuke except that shrieking woman, she had Sou-Sou's hair but her hook nose and breasts was a sure give-away.

She continued her search in such a manner for the next two hours.​

She finally came upon Mikaboshi's prison, not that she was aware of this nor was she searching for him. She again broke into the home, or at least broke in as a relative term meaning that she again punctured the wall with violence. She did not even notice a door if there was one. She shattered a window and climbed in. This building was pretty big, it had more than one floor. Most of the places she had already searched were single story places and in many cases she was lucky enough as to find a collapsed wall or an open roof from which she could listen to her voice. This was not the case this time, she would have to enter the building if she wished to search it thoroughly.

She let out her initial yell and saw a rather unimposing structure, but she could not hear everything. She shook off the glass that was now housed on her tattered attire, it showered the space around her leaving a ring of jewels that she could not visually appreciate. She found the stairwell, it was again destitute, she once more was not able to see everything but she did take note of a distant sound. Was it talking? No... there was no voice but her own. Was it walking? The aged floorboards would have creaked with even the smallest motion. No... it was probably her imagination. She made her way up the stairs, each step groaned in protest. Her hair stood on end, but she had no reason for this. She just did not like this house, it was creepy. She checked out the second floor like she had the first. The space was vacant. She then made her way to the third floor. This series of events was exhaustively repetitive. She rattled the door-handle, the tumblers rolled and then clicked with finality. The door was locked. She frowned, her fist hurt. So did her other. She was wearing heels, but they had broken over two hours ago and was presently barefoot. She head-butted the door. Apparently her head was softer than her 'father' had credited her for. She could feel her brain jiggle and she could temporarily see. She could only see a painful flash of white light, much like a migraine headache, something she now suffered from. Her vision was still gone, but she had to deal with these annoying flashes of stingy light. Whoever said you need to use your head was really full of poop.

Fist violence it is...

She punched the door with her palm. She could feel her carpals compress painfully and possibly her scaphoid crack with the sudden and powerful force. A hole was made in the door and she as per her usual and she let out yet another yell.

"Hhhheeeeelllllllllllloooooo!"

This time there was someone in there. She pulled her ear level with the door to get a decent view of who was in there. "Sousuke?" She queried as she had a hundred times before.

 

[Mikaboshi]

Withdrawing his hand from the energy of the shield, Mikaboshi stretched his talons and forced his thin features into a wicked grin towards Spider. His victory was already assured. It was only a matter of time. The breach in the shield had not grown in size but it acted much like a large wound in a load-bearing column of a building. With the energy trap damaged, Mikaboshi's spiritual presence leaked out of the chamber like a deadly fog and filled the outside of the room with his power. He was not able to manipulate that power yet as the shield still did an impressive job at dampening his power even while damaged but it seemed as if Spider had not planned to protect himself from such things after the shield had been erected. He'd been so confident in his assertion that once the shield was in place he could keep Mikaboshi contained indefinitely that he hadn't constructed any contingencies to handle the possibility that he might escape.

Like the wall cloud of a massive thunderstorm looming on the horizon, the imminent time of Mikaboshi's freedom and subsequent bloody revenge upon his captor slowly drifted ever closer and in anticipation of it, Mikaboshi plotted his next move. Surely by now the group which had put Spider up to detaining him had made their move but even still Sousuke was still alive. Mikaboshi could not sense him in the way that he normally could while trapped within the energy shield but if Sousuke had died and someone else had tried to claim the Black Blade-- or if the Black Blade had been broken or damaged --he would know. He was bound inextricably to that piece of Flame Court-wrought metal and in many ways it represented his true body better than the physical form he inhabited currently did. Sousuke was still alive beyond a shadow of a doubt and that made Mikaboshi curious above all else what the terrorist group which was behind this was doing with their time. They went out of their way to capture and detain him but left the Steward-Kazekage alive? That was strange. Finding Sousuke was his top priority, if only to ensure that his master was not being detained in a similar but more mundane method. Perhaps the terrorists had incarcerated as many of Sunagakure's leaders as they could and went from there. That did not seem particularly sound in the sense that such a scenario could always lead to disaster with the escape of a single powerful leadership entity but just because one of their members had gotten the jump on him with a well-studied spell did not mean that the terrorists were of the brilliant sort.

Placing his fingers once more against the inside of the shield, Mikaboshi felt the power of the spell crackle against his skin as it resisted his subtle push against it. Through the shield he could feel the heartbeat of his captor-- the pulse of his very soul as Spider constantly poured his strength into trap. He grew weary with time and pressure. The room around him was likely growing cold as the supernatural darkness that always followed in Mikaboshi's wake suffocated the very life and light out of the room.

The sound of glass shattering from downstairs sent a shudder through the shield as Spider's concentration was broken for a moment and Mikaboshi sank his burning claws into the shield once more, this time anchoring them there with the intention of bringing the shield down. Like a barbed harpoon being shot into the flank of a beast, there would be no expelling the spell-soaked grasp of Mikaboshi from the trap without damaging it further.

"I feel like we've grown so close during this time together, my friend." Mikaboshi whispered, his voice low and full of violence as he growled his sarcasm. Mikaboshi twisted his claws in the shield and felt Spider's pulse quicken as he worked to counteract the efforts Mikaboshi was making to bring down the shield.

"But your kind only truly reveals the true color of their character in their final bloody moments." Another twist and small cracks began to appear where Mikaboshi's clutches stabbed through the now fading blue light of the trap's shield. "During that time we are able to truly shed our masks and introduce ourselves properly to each other."

There was a loud slam against the door of the room and in that moment where Spider's tension was at it's highest and the balance of the trap delicately set on the precipice of complete failure, Mikaboshi watched as the sealer's last amount of willpower failed and finally with a single pulling motion as if he were pulling the curtain from a window, Mikaboshi shattered the shield and was free. Immediately the shadows churned around his feet like long separated children separated from a doting parent for too long and his long ebony robe and hood which had been robbed from him while trapped within the shield were restored at last, obfuscating his features entirely. With one hand, Mikaboshi gestured and Spider's shadow leaped to life behind him, grabbing his arms and hauling the sealer to his feet while preventing him from casting any further.

"I have so much looked forward to finally... truly meeting you." He hissed, his words slow and deliberate. "But you are so much more useful to me alive than dead. I will wish to know where you learned such knowledge. You belong to me now, little Spider."

Mikaboshi needed to make no mark upon Spider to keep track of him. He had been given ample enough time and experience with the sealer's spiritual presence to be able to find him where ever he might go and Spider knew that. There were no second chances with a creature like Mikaboshi. You either succeeded at containing or killing the beast or it would dog you for the rest of your life and Spider was not mighty enough to defeat a monster like Mikaboshi even in circumstances like these where he'd had every advantage on his side. The most powerful of monsters could even sense your presence upon your friends and family. A failure so complete as this one could mean not only suffering and pain for him but also for anyone else involved in Spider's life. Through his own shadow he could feel the chilling intent of Mikaboshi's words "you belong to me". He had just been claimed by a spirit of immense power and age. No matter how far he ran or how well he hid his tracks it would be within Mikaboshi's power to find him and with a being of shadow like him Spider would almost certainly never even see him coming. He was as much a piece of Mikaboshi's property as a sword or a pair of shoes. Weakly nodding his understanding of Mikaboshi's statement in lieu of speaking the words he lacked the courage to speak, he suddenly crumpled to the floor as his shadow released him and his new dark master drifted past him.

"Stay in the city. Watch what I do now to your allies and know how you and anyone you've ever known will suffer if you attempt to flee me." Mikaboshi commanded of him as the sennin moved to the locked door of the room and with a grasping motion ripped the door from it's hinges with his willpower. It was time to meet the person who had inadvertently allowed for the opportunity to claim his freedom.

 

[Michi]

"Sousuke!" Shiori squealed with delight as she heard her cousin's blade speak. She did not like the idea of a talking weapon, something about it seemed unnatural but at this moment she could care less. The annoying noise of the Kazekage's blade was the most wonderful sound she had ever heard. The door ripped away, the hinges snapped and the wood tore like paper. Shiori instinctively took a half step back as a rush of frigid air ensconced her as she rushed 'Sousuke'. She attempted to embrace him but immediately she could feel the hair on her bare arms stand on end in its' presence. If she had enveloped Mikaboshi in her arms, she would have immediately relinquished her grip upon the revelation that this person was not the man she sought. If it had avoided her arms, she would only be left with the cold chill of its' presence and the empty space she now knew intimately.

She tried to hear its form but the hooded vestment obscured its' features. There was something ominous about this unknown figure. It was not the size or the shape or the fact that she was blind to its' true form. Her hand searched for the railing behind her as her gut screamed that she needed to run but her hands were numb and her legs felt as if they were tied to the ground. She knew this dire sense, she felt it often, but rarely would such acute states of panic be felt unwarranted. Mikaboshi is not normal, something she already knew well. She did not know Mikaboshi as a man or as an ancient, only as the shade of Sousuke's blade. He was no longer a voice without form beyond forged steel but of flesh and bone, sinew and blood. What is it?

"When did you get out of Sousuke's sword?"</B><i></i> Shiori chocked out after only a second but it felt like much longer, time now moved at snail's pace for the unfortunate Medic. Her jaw quivered with her second query, "did you hurt him? ...Sousuke that is" She spied another man laying on the floor. Her heart hastened with the scene she heard as she added, "like you hurt him?" Shiori pointed into the room at the fallen stranger and took another step back. This was a bad place. That was a bad thing. She listened to the empty space, there was nobody else hidden there. Part of her was relieved but she was even more disappointed that her journey was not yet over.

Now was not the time to be reticent. It did not matter who or what it was, be it a specter, a blade, a demon or a man. It would still only be a specter, blade, demon or man. She needed to find Sousuke. Perhaps that was the source of this newly found indomitable spirit that designated this compulsion to recover her cousin even if he is nothing more than a bag of bones for her to bury. <B>"I have looked everywhere, I only want to find him... or what is left of him. Please..."<i></i> her voice sounded pleading as she again took another step back. She had never met the Sennin, even if his name and form were never made known to her. She knew Mikaboshi only as a weapon that talked too much and of justice. A just being was not the aura exuding from his being.

 

[Mikaboshi]

The hooded head of Mikaboshi turned to the side as he looked upon Shiori and she upon him. Beneath the shadow of his hood, his burning eyes narrowed to slits in thought as his mind worked around his first impression of the woman that seemed to have inadvertently allowed him to extricate himself from his plight.

"Are you... familiar to me?" Mikaboshi's words were almost as nebulous as the dark shadow-smoke that his body disintegrated into as Shiori rushed forward to embrace him. Slithering through her open arms like a twisting mass of serpents, Mikaboshi's body coalesced with him standing directly behind her and now facing her.

He knew that he did not know this woman. He'd never met her before, did not know her name. He could not place her face anywhere in his extensive memory. But even still, there was something off about her. Something which spoke to a primal thing in Mikaboshi's heart-- a familiarity which could not be ignored despite the fact that he knew he'd never had any involvement with this human woman before. But was she human? Staring at her from behind, Mikaboshi's head crooked to the other side as he considered her. For all appearances, she seemed human enough. Her aura was relatively normal for her kind but there lurked something ultimately different that he could not put his finger upon and it chafed his curiosity in the worst manner.

She clearly knew Sousuke. And knew him reasonably well, if she had met the specter which had stolen his image that also seemed to inhabit the Black Blade. He ignored her queries as he reached up to lightly grasp her chin with his fore-fingers-- the dangerously wicked talons of shadow that they sometimes sported dissolved for the time being --and if she did not make an attempt to stop him then he intended to turn her face lightly to the side as his mind wracked against the conundrum in front of him. Methodically, in the same way that a doctor might examine a patient, looked her over in an effort to discern anything about her-- anything at all --that might betray an answer to his unmistakable connection with this mysterious woman.

"You ..." He said at last, drifting around to behind her with his hands now clasped behind his back, "... are different from the rest. Fascinating."

Suddenly looking up as if his memory was being jogged, Mikaboshi broke himself out of the distracted trance that Shiori's arrival had put him into. Now was not the time to indulge his curiosity. Though he cared nothing for the lives of the populace of Sunagakure, Mikaboshi had made an oath to Sousuke that he would do everything within his power to protect the city and Mikaboshi was no oath-breaker. He could deceive and mislead but he was not a liar. He had his pride, after all.

"Sousuke, for the moment, is still alive. I cannot sense him as I usually do but he is alive. I would know if he were otherwise." The ancient sennin explained, the excitement gone from his voice and replaced with a bored tone as if he were explaining something as simple as basic addition to a child. "Still. These terrorists have had the run of my city for too long and the hour grows late. I believe I have suffered their designs for long enou--"

Interrupting his statement was the eruption of a thin silver blade from the center of his chest with a dull "thunk" noise. No longer than a short sword, the blade was runed on each edge and the writing there burned brightly with the same color that the energy trap had as the steel bit through Mikaboshi's cadaver-body. Whirling about, Mikaboshi growled lowly knowing that the only source of such an attack would have been Spider who was now on his feet and making motions with his hands as if he were attempting to seal Mikaboshi within the blade that was now stuck deeply within his chest.

"No. None of that. Never again with that." Mikaboshi exploded, the darkness flailing from his body as the hooded robes were pealed back by the energy of the dagger in his chest revealing the hawkishly slim features of his host body. Motioning up with a crushing gesture, Mikaboshi snarled a single word of power and suddenly Spider's body seized up. Evidently Spider had not fancied the idea of being forced into service by the ancient and had taken a single last-ditch effort to defeat the creature in the form of attempting a sealing spell. "You were beneath me, little man. I could have killed you but I chose to spare you in the interest of delving into the knowledge you possess. But I see you were not satisfied with my generous decision to let you keep your short, pointless life. I must congratulate you on your promotion from fleeting inconvenience to the center of my undivided attention. Let us both hope that it is everything you desired it would be."

Reading between the lines, it meant that Mikaboshi was going to torture and kill this man. Not just because he was a threat-- he wasn't, really. But out of spite. Spider had made himself into an inconvenience not once but twice now and Mikaboshi did not intend to suffer a third occasion. Not when Sousuke's life and his own pride were on the line.

"Woman. If you have further inquiries regarding Sousuke, I encourage you to ask them quickly of this man. I'm afraid in a few moments he will be far too occupied with being eaten to attend any further interrogation."

 

[Michi]

Her jaw sack in the claw-like hands of a potential predator, she allowed the corporeal specter of the blade the time to finish its assessment. Barely a shallow breath taken, the only function that had hastened was her bounding carotid. She did not know what the specter was looking for or what feature it discerned before its' astute hold was relinquished. It receded and took a civilized pose, hands clasped behind its back and its posture erect under the enigmatic layers of cloth. This stranger was not of substantial height or breadth but its presence was daunting. The conclusion uttered was simple enough but the choice words were cryptic, as if there was a clandestine fact that only it knew but also with the statement came a latent sense that they had met before, not as a tête-à-tête with the disembodied voice housed within Sousuke's blade but rather something palpable.

The colloquy moved on to legitimate matters: Sousuke was alive. An impossible weight was lifted from her shoulders with that statement that she took as truth. Why did she believe such saccharine words? Because a complete stranger told her all she wanted to hear. It served as a brief respite from her unrelenting search and frenzied state of panic. These facts may have seemed elementary to the ominous stranger, but he did not know of the searching, the sifting and the chaos she had endured with only the feeble hope that Sousuke would be recovered. Her hand still held fast to the railing as she responded with an emotional tone, "Thank-you Specter"

Suddenly, without warning a blade jutted from Mikaboshi's chest. She would not see the runic artifact but she would see the hand-seals, or so she perceived with the motions of a man she thought was felled by the specter. The response was swift as the power of the spoken word was used to subjugate the specter's opponent. Shiori reached for the hilt of the sealing blade, she intended to rip it from Mikaboshi. She was not practiced in the arts that bound him to the Kazekage's black blade nor was she familiar with the Sennin's history. While she was not an aggressor, her actions may have been taken as such. She never announced her intent nor had she even considered her action, it was an instinctual response: A sword embedded into a body tends to make a body dysfunction. A sword separate from a body is a preferred state. Three years of Medic school for this bit of enlightenment.

"You need to be healed!" Shiori yelled, regardless of a favorable or unfavorable response by the Specter. She attempted to complete a medical jutsu, nothing fancy, just something to stop him from bleeding and from having all of his air escape his lungs. This attack, as much as her aggressive motions might have been perceived as she was making an concentrated effort to place a healing technique on a potentially unwilling target. If he was avoiding her attempt(s), she would shout "stay still!" "I am trying to fix you!" "Let me help you!" If Mikaboshi remained unwilling, there would be little that Shiori could do. She was not a taijutsuist and most of her techniques required the dexterity of a melee fighter rather than that of an elemental caster or an illusionist. If any of her 'healing attacks' had landed, she might take notice of exactly how different this specter actually was.

"Woman. If you have further inquiries regarding Sousuke, I encourage you to ask them quickly of this man. I'm afraid in a few moments he will be far too occupied with being eaten to attend any further interrogation."

"Could you just not eat him?" She queried with a recently discovered courage. IF this man who attacked the specter knew where Sousuke was, she wanted him found alive. "I only want my cousin returned to me..." her voice started to quaver as she added "I-I will fight ghosts like y-you... and take from that man t-there,"<i></i> she pointed at the Spider, "all that can be t-taken that will lead me to him or b-bring him home."<i></i> She was terrified, far from brave and yet it was a part of any hero or villain's journey to manifest a destiny of their own making. No longer a dependent of the benevolence of her peers or a product of favor given by an unearned namesake. That man was a resource.

WC: 736

MFT

 

[Mikaboshi]

Pain lanced through Mikaboshi's being as Shiori reached to wrench out the short sword stabbed into his back causing shadowy appendages to erupt from his person as he turned on her, anger apparent in his eyes. The sennin was rarely truly enraged but in this moment where he had a sealing blade stabbed into his back and a half-completed sealing ritual anchoring it into his spirit, he was not unlike a tiger that had been backed into a corner. Mikaboshi feared nothing except perhaps the prospect of being sent back into the formless void that was being spiritually sealed into an object. It was a prison constructed of both mind and spirit, one that he had lived out every second of in complete consciousness but unable to act. It was a testament to who and what he was that he did not go completely mad from the experience. Certainly no human could ever have expected to endure such an ordeal and emerge relatively unscathed mentally speaking.

"Touch not the blade!" He growled as the appendages did their best to fend off Shiori's attempts to heal him. Black ichor bubbled around the place where he was stabbed but did not pour out just yet. The nature of the sword was intended to keep things in, not out. This was not a normal wound and was as much spiritual as it was physical. Removing the blade would take some time and expertise that Mikaboshi felt certain in his assertion Shiori did not possess even despite her medical training.

She requested that he not eat Spider and to that question, he looked upon the struggling human that he held in a tangled weave of shadows given physical form. Simply from his attention returning to Spider, the grip of the twisted shadows tightened and an audible wheeze escaped from Spider's trapped body as air was pushed out of his body by the tightening grip of Mikaboshi's hatred.

"The woman wishes that I do not eat you but I am so very hungry. Famished, even. But..." Mikaboshi explained, the coals of his scornful gaze fixated on Spider as he prowled close to where the man was bound. "I am amiable to acquiescing to her desire... but only if you perhaps have something useful for me. What do you know of the Kazekage and these terrorists?"

The crushing weight of Mikaboshi's dark grasp loosened slightly enough for Spider to suck in a deep breath and finally drink deep of the oxygen that his lungs had been screaming at him to provide.

"I... don't know anything... they only told me enough to... capture you." Spider gasped. Mikaboshi's eyes narrowed and the shadows threatened to engulf the man once more and Spider began shouting incoherently in fear. Words such as "please don't" and "I swear I don't know" could be heard within the writhing mass of gloom as they slowly crushed him. Turning his eyes to Shiori, Mikaboshi's expression seemed to ask the question; "Satisfied?"

 

[Michi]

Shiori abruptly halted in her attempt to separate the specter from the blade. She held her hands in front of her and slightly to each of her sides, perpendicularly bent at the elbows with her fingers parted. She was not going to touch the pointy thing that made him angry nor was she there to start a fight. "Okay! Okay!" Shiori shouted, her voice rife with confusion as she conceded. Weapons are usually better out than in, but if he wanted to walk around with a blade sticking out of his chest looking like a ghastly shish kabob, that was his preference. She preferred to keep the gages smaller on any man-made holes in her body but she had seen cases where men and women walked around with very large holes in their earlobes. She found the look disturbing, and furrowed her brow at the mental image she had constructed of this man-ghost walking around with a hole in his chest. "You sure?" She followed up, not really looking for an answer.

She took a step forward and cocked her head to the side to hear what was going on. Between the groan of bones bowing in response to an intense pressure and the wheeze of air rushing in and out as he gave his final words. The abandoned quarters were not large, the scene gruesomely clear.

She kept her hands absolutely still for the specter's feast and made no attempt to assist him in his final moments. Her thin lips dropped into a frown, she wanted to know what Mister Stabby knew but he knew nothing. She was rather disappointed. Not that the man was eaten? Absorbed? Something unnatural and gruesome. She really did not care about the man's fate, she just wanted to know where Sousuke was. She let out a breath of air and let her hands relax at their sides. "Full?" She asked, the single word query was not laced with disgust or malice, it was an actual inquiry like one would make after being offered a sandwich. "If not, these buildings are loaded with smelly people," Shiori added. "I need to find Sousuke and he is not here." Shiori announced as she decided to return to her previous mission. She was a practical woman and none of her interests involved the recently devoured and departed man.

She turned away, not that her sight of him was absent as she started to attempt to descend the stairs. "You are a scary sword ghost Mister Mikaboshi, I like you better this way than I did the last time we met." She had "met" him before, in fact likely multiple times but she only recalled just one. He spoke from the nothing, something harbored inside of a blade that had his voice but not his personality. This specter had form and showed the potential for malevolent intent but made no attempt to conceal his interests. The sword seemed to have interests without known motive. He was nothing like the weapon she had previously encountered and only shared a voice. At least she knows this man is scary

"Having a body," she stated. "Is that why you eat people... To maintain your form?"</B><i></i> She had no reason to engage Mikaboshi in conversation or to address him now by name, but she knew a few things about him and felt compelled to understand this strange monster her cousin held so dear. Since his abrupt disappearance she has come upon one dead end after another. Mikaboshi was the only 'person' (a term used loosely) that was able to give her a definite statement regarding Sousuke: the fact that he was alive.

<B>"I have searched every rock, every corner, every mansion and every hovel... Sousuke cannot be found within the boundaries of Sunagakure alive and if he lives as you say, I wish to find him in that condition still." She was looking to depart and she was not looking for a new BFF but she was hoping for a shared goal: finding Sousuke. "Again, if you need to eat to keep all scary and solid... I can point out a few places loaded with them." Shiori offered, she really did not care about Sunagakuran people as a whole, she never did. She does care about Sousuke and she always had. Sacrificing a few lives to retrieve the most important person in Shiori's life was a paltry price to pay. Of course Sousuke was more than just that, he was also the leader of the village and without him... Sunagakure would surely fall.

 

[Mikaboshi]

Screams continued for nearly a full minute as Mikaboshi simply watched in total silence his pet shadows very slowly crush his would-be jailer. Unfortunately for Spider, the agony that he was experiencing at the hands of the shadowy appendages was not only a matter of personal revenge but a release of caged aggression towards humanity itself that the inhuman sennin had been keeping under wraps since his release into their midst. Pressed into service by the Steward in exchange for his freedom, Mikaboshi had been forced to treat humanity with a kindness that they did not deserve in his eyes. The Sunahoshi that they worshiped like gods had betrayed him, tossed away his friendship in their paranoia and abandoned him to the void of his own hatred. And what was worse, he'd allowed it to happen. Instead of keeping them at arm's length and with a suspicious eye, he'd considered them friends to the Court of Shadows. In an uncharacteristic flaw in judgement, he'd forgotten the most important law of the desert and as a result he'd paid for it.

The First Law.

The weak exist to feed the strong.

Survival of the fittest.

Stepping forward at last as viscera poked through gaps in the quivering appendages of gloom, Mikaboshi held his hand out over the twitching mass and from the top of it slowly emerged a glimmering blow spark of pure energy. The very essence of the soul. Taking the appearance of a bright ball of light less than the size of a golf ball, Spider's amalgamated soul energy desperately dodged at Mikaboshi's first swipe but failed to avoid the second as it was caged beneath the hungry monster's once-more-manifested talons.

Never again, he oathed silently to himself as he crushed the soul in his palm and breathed deep of it's power. The rush of life force was exhilarating to say the least. Mikaboshi had not drank deep such a potent soul in far too long. Certainly not since his reincarnation. It was succulent to him in ways that written and spoken words would always fail to describe. Finally with his grim meal finished, Mikaboshi swished his hand to the side and his shadows disappeared revealing a sticky mess of gore and ruined clothing-- the smashed corpse of a man that had thought himself skilled and cunning enough to tackle a beast that once ruled the shadows.

"We are finished here" He said in response to her question regarding whether he was satisfactorily satiated by the meal of Spider's spirit essence. He did not deign to explain to intricacies of his kind's need to consume spirit energy but rather simply provide the instruction that he was done with his work here. With a meal the size of which he'd just taken he would not need to eat for weeks. Perhaps longer. That would not stop him from feeding if he found himself wanting to but he would not be required to feed to survive for a very long time. "Locating Sousuke should be our first priority. I am unconcerned with the rest of Sand's shinobi corps."

They were either battling back against the Cabal or being culled from the herd like the weaklings that they were. Either way, Mikaboshi's will in enforcing the First Law was done. He could ask nothing else given the circumstances.

"We have not met before. You are mistaken." Mikaboshi casually corrected Shiori as they traversed the stairs. Normally, Mikaboshi would have simply walked the shadow ways to move from place to place but this woman had proven herself useful once already. He might find further use for her in the immediate future in her medical training if they came across someone that they wished to save-- namely Sousuke. "Why do humans eat meat?"

His return query was one of rhetorical nature. Humans ate meat because it kept them alive and tasted good. He devoured soul essence for the same reason. His physiology was simply different but the motivations were the same. Waiting for the pair as they emerged from the building at the base of the large structure was a grungy-looking vagrant who motioned with a knife saying something incoherent that Mikaboshi only barely heard for lack of interest in what the fool was saying. With a flick of his wrist in the way that one might scatter a house pest before them, Mikaboshi sent the criminal flying through the air in several pieces before turning to Shiori and addressing her without bringing attention to the way he had just casually murdered a man.

"Then it stands to reason that he is no longer within the village. We will proceed to investigate the Maw while you give me what information you possess about the occupation of Sunagakure. It is time to bring this fool's show to a close."

 

[Michi]

OC: Sorry, short post.

IC:

Another degenerate cast aside. Shiori let out a lungful of air as he was swiftly eliminated and sighed. She was not mourning the loss of another life nor was she a cold woman in her opinion. She had witnessed senseless death before, incapable and perhaps unwilling to intervene. A madwoman slaughtered dozens while the Medical Center was recovering. She tried to talk to villain into a new course of action but she never intervened. She had an astonishingly long history of non-interference. "Couldn't you at least eat what you kill?"</B><i></i> Shiori muttered. "You're wasting perfectly good food," she complained. "Also, I do not eat meat," she added. She was not a vegetarian, in fact she mostly ate for pleasure not for nutrition. She never understood the concept of mealtime or a balanced diet, but for the most part food is entirely unappetizing to her. He did receive 'nutrition' in a way, some sort of fluid concoction that her 'father' made her. It tasted better than cupcakes, but it was a rare treat that she only enjoyed every few months. She had last eaten almost 3 months ago, she was overdue for a thermos but she had no desire to speak with 'father' and with Suna in this state she had other affairs to attend to first.

So, Sousuke was outside of Sunagakure. That was an interesting assessment. Perhaps he was making a wild speculation and he knew nothing more than she did about Sousuke's whereabouts, but at least he took interest in them. She had not searched the Maw, she had heard that the Maw was damaged or that passage in and out was at the very least limited. "The village was attacked about three days ago, I am not sure of what happened or exactly who they are, but a group called the Cabal. They damaged the prison and the criminals that lived inside are running unrestrained. As for if it was the Cabal or the criminals that damaged the rest of Sunagakure... I cannot be sure, but I know that the Kazekage Tower is in ruins as is a majority of the village infrastructure. Some places seem for the most part unchanged, albeit more crowded, like here."<i></i> She stopped, gave the monster some time to digest the information she had shared. She honestly knew little of the events that had transpired, she was still ill and the befuddlement that accompanied her process persisted. Despite this fact, she had sifted through pounds of debris and searched almost every structure in Suna in search of Sousuke. She found neither Sousuke or the Cabal, but she had crossed paths with many unsavory characters in her search and none of them yielded any benefit. Perhaps the addition of Mikaboshi would alter the tides to her favor.

<B>"I'll show you on the way if you want," Shiori offered as she started to leave for the Maw. If he followed, remained or found his own path it was truly irrelevant to Shiori, if nothing else he gave Shiori a new place to search. If they departed together, she would continue to share what little she knew, if not she would travel in silence ans quickly make her way to the Maw.

WC: 535

MFT

[Leaving for the Maw]​

 

[Mikaboshi]

As Shiori explained the status of the village, Mikaboshi ran a few of his fingers down the blade of the sealing sword that jutted from his chest. It hurt certainly but a being like Mikaboshi did not get to be as old as he was by being cowed by pain. The agony in his chest simply served as an excellent reminder to keep his ego in check. By nature Mikaboshi was a prideful creature and he had ever reason to be. He once ruled most of the known underground. Feared and respected alike by his kind, he had run in the Great Hunt along side the Court of the Wild Hunt many times and earned himself a reputation within it despite not being a member of their court. Even in this new world that foolishly believed most of the supernatural history of their world to be nothing more than fairy tales the sinister sennin was beginning to once more make a name for himself. Men and women abroad knew about the shadow monster that served at the word of the Steward-Kazekage of Sunagakure and feared his coming enough where many would not speak his name aloud for fear that it might conjure him to their presence. But even with all of that, Mikaboshi had once more been faced with his own potential demise-- or at least as close to it as one of his kind would ever truly know --merely minutes ago due to his dismissal of a human being as no threat to him.

And now he suffered the burden of this wound in his chest that sucked away at his spiritual power. He would not admit it to Shiori or any other save for the Steward if Sousuke forced him to do so but his power was still fading in some ways. Despite the fact that the ritual he'd hijacked from Kuro's patron spirit had sutured the damage done to his body and spirit and in some ways given him new strength, his old power still slipped through his fingertips like tiny grains of dust. It seemed the harder he clung to the memory of what he once was the quicker that power slipped away from him. He retained his mastery over the shadows and his spiritual might was still second to few in the human world but in perspective of what he had once been... he had lost much and continued to lose it. It simply meant that he would need to rely on his cunning that much more. Returned to the present by Shiori's question, Mikaboshi said nothing in return to her as he gestured and brought up the veil of darkness in the form of the wispy hooded robes he was fond of.

Stepping forward into the void, Mikaboshi's mind worked while addressing details of the occupation. The Cabal had been in control of Sand for several days and for some reason had freed the prisoners of the Obsidian Palace. They would pay for that affrontry, he decided. But first, he would need a few things. If Sousuke were outside of the village then he would need more than his natural connection with the Steward to track him. Sousuke could be anywhere in the Wind Country. That meant a short detour to the Keystone Prime as well as his own lab in the Obsidian Palace as well if only to ensure that it was undisturbed. Perhaps elsewhere if the fancy struck him. With Sousuke out of the village and the general state that it was in... the situation provided a unique opportunity for him to indulge himself a little. With a smirk upon his hidden features within the depths of his hood, Mikaboshi's body melted into black and dissipated.

If she turned to look back at him then Shiori would see no trace of where Mikaboshi had disappeared to.

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