Hand Over Fist: The Sphere (NPC)
And on the third day, the lonely prisoner began to accept his fate, and the new life he’d live in that small cell. He did not know how long he’d last, but Jomei became driven to keep his wits and health as long as possible. In the early hours of the day, he tidied his cell up, making it feel as livable as a spherical cage could be. After dawn, he unwrapped a breakfast consisting of stale bread and an over-ripened mango, and ate while seated on the edge of the shelf-like table he was provided. He poured himself a cup of bitter water from the faucet to wash it all down, and finished a moment of useless speculation in place of reading the morning news. Was this really the life meant for Jomei now? Of course not, but he wasn’t so sure that morning, nor would he be certain for many days to come.
About ten days passed. In that span of time, Jomei’s quaint cell gained a collection of books given to him by the guards in exchange for his silence. Not the kind of silence like when you see a crime and promise not to report it. The poor boy reached the verge of madness. The solitude drove him to the point of flagrant talking-aloud as if he always had company in his cell. He was too much of an intellectual to be left to such nothingness for days on end; and without proper stimulation, he became desperate for the sensation of social interaction. The sound of his voice echoed through the yard of the jail’s four storey complex so much that the guards provided him with approved reading material in an attempt to pacify him. Normally the prisoners were given maybe one book at a time, but half of Jomei’s cell became a sloped bed of dusty novels, scientific journals, and local literature about the history and traditions of the moon country. Each day, books were lazily, and erroneously dropped off randomly. Some were interesting, and some were not, but it was all an improvement over sitting there, bored and worrying all day long. This continued until his cell became confused with a library drop off point.
On the thirteenth night, the moon was high. The lunar glow was so great, that Jomei was treated to a suitable light for some late-night reading. He was humoring a book written on Moon Economics; it was a boring read, but Jomei had an interest in understanding the ways of these people. It was a necessity if he was ever going to be free again. As he read on he revealed an apple from the evening meal he saved as his snack, and bit a soft, savoring bite out of it. Taking a hint of pleasure from the cool, luminous night, Jomei felt at ease for the first time since his captured, and reclined on his bed of dusty books. His eyes floated up from his gaze on the literature, and the soft apple slipped out of the laxing grip of his hand. Soon, Jomei create the sounds of peaceful slumber, granted a temporary escape from his miserable surroundings. However, his rest would be brief. Up at the top of Jomei’s cell, a spiny intruder the size of human hand appeared, crawling through the slots where his books were deposited. The silhouette of an eight-legged creature cut into the light that covered Jomei, creating the shape over him, quite fittingly. It spun a silvery web, and began lowering itself down, landing squarely on Jomei’s face. Though still sharp, the danger-sensing ability of his heritage wouldn’t alert Jomei to the spider’s arrival, instead good ole intuition kicked in when he felt the pressure on his face in the darkness. He snapped to consciousness, and with it came a sudden hand, slapping his own face with blind fury. The spider evaded, and Jomei nearly bloodied his nose for his effort. He cursed, and reeled from the pain for a moment, until he came to realize the creature that had come to visit his cell… The spider wasn’t very large, and it’s breed was difficult to recognize by outline alone in the darkness. But then, an unmistakable amber glow illuminated the darkness, coming from the arachnid’s bulb-like thorax. “A lantern spider” Jomei gasped, recognizing the signature breed of minion kept by his last known relative, the self-proclaimed Spider Queen Emi Konayagi. However this spider had not appeared by coincident, and Jomei knew what it meant- his liberation! “Thank the web” Jomei exalted with a barely-contained whisper. Hope had come in the night. “Emi to the rescue” Jomei added, with his excitement building. It had been over a year since he had last seen Emi, and that was when she made her disappearance from Jomei without a trace. She never failed to keep tabs on her young cousin Jomei. Using her network of spider minions to keep a watchful eye on Jomei, and relay information back to her, Emi never let her young kin out of reach. Her horde had followed him all the way to his current predicament, even over the seas he crossed; her hivemind influence did not sway.
Eager but not distracted, Jomei climbed to his roof, and inspected his view of the surface carefully, making sure he was clear to receive the spider’s information without being discovered by a patroller. “I think we’re clear, little guy.” Jomei clung from the room with ease as he whispered the cue to begin down to his special visitor. Lantern Spiders are an incredible species of arachnid, no wonder Emi chose them as a personal favorite. This one was an exquisite specimen with a frail, sleek body coated in a copper color and textured exoskeleton. Eight long and thin legs tapped atop the bed of books as the spider positioned itself in the best place for it’s all-important feat. The glow of it’s thorax increased to match a hot torch, and it began to weave kanji symbols with webbing up on the book covered floor. A slight force of chakra was swelling in the room around the little creature, and the energy coalesced into a vivid, purple light of chakra. The orange light of the spider’s thorax began to flicker and fade, and as it grew weaker, the chakra surrounding the spider began to form sealing cantations glyphs on the surface around it. Once the orange light of spider faded completely, a ring of light was completed on the sloped floor, and a phosphorous purple smog began to rise from the withering creature. The gloom became a plume in the cell, and swirled about, foreboding but harmless to Jomei. The young ninja was nervous, but but too desperate to question the purpose of the jutsu at work. He also knew better than to underestimate Emi Koyanagi.
Jomei made an anxious swinging drop down from the cell door, landing steady across from the glowing, gaseous construct coming to life in the swirling smog. The smoke began to thicken to create the outline of a womanly body, and the fine features of Emi began to shape themselves until Jomei called her name, “Lady Emi...” Upon the uttering of her name, the spectral image of Emi came to life, and immediately gave Jomei’s cell a look over. Even in an ethereal form, Emi made her uncanny scowl, already displeased about something Jomei had done or failed to do. “Quite a mess you’re in this time, cousin Jo Jo” the specter taunted. “I would have come to you sooner, but I decided that you would be safer in here until I had a better idea of what you’ve gotten into. It’s better than you poking your nose into the politics of Tsukigakure. This city is a different kind of beast than Maruishi, Jomei.” Jomei’s excitement began to fall as Emi downplayed his station as a conscious traveler, so he too scowled back at the vision of his cousin. Still hungry, Jomei bent down to find the apple he lost when he fell asleep. “I took every precaution I knew to take when I entered their waters,” Jomei was quick on the defensive, word-wise. “It was the old boat chief who chose to raid me anyway. I’m sure it was the call of the gate gem.” The spectral form shook her head. “No” Emi refuted. “Your gem was just a coincidence for them. The night you sailed into the harbour, you became a patsy for a murder; one of several missing persons and homicide conspiracies springing up in the city.” Her correcting statement was a cutting one, like a knife as Jomei slumped back against his cold cell wall. “They want me for murder?” He lamented in his realization.
But Emi had come to Jomei as resourceful as ever. “I have been spreading webs throughout the island since you were taken by the Shrine.” It had only taken her a week to send a brood of lantern spiders to the Moon Country, and from there her presence was spread across the land, from spider to spider; subject to subject. “The Lanterns have discovered that a cult has formed in opposition to the Moon’s all-powerful Shrine, which is also a cult if you ask me… but the city is under their control, so might makes right.”
“Ugh” Jomei protested. “As if I’d ever be caught dead falling for the sham of some moronic cult.” He paused a moment, in contemplating the excessive nature of the search and seizure that led to his imprisonment. “I’m sure the gate gem only made me their prime suspect, especially if they’ve already started running tests on it.” And then there was the matter of his other belongings; the rare items that were instrumental journey “Do you know what became of my ship and things? I-I’m not ready for you to spring me out of here if I can’t escape without my research.”
The spectral form was taken by surprise at the brass of Jomei’s rejection of a rescue that was not yet offered. However, it suited her just fine. “You wouldn’t make it twenty-four hours on the run on Moon Island with that Heavenly Prison Seal binding your chakra. Besides, escaping just isn’t an option for you right now... but I have been looking out for you, because I want to take those arms of yours.” Hopefully, the latter was meant as a joke- Jomei faked an amused laugh.
“And what will this actually cost me?” Jomei asked, sharply. “I’m not exactly in a position to turn down your help, but I want to know what you expect in return.”
“This is nothing but me looking out for one of my own. Why seek your debt when I already know that you will go to the ends of the world for me if I ever need your help, Jomei? That’s just who you are. An investment in your livelihood is an investment in the future of the Hachiashi Order. Good spiders are so very hard are to come by- I’d hate to leave you wasting away so uselessly in this miserable cage.” Her eyes were silvery in this spectral form, and she stared at him with keen perception, examining what she could see of his Spider Seal, revealed on the exposed parts of Jomei’s skin. Emi never failed to uphold her cryptic towards Jomei, but now his desperation outweighed the risk she presented. He relished in her company, and the chance of seeing freedom again. “Your ship” she said, focusing on his needs, “The Shrine has taken it for their own, and have already repurposed it as patrol frigate in their harbor, though it hasn’t left the docks yet. Most of your belongings have either been confiscated by the Overseers, or scattered to the wind by thieves and merchants.”
“It just keeps getting better” Jomei lamented with sarcasm and a scowl. He took a seat on his slope of novels, and then chomped another bite from the red apple.
The ethereal Emi resumed, “The Overseers haven’t bothered talking to you because they learned of your identity and alibi after probing your ship. You had a journal, marked sea charts, and other evidence that you aren’t a member of the of Jashin Sect. The overseers don’t have anything to tie you to the attacks, and have been holding you while they chase the real suspect.”
“So I’m in the clear, except for my gem, right?” Jomei asked presumptuously.
“Correct” Emi answered, spoken with a sharp enunciation of the letter T. Correctah. “I have been able to uncover that the Overseers were conducting a manhunt for another suspect. There is a confirmed Jashin worshipper at large in the city... I do not know him by name yet, but the suspect has earned a reputation for the method of his attacks.” The plumes of bright smoke that made Emi’s arms raised in front of her, and she began making the shape of a cube between her hands. The smoke of her visual jutsu formed a four inch cube, balanced it in the palm of one hand, and she moved the other hand onto her hip. “The first victim was just a little girl, going for a hike with her mother, and got away from her in a meadow. The little girl found a ruby red glass cube, and when she touched it she immediately fell ill with a fever. When victims touch the cubes, they trigger some type of jutsu. Each victim feels excruciating pain for about an hour’s time, probably while the jutsu takes hold.”
The violet light of Emi’s ethereal project reflected off of Jomei, glistening in his amber eyes. Eyes that would have pierced through Emi with his gaze if she had appeared in person. “And then what happened?” He asked before working around the rest of his apple.
“The kid went kaboom” Emi answered, unabashed. “Each of the victims bursted into chakra explosions in exactly sixty minutes.”
Jomei asked her “How many victims?” and leaned forward, closer to the spectral vision. “A-and, what have you learned from the Overseers about the cubes?” He was full of speculation about the murders, the method than the motive.
“Five. And the Shrine is very guarded about their investigations. I must admit that my spiders have had trouble breaching the Overseer’s temples. The defenses here are well hidden; and there are counter-spy ninja everywhere in the city. They have been killing my spiders; a problematic issue, but despite that I have obtained what information I could for our cause.”
“Our cause” Jomei repeated her softly under breath. “And at the sum of all this information you have collected, what would you have me do with it?” Bound to his cell and yet to leave since the guards first threw him in, Jomei had yet to find an opportunity to escape his current predicament.
The ghost-like vision of Emi let out an inquisitive sigh. “Until tonight, the Overseers still had one leg to stand on for the accusation that you were this Jashinist bomber terrorizing the city, but then the inevitable has happened, cementing your alibi. Another victim has exploded. I believe that they must be running low on options by now, and it’s only a matter of time until they turn to someone who may know a thing or two about chakra ore.”
On that note Jomei puffed out his chest a bit, feeling some confidence restored in himself as his affinity for arcadianite received recognition. But he was much more excited in the potential of his release, or at least a chance to be diplomatic with his captors. He was sure that just one chance to explain himself would be enough to sway the Shrine Overseers. He would step in to champion their cause, and he would have a key to the city before it was all said and done. Behind a smile, Jomei was excited by the challenge of facing the worshipers of Jashin again. He had last encountered them during the Jounin Exam, in the dust bowl of the Wind Country, but here they were emerging again. His pearl-teethed grin returned to a serious frown as Jomei considered the gravity of a Jashin presence on Moon Island.
The levitating cube of smoke in the spectral woman’s hand transformed into a close resemblance to Jomei’s gate gem. Emi’s eyes widened and her posture tensed as much as the magic smoke could depict. “They are going to make you answer for why you were in possession of the wicked green gem. They know by now that it steals souls. Whether they accept your plea or not, I imagine a place like this will have more in store for you tomorrow, Jomei.” She dissipated the gem and restored her measure of calmness. “I’d better leave so you can get a good night’s sleep…” Abruptly, Emi’s form began to melt away despite Jomei sitting at the edge of his pile of rubble, with words hanging from his tongue. “Meet me at the docks by six thirty p.m. tomorrow, if you are free.” she added with a stroke of finality, before her form was erased and the iridescent glow faded.
With the purple light extinguished, and the smoke dispelled, Jomei sat alone again in the dark, or so he thought. But then that amber glow of the Lantern Spiders bulbous thorax began to flicker once again, providing Jomei with a proper lamp for his late-night reading. “Tomorrow can’t come soon enough” he whispered to his new arachnid friend. But rather than reading, Jomei stretched back atop his bed of books, and began to dream about the trials to come on moon island. The warm glow was extinguished as the lantern spider took to hiding for the time being, picking a safe nook to call home beneath his sink.
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