She did not know for what purpose she now found herself hurrying down a dark alleyway, her pristine genin headband bouncing on her brow. There was no orchestrated plan, no official sanction by the village, nor even a request from the individual she was attempting to pay back. In truth, this was not even for he who had saved her that night, but for herself; to prove herself to herself. There was still much deliberation in the clan, while it had not escalated to a feud, there were a growing number opposed to this girl still possessing the title of Storm Heir. Somehow, by this act of reckless justice, she sought out the answer to the question that was on the minds of both her and her clansmen: was she worthy of the responsibility, if she had ever been?
She knew she had to do it, because Suzume was nothing--if not headstrong.
Turning into an open door, still swaying from the woman who was still a few seconds ahead of her, Suzume burst inside and pulled out one of the kunai that had been given to her as a sign of her new post. The building was old and had fallen to disrepair a decade ago, likely existing as one of the first buildings that were built when the village moved underground. With lamps sitting at the corners of the hallway junctions, it was clear that people still resided here. It was with one of these, a flickering of light and a brief shadow that prompted Suzume to give chase down the corridor to her far right.
Most of the door she passed were closed or were barely open, but there were a few that stood wide enough for her to catch a momentary glance inside as she searched for signs of the murderer. Of those open, some held brief scenes that mirrored what she had caught sight of in the alleyway. All moved by too quickly for her thoughts to linger for more than a brief instant, but the still images of the ragged men and women stuck to her brain. Some were pressed to walls by well dressed individuals, others were forced to the ground and still others were strapped to walls, most being taken advantage of in more than one way.
As she tried to flush the images out of her mind, she caught sight of her target's heel on the edge of a large spiral staircase, and she quickly continued her pursuit. What was she going to do once she caught up with that foul woman? Even as her legs and lungs worked fervently to keep up as she ascended the seemingly endless staircase, flight by flight, her mind wandered back to a few minutes earlier. It had been a scene startlingly reminiscent to what she had encountered months ago, a defenseless civilian huddled against the wall of a deserted alley, a blade to his throat as the woman pressed herself down upon him. The thought caught her mid step and she stumbled forward onto the staircase, slamming her head painfully onto one of the steps just as she had nearly caught up with the foul beast.
Dazed, she stumbled back to her feet and continued on upwards, nearly ten flights up as the woman dissipated from view once again, ducking through a now open door on the landing above the newly minted kunoichi. She wiped the trickle of blood that mingled with the sweat on her brow as they dripped down to her eye and her mind began to wander back once more. Suzume had called out to the woman, but it did not play out as it had for that ANBU who had saved her. A quickly clean slice to the woman's prey silenced him as a witness as Suzume had attempted to confront her and rescue him. By the time Suzume had made it to him, his thrashing had almost stopped entirely. She then had to make the split second decision: stop the person who did this or attempt to save the man. Even as she gave chase, she knew that decision would haunt her for a long time.
Slamming into the door of the 12th floor stairwell exit, she heard shouted voices from down the halls, one of them distinctly exhausted and feminine. Breaking into a sprint once more, she rounded a corner only to come across to large gruff man, their backs towards her, looking confused. With effort, she hopped into the air and planted a foot into each of the men's backs. Caught completely off guard, the two slammed face first onto the wooden floor, knocked dazed or unconscious as Susume broke into the sprint once again. She had no idea what she was going headlong into, but there was already blood that was on her hands, she couldn't stop yet.
Rounding another bend, she finally caught sight of her prey. She was frantically speaking to another woman. The second woman appeared amused, her long black hair shrouding the sides of her face as she gave a curious gaze to the frantic proclamations and demands of assistance. "I paid!" the murderer proclaimed, her breath still gone, "you said you would protect me if I kept paying!" A smirk appeared on the black haired woman's face, but it was no warmer than the body Suzume had left in the alleyway to die.
Unsure as to what exactly to do, Suzume halted a few dozen steps from the pair and yelled out, "hand her over! I am a shinobi and that woman is a murderer!" Feeling winded, she managed to hide it in her voice as her adrenaline carried Suzume forward. She stuck out her chest and glared with angry determination at the pair, taking a threatening step forward towards them.
With a delicate hand, the murderer's defender pressed the woman to her side and behind her. Her voice was soft and smooth, yet carried the weight of absolute authority. "Move along, little girl." She stared down the hallway towards Suzume, "The shinobi hold no sway here. This is my little slice of territory, and if you value that expendable life of yours, then you will leave here immediately."
"Not without her!" Suzume demanded, the confidence of her new position in the village helping her to match the gang leader's air of power. "Stand aside, or I will not hesitate to bring the entire weight of the village down upon you!" Suzume readied herself in a traditional battle stance that she had learned in the academy, waiting for either a threatening gesture or for the woman to step aside. She received neither.
The black haired woman gave a small laugh and gestured for the woman she was protecting to leave. "Very well." She proceeded to raise her right hand and hold it up for a moment, before gently brushing the air towards Suzume. That instant Suzume felt an invisible force slam against her side, sending her crashing through the wall to her left, the bones in her right arm fracturing from the immense force of the unseen blow. Knocked senseless, but not unconscious, she lifted some of the debris from atop her in an attempt to stand. Blood soaked her right arm, which hung limply at her right side. It was so quick, she didn't even register the pain, much less what had just transpired.
Whispering a short prayer, she clasped her left arm to her right, and a black flame flickered from her hand, across the skin of her broken arm before it seeped inside of it. With a gasp of pleasure and relief, she felt the bones work themselves back together as her Lord's Blessing took effect. Flexing her arm to make sure it still worked, she finally looked up towards the massive hole in the wall that she was sent through. There stood the woman, her arms crossed as she stared with amusement towards the little kunoichi. "You are tougher than I thought. Well, I suppose you have earned one last chance to leave. Next time you won't be able to stand back up."
What had Suzume gotten herself into? The woman had simply made a gesture towards her and she sent her through a wall, breaking multiple bones in the process. She was no match for this woman, she was only a genin. If she was strong enough to stake a claim in the heart of Sunagakure, then what could a little girl such as Suzume to do her? Doubt began to seed through her mind, wriggling its way into every nook and crack within her fragile confidence. Her breathing was beginning to quicken as her chest tightened. With her bloodied arm she reached up, as if try to pull away the chains that were constricting her heart.
As she gripped her hand to her chest, she felt that familiar icon that hung around her neck. She grabbed its form from outside her shirt and held sign of the Chains tightly, her fingers resting at the points where the circle wove through the triangle at its center. The confidence that had almost left her entirely began to flood back with a redoubled divine vigor. "I don't think so. You are charged with protecting a known murderer and assaulting a shinobi of Sunagakure." She gripped the symbol tighter as she stared hard at the woman, letting her vision of what a shinobi should be replace any hesitation and concern she had.
She barely saw it this time, the faint sign of settling dust brushed through the air as the woman made another small gesture towards Suzume. She didn't know what it was, but she leaps back just in time for the invisible wave to send the debris ahead of her crashing to the side with devastating force. Looking taken aback, the woman narrowed her eyes and made a subtle forwards sweeping movement with her hand. The dust from the last attack had not yet settled, and Suzume, with her back nearly pressed against the wall, could see the indistinct outline of some invisible entity surging towards her from where the last attack had impacted.
She did not have time or room to dodge. Bracing herself, the force smashed headfirst into her, sending her crashing back through the wall behind her. The force sent her through two rooms and a thick stone column as she stumbled and flipped through the air, finally stopping after hitting a third wall, the air completely knocked out of her. Cuts littered her body and small fractures cascaded across most of her bones, but she fought to push herself to a stand once again.
"I gave you two chances to leave, girl. Now I will take my time with you. It has been too long since I let loose and enjoyed myself a little." The woman called, mocking from a distance as she stepped over the debris between the two rooms, casually making her way towards the staggering genin as she struggled to stay on her feet. Stepping through the last hole, she kept her distance on the other side of the room, light colored dust settling across her dark black hair as she stared with amusement towards Suzume. Once again she raised her hand and gestured downwards.
Just as she had fully gotten to her feet, the air ahead of her stirred and the force once against crashed down upon her, smashing her head downwards. Without time to even think, she found herself face first on the ground, pieces of stone, wood and clay raining down upon her from the hole in the ceiling that she had just been sent through. Her entire body hurt, it was almost too much for her to bear, but something kept her going, kept her moving. Letting off a meek grunt of pain, she feebly attempted to stand once again, all sense of the present knocked away from the force of the last blow.
Stepping into the hole, the woman appeared to float downwards from the ceiling, standing on an invisible platform, seen only by the traces of dust that settled upon its uneven shape. With a small hop, she landed a few feet away from Suzume, who was only able to push herself up to a kneeling position. "My my, aren't you remarkable," she commented in an amused tone as she stared down towards the girl, her chin resting gently atop on of her hands as she inspected the barely stable girl. "You do not look it, but given that you are still alive and that you came here alone leads me to believe you are all brawn and no brain." She hesitated, her finger lifting up to trace across her lips in through. "I like that."
The woman's words did not dissuade the genin as she struggled to stand, her head swimming as they tried to congeal thoughts together. Too headstrong for her own good, she stood up. Blood and small rubble clung to her skin, one eye was entirely drenched in a dusted mat of blood that continued to seep down from a deep gash in her scalp. Barely able to speak, she raised her hands with disappointing slowness, as if to form handseals, but her efforts were cut short. The woman slowly made a fist out of her half-outstretched hand and the force gripped tightly around Suzume's body, crushing her arms back down to her body as it squeezed all of the air from her lungs.
"See? I was right, as I always am, little girl. No brains at all." She continued to hold her hand out in a clenched fist. "I will bet that you do not even know whose territory you happened to wander into, do you?" She clenched her fist tightered and Suzume let out a small cry of pain as her bones began to crack from the invisible crushing force. "Well, let us just say that Raora of Unseen Hand is not just an interesting business moniker." Again she tightened her grip and the invisible hand mirrored the movement as it squeezed the last vestiges of air from Suzume's smothered lungs.
"So, as I was saying... Ahh, yes." Raora loosened her grip enough for Suzume to be able to take a small rasping gasp of air. "I will give you an offer. I could use someone such as you on the inside. A young unassuming girl within the ranks of Sunagakure's finest. In exchange..." She loosened her grip even further, but did not release the girl completely. "I will not crush every single bone in that adorable little body of yours." She paused a moment, smiling at Suzume who could barely focus her one unbloodied eye enough to see the woman. "Do we have a deal?"
Everything was so painful, the broken fragments of her bones were grinding against each other as she tried to breathe, but even that was immeasurably difficult. Forcing as much air into her lungs as she could, she let out a single croaking word, "...no..." The woman did not seem amused and without a word she gripped Suzume with renewed force. Suzume let out another scream of pain, the air being quickly pressed from her lungs, leaving her unable to even scream as bones cracked and broke, their fragments stabbing into muscles and flesh as she did so.
The woman seemed unconcerned with the girl's struggling, tears running down Suzume's face as her head flailed around trying in vain to free herself. She continued to squeeze and squeeze as Suzume continued to struggle in vain, her body in so much agony that she could barely even remember herself. A minute passed, and Suzume's struggling finally stopped. Content that the trespasser must be dead, Raora began to loosen her grip, but hesitated as she saw Suzume's head lift faintly upwards. Appearing genuinely surprised, the woman smiled once again. "I am so sorry," she said with obvious sarcasm, "usually they are dead by now." Again she paused, smirking, "it must be performance anxiety." She pressed her free hand to her lips and gave a malicious laugh.
Barely conscious, Suzume began to mouth something but no words left her lips. This act caught the woman's attention who halted her laughter and took a step closer to try and hear. "What was that darling? I couldn't hear you." Seeming to pay no attention to the woman's request, Suzume continued to very faintly mouth something. Still appearing amused with her curiosity growing she stepped closer, "finally deciding to accept my generous offer?" She leaned forward, tilting her head so that Suzume's lips were barely an inch from Raora's ear.
"Send... Lord Jashin... My regards..." Then, summoning as much of herself as she could manage, Suzume lunged her head forward and bit down as hard as she could onto Raora's ear, biting off a small piece of it. Crying out in pain, she pulled back and flung the girl forward, sending her limp body smashing into the wall as Raora pressed her hand to her ear, looking furious.
"You! You stupid little bitch!" She pulled her hand which was now coated in blood, "Now I am going to not only kill you, but your entire pathetic family! I will make sure each and every one of them know exactly who is to blame for their slow and PAINFUL DEATH!" All traces of the calm control the woman had evaporated. Pressing one hand to her ear, she stomped forward towards Suzume, murder glinting in her eyes.
Most of the bones in Suzume's body were completely destroyed, reduced to useless fragments rattling around inside of her. She knew what she was doing, however, even if she did not understand how. Already coated in her own blood, Suzume forced her muscles on her hands to drag her fingertip across the dust covered ground, drawing a small shape into the surface: The Symbol of the Way of Jashin, a circle encompassing an upside-down triangle. She could still taste the woman's blood in her mouth as she finished it, and with great difficulty she swallowed it and the bit of her flesh along with it. Finally with a silent word to her Lord, the ritual began. The skin across her entire body turned pitch black. At the same time, white streaks also formed, giving the vague impression of a malformed skeleton painted onto her skin.
The woman halted in her advance, her fury tempered momentarily by her confusion. "What are you-" She wa unable to finish her sentence before Lord Jashin's Divine Retribution came down upon her. The Blood-Curse took hold and immeasurable pain racked the woman who staggered backwards and let out an agonized yell. Cuts began to open across her skin as she started to flail about, not knowing what was going on. Conscious, but unable to move her broken body any further, looked up towards the woman as she flailed about. Death would soon take her, but that was not what caught Suzume's attention.
Raora's massive invisible hand flailed in tune with its mistress, crashing through walls ceilings and floors as she struggled in vain to fight off the unholy pain. Oblivious to all but the pain within her own body, Raora's pain made quick work of the building, and within a few seconds it began to crumble under its own weight. Vast swaths of stone and wood had been shattered to bits, and it came tumbling down upon itself. Suzume was unable to protect herself as the ceiling came crashing down upon them, but at least she saw the woman crushed by the debris before she was.
------
Darkness surrounded Suzume as she stood in the middle of an endless void. She had no recollection as to how she got here or where here even was. As she looked around at the cast nothingness she saw that she had her old body once again. A shocked look came to her and she quickly patted herself down in shock, "what in the? How?" As she reveled in the confusion, it all started to come back to her. Laying on the ground, her body mangled, drawing the sign of the Way of Jashin, the building collapsing... all of it. Suzume's excitement quickly drained out from her as she began to slowly look around again. "Am I... dead?"
"The cycle has finally been broken, my foolish child." The sound seemed to come from all around her. It was not a voice more so an unsettling feeling that somehow carried meaning to it. "All of these years, you sought freedom from me. Freedom from the cycle." The sensation was nauseating, Suzume but she managed to stay upright even as the alien sensations flooded through her. "Now, you all will return to me..." Suzume could feel something pulling her, but she couldn't tell from where or why. Frantic, she tried to figure out what was going on, but as the pulling sensation got stronger, she couldn't keep her mind stable enough to figure it out.
Then, high above her a small dot of white pierced the void of black around her. "Your offering of so many of my children pleases me." Suzume looked up towards the spot, the darkness around it appeared to be fading away slowly into mist. "Come, join me. Rejoin the cycle." Again the words cotinued to sicken her, but now she knew what they were. They were from her lord, the Fallen Lord Jashin, but what was it that he was speaking of, she had no offering. As the white flew above her, she thought, unable to do anything else. Then, it came to her, she thought back to those people she had seen, all of those people. When the building collapsed around them... because of her... they must be...
"No!" she cried out, not knowing where to look, she looked up towards the distance growing light. "They were no offering my Lord, it was an accident they!..." She stopped, her will to resist sapped from her. There was no point. She had failed in her role as a Chain. She had neglected the most basic of principle, to break the cycle of rebirth and to stay chained to their mortal coils. She slumped to her knees as she continued to exist in the black void. She had failed the Chains. She had failed her Lord. She had failed all of humanity.
Her head slumped forward and she began to give in to the sensation that drew her towards the light. Upwards she began to float, the light high over head getting larger as it seemed to evaporate the darkness around her. This was it, she knew, this was her end. Her punishment for failure. Resigned to her fate, she looked up once again and the light above her was no longer merely a vague glow of white but now towered over her and around her.
She could see it more clearly now: the light above her was as she had expected, but seeing it now, so close filled her with more despair than she had imagined. Resembling a giant skull, its mouth open wide as it sucked in the darkness that had existed around Suzume, taking it into itself. That was not what disturbed her most, however. Across the smooth white bone of the vast entity's face was a sickening black mass that organically stretched across part of its skull. It pulsed a slow and insidious malice as it slowly grew, the corruption that the Lord consumed was drawn directly into it as it continued to grow, thicker and more sickening by the moment.
Was that her Lord and the Corruption of humanity that had latched onto him, feeding off him as it slowly consumed him? Was it real or was it something else entirely, a construct that her mind pieced together to try and make sense of a divinity that no mortal mind could ever grasp? She would never know the truth of this, but she did know one thing: she could not let this happen. She could not let her Lord, who had given so much for humanity, fall to this... thing! She did not know how she was going to undo the damage she did.
She knew she had to do it, because Suzume was nothing--if not headstrong.
Steadying herself, she pulled back against the immeasurable force that attempted to pull her within the gaping maw of her Lord Jashin. She did not know what she was doing, but she gave it everything that she had left. Reaching out with her mind, she felt all of the corruption that surrounded her. The hatred, the malice, the avarice, the lust, the greed. Every single dark aspect of humanity laid bare in its most purest of forms around here. She had drawn upon it before with the blessing of her Lord and now she needed to once again. The amorphous void of negativity around her drew closer to her as she struggled to pull it to herself. The vast ball that stretched across the heavens above and below began to shrink towards her as the flow of the sins of humanity began to flow outwards from her Lord.
A rage shook her, it was more pure than any she had ever felt. The sensation of nausea grew a hundred fold as her body began to break apart from the strain of fighting against her Lord's wrath. Words no longer came to her, but she knew that in that moment there was no longer any love for a wayward child, but an intense and unending hatred. It began to rip her apart, but she persisted. She was human. She was flawed. She connected with all of the darkness of humanity more than her pure Lord could ever have been capable of. He may be the Shepherd of Humanity, but he could not wrest her mortal grip from the darkness that now streamed from him.
The undulating mass that grew across the skull began to shrink, its grasp on Jashin fading faintly, but it would not give up so easily either. Humanity was nothing if not persistent. Unable to stop the flow, the colossal skull's jaw slammed shut, snapping Suzume's link to the mass that still infected her Lord. As it did, Suzume could feel herself falling away. Her body had long since vanished as the mass of corruption pressed down into her, remaking her body as a writhing mass of incorporeal sin. She did not know what she had accomplished, but as her mind faded to the darkness that was quickly overtaking her she knew one thing. She did not fail.
------
She felt so strange. She felt cold and free, as if she were a flag billowing high above a mountain. She could see light ahead of her, a light she knew. She felt herself swimming upwards towards it, through a sea of rubble. With a sudden wave of soft light, she emerged from the depths, a sea of broken stone and wood surrounding her, walls of buildings on all sides and a glittering mass of shining crystal overhead. She was home! She was alive! She tried to smile but she couldn’t. With the light overhead, she looked down upon herself and reeled in shock. She stared at her hands which was the quivering black mass, something between flame, smoke and organic material, she couldn't tell.
Her hands reached up to her head and she tried to let out a scream, but she had no mouth. What had happened to her? What was going on? It was then that she heard a groan of pain and sobbing. The sudden sound of suffering broke her from her near implosion as she looked around for its source. She moved through the air towards it, not running but not exactly floating until she reached it. It was a young man, maybe no older by her than a decade. He was alive, but he was half covered in debris and was bleeding profusely from a gash in his leg. She knew what she had to do but could she anymore? She had healed the Steward and herself through her Lord's Blessing, but she had defied him as she worked to save him, and she did not know if he could ever forgive her until he was free from his corruption.
As she stood there, her form a humanoid mass of corrupted energy her mind raced back to the start of this all. She thought of that poor soul that she had let die in that alleway, just so she could claim that she had served justice and made Sunagakure a better place. "Not again!" She cried out, she knelt down and pressed her hands to his leg, focusing on it with all her might. She asked her Lord for assistance, but did not expect him to ever offer it again. With her eyes closed she concentrated, a small part of her broke off and seeped into the man's leg as he continued to writhe in pain. She could feel his pain. She felt the wood buried deep within his leg and she could feel it stabbing into hers.
Working entirely off instinct, she envisioned the man's leg pushing the fragment of wood out, a small wisp of herself tugging it out as it mended the flesh behind it, stitching it together. If a few seconds or minutes passed, she could not tell, but when she opened her eyes, his groaning had stopped. She tore the hole in his pants wider to see that the wound was gone. Not only was it gone, but she stared down at her hands that were human once more. Her mouth drooped in astonishment, everything was flying by her so quickly so she had no hope of understanding it in this moment. That self reflection had to wait, however as she heard a muffled cry of pain from nearby. There was someone else buried nearby under the rubble. There was time to figure out what had happened to her later, for now, if she was capable of undoing her failures she knew she had to try.
She knew she had to do it, because Suzume was nothing--if not headstrong.
Turning into an open door, still swaying from the woman who was still a few seconds ahead of her, Suzume burst inside and pulled out one of the kunai that had been given to her as a sign of her new post. The building was old and had fallen to disrepair a decade ago, likely existing as one of the first buildings that were built when the village moved underground. With lamps sitting at the corners of the hallway junctions, it was clear that people still resided here. It was with one of these, a flickering of light and a brief shadow that prompted Suzume to give chase down the corridor to her far right.
Most of the door she passed were closed or were barely open, but there were a few that stood wide enough for her to catch a momentary glance inside as she searched for signs of the murderer. Of those open, some held brief scenes that mirrored what she had caught sight of in the alleyway. All moved by too quickly for her thoughts to linger for more than a brief instant, but the still images of the ragged men and women stuck to her brain. Some were pressed to walls by well dressed individuals, others were forced to the ground and still others were strapped to walls, most being taken advantage of in more than one way.
As she tried to flush the images out of her mind, she caught sight of her target's heel on the edge of a large spiral staircase, and she quickly continued her pursuit. What was she going to do once she caught up with that foul woman? Even as her legs and lungs worked fervently to keep up as she ascended the seemingly endless staircase, flight by flight, her mind wandered back to a few minutes earlier. It had been a scene startlingly reminiscent to what she had encountered months ago, a defenseless civilian huddled against the wall of a deserted alley, a blade to his throat as the woman pressed herself down upon him. The thought caught her mid step and she stumbled forward onto the staircase, slamming her head painfully onto one of the steps just as she had nearly caught up with the foul beast.
Dazed, she stumbled back to her feet and continued on upwards, nearly ten flights up as the woman dissipated from view once again, ducking through a now open door on the landing above the newly minted kunoichi. She wiped the trickle of blood that mingled with the sweat on her brow as they dripped down to her eye and her mind began to wander back once more. Suzume had called out to the woman, but it did not play out as it had for that ANBU who had saved her. A quickly clean slice to the woman's prey silenced him as a witness as Suzume had attempted to confront her and rescue him. By the time Suzume had made it to him, his thrashing had almost stopped entirely. She then had to make the split second decision: stop the person who did this or attempt to save the man. Even as she gave chase, she knew that decision would haunt her for a long time.
Slamming into the door of the 12th floor stairwell exit, she heard shouted voices from down the halls, one of them distinctly exhausted and feminine. Breaking into a sprint once more, she rounded a corner only to come across to large gruff man, their backs towards her, looking confused. With effort, she hopped into the air and planted a foot into each of the men's backs. Caught completely off guard, the two slammed face first onto the wooden floor, knocked dazed or unconscious as Susume broke into the sprint once again. She had no idea what she was going headlong into, but there was already blood that was on her hands, she couldn't stop yet.
Rounding another bend, she finally caught sight of her prey. She was frantically speaking to another woman. The second woman appeared amused, her long black hair shrouding the sides of her face as she gave a curious gaze to the frantic proclamations and demands of assistance. "I paid!" the murderer proclaimed, her breath still gone, "you said you would protect me if I kept paying!" A smirk appeared on the black haired woman's face, but it was no warmer than the body Suzume had left in the alleyway to die.
Unsure as to what exactly to do, Suzume halted a few dozen steps from the pair and yelled out, "hand her over! I am a shinobi and that woman is a murderer!" Feeling winded, she managed to hide it in her voice as her adrenaline carried Suzume forward. She stuck out her chest and glared with angry determination at the pair, taking a threatening step forward towards them.
With a delicate hand, the murderer's defender pressed the woman to her side and behind her. Her voice was soft and smooth, yet carried the weight of absolute authority. "Move along, little girl." She stared down the hallway towards Suzume, "The shinobi hold no sway here. This is my little slice of territory, and if you value that expendable life of yours, then you will leave here immediately."
"Not without her!" Suzume demanded, the confidence of her new position in the village helping her to match the gang leader's air of power. "Stand aside, or I will not hesitate to bring the entire weight of the village down upon you!" Suzume readied herself in a traditional battle stance that she had learned in the academy, waiting for either a threatening gesture or for the woman to step aside. She received neither.
The black haired woman gave a small laugh and gestured for the woman she was protecting to leave. "Very well." She proceeded to raise her right hand and hold it up for a moment, before gently brushing the air towards Suzume. That instant Suzume felt an invisible force slam against her side, sending her crashing through the wall to her left, the bones in her right arm fracturing from the immense force of the unseen blow. Knocked senseless, but not unconscious, she lifted some of the debris from atop her in an attempt to stand. Blood soaked her right arm, which hung limply at her right side. It was so quick, she didn't even register the pain, much less what had just transpired.
Whispering a short prayer, she clasped her left arm to her right, and a black flame flickered from her hand, across the skin of her broken arm before it seeped inside of it. With a gasp of pleasure and relief, she felt the bones work themselves back together as her Lord's Blessing took effect. Flexing her arm to make sure it still worked, she finally looked up towards the massive hole in the wall that she was sent through. There stood the woman, her arms crossed as she stared with amusement towards the little kunoichi. "You are tougher than I thought. Well, I suppose you have earned one last chance to leave. Next time you won't be able to stand back up."
What had Suzume gotten herself into? The woman had simply made a gesture towards her and she sent her through a wall, breaking multiple bones in the process. She was no match for this woman, she was only a genin. If she was strong enough to stake a claim in the heart of Sunagakure, then what could a little girl such as Suzume to do her? Doubt began to seed through her mind, wriggling its way into every nook and crack within her fragile confidence. Her breathing was beginning to quicken as her chest tightened. With her bloodied arm she reached up, as if try to pull away the chains that were constricting her heart.
As she gripped her hand to her chest, she felt that familiar icon that hung around her neck. She grabbed its form from outside her shirt and held sign of the Chains tightly, her fingers resting at the points where the circle wove through the triangle at its center. The confidence that had almost left her entirely began to flood back with a redoubled divine vigor. "I don't think so. You are charged with protecting a known murderer and assaulting a shinobi of Sunagakure." She gripped the symbol tighter as she stared hard at the woman, letting her vision of what a shinobi should be replace any hesitation and concern she had.
She barely saw it this time, the faint sign of settling dust brushed through the air as the woman made another small gesture towards Suzume. She didn't know what it was, but she leaps back just in time for the invisible wave to send the debris ahead of her crashing to the side with devastating force. Looking taken aback, the woman narrowed her eyes and made a subtle forwards sweeping movement with her hand. The dust from the last attack had not yet settled, and Suzume, with her back nearly pressed against the wall, could see the indistinct outline of some invisible entity surging towards her from where the last attack had impacted.
She did not have time or room to dodge. Bracing herself, the force smashed headfirst into her, sending her crashing back through the wall behind her. The force sent her through two rooms and a thick stone column as she stumbled and flipped through the air, finally stopping after hitting a third wall, the air completely knocked out of her. Cuts littered her body and small fractures cascaded across most of her bones, but she fought to push herself to a stand once again.
"I gave you two chances to leave, girl. Now I will take my time with you. It has been too long since I let loose and enjoyed myself a little." The woman called, mocking from a distance as she stepped over the debris between the two rooms, casually making her way towards the staggering genin as she struggled to stay on her feet. Stepping through the last hole, she kept her distance on the other side of the room, light colored dust settling across her dark black hair as she stared with amusement towards Suzume. Once again she raised her hand and gestured downwards.
Just as she had fully gotten to her feet, the air ahead of her stirred and the force once against crashed down upon her, smashing her head downwards. Without time to even think, she found herself face first on the ground, pieces of stone, wood and clay raining down upon her from the hole in the ceiling that she had just been sent through. Her entire body hurt, it was almost too much for her to bear, but something kept her going, kept her moving. Letting off a meek grunt of pain, she feebly attempted to stand once again, all sense of the present knocked away from the force of the last blow.
Stepping into the hole, the woman appeared to float downwards from the ceiling, standing on an invisible platform, seen only by the traces of dust that settled upon its uneven shape. With a small hop, she landed a few feet away from Suzume, who was only able to push herself up to a kneeling position. "My my, aren't you remarkable," she commented in an amused tone as she stared down towards the girl, her chin resting gently atop on of her hands as she inspected the barely stable girl. "You do not look it, but given that you are still alive and that you came here alone leads me to believe you are all brawn and no brain." She hesitated, her finger lifting up to trace across her lips in through. "I like that."
The woman's words did not dissuade the genin as she struggled to stand, her head swimming as they tried to congeal thoughts together. Too headstrong for her own good, she stood up. Blood and small rubble clung to her skin, one eye was entirely drenched in a dusted mat of blood that continued to seep down from a deep gash in her scalp. Barely able to speak, she raised her hands with disappointing slowness, as if to form handseals, but her efforts were cut short. The woman slowly made a fist out of her half-outstretched hand and the force gripped tightly around Suzume's body, crushing her arms back down to her body as it squeezed all of the air from her lungs.
"See? I was right, as I always am, little girl. No brains at all." She continued to hold her hand out in a clenched fist. "I will bet that you do not even know whose territory you happened to wander into, do you?" She clenched her fist tightered and Suzume let out a small cry of pain as her bones began to crack from the invisible crushing force. "Well, let us just say that Raora of Unseen Hand is not just an interesting business moniker." Again she tightened her grip and the invisible hand mirrored the movement as it squeezed the last vestiges of air from Suzume's smothered lungs.
"So, as I was saying... Ahh, yes." Raora loosened her grip enough for Suzume to be able to take a small rasping gasp of air. "I will give you an offer. I could use someone such as you on the inside. A young unassuming girl within the ranks of Sunagakure's finest. In exchange..." She loosened her grip even further, but did not release the girl completely. "I will not crush every single bone in that adorable little body of yours." She paused a moment, smiling at Suzume who could barely focus her one unbloodied eye enough to see the woman. "Do we have a deal?"
Everything was so painful, the broken fragments of her bones were grinding against each other as she tried to breathe, but even that was immeasurably difficult. Forcing as much air into her lungs as she could, she let out a single croaking word, "...no..." The woman did not seem amused and without a word she gripped Suzume with renewed force. Suzume let out another scream of pain, the air being quickly pressed from her lungs, leaving her unable to even scream as bones cracked and broke, their fragments stabbing into muscles and flesh as she did so.
The woman seemed unconcerned with the girl's struggling, tears running down Suzume's face as her head flailed around trying in vain to free herself. She continued to squeeze and squeeze as Suzume continued to struggle in vain, her body in so much agony that she could barely even remember herself. A minute passed, and Suzume's struggling finally stopped. Content that the trespasser must be dead, Raora began to loosen her grip, but hesitated as she saw Suzume's head lift faintly upwards. Appearing genuinely surprised, the woman smiled once again. "I am so sorry," she said with obvious sarcasm, "usually they are dead by now." Again she paused, smirking, "it must be performance anxiety." She pressed her free hand to her lips and gave a malicious laugh.
Barely conscious, Suzume began to mouth something but no words left her lips. This act caught the woman's attention who halted her laughter and took a step closer to try and hear. "What was that darling? I couldn't hear you." Seeming to pay no attention to the woman's request, Suzume continued to very faintly mouth something. Still appearing amused with her curiosity growing she stepped closer, "finally deciding to accept my generous offer?" She leaned forward, tilting her head so that Suzume's lips were barely an inch from Raora's ear.
"Send... Lord Jashin... My regards..." Then, summoning as much of herself as she could manage, Suzume lunged her head forward and bit down as hard as she could onto Raora's ear, biting off a small piece of it. Crying out in pain, she pulled back and flung the girl forward, sending her limp body smashing into the wall as Raora pressed her hand to her ear, looking furious.
"You! You stupid little bitch!" She pulled her hand which was now coated in blood, "Now I am going to not only kill you, but your entire pathetic family! I will make sure each and every one of them know exactly who is to blame for their slow and PAINFUL DEATH!" All traces of the calm control the woman had evaporated. Pressing one hand to her ear, she stomped forward towards Suzume, murder glinting in her eyes.
Most of the bones in Suzume's body were completely destroyed, reduced to useless fragments rattling around inside of her. She knew what she was doing, however, even if she did not understand how. Already coated in her own blood, Suzume forced her muscles on her hands to drag her fingertip across the dust covered ground, drawing a small shape into the surface: The Symbol of the Way of Jashin, a circle encompassing an upside-down triangle. She could still taste the woman's blood in her mouth as she finished it, and with great difficulty she swallowed it and the bit of her flesh along with it. Finally with a silent word to her Lord, the ritual began. The skin across her entire body turned pitch black. At the same time, white streaks also formed, giving the vague impression of a malformed skeleton painted onto her skin.
The woman halted in her advance, her fury tempered momentarily by her confusion. "What are you-" She wa unable to finish her sentence before Lord Jashin's Divine Retribution came down upon her. The Blood-Curse took hold and immeasurable pain racked the woman who staggered backwards and let out an agonized yell. Cuts began to open across her skin as she started to flail about, not knowing what was going on. Conscious, but unable to move her broken body any further, looked up towards the woman as she flailed about. Death would soon take her, but that was not what caught Suzume's attention.
Raora's massive invisible hand flailed in tune with its mistress, crashing through walls ceilings and floors as she struggled in vain to fight off the unholy pain. Oblivious to all but the pain within her own body, Raora's pain made quick work of the building, and within a few seconds it began to crumble under its own weight. Vast swaths of stone and wood had been shattered to bits, and it came tumbling down upon itself. Suzume was unable to protect herself as the ceiling came crashing down upon them, but at least she saw the woman crushed by the debris before she was.
------
Darkness surrounded Suzume as she stood in the middle of an endless void. She had no recollection as to how she got here or where here even was. As she looked around at the cast nothingness she saw that she had her old body once again. A shocked look came to her and she quickly patted herself down in shock, "what in the? How?" As she reveled in the confusion, it all started to come back to her. Laying on the ground, her body mangled, drawing the sign of the Way of Jashin, the building collapsing... all of it. Suzume's excitement quickly drained out from her as she began to slowly look around again. "Am I... dead?"
"The cycle has finally been broken, my foolish child." The sound seemed to come from all around her. It was not a voice more so an unsettling feeling that somehow carried meaning to it. "All of these years, you sought freedom from me. Freedom from the cycle." The sensation was nauseating, Suzume but she managed to stay upright even as the alien sensations flooded through her. "Now, you all will return to me..." Suzume could feel something pulling her, but she couldn't tell from where or why. Frantic, she tried to figure out what was going on, but as the pulling sensation got stronger, she couldn't keep her mind stable enough to figure it out.
Then, high above her a small dot of white pierced the void of black around her. "Your offering of so many of my children pleases me." Suzume looked up towards the spot, the darkness around it appeared to be fading away slowly into mist. "Come, join me. Rejoin the cycle." Again the words cotinued to sicken her, but now she knew what they were. They were from her lord, the Fallen Lord Jashin, but what was it that he was speaking of, she had no offering. As the white flew above her, she thought, unable to do anything else. Then, it came to her, she thought back to those people she had seen, all of those people. When the building collapsed around them... because of her... they must be...
"No!" she cried out, not knowing where to look, she looked up towards the distance growing light. "They were no offering my Lord, it was an accident they!..." She stopped, her will to resist sapped from her. There was no point. She had failed in her role as a Chain. She had neglected the most basic of principle, to break the cycle of rebirth and to stay chained to their mortal coils. She slumped to her knees as she continued to exist in the black void. She had failed the Chains. She had failed her Lord. She had failed all of humanity.
Her head slumped forward and she began to give in to the sensation that drew her towards the light. Upwards she began to float, the light high over head getting larger as it seemed to evaporate the darkness around her. This was it, she knew, this was her end. Her punishment for failure. Resigned to her fate, she looked up once again and the light above her was no longer merely a vague glow of white but now towered over her and around her.
She could see it more clearly now: the light above her was as she had expected, but seeing it now, so close filled her with more despair than she had imagined. Resembling a giant skull, its mouth open wide as it sucked in the darkness that had existed around Suzume, taking it into itself. That was not what disturbed her most, however. Across the smooth white bone of the vast entity's face was a sickening black mass that organically stretched across part of its skull. It pulsed a slow and insidious malice as it slowly grew, the corruption that the Lord consumed was drawn directly into it as it continued to grow, thicker and more sickening by the moment.
Was that her Lord and the Corruption of humanity that had latched onto him, feeding off him as it slowly consumed him? Was it real or was it something else entirely, a construct that her mind pieced together to try and make sense of a divinity that no mortal mind could ever grasp? She would never know the truth of this, but she did know one thing: she could not let this happen. She could not let her Lord, who had given so much for humanity, fall to this... thing! She did not know how she was going to undo the damage she did.
She knew she had to do it, because Suzume was nothing--if not headstrong.
Steadying herself, she pulled back against the immeasurable force that attempted to pull her within the gaping maw of her Lord Jashin. She did not know what she was doing, but she gave it everything that she had left. Reaching out with her mind, she felt all of the corruption that surrounded her. The hatred, the malice, the avarice, the lust, the greed. Every single dark aspect of humanity laid bare in its most purest of forms around here. She had drawn upon it before with the blessing of her Lord and now she needed to once again. The amorphous void of negativity around her drew closer to her as she struggled to pull it to herself. The vast ball that stretched across the heavens above and below began to shrink towards her as the flow of the sins of humanity began to flow outwards from her Lord.
A rage shook her, it was more pure than any she had ever felt. The sensation of nausea grew a hundred fold as her body began to break apart from the strain of fighting against her Lord's wrath. Words no longer came to her, but she knew that in that moment there was no longer any love for a wayward child, but an intense and unending hatred. It began to rip her apart, but she persisted. She was human. She was flawed. She connected with all of the darkness of humanity more than her pure Lord could ever have been capable of. He may be the Shepherd of Humanity, but he could not wrest her mortal grip from the darkness that now streamed from him.
The undulating mass that grew across the skull began to shrink, its grasp on Jashin fading faintly, but it would not give up so easily either. Humanity was nothing if not persistent. Unable to stop the flow, the colossal skull's jaw slammed shut, snapping Suzume's link to the mass that still infected her Lord. As it did, Suzume could feel herself falling away. Her body had long since vanished as the mass of corruption pressed down into her, remaking her body as a writhing mass of incorporeal sin. She did not know what she had accomplished, but as her mind faded to the darkness that was quickly overtaking her she knew one thing. She did not fail.
------
She felt so strange. She felt cold and free, as if she were a flag billowing high above a mountain. She could see light ahead of her, a light she knew. She felt herself swimming upwards towards it, through a sea of rubble. With a sudden wave of soft light, she emerged from the depths, a sea of broken stone and wood surrounding her, walls of buildings on all sides and a glittering mass of shining crystal overhead. She was home! She was alive! She tried to smile but she couldn’t. With the light overhead, she looked down upon herself and reeled in shock. She stared at her hands which was the quivering black mass, something between flame, smoke and organic material, she couldn't tell.
Her hands reached up to her head and she tried to let out a scream, but she had no mouth. What had happened to her? What was going on? It was then that she heard a groan of pain and sobbing. The sudden sound of suffering broke her from her near implosion as she looked around for its source. She moved through the air towards it, not running but not exactly floating until she reached it. It was a young man, maybe no older by her than a decade. He was alive, but he was half covered in debris and was bleeding profusely from a gash in his leg. She knew what she had to do but could she anymore? She had healed the Steward and herself through her Lord's Blessing, but she had defied him as she worked to save him, and she did not know if he could ever forgive her until he was free from his corruption.
As she stood there, her form a humanoid mass of corrupted energy her mind raced back to the start of this all. She thought of that poor soul that she had let die in that alleway, just so she could claim that she had served justice and made Sunagakure a better place. "Not again!" She cried out, she knelt down and pressed her hands to his leg, focusing on it with all her might. She asked her Lord for assistance, but did not expect him to ever offer it again. With her eyes closed she concentrated, a small part of her broke off and seeped into the man's leg as he continued to writhe in pain. She could feel his pain. She felt the wood buried deep within his leg and she could feel it stabbing into hers.
Working entirely off instinct, she envisioned the man's leg pushing the fragment of wood out, a small wisp of herself tugging it out as it mended the flesh behind it, stitching it together. If a few seconds or minutes passed, she could not tell, but when she opened her eyes, his groaning had stopped. She tore the hole in his pants wider to see that the wound was gone. Not only was it gone, but she stared down at her hands that were human once more. Her mouth drooped in astonishment, everything was flying by her so quickly so she had no hope of understanding it in this moment. That self reflection had to wait, however as she heard a muffled cry of pain from nearby. There was someone else buried nearby under the rubble. There was time to figure out what had happened to her later, for now, if she was capable of undoing her failures she knew she had to try.
Shin's eyes lifted from his books as the two's senses were connected.