Private The pirates and zombies are just part of the band (Michi)

[Kureji]

Okay, so he may have gotten some bodies to help him out on his antics, however it may lead him. And by bodies, he means actual bodies, or rather, their souls. Sure he has his own pirate crew, but he'll need more memorable faces rather than that of someone who has scurvy. And so here was Kureji with one of his Impure World Resurrections, Pyra, just chilling before he gets on stage to perform. Pyra isn't good at any instrument so it has really stumped him on

what she should be able to do. He knows of her battle capabilities, but other than that, how can she help the Devil's Advocates?

Also, no matter how he looked at her, she just didn't scream hard core rocker. Even though she was a zombie, there was an air of formality about her, especially with how she was dressed. But even so, the look on her face said business to him. "Hm. I got it! You could be the Devil's Advocates manager! What do you say about that?"

She would stare blankly at him and then say, "If you think that should be my directive while not in the battlefield, then I will do it dutifully."

Kureji would roll his eyes and say, "C'mon Pyra! You need to loosen up! You are the manager of the best Band EVER!"

He would look over at her as the soul would give a soft smile. He rubbed the back of his neck, "You're totally different from Chani and Ryu, ya know. I wonder if this is my fault."

Pyra would shake her head and say, "You could say I was peculiar even in my living time." Kureji would shrug his shoulders, not really going to argue with her and walked up onto stage and started to shred his guitar with the pirates though the singing was left to him since he felt like they would make the audience run away from bleeding ears if they heard the pirates sing.

 

[Michi]

Wrong place, even worse time. Michi lived in the Teardrop Oasis, but she was rarely there. Indeed, her evenings were spent in study or in recollection of the events of the day. This was more than an ingrained habit, this was a compulsion that she hardly even noticed. A predictable cycle of wakefulness and sleep punctuated by an ever-growing accumulation of findings that she would record in a large book that rarely left her side. It, like her, hungered. This voracious hunger could never be sated, the pangs only quieted. It was enough to drive one to madness and it had. The Oracle looked more like a witch with her long, finger-combed, unadorned hair and her plain face with sharp yet small features. She did not adorn herself in fine or even good linens, sparkling jewelry or even shoes. Barefoot, she ambled quietly through the city, invisible by the aggregate decision of a populus that would rather turn a blind eye to a beggar than take notice. Not that she begged. Not that she wanted for material things, like a ribbon for her hair or a pair of heavy boots. Distractions for the vainglorious. She wore a loose-fitting tunic made from a tan, burlap-like cloth that appeared to be home-made, from the uneven sleeves to the frayed collar that lacked a seam. Her pants ended just below her knees, exposing her thin lower legs and bare feet that seemed content to dig into he sand. The only hint of glitter was a thin silver chain with a pendant that tucked into her shirt.

She had been drawn out of her home by this terrible noise (IC opinion, OC I love Metal), she had heard it before somewhere and that somewhere was a dire concern. "Here of all places... The Hunger be damned," she griped, but was paid no heed as she trudged towards Soon's Harbor. A place that also made no sense to the scribe as she pulled the heavy tome from her satchel and muttered "a lethality to lust," and the tome flipped through a series of pages before landing on a particularly graphic image of a pair of sandworms in the midst of coition. Indeed, Oracles describe absolutely everything. This was a common occurrence during the dry season in the isolated badlands, the only recorded incidents of a receptive sandworm within the relative boundaries of human civilization as far as she was aware was Barnynx the Ancient, a long-slain annelid of monstrous proportions that had been corrupted by a dark and terrible energy that drove it to devour its own kind. The clutch left behind in its egg lair supposedly destroyed by Sunan ANBU forces decades ago.

She hastened her pace. What had driven another worm to call its siren's cry so close to mankind? There was a strange, maddened gleam in her eyes. The sort that only someone like her in brilliance and hunger could truly father -- seeing something absolutely, completely new... So she would find herself confused, even infuriated when she laid her eyes on the scene in front of her. That noise was coming from a human, the clap and the stomp of the crowd was to this horrific mating call-like sound. She would finally bring her hands to her ears, the ground beneath her would vibrate with the bass and the air was absolutely electrified by the performance. Her disdain was certainly isolated. There were perhaps nine dozen teens and a four-dozen -semi-cool' adults dancing, or rather thrashing to the metal song being played. Michi would storm the stage, decrying their noisy antics. "People are trying to think!" The exasperated woman would uncharacteristically shriek before the ground beneath them started to shake.

She would have only a moment to look downward before the rumbling noise overtook that of the amp and the crowd and something utterly massive would breach the surface. with a great and mighty roar, The world's most metal backdrop, a (horny) sandworm would emerge from the dark recesses of the earth.

HWOOOOAAAARRR!​

A scene that would have. Should have meant certain death for every spectator, the band and the scribe would not. As the writhing monstrosity heard the lusty call of Kureji and sought to find its lady love, a moment of life-saving fortune would shine on the otherwise unfortunate pirate leader. The shore had been broken by the emergent sandworm and water rushed towards the stage, the crowd and most importantly the sandworm. Sandworms are fatally allergic to water, this being one of the many reasons sandworms remain indigenous to Wind Country in particular. As the worm emerged, it would find itself overwhelmed by a flood of displaced water and it would let out an ear-shattering shriek (the sort that should deafen the crowd and Michi, likely you also but I won't godmod). Thrashing violently rather than thrusting, the water would burn away at the sandworm. The waters would churn fiercely, threatening to overtake villagers, the stage and even the angry old witch and pirate lead singer.

Grab onto something or you're going to die!

 

[Kureji]

"WHOO! I'll be here all night!" As he finished the song and people were cheering him on, though since none of them actually know who he is, they've just been chanting "HELL YEAH!" over and over until a lady came up on stage and was yelling at him about people trying to think. He would blink before saying, "Ya know, it's hard to think when looking at a natural beaut-WHOA!" He was cut off from what he was about to say when the ground started to shake.

Now Kureji has done a lot. Went missing, done multiple raves at Moon, stole some really old liquor from Shrine agents, but he has never seen a Sand worm before. His eyes would widen in excitement upon seeing such a creature. Now, whilst everyone must be running around all crazy, this only made Kureji's blood start pumping. "HELL YEAH! SAND WORM HERE TO PARTY!!!" That was, until the water got to it. Disappointment filled Kureji's face as it seemed to burn the sandworm. Even moreso, it had let out the loudest shriek, much louder than he has ever been. He covered his ears and ran up some debris as the stage was being flooded.

Once there was silence, he would make a giant bird out of explosive clay and hop on it. He would focus on having it grab a mix of his pirates and citizens out of the water and somewhere safe. Going further, he would make some zombies to help drag any people who might also be in the water. His directed his clay bird to fly next to the girl that had jumped onto the stage, "A hand Madame." He would offer her up if she chooses. He gave her an award winning smile with near perfect teeth. "Too bad about Ol Sandy. It would have been pretty dope if I had a pet Sand worm."

 

[Michi]

Michi valued her quiet, her period of silent reflection. Her peace and the opportunity to refine the moments of the day into quantitative facts. The jarring noise created a mental dissonance. She could not put words down on the page. The noise only got worse, louder as she found the impromptu concert at the shoreline. The rowdy concert goes only amended the cacophony that defined this setting.

"WHOO! I'll be here all night!"

He made a terrible threat.

She had made her way up to the stage, every intention of giving the rocker a piece, no a chunk of her mind. Some people were trying to think after all. Obviously, considering her company it was only a minority. He would suffer her very tiny attempted wrath.

"Ya know, it's hard to think when looking at a natural beaut-WHOA!"

Whatever he was going to say, he would not have a chance to finish his comment. Something about the grand vista that was Soons Harbor in all likelihood, certainly the 5th prettiest shoreline she had ever personally experienced but when comparing the scene to imagery throughout the world as documented in her tomes, this did not even earn an honorable mention. The dramatic appearance of a sandworm breaching the surface, summoned by the mating call emulated by the bass would be a traumatic sigh. Descriptions lacking, kids might read this. Just now, everything on a sandworm is huge.

Michi's eyes would widen in horror as the behemoth hurled itself onto the surface only to start thrashing as a portion of its gigantic form landed in the bay waters. Sandworms have a severe aversion to water, some might call it an allergy and that was not quite right. In truth, water had an effect on their plated exterior as well as an effect on the electrolyte balance within their body. Water is readily absorbed by the flesh of the creature that by definition should be considered dessicated and creates a severe, dangerous electrolyte shift. A terrible noise would emanate from the worm, its massive segmented body would crash down as the monstrous creature smashed through a nearby building.

Hunks of stone and mortar would break off and come flying in their direction. A wave of displaced water would wash onto the stage area and hit the crowd. Michi would duck beneath the shower of stone, a few small stones pelting her arms but the wave of water would sweep her off the feet more effectively than Kureji's best smouldering gaze.

"HELL YEAH! SAND WORM HERE TO PARTY!!!"

That is absolutely the opposite reaction Michi and the rest of the party goers were having with the exception of those that were giddy due to some illicit potion use. Michi attempted to pull herself back to her feet only to have the ebbing wave push her unexpectedly forward. She would run her hands through an array of hand seals and attempt to create a barrier of earth to prevent the assault of water. The wall would crack, the force of the quaking earth, the thrashing worm caused the churning waters to abuse and wear away at the outer wall's edge. She did not expect the rocker to be chakra-adept, the creation of a bird of clay.

The worm was desperately attempting to burrow back into the earth from whence it came. The water would only follow the unfortunate annelid as it tried to do so. The stage itself with groan and crack under the stress or the thrusting earth. Some of the civilians were hurt, some injured due to their own reckless fear. Others swallowed by the fractured earth, buried beneath broken buildings already collapsed. A few were plucked from the ground, salvaged from the wreckage of the concert floor - pirates, party-goers. A lucky few. A wave of water would foam over the edge of the wall, the wall would crack under the stress of the mighty waters. She would quickly create another, she needed to detour the water even if she could not control the quivering earth that tore the homesteads apart.

A looming shadow would cause the Oracle to look up. A bird loaded with rockers, not the sort of ride a girl would or should normally take but this was an extenuating circumstance. As the walls continued to crack, the waters continued to threaten to batter through, higher and choppier than ever before. As the earth continued to buck underfoot, the sky seemed like a safer, albeit risky in is own way option. "A hand Madame." She did not even ask a question, she did not delay. She would grab his extended hand and allow herself to be pulled up onto the back of the clay bird. If those on board were aware that this clay might also serve as an incendiary device, they might have been more hesitant to accept the ride under any other circumstance. Akio had entrapped most of Sunagakure those years ago with a well-placed assortment of explosives of a similar nature.

He flashed her a smile. He was definitely no Akio, too young. He had all his teeth, or at least most of them if near-perfect was truly 'near perfect' so no scurvy either. She was checking off the boxes:

☑ Loud
☐ Terrorist
☐ Scurvy Pirate
☑ Chakra Sensitive

Some were indeterminate or ruled out for the time being. "How. Why?" She announced breathlessly as she looked down at the Sandworm that was in its death throes, continuing to destroy the immediate region below. her walls broke, the waters came rushing in. Not how did he make the bird. Not why did he save anyone, herself included. "A mating call?" In truth, a one-in-a-million act, an out of season rhythmic thumping noise that was able to draw an adolescent sand worm could likely never be replicated again but would be an unforgettable (perhaps also unforgivable) event.

"Too bad about Ol Sandy. It would have been pretty dope if I had a pet Sand worm."

"A pet?" She sounded incredulous because she was. How was that even supposed to work. Let me just walk my apartment-sized sandworm around the block real quick BRB. "Do you have some sort of death wish?" They were untrainable or they were as far as she was aware. There was of course alleged ancient accounts of sandworms being ridden, mastered by the first men but these accounts are so old that story and history have begun to meld into one.

The ground was starting to split apart in places, like a pie crust that had been battered by the back of a metal spoon. Hunks of earth, several feet thick would break away revealing a nothingness beneath. "What is that?" She would point towards the broken earth, the streams of water falling into a dark nothingness. The worm-carved caverns are generally deeper, hundreds of feet below. This was more like dozens.

 

[Kureji]

Why might you ask of him rescuing both his pirates and nearly all of the civvies? Well for pirates, it counts as part of his own little force, and it would be useless if they all just died right then and there. As for the civvies, well, you can't be a rockstar without fans. Dead fans aren't really gonna bring the rep up, because, ya know, they're dead. So as he let his pirates and civvies get off of his clay creation at a more safe and more stable higher ground further away from the destruction.

"Hm?" He would turn as best as he can to face her, since he is piloting an explosive bird, "A mating call? Pretty lady, I've never seen a Sand worm nor have I ever known about a 'mating call' to draw them in. I was just vibing and rocking out."

He would laugh when she questioned about his comment about having a sand worm as a pet and if he had a death wish. "Maybe. Ya know, living life on the edge means you gotta take some risks. And to not take risks just makes you a boring person. Not saying you're boring, just that non risk takers are boring. And... Ah shit..." He would direct the bird to fly near some of the debris. "You okay Pyra?"

Pyra was in a rather tough spot as the undead was pinned by some debris. "I am undead, what I think or feel does not matter." She would say, not really struggling.

"Ah, Pyra, don't be like that." He would remove the debris until he was able to get her out. Remarkably, she was fine with only some scrapes and bruises. Pyra would dust herself off before joining Michi on the explosive bird. Kureji would jump onto it and have it fly around. It wasn't until Michi had pointed towards something and asked what it was, "It's a hole." He would state the obvious, but he figured that she wanted a closer look, so he'll direct the clay creation to go into the hole. The hole was twice as big as his bird, so there weren't any troubles there and they would just hover there, Kureji waiting to see if this chick wanted to explore further in or not. She seemed kinda skittish and he has a feeling she might just try and scream at him if he decided to take them deeper into the unknown.

 

[Michi]

"A risk needs a reason," Michi replied simply. The risk in and of itself was not enough for her or so she would claim. She took plenty of risk, but her definition of value would surely differ from that of the rocker.

Michi would open the satchel that was hung over her shoulder as the bird ascended and pull from it a heavy time with a strange, buttery-colored thin leather cover. The sort of leather that one had probably not seen before but there was something unsettling about it. Her fingers hovering over the latch, with a spark the latch would snap open and the book would let out a strange sigh as the pages flipped. In Runic Terran she would state Sandworm. Many of the pages filled, some with diagrams, others with photorealistic images and others still with small, neat writing in a variety of known languages and dialects. Eventually the book would open to an empty page. She would start drawing, a stub of a pencil in hand with rapid, purposeful strokes. It was the image of Kureji, a profile image overlaid a backdrop that looked like the stage several minutes earlier when it was intact and in the background a cresting sandworm. On the page opposite, the bass tempo, the chords played and the words 'sang' the minutes prior that seemed to summon the worm. Accompanying data would include the date, time, temperature, weather as well as a few other measurements that did not appear to make sense. "Name," she would state. It was a request despite the fact that it lacked inflection. She needed a name to assign the portrait to the left. A name to assign the cause of the disarray. "Honored house, [insert name if she knows it]?" If they answered the previous, the honored house being bloodline talents passed on biologically. While she was rather certain due to the bird that they were flying in part what their powerset was, there might be something more. Afterall, she wanted to know what about them summoned a sandworm. "Gender," she was not certain. She was writing other biometrics down however such as height and weight as visualized, they would be stalker accurate despite the fact that they just met. If Kureji responded with anything besides the binary, she would ask for an associated definition to ensure clarity. "Portion of reproductive cycle," getting personal here but stated with a clinical assertion. Was this person capable of producing children, was there some additional pheromone that attracted the sandworm and if so what was it. If they were sterile, this was unlikely.

One of the pirates on the bird would claim that they were undead. Was the entire party dead. "Are you [insert name if she knows it] dead also?" She never did check for signs of life. Regardless of an answer she would ask what some might consider an unusual question. "Can I check for a pulse?" If she was allowed to, she would check a pulse, but she would not check just a radial or a carotid pulse. No, she would check several, intrusively. Radial, brachial and carotid the most easily accessible. Pedal, popliteal and inguinal a bit more invasive, however if consent was not given or it was withdrawn she would stop and simply write subject refused a verification of vitality but claims [whatever was initially claimed - alive or dead].

Whilst the poor man played rescuer and patient, he would drive (can they be driven) the bird towards the hole. The hole was not just a sinkhole. "A sinkhole is created by the loss of supportive structures underground due to rainfall or the flow of water over a protracted period of time. This was an acute incident and beyond that, an underground spring so close to the shoreline should not have this level of instability," she explained without looking up. It was essentially an abbreviated dictionary definition.

"Can you, [insert name if she knows it] tell me anything unique about the instruments that were being played?" She returned to the previous subject. "The honored house and skill of the rest of the band? Are the others autonomous?" There was no breath between the inquiries because she felt in a way the answer might be one in the same. She was referring to his undead crew. She was familiar with the skillset of a dark Sage due to her time with Senju Kazuki. They had no power of their own, they were puppets that sometimes seemed to be alive but it was nothing more than a farce or at best or kindest a delusion with the exception of the necromancer Nao. Nao was able to do so much worse to the dead.

As they got closer to the pit, Michi would stand up and attempt to sniff various members of the crew as well as their apparent leader. [Please describe your scent if she is not pushed off] She would write whatever the scent was or if her attempt was refused. She wrote quickly, this entire scenario lasting a matter of minutes. The pair of pages appeared to be full of data, regardless of Kureji's compliance and she would ultimately turn the book around to show off the pages like a child might show off their masterpiece. One of the few changes in her otherwise neutral or perpetually annoyed expression. "Is this accurate?" There was a lot of information there, including her own assessment of their virility and the impact it might have had on the reproductive cycle of the sandworms regionally. The lower right margin she simply wrote uncertain if this was a fluke event or something that can be replicated. Requires further Order study.

"By the first men..." she would mutter when she finally looked past Kureji and towards the hole. It was more a long slit in the ground and it went deep. That was a non issue, the concern was when they were vertical to the pit and saw just how deep it went or rather how it terminated. It was flat. Too distant to see any detail but the crack opened up into some sort of shadowed place. It was not a naturally formed cavern. A superficial worm carved cavern. The worm had done more when it was summoned than cause surface chaos, it had revealed something else that was built near the shoreline. The industry required for this would have been extensive even by current standards. She had been in this village for decades however, nobody had built anything there. It was too great a risk when there were more stable places a hundred yards away. "In there," she was a stick in the mud but she was intensely curious. She would attempt to close her book and slide it back into her satchel. If he complied she would teeter near the edge to get a preview of what might be inside. If he tried to get some distance between the potentially unstable and dangerous pit, she would... jump.

 

[Kureji]

"Well my reason for risk is for the adrenaline. Nothing is better than living life to the fullest!" That is one thing he can't really stand. Boring people. People who have their whole lives ahead of them and they do nothing with it. Partly of why he went missing, to be his own boss and to do some outrageous things.

He would hear her scribbling some stuff down on what seemed to be a journal when she started to ask him a barrage of questions. First one, he slipped out easily saying, "Kota." It was a half truth. There might be documentation of a Kota in Sand at one point, but that was before Kureji was admitted to a mental institution under the name, Kureji, when he had woken to Void Walker powers. As for the next question... "That's... Complicated to say the least." He was originally from a nobody family until he decided to go missing. Turned himself into a human puppet and then later down the line turned himself back into a human, by kicking the previous occupant of the body out. During that time he was a Yamanaka, but soon after coming back to Sand, he had decided to mess around in the black market area and turned into a Toujikou. Long story short, even he doesn't really know of his own real bloodline capabilities, if he were to have something that his family once had. And even then, that would have been lost when he threw away his old body.

The next set of questions were easy to answer. She seemed to be filling out a questionnaire like she was some sort of doctor. "I'm a male, and dunno. Never done the deed with a girl before." It was once when Pyra came onto the bird that Michi seemed to really invade Kureji's personal space. "As far as I know, I'm alive." He would say, "Yeah?" He thought that the woman was just going to check his pulse by ya know, his neck or his hand. Well, she did, but then she got really close to him. As in enough to get the finer details of her face. Her focused brown eyes seemed mesmerizing. The white hair seems to actually compliment those eyes. The hair itself goes all the way down to her thighs. Wait... He shouldn't be looking. He might be a bad guy, but he's gotta have some decency. He blinked when she literally stole his shoes and started to feel his feet. "Um. Do you have a foot fetish or something?" Though he won't stop her. Surely she'll be done checking him out soon, yeah?

He would try and make sure that they won't accidentally hit something when... A hand grabbed near his manhood. It was a surprise to him as he exclaimed, "Whoa!" He looked at her while she was really focused on his pulse per se along with her notes. "So I'm guessing I gotta take you out to dinner after this then?" Is this what dating is like? He never really dated anyone as his face got a little bit red with her so close to him.

"Nothing unique about the instruments. As for the band, I had an assortment of pirates and zombies. Pyra here is the band manager, though she's a bit too stiff on the job." He would say, half meaning it as a joke. "Then I got Chani, she's a singer and guitarist like myself, she is way more lively than Pyra. And Ryu. Well, he's pretty chill, though he does have a bit of a temperament."

She would then go up to him and sniff him, as if trying to remember his smell. Good thing he had put cologne and deodorant on before the show! He would smell of a type of exotic flower. He would look over at her as she showed him her notes on him in which he would give her the thumbs up. She would direct him to move further in, in which he did. Looking carefully at the woman as she was getting very close to the ledge. He would be ready in case if she loses her footing. And if she did, he would have to grab and catch her.

 

[Michi]

There were worse physicals. This one only cost him a bit of pride and a pair of shoes potentially. He was alive, at least he had the usual signs of vitality. To reiterate, he had a pulse, therefore a heartbeat. he had a blood pressure, therefore a palpable pulse. He was ambulatory. He was breathing. He was living, thriving, decaying all at the same time as one does. "To verify then, male, alive, no peculiar skill sets..." Strange, because something drew the sandworm to the shoreline.

"Um. Do you have a foot fetish or something?"

"Why?" She measured his foot while she was down there. Positive pedal pulse. Negative homans. Ten (assumed) toes. Evidence of decay or infection (assumed) negative. Check - check- check. She would give his shoe a sniff, she might have regretted that decision but regardless it would find its way into her records before she returned his shoe.

Posterior popliteal space. Positive again. Inguinal crease, from distal to proximal.

"Whoa! ...So I'm guessing I gotta take you out to dinner after this then?"

"Why?" Her go-to answer, she was a genius but her knowledge was not put to (any) use when dealing with the stranger. She might have taken greater care if she had realized he was a potentially dangerous criminal, but the consideration at the time was absurd - a rock concert at one of the busier cities in Wind Country was simply a death wish for a wanted man. The wanted do not bring attention to themselves, but rather they divert from it. Much like she was with her tattered, ragged appearance. People never seem to notice the destitute or the indignant. In fact, they look away whenever they can. To gaze on their wretchedness would force them to admit not only their own privilege but also make them question how or why they have more than their fair share. She grabbed his wrist as she pulled herself up to her feet and felt for the faint drum. Fingers sliding up his forearm, a brachial as well as she closed in for a sniff. Again, considering her height, she would likely be thankful for the deoderant. If he was six feet or taller, her nose height would be at about armpit level. The true, terrible plight of being vertically challenged without a stool. A finger on the neck, just below the jawline, following the crease between the muscles of his neck until... yes, she felt it there. "Positive carotid," she announced.

Her book would record a scent - a perfume of some sort, a series of botanicals not indigenous to Wind Country. Far from the musk of a worm, or some sort of strange ambergris-like substance that some overly wealthy man might attempt to adorn themselves with.

He would go on to mention his fellow pirates and zombies. It was a motley assortment of cohorts, but again there was no iteration of a reason. The lack of a reason was what was really getting to her. Even if this rocker had somehow emulated the rhythmic mating call of a sandworm, the tremorsense of the worm is only a few miles. While that may sound vast, in terms of Wind Country this was not a particularly far range considering the distance that sandworms generally keep from civilized portions of the country. Sandworms prefer the badlands in the most remote portions and most seek a mate out in these same remote regions. There was something about this that absolutely betrayed logic.

Her findings were accurate assuming that a thumbs up indicated accurate, not approved. Approval was irrelevant, but her attention was stolen by the pit as she teetered on the edge. As they ventured closer, she could see the surface markings of the scar as well as the depths of the pit. The pit itself went deep. The sand, nothing more than a brittle shell waiting to be broken. The meters of stone thereafter had evidence of drainage, indicating that the earth above had been as it was for some time. Simply, the sudden influx of water overwhelmed the thin crust-like covering, causing the space to collapse onto itself.

Michi would teeter and let herself fall. She made no attempt to save herself, it was completely purposeful. Her left arm clutching her satchel, her right outstretched to grip the wall. If not prevented, she would grip the wall with her palm, much like a tree frog, using her chakra to climb down. If not, well, there might be an awkward moment as she is left dangling, hovering or what have you. Regardless of the grace of ingress, they would find something unique in the scar. It would be about 70 feet underground, no longer natural walls, but rather something built with brick and mortar. The stones were a sort of limestone possibly, porous but enduring and cut into hefty bricks. There were images painted on these bricks, some sort of decorative pattern showing men and women walking. Men and women bowing. Bowing to something wreathed in light and shadow made of bone. Images of the crowd becoming bone. Of the darkness taking them away.

There was more to the scene, even beyond the ominous iconography. There was something wrong with the scene. This was hardly a mere archeological discovery. Assuming they somehow descended, Kureji would see something else. A candy wrapper of all things in a musty old place like this. The eastern path was still clear, albeit a bit of rubble made the ground uneven and the western path had caved in but the eastern path appeared to be somewhat clear.

 

[Kureji]

He would scratch his head when she asked him why when he asked her if she had a foot fetish. "Because you were feeling my feet and sniffing my shoes?" He said it as a question, but more so kind of saying it like she should know why. And again, she would ask him why when he had talked about taking her out to dinner. "That is because you are beautiful, got real into my personal space, and started asking some personal questions." He would imply earlier when she had asked him about his reproductive abilities. He swears, he feels as if she's coming onto him, but then she plays this hard to get type of thing. No matter how many times he'll chase after a woman, he won't truly understand them. But that doesn't mean he's gonna try.

He was fast, but she was faster than him in jumping off the side of his clay creation. He would let out a sigh. Why can't he ever fall for a girl that is on the same wavelength as him? He would slide off of his explosive bird and stand by her side. "So... I never got what your name was." While he waited for her answer, he would look around. That it, until he would see what she was staring at. Letting out a whistle, he would then say, "Now I may be wrong, but pretty sure Sandworms can't draw." He would say in a smart ass type of way, "But seriously. Looks like some people worshipping some old bone... Thing." He wasn't too familiar with Sand religion or history, but he knows for a fact, that he doesn't remember people worshipping some pile of bones.

He would take a step and hear a soft crunch. No, it was not from a pebble or something of that nature, but rather a candy wrapper? "Not to burst your bubble of what you might think is an excellent discovery, but it seems like we aren't the first ones here." Picking up the wrapper and showing her.

 

[Michi]

"Because you were feeling my feet and sniffing my shoes?"

"I am not particularly studied in foreign mating rituals," she conceded. It was just not a topic that came up often in her books admittedly. The 18+ section did not exist in her libraries. But fascinating. She adds to her notes regarding his feet, cited as a sexual tool. Perhaps there was some corollary between feet and sandworm mating activity.... No, the hypothesis did not make sense. The olfactory exchange would never permit. Wait, how smelly were his feet again. One extra sniff. Maybe some smelly, but not miles away smelly. No, there has to be something else to this she reasoned. "I assume this is common with your people, my condolences."

"That is because you are beautiful, got real into my personal space, and started asking some personal questions."

"Ah,," she commented. She did not have the same considerations in terms of her own space. If it was most efficient to sit cheek to cheek, she would do so unless there was some sort of sanitary condition to consider. With the wealth of medical ninjutsu at their disposal however, were there really sanitary considerations to even consider in the modern shinobi world?

She would tip off the bird, wholly confident that she would not die. Her free arm outstretched, the chakra gripping the wall, she would feel a tug on her arm as her descent was slowed to a stop. She would climb down the rest of the way, swinging her arm slightly after she touched ground. "By the first men and their mothers..." she would mutter out loud as she caught her first glimpse of a wall covered in ancient iconography. An amazing find, they were likely the first in a millennia to There were several issues presented before them as they found their way to the floor of this man-made tunnel, perhaps former temple or something else entirely. The first being - who put this here? The second being - why would someone put this here? The thing being - what was this place supposed to be? As she looked over the walls, she would see repeated iconography depicting some sort of bony deity.

"So... I never got what your name was."

Enamored by this likely relevant find, Kota would ask for a name. She would not know of his associations with a one Miroku Akkuma. Had she, she would have given a different answer. If she knew in coming weeks she would have to return to Sunagakure, she would have given a different answer. If she knew that her son was near, she would have given a different answer. If only she knew the things that she could not have possibly known, her choices now would have been different. "The Oracle Fuu," she claimed. The same who mothered the famed murderer Shouki, the former Cabalist and General of the Sovereign Army that terrorized Sunagakure those years ago; the last Oracle of the old order; and of course a wanted woman for all of the right reasons.

"Now I may be wrong, but pretty sure Sandworms can't draw."

"True," she took him literally. "This is an amazing find all the same," she continued. But what was this place supposed to be? She had a weight in her stomach as she tried to glean something concrete from the imagery but all she knew was that these images were quite old.

"But seriously. Looks like some people worshipping some old bone... Thing."

"They are," she pointed at the creature in the center. It looked like a fertilized egg and there were people standing before it. Some walking towards it, but behind this thing whatever it was, was only bones. "Death worship?" Her brow furrowed and she made the simply inquiry out loud. "We do not have any death cults, the closest we have is the Jashinists in Southern Wind, the Ancient Fatalists and their unbent swarm and finally those that subscribe to the oldest ways and still answer to the first gods -- the Ancients." Not that the Ancients were any more gods than a man, just longer lived with more ahem skeletons in their closets. "This is something else," she felt sick and paled at this revelation. "And that is way worse than stumbling onto a den of Ancients," which there of course still were in Wind Country and that was distinctly the second worst case by he virtue of the fact that it was a known condition. "There is no record of... whatever this is," she fumbled with her bag, nearly dropping the book in the process. She would start trying to scribble some of the images on the walls.

The words, the incantation was not even written in Runic Terran, it was in common letters. What was this! "There is a record of everything, that is what we do," there was an almost indignity to her voice as she looked at the walls. Incompetence of this magnitude was impossible she reasoned. That was the problem really. There was only one reason why there was no record. No record among those that keep records. Someone had to of destroyed the records. An act of true, utter madness. To betray the prime directive of the order would be an act akin to a sinner's blasphemy.

It was impossible.

This had to be an oversight.

It was a lie she was telling herself to prevent the swelling panic from overwhelming her. "Could be be a perversion of the rise of Primus?" She pondered out-loud weakly.

"Not to burst your bubble of what you might think is an excellent discovery, but it seems like we aren't the first ones here."

Kota had made an even more terrifying find than the strange glyphs Michi was trying to decipher. In his hand a candy wrapper: a Ninja Nougat. A definitely modern, non-ancient chocolatey, peanutty treat with hunks of caramel and nougat. It was diabetes on a stick. Both disappointing and terrifying. There was something awesome about stumbling upon a great and forgotten find. There was something horrifying about finding a well kept secret that goes back to the ancient era of this scope. "This is not good," she muttered, feeling the blood drain from her face and her mouth go dry.

There was still an unexplored path, the eastward leading path. This led to deeper parts unknown. The west had collapsed onto itself. Curiosity dicated go down the path and see what else is there to see. However caution warned, the scar overhead was sealed further down the tunnel. The space was obviously unstable and if something were to collapse, it might trap them inside. She was going to regret it, but there had to be a reason. "Do those birds of yours... explode?" Like Akios.

This place needed to disappear. At least for now. At least until someone or something greater than her was able to traverse the unstable, unknown and potentially dangerous spaces. She did not know exactly what the symbols represented, but she would have to at least share her findings. Warn them. What they did with that information. If they chose to pursue it... well, tis would be a fine place to start. "We need to over this place up," and she did not have any incendiary devices at her disposal.

 

[Kureji]

There would be no response from when she gave her condolences about all up in his foot business, but only said ah, when he told her that she's beautiful. "You're really playing the hard to get card, huh?" He would smile but shake his head. Finally, she would give him a name. Oracle Fuu. Wait... This was a village person...? That and they're an Oracle? Maybe that's why she seems... he doesn't know the word... Not boring, but... different.

He would listen as she would come to the conclusion that the Oracles do in fact not know everything and that there and her face grew pale when he had shown her the candy wrapper. It was when she asked him if his birds explode that he gave her another award winning smile. "Yeah. But I got something WAY better than bird brain here. But for me to do it, you got about ten seconds to skedaddle. I suspect people are still avoiding the place above in fears of another Sandworm, so the less casualties, the more fun for me!" Well, since he knew that she doesn't mind invading his personal space he would attempt to grab her, in what could be the most respectful way, and toss her up onto the bird. (if she allows it). And If so, he would then direct the clay bird to fly back to the exits as fast as it can.

But if she refuses, he would just shrug. Either way, he would form a Bone behemoth that would form a protection around him (And around Michi if she chose to stay behind), and would focus all of his explosive chakra to a fine point in which it would grow, filling all the space around the whole caverns and around the Bone Behemoth with explosive clay. "Tick Tock"

He would say with a huge smile on his face. The whole clay creation threatening to blow but he holds it back, just giving Fuu (if she left) extra seconds than what he had told her.

(Using Atomic impressionism to make the place disappear)
(Holding back the explosion till my next post in case you wanna do something.)

 

[Michi]

"You're really playing the hard to get card, huh?"

"No," she replied. Michi was the gotten sort, for all of her brilliance, she lacked the natural social graces of her contemporaries. She understood how to act, in a planned and calculated environment she thrived. However, in terms of friendship or romance, her experiences during her formative years would have left this portion of her psychological development stunted as years of isolation and reproductive coercion. "I understand that this is courting," she stated plainly. Understanding and acting the right way are not mutually inclusive elements as Michi (Fuu) would exemplify. "But your criteria has no substance, only convenience," a cryptic way of saying that any approximate organism can meet his objective criteria and his subjective elements can be manufactured. "Which is not bad, or wrong," she continued. "Because it is honest." Most women would have just said -- I will order the lobster and maybe have a nightcap at your place before having cramps and a headache. "If not a bit quixotic, the concept of friends and relationships is based on the assumption that sentiments are more than more than extensions of one's own self-interest." The first lie she had spoken, but a lie was only a lie if the speaker knew it to be one.

That albatross would not going anywhere.

The scar yielded a series of troubling discoveries. The least of which being the death imagery she saw on the walls. The celebration of some sort of transition, perhaps ascension into death. Yet the imagery was wrong if they were looking at simply an archaic understanding of death -- most ancient societies anticipated that the soul left the body after death and continued to exist in some form. Some created complex explanations, dictating some as good or bad due to a series of virtues that were nothing more than a means of social control. But here there was no soul, no instruction. Just a celebration of... she was sure it was death, but even that did not seem to sit right with her. What was with the egg? A feeling is far from objective, but it was still factually present. She felt that there was something wrong, not just with the image but with the records. The Oracle Order has but three directives - to seek new information to record, to learn all that there is to know and to disseminate what they know to the world at large. It was their purpose and the lack of record meant one of two things - that whatever this was had survived the centuries of not millenia unnoticed or more likely, records describing this element were purposefully withheld, forgotten and destroyed. An abortion of purpose, a perfidy of roles.

But there had to be a reason, one that she would not going to be able to glean here and now. Not in the haste that would be necessary as curiosity would draw others to this site.

And then he found the damned candy wrapper. The brick red wrapper with large, exaggerated yellow words was a modern treat. A treat that meant that this was not forgotten, that this was not merely a mistake washed from records as a vile legacy best forgotten but rather something that many people had to make efforts to obfuscate for one reason or another. So her decision was made in haste. Whatever was down here was meant to be forgotten. Whatever was down here was still being accessed and used. Secrets rarely survive a day, never vast generations. So why? So who?

It needed to be destroyed. At least for now. She would find another way to explore. To learn these forgotten truths, but for the moment she would have to place her faith in her primogenitors and hide what they wanted the world to forget until she could make her own assessment. As convenience or fate would have it, she was accompanied by a destructive force. It was odd how he seemed not only confident in his ability to destroy but there was no hesitation, no concern.

"Yeah. But I got something WAY better than bird brain here. But for me to do it, you got about ten seconds to skedaddle. I suspect people are still avoiding the place above in fears of another Sandworm, so the less casualties, the more fun for me!"

He would lift her up, but when he did so he would feel something unexpected. The first hint of deception. She was light, lighter in fact than she looked like she should have been. Bones of a bird. That not necessarily a red flag, but his hands would meet the diameter of a waist that was not the size of the waist his eyes would visualize. The cloth was not the burlap-like sack she appeared to don, but rather something smoother, firmer, more layered. So that toss might have gotten her a bit more airborne than intended, resulting in a graceless landing. She would scurry to the edge however and look down. She never had an opportunity to see what happened up close. Her view however partially obscured by the bone behemoth that would serve as a wall, a protective barrier between the rocker and the destructive force he was about to unleash. "Get up," she reminded him. An obvious statement surely, but he should not be hanging around at the bottom of this pit when the incendiary event took place, resulting in the cataclysmic failure of precarious stabilizing forces which would result in his death.

"Tick Tock"

Was he out of his damned mind? The bird would start to ascend. She was not reckless enough to jump off, she knew exactly what those explosive clay charges could do. Was there a plan? Was this a suicide attempt? Ten seconds would pass, heart in her throat... nothing would blow and a mixed wave of emo--


Assumedly - Boom.

[MFT] [WC: 978]

 

[Kureji]

Kureji would shake his head and say, "Ya know, you could've just said no instead of leading me on like that." He would ignore her telling him to get up onto the bird with her as he directed the clay bird to fly her to safety and out of range. He would give the biggest smile of his life as the clay lit up and...

Up on the surface an explosion would erupt out of the ground. Debris flying high up in the air, almost making people think that an underground volcano had existed and erupted. But there would be no ash filling the air, but rather sand as it would fall down back to the ground. A hole about a mile in diameter would now be visible with debris slowly falling down into the hole. The perceptive eye would see a bone monster some ways down quite literally obliterated. A man, Kureji, was covered in soot, had a dislocated shoulder, and scrapes and bruises all around his body. He had summoned his zombies and other creations to siphon their life force so that he could steadily heal.

Clambering out of the hole, the clay bird would fly by Kureji as he would give Michi a smile. "Whoo! Now that just gets the blood pumping!" Ironically, he was bleeding, "Say, don't you forget, one of these days, I'm taking you out to dinner. It'll be on me. But I suppose the fun for me will end here. Only so much I can do before my body decides to give up on me." He would give her another smile and salute before walking off.

(topic left)

 

[Michi]

Apparently she was leading him on. Was she? Perhaps. It was in their nature to deceive but never lie, a truly incongruous, contradictory creature. It would have been a mistake for him to have pursued her and her ilk she reminded herself. "Get on the bird," she repeated in a firm, almost scolding tone. He would refuse.

7 seconds

She would feel an unfamiliar sensation, frustration. "Don't be stubborn, this is mad!" She shouted, her henge wavering to reveal a panicked, reddened face. The bird would start to ascend.

5 seconds.

She would run her hands through an array of hand seals, her hands running through a merely theoretical array. On the final seal, she would cut into her own palm and a tendil of blood would emerge from the self-inflicted wound. Crimson Whip [Mastered]

3 seconds

Steadying herself on the quickly ascending bird, she would realize that she lacked the time. She would snap the whip and attempt to pull the cracked teen onto the bird by force. He would avoid her attempt (considering the remainder of the post) and she would miss. "Kota, get on your exploding bird this instant," or what? He would probably enjoy the spanking.

1...

A chain reaction of explosions would rock the sleepy town. Rock the bird she was seated on. Incendiary charges latticed a mile in diameter, just blew up her home. She would not be able to see it from where she sat or even truly know that the damages went so far. Her white knuckle grip on the back of the of the bird, the quietly anxious creature watched the bone behemoth shatter. The civilians that were within range of the event get washed away in a tide of earth. Buildings split in twain and crumble. Too much. Way too much. Her head pounded, her throat felt dry. And they were everywhere. Thump. Thump. thump. God she was hungry. The bird would fly back around, taking a pass over the heart of the cataclysmic event. The lunatic was somehow alive. The relief was however mingled with both guilt and shame as ground was found some distance from the scar. Some distance from the unnatural event that decimated a portion of the city. The breached shore would give way to waters that would start to fill some of the cratered earth and the source would climb from the scar, from the monstrous crater he made. A mile was a distance to walk with a dislocated shoulder but he was one of the only things that was moving in that wreck. She could see him as she hopped off the bird. There was no saving the dead, that would be an act of futility. Her henge distorted, a streak of black, a patch of tan. Her hands trembled as she felt the creeping march of the dead. Not a zombie army, but something utterly different. Something that compromised her humanity and something she regretted, nay hated herself for. From the ground, the dead and silent earth. Those still alive would not be for much longer, their silent screams muffled by the shattered earth. Little orbs of light, some big but many small would wiggle from the ground and meander towards the hybrid ...and she would devour them. By the time Kureji emerged, the gluttonous display would be over. The henge mostly shattered, no completely shattered when he climbed out of the hole. Dark hair, but similar small features, same coppery eyes. Thinner, longer, more spindly.

She was relieved, she was annoyed and she was ashamed of her gluttony as she had her fill and so much more. She would try to say something, a benediction. A statement of relief. A scolding. An expression of gratitude. But she was far too stunned to say anything, to reconcile herself beneath the glamor of an anemic street rat. He would claim he was going to take her out to dinner but little did he know, he had already treated her to the meal of the decade. Instinct drove her to consume but now the wheels in her head would turn. There were consequences for such sins.

Battered and broken, he would walk away and Michi would simply fall to her knees and stay until she could feel the legs beneath her once again.

[Topic Complete/Left]​