With his contract signed and sent, the mad scientist went back out into the desert to wait for the call of Suna needing his aid. His place was out there in the sands, not confined within Takeshi’s steel walls, but, he also didn’t just simply leave to wait for work. True to his word, Shin had money wired into a private bank account that the government couldn’t touch. It was uplifting to see all those zeros; inspiring even. There was a tickle in Tama’s chest that told him it was time to put things back into their proper place and stop living in fear of losing what little he had left. Safety measure had been put into place this time, and now all he had to do was avoid strangers unaffiliated with Sunagakure to keep his rep in the “good guy” league.
Or at least, that’s was the hope.
Three months after the big deal and the conclusion of the first round of the Sennin Games, Tama was nowhere to be found. The pager rang no more than once the entire month, and it was to assist in a touch-in-go surgery of some child. Thanks to Tama, the kid would be kicking-ass at double capacity once her lungs were healed, but aside from that one job he had a lot of free time on his hands; and rarely did the madman sit on time.
The 8ft giant calmly walked around a giant steel tube with the words “Thunder Rebirth” marked on the side with a clipboard. He was writing down the data displayed on the little black screens attached via wires to the capsule, nodding to himself in agreement with the numbers. The giant blond had lied to Shin a little when he said he’d be putting that money towards his other projects. While Tama had every intention of finishing what had been promised, because he literally had no choice in the matter now, his heart was set on first fixing himself…and ascending/.
The process of removing his own soul to quiet the “eviler” sides of his personality didn’t come without a cost - and it was one that had long disturbed him. In order to maintain his body it needed something to burn on. Any kind of life force. Originally it had been small animals, then big animals, and then finally in the last year humans themselves. Of course, unlike his teen years, Tama was far beyond preying on mortal souls and instead took to Faustian bargains to fix his needs. A number of…lets call them, “lesser souls”, had all kinds of wants and needs they would be willing to part with their own life force for. Petty murder, temporary riches, an extended mortal life - all of these things were simple for Dr. Ryuu Tama to produce. In trade, he took their souls the moment they died. The fastest ones were always the “make me immortal” crowd, because they always mixed up “immortality” with “invulnerability.” However it wasn’t something he wanted to keep doing having long ago learned the addictive habit of consuming human souls had major draw backs. Only reason he was doing so well right now was the souls he burned didn’t feed him, but instead the void he opened up within by removing his own. Good news was now at least he was really good at ignoring hunger.
But now came the time to fix that. A cursed seal, a young clone with a portion of his soul that would grow into its own without the Ancient heritage (as a back-up), and a literal contract for leverage…now Tama finally felt like he could return to his old powers without playing risk to losing himself to his damnable pride.
The giant placed his clipboard on a table and began to scratch out some math on a separate sheet, nodding to himself as his smile grew. Yes. The procedure was finally possible after procuring that last shipment of his new secret ingredient: anima viriditas. It was a special plant that only grew on corpses of the recently deceased, and only one person in the entire country knew how to grow it; which wasn’t Tama, much to his frustration. Providing the corpses, money for the job, and money for the plant once it was grown (yes, the bastards charged him twice), was a long expensive process but, it was hopefully the last time he’d have to mess with that clan.
“Swear it’s easier to deal with missing shinobi…” he muttered to himself.
On the table with Tama were two vials of cobalt blue fluid in tubes with a screw-top on one end. Scooping one of them up he brought it up to the machine and popped open a panel on the side to reveal an injection sight. Tama screwed the fluid filled tube into the specialized slot before pushing the little door closed and opening a much larger hatch that revealed what would appear to be the padded insides of a coffin. Taking a deep breath and letting it go the scientist fearlessly climbed into his own device and shut the hatch behind him. The blond felt his body being pressurized and held against the padding as excessive lab air was ejected from the tube. Pulling down a little keyboard the madman typed in a code with one hand and held his index finger, hesitant, over the Enter Key. This was it. Removing or returning a soul were expensive processes that could easily result in straight death for normal creatures. Even abnormal as Tama was, he wasn’t an exception by any means, but, he could no longer abide by only wielding half of his actual power. His eyes narrowed. The finger hit the enter key and the little keyboard flipped back up automatically.
Anima Viriditas, translated roughly as “soul weed”, was in the same genus as roses and grew off of corpses in the “moist” parts of the desert; basically anywhere you could find cacti. Among the Wildlings and Nomads that roamed the dunes they called home, these plants only grew in the bodies of “cursed” members of their tribes. Having the dishonor of the Black Rose on your corpse meant the rest of your family went into exile. Where the superstition came from is still largely unknown, but Tama had a few theories. The plant on its own was deadly to touch as the natural oils were highly toxic to nearly every living being. What more it could only grow from the corpses of people who have imbibed the water of certain cacti that were nigh impossible to identify from other of its genus; making it was completely random on who had the seeds running through their blood. So, in his opinion, the dreaded flower was simply bad luck.
His views on the plant were far different. Aside from being removed from heretical hocus-pocus of lesser beings, the scientist had found the plant contained the distilled essence of a pure soul. In a time of grave desperation the poisonous rose had sustained him as he wondered through the demon’s portion of the great desert. In that time he had considered everything he might be able to do with such a miraculous plant, but the scientist never had the luck of finding another one on his own since. In his quest to find one he did manage to quite literally stumble across a Wildling settlement that had an old blind woman squirreled away in the back who grew the damn things. She knew her place in the clan, and how the rest feared her. Her only reason for being able to stay alive was the connections she had that kept that settlement an extremely well kept secret. The old bat confided in the giant that she had once been a shinobi, and when he inquired on why she made the roses her people feared she simply replied, “money.”
Money, was something Tama dealt in. He made sure to make an offer for an entire season’s crop, and she made it sure it was going to bleed him dry. She wanted his entire fortune for even a single flower - so the deal in Suna finally gave him the money to pay up in total. Twelves roses for nearly everything Tama had. With those plants he managed to distill a single vial of carefully crafted serum. Infused with his own blood with his Ancient Genetic separated from the helix and suspended in time, the vial of cobalt blue fluid was a means to another level of power.
He did not simply wish to “return” to his former power. He wanted to ascend past it. Too long did the scientist spend on trying to become a “perfect” Hybrid. Once obsessed with obtaining the form of an Ancient he quickly learned that it was an impossible goal to insert his ego into the elemental form of an Ancient. Complete transcendence would mean killing himself so a new creature could be born; which was the complete opposite of his desire. The next course was to amplify his Ancient Bloodline and hybridize it completely with his human genetics. That resulted in a body full of power with an ego that was impossible to control. It took removing his very soul to quell himself into a position of being able to move forward again. To him it truly appeared that the Anima Viriditas seemed like the answer he was seeking. To inject his own soul back into his body with a booster to enhance a controlled ego, with the power of his Ancient Heritage slowly added to his being to give him a fine-tuned layer of power on top of his human potential. It was like he was making a roux; a sauce of thunder and lightning.
Tama felt the fluids enter his bloodstream like liquid fire, and instantly his entire nervous system rejected the formula. Pain exploded all across his flesh as if he was being bombed by tiny warheads. The scientist’s mouth opened to scream but nothing could be heard from outside of the tube. Laying him back completely, metal sheets began to rotate around the cylinder Tama was trapped in, pulling at his genetics with a specialized magnetic jutsu that was acid etched into the sheet and powered by a low amount of electricity. He felt his mind being tugged in a war with himself as the fluids began to…fill something up. Something inside of him that had been a void felt like it was being suffused to the brim with the fiery pain that thrummed through his veins. Bolts of lightning sparked from within the tube, keeping them from striking his equipment as Tama was raised up into the air and began to flip around like a gyrosphere. The magnetic jutsu played the tube around, causing it to flip faster and faster as if were meant to separate the human placed inside from their fluids.
Then it stopped suddenly. A crackling boom resounded from within the tube that shook the lab outside of it as the device slowly lowered back to the ground. After a moment the locking mechanism popped open and the door swung open to a mass of black clouds that slinked out onto the floor before stacking up to form a humanoid figure. A small torrent of air, starting from his feet and working up, revealed the scientist’s flesh as it dissipated the covering clouds. The creature dropped to his hands and knees in weakness, taking a deep breath and coughing hard for a full minute before the coughs slowly became manical laughter. Holding up his hand arcs of energy sprung from between Tama’s fingers,
“Finally….”
Or at least, that’s was the hope.
Three months after the big deal and the conclusion of the first round of the Sennin Games, Tama was nowhere to be found. The pager rang no more than once the entire month, and it was to assist in a touch-in-go surgery of some child. Thanks to Tama, the kid would be kicking-ass at double capacity once her lungs were healed, but aside from that one job he had a lot of free time on his hands; and rarely did the madman sit on time.
The 8ft giant calmly walked around a giant steel tube with the words “Thunder Rebirth” marked on the side with a clipboard. He was writing down the data displayed on the little black screens attached via wires to the capsule, nodding to himself in agreement with the numbers. The giant blond had lied to Shin a little when he said he’d be putting that money towards his other projects. While Tama had every intention of finishing what had been promised, because he literally had no choice in the matter now, his heart was set on first fixing himself…and ascending/.
The process of removing his own soul to quiet the “eviler” sides of his personality didn’t come without a cost - and it was one that had long disturbed him. In order to maintain his body it needed something to burn on. Any kind of life force. Originally it had been small animals, then big animals, and then finally in the last year humans themselves. Of course, unlike his teen years, Tama was far beyond preying on mortal souls and instead took to Faustian bargains to fix his needs. A number of…lets call them, “lesser souls”, had all kinds of wants and needs they would be willing to part with their own life force for. Petty murder, temporary riches, an extended mortal life - all of these things were simple for Dr. Ryuu Tama to produce. In trade, he took their souls the moment they died. The fastest ones were always the “make me immortal” crowd, because they always mixed up “immortality” with “invulnerability.” However it wasn’t something he wanted to keep doing having long ago learned the addictive habit of consuming human souls had major draw backs. Only reason he was doing so well right now was the souls he burned didn’t feed him, but instead the void he opened up within by removing his own. Good news was now at least he was really good at ignoring hunger.
But now came the time to fix that. A cursed seal, a young clone with a portion of his soul that would grow into its own without the Ancient heritage (as a back-up), and a literal contract for leverage…now Tama finally felt like he could return to his old powers without playing risk to losing himself to his damnable pride.
The giant placed his clipboard on a table and began to scratch out some math on a separate sheet, nodding to himself as his smile grew. Yes. The procedure was finally possible after procuring that last shipment of his new secret ingredient: anima viriditas. It was a special plant that only grew on corpses of the recently deceased, and only one person in the entire country knew how to grow it; which wasn’t Tama, much to his frustration. Providing the corpses, money for the job, and money for the plant once it was grown (yes, the bastards charged him twice), was a long expensive process but, it was hopefully the last time he’d have to mess with that clan.
“Swear it’s easier to deal with missing shinobi…” he muttered to himself.
On the table with Tama were two vials of cobalt blue fluid in tubes with a screw-top on one end. Scooping one of them up he brought it up to the machine and popped open a panel on the side to reveal an injection sight. Tama screwed the fluid filled tube into the specialized slot before pushing the little door closed and opening a much larger hatch that revealed what would appear to be the padded insides of a coffin. Taking a deep breath and letting it go the scientist fearlessly climbed into his own device and shut the hatch behind him. The blond felt his body being pressurized and held against the padding as excessive lab air was ejected from the tube. Pulling down a little keyboard the madman typed in a code with one hand and held his index finger, hesitant, over the Enter Key. This was it. Removing or returning a soul were expensive processes that could easily result in straight death for normal creatures. Even abnormal as Tama was, he wasn’t an exception by any means, but, he could no longer abide by only wielding half of his actual power. His eyes narrowed. The finger hit the enter key and the little keyboard flipped back up automatically.
Anima Viriditas, translated roughly as “soul weed”, was in the same genus as roses and grew off of corpses in the “moist” parts of the desert; basically anywhere you could find cacti. Among the Wildlings and Nomads that roamed the dunes they called home, these plants only grew in the bodies of “cursed” members of their tribes. Having the dishonor of the Black Rose on your corpse meant the rest of your family went into exile. Where the superstition came from is still largely unknown, but Tama had a few theories. The plant on its own was deadly to touch as the natural oils were highly toxic to nearly every living being. What more it could only grow from the corpses of people who have imbibed the water of certain cacti that were nigh impossible to identify from other of its genus; making it was completely random on who had the seeds running through their blood. So, in his opinion, the dreaded flower was simply bad luck.
His views on the plant were far different. Aside from being removed from heretical hocus-pocus of lesser beings, the scientist had found the plant contained the distilled essence of a pure soul. In a time of grave desperation the poisonous rose had sustained him as he wondered through the demon’s portion of the great desert. In that time he had considered everything he might be able to do with such a miraculous plant, but the scientist never had the luck of finding another one on his own since. In his quest to find one he did manage to quite literally stumble across a Wildling settlement that had an old blind woman squirreled away in the back who grew the damn things. She knew her place in the clan, and how the rest feared her. Her only reason for being able to stay alive was the connections she had that kept that settlement an extremely well kept secret. The old bat confided in the giant that she had once been a shinobi, and when he inquired on why she made the roses her people feared she simply replied, “money.”
Money, was something Tama dealt in. He made sure to make an offer for an entire season’s crop, and she made it sure it was going to bleed him dry. She wanted his entire fortune for even a single flower - so the deal in Suna finally gave him the money to pay up in total. Twelves roses for nearly everything Tama had. With those plants he managed to distill a single vial of carefully crafted serum. Infused with his own blood with his Ancient Genetic separated from the helix and suspended in time, the vial of cobalt blue fluid was a means to another level of power.
He did not simply wish to “return” to his former power. He wanted to ascend past it. Too long did the scientist spend on trying to become a “perfect” Hybrid. Once obsessed with obtaining the form of an Ancient he quickly learned that it was an impossible goal to insert his ego into the elemental form of an Ancient. Complete transcendence would mean killing himself so a new creature could be born; which was the complete opposite of his desire. The next course was to amplify his Ancient Bloodline and hybridize it completely with his human genetics. That resulted in a body full of power with an ego that was impossible to control. It took removing his very soul to quell himself into a position of being able to move forward again. To him it truly appeared that the Anima Viriditas seemed like the answer he was seeking. To inject his own soul back into his body with a booster to enhance a controlled ego, with the power of his Ancient Heritage slowly added to his being to give him a fine-tuned layer of power on top of his human potential. It was like he was making a roux; a sauce of thunder and lightning.
Tama felt the fluids enter his bloodstream like liquid fire, and instantly his entire nervous system rejected the formula. Pain exploded all across his flesh as if he was being bombed by tiny warheads. The scientist’s mouth opened to scream but nothing could be heard from outside of the tube. Laying him back completely, metal sheets began to rotate around the cylinder Tama was trapped in, pulling at his genetics with a specialized magnetic jutsu that was acid etched into the sheet and powered by a low amount of electricity. He felt his mind being tugged in a war with himself as the fluids began to…fill something up. Something inside of him that had been a void felt like it was being suffused to the brim with the fiery pain that thrummed through his veins. Bolts of lightning sparked from within the tube, keeping them from striking his equipment as Tama was raised up into the air and began to flip around like a gyrosphere. The magnetic jutsu played the tube around, causing it to flip faster and faster as if were meant to separate the human placed inside from their fluids.
Then it stopped suddenly. A crackling boom resounded from within the tube that shook the lab outside of it as the device slowly lowered back to the ground. After a moment the locking mechanism popped open and the door swung open to a mass of black clouds that slinked out onto the floor before stacking up to form a humanoid figure. A small torrent of air, starting from his feet and working up, revealed the scientist’s flesh as it dissipated the covering clouds. The creature dropped to his hands and knees in weakness, taking a deep breath and coughing hard for a full minute before the coughs slowly became manical laughter. Holding up his hand arcs of energy sprung from between Tama’s fingers,
“Finally….”
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