Starring:
Risu, Usagi
Date: December 5, 2012
Summary:
A meeting between Risu and Usagi results in an peaceful transfer of scrolls.
"Second Promotion Exams - A fight without a fight: Risu vs. Usagi"
Blood Marsh - Above the Lake of Vapor [Kirigakure]
Risu is… not doing well to say the least. Here, up above the swamp itself, at least the worst of it, sits Risu all alone. No fire, no camp set up, she's simply seated on a high spot away from the pools and their covering mist. She seems to be staring at something in her hand but it is small. Not a scroll, not nearly that large, but something. It's mid morning and the rain has let up but the skies are still cloudy, as the rain threatens to come back at any time. The ground is still wet, but it may never really be /dry/ around here. Risu sits, and seems uninterested in the world around her, although perhaps that is a ruse, it is hard to tell. Whatever she has in her hand is cupped in the right hand and she's seated sort of hunched over it.
Usagi had tracked a particular someone up here, after looking through the marshes to try and find her. She'd avoided the others, save one after she had left the body at the entrance for the proctors to return to the village. she wasn't particularly being too stealthy, instead approaching. "We need to talk" She stands slowly, having been crouched as she approaches, but for now, she's keeping her distance….about twenty feet.
Risu slowly looks up, and it's clear that Risu is not doing well. Her face is a mess, dirty. Her hair is unkempt, she basically looks like she hasn't cleaned herself up at all since the fight. Although, she didn't get a drop of blood on her during that fight so at least her clothing is not stained in blood. The dirt betrays streaks on her cheeks which show she may have been crying a while ago but her eyes are dry now. She eyes Usagi, "You want to die too?" She asks, sounding bone weary. Tired beyond belief from her voice, and a sort of resignation as she starts to slowly stand, putting whatever was in her hand into a pocket as she does so. She looks unpleased by the prospect but seems to assume Usagi wants a fight.
Usagi tilts her head slightly, her face a blank mask for the time being. "If I wanted to try you, I wouldn't have announced it. I said 'talk'. Unless you're the one who wants to fight" She shrugs slightly, arms crossing. "Up to you"
Risu shakes her head slowly, "No, I don't want to fight. I want to go home." She says softly, "I never had to kill anything bigger than a scorpion before this… now…." She sighs, "I just want to go home. I'm so tired. I never wanted this to happen and now I can't undo it." She stops and tilts her head and peers curiously at Usagi, "What did you want to talk about?"
"You can go home. Just walk out the entrance" Usagi raises a brow and shrugs. "But, so long as you have two scrolls….you'll be moving on, not going home" She takes a seat, cross legged with Risu. "I wanted to talk about the why. Isato…I honestly knew he'd get himself killed eventually with how he acted. But Ryuu….so far as I can tell, you weren't even scratched by him. Why not disable and just leave him? You had that much of a difference over him" She's not accusing, or at least her tone isn't sounding like it is. But she 'is' still keeping her distance. "And I see you removed the proof….save the body"
Risu stays standing and frowns, "That place was cursed…. so… it's gone. I didn't do it to remove proof, I did it to…. to remove that cursed place." She says as if this is important to her to get right. "I did try to stop him. I… I made a pile of sand over him, stuck him in it, offered him the two scrolls if he'd just go away. He dug himself out… he… he charged me. He wouldn't take the scrolls, he wouldn't stop. I… I don't have that great control over my abilities yet. I couldn't just… I couldn't just break his leg. I might have removed half his body. I wasn't trying to kill him, just stop him, I didn't realize how close to death he already was when he charged me." She admits, "And… and I didn't… I didn't mean to kill him." She admits again, "I'm not very good at using whatever it is that /this/ is…. I told you that. I told you I didn't know what it was, when you told me you were a Nara and I asked you about if you knew what
it was." She reminds Usagi.
Usagi nods slowly. "Fair enough. So it's gone, that place that's cursed is gone then" She takes a slow breath and closes her eyes. That 'did' sound like Ryuu, especially if Isato had just died. She shakes her head slowly, crossing her arms. "I'm not saying remove something…you could have created a rock to break his leg while he was in the sand" At the mention of her ability, she takes a slow breath. "I remember" And she leaves that part at that. So she looks at risu briefly and asks. "So do you want to leave, or continue on? The choice, at this point, is yours"
«OOC» Usagi says, "Usagi has a bloody headguard on her left arm. Three guesses whose"
Risu sighs, again, "I offered my two scrolls to Ryuunosuke kinda cause I was… I was done. I didn't want Isato to die, I thought if I just gave him the scrolls he'd go away, and leave me alone and then no one else would have to fight me cause I wouldn't have anymore scrolls. Then when this was done I could just go home." She tries to explain, "But now… I almost feel like if I just… walk away it means some how I don't think that Isato or Ryuunosuke's lives were even worth fighting for, some how it would make it even worse." She shakes her head, "And things are all messed up, confused. I don't think I'm thinking right. I don't think I'm myself. Everything feels… wrong. Like… like off balance." She tries to explain but can't really.
"If you wish to fight for their lives and dreams, then go ahead. If you do not, if you wish to go home, then at least let me do it" Usagi looks at Risu for a few moments. "That choice, I leave to you, but if you wish to go….I will do it for them" At the second statement, she nods slowly. "The world seems askew, though it doesn't look like it. Something's off, or something's not right, but it's hard to tell what….or where to look. Am I right?"
Risu nods slowly, "Kinda…. and… and the darkness. The darkness almost takes over when I use it. The… the white isn't so bad. But the more I use one over the other the more the world seems to tilt wrong. I don't know." She gives a helpless shrug as she peers at Usagi and considers. "I don't think it will make things better. I don't think it will make things right. You still will hate me. Those who cared about Isato and Ryuunosuke will still hate me." She points out, "Won't they? It won't change things. It won't bring them back, so it won't make it right. But…. maybe I can at least rest. I never should have come here. I shouldn't have tried to use things I hardly knew what they were, and can barely control. What else can I do?" She seems to be asking rhetorically. "You have more right to fight on for them than I do. You knew them. I met them once, and only to end up killing them both without wanting to. You would know what to fight for, for
them…." She admits, "So yes…" She takes a few steps towards Usagi, "You fight for them, you win for them. You understand? At least… at least don't die in the fights. If I gave you the scrolls and that made you die I don't think I could stand it." She says softly as she reaches into her pouches and pulls out the two scrolls and offers them to Usagi.
Usagi nods slowly, taking a deep breath. "Then I'll tell you this. Help me make their lives mean something after the exams are over. Learn your power, and fight that darkness. Do not let it overcome you" She pauses after this. "Seek me out after the exams….or I'll try to find you, and we'll see what we can do to control this…whatever it is" She pauses, then closes her eyes. "No. I honestly don't hate you. I hate the actions you took" She nods to her slowly. "Others will hate you, likely. But you…can learn from this" As Risu approaches and offers the two scrolls, Usagi looks at them, closes her eyes and touches the headband on her left arm. "…..I accept" She moves to accept the two scrolls offered to her, placing them in her pouch. "I can't stress this enough….learn about it. Find out what works, what doesn't….but live for something more…because I think you can do better"
The scrolls handed over, Risu gives a small sigh of relief as if a burden has been lifted from her shoulders. "Good luck, Usagi-san. I hope you do very well. And I hope we can talk after the exam is over. I'll stay in the swamp until the end of the survival round, but I'm not going to fight anyone else. I'll just stay here…. if your friends… if they want to hurt me, please… please don't tell them where I am. I really don't want to hurt anyone else. When the darkness takes over it… it isn't me. Do you understand? I… I don't think right. I can't always control what I do then…. and I don't want to hurt anyone else until I understand better what this is. I know as a shinobi we have to fight, but this isn't right. Isato didn't have to die, if he had given me his scroll I would have even helped bandage his wounds. Ryuunosuke didn't have to die. If he had just taken the scrolls when I offered them and gone away he'd be alive. But… they
didn't. I can't make people do what I want." She shakes her head as if she realizes she's rambling, "I'm not a monster… am I?" She asks as she looks to Usagi for some kind of reassurance that she isn't.
Usagi nods to her. "I will do my best" At the mention of what she is going to do for the remainder of the time, she closes her eyes and nods slowly. "I will not reveal your location. Only one other here would seek you out, and once the survival rounds are over, that will be a moot point. He'll be here, and you won't" She pauses at the mention of the darkness seeming at least sentient…or at least capable of exerting influence over her. "So what happens if the light takes over? Or has it?" At the mention of Ryuu and Isato, she closes her eyes. It does sound so much like them. "Remember them, and what they stood for. And try to aid in the cause they can no longer make their own. I do not think you a monster….at least, as of now. Your actions will determine whether or not that changes"
Risu nods slowly, "Good, I don't want to be a monster…. The darkness… it… it makes me feel stronger when I destroy something. The white, it…. makes me feel more tired, like using ninjutsu normally. But if I use too much of the darkness it… I don't feel right. I don't know, it's hard to explain. It's like… I get angry, my world spins, my head… everything goes off. That's why I tried to not use too much of one over the other. But… its so much easier to use the darkness." She admits, "Is it like that with your shadows?" She ventures, giving a hopeful look to Usagi.
Usagi slowly shakes her head. "No….the shadows are simply there…they do not influence me. They are easy to use, yes…but only because my clan has that affinity. And….I don't know how to use the light, as you do" She pauses for a few moments, then closes her eyes. "Do you know how you came to have these abilities? Or does anyone else recognize them yet? If we could find…another example of it, we could at least study something about it" Otherwise, this is going to be a lot of trial and error.
Risu shakes her head, "I looked in the Suna archives, but nothing matched. I thought, with the darkness maybe the Nara might know something but… you didn't. I had to figure out the hand seals and just… experiment on my own to figure out what I can do. But ever since I found out I could do it, I've felt different… everything has felt different." She shakes her head, "I'm an orphan, no one knows anything about it. I probably shouldn't tell you as much as I have, you aren't from Suna. The Council might get mad at me but I hoped… I had hoped that you as a Nara might know more… could help." She takes a deep breath then lets it out slowly, "You should go… go back to the others, tell them… tell them whatever you want about how you got the scrolls. Tell them you beat me, tell them I gave them to you, tell them…. tell them whatever you want to tell them." She turns and goes back to sit down on the little high spot she was at before,
reaching into her pocket and pulling out whatever she had before and looking at it again.
"Honestly, I probably won't tell them. There's no need for them to know…unless they ask. And I'll tell them I got them so that I could fight for Ryuu and Isato" Usagi nods to Risu after a few moments, reaching up to place a hand on her shoulder. "If we can find each other after, we can work on it. I may not know much about it, but I'm observant, and we can at least learn 'something'" She gives the shoulder a squeeze, and nods. "Be well, Risu. I hope to see you sometime soon after this is all said and done" And with that, she begins to withdraw back towards the marshes proper, unless Risu were to ask her to stay or stop her.
Whatever Risu has in her hand has her attention now and she simply gives a small nod to Usagi as she moves to leave, leaving Risu with her thoughts and the rather large gem she created earlier, uncut, and oddly glittering even in the gloomy cloudy weather. She's not even sure what kind of gem it is to be honest but for some reason it helps her not think about the blood on her hands. The gem is, of course, blue, not red.
