Starring:
Date: June 12, 2013
Summary:
Yuuka is joined by Meruin in pursuit of Raiji, Tsiro having stayed back to keep backup from arriving from the bar. From the beginning, things simply seem to go awry.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Blood and Bones - Retaliation"
Kaguya Village: Raiji's Compound
Raiji was locked up in his family compound, surrounded by a significant guard. He knew he was in trouble, seems like he scored off Yuuka. That might have been a mistake. He sighs, checking his body, which seems to have regenerated nicely. "The patrol is done sir, no sign of her." Raiji nods at the huge Kaguya that guards him. Yes, this is going as he expected it to go. If he could keep Yuuka in this scored off state, maybe instinct will kick in. Maybe the true Kaguya ways will return. He might have been manipulated, but it was his ideology. And he's willing to die for it. Just not now. Not when he doesn't know for sure that it'd be complete… that his vision will live on for eternity.
She felt his movements stop a small time ago, in a place she knew that he would feel safe, protected. He had called her a coward… and here he was holding up in his compound like a scared little mouse. Yuuka and Meruin had stopped on the roof of one of the nearby buildings to watch the patrolling guards, taking note just how many there were. Less than a dozen. And still it was too many. Too many of her kin. They were just doing their jobs, she knew that.
"We will come from above. We can avoid most of the guards that way." Yuuka whispers, pausing long enough to turn her head and glance at Meruin. "Try to avoid killing if possible. With that vocal genjutsu of his, we might accidentally kill someone else entirely if we go in half-cocked." She turns her gaze forward towards the building once more. "I want him captured alive." And just like that she jumps across the rooftops, moving just fast enough for the eye to catch.
Vocal genjutsu…
That would make both capturing him alive and detaining him thoroughly difficult to achieve. "Tear out his tongue," is the Okumo's only response to her desire to capture the man alive, voice a soft whisper. He thought briefly back towards when he'd been leaping Kaguya rooftops earlier, meeting up with Yuuka as she'd pursued the man. It had been a swift change of plans and flood of information, but Meruin had asssimilated it all seamlessly, changing tacts and mindset. Infiltration and capture. And it was with this directive in mind that he vanished time and again, rooftop to rooftop, eventually secreting himself away from view on the rooftop of Raiji's own compound, hopefully landing unnoticed.
They approached from above, which means they could skip the walls. When they reach the roof of the compound however, everyone was aware of their presence. Three of the patrolmen saw them coming, one already made his way to the roof! "You there, STAHP!" He throws something that explodes into a ball of sharp bones, twirling and aiming cuts at both Yuuka and Meruin. Two other guards soon show up, one of them firing bones at Yuuka, the other creating a blade from his arm, rushing for Meruin and aiming a stab into his stomach! Raiji remains calm inside the building his right hand knew what was going on.
"Sir…" Someone says, Raiji nods, making a set of seals. A second raiji rises next to him, sitting down where he was. Raiji sighs and looks onto his shoulder. Blinking while noticing the dust. "…Yuuka." He says, realizing it might just be how she found him so quickly. He heads for the bathhouse, quickly submerging himself in water, before making his way to the side of the building, still dripping wet. Though derrived of that odd bone dust substance she can control so expertly. He has seen her turning mere sprinkles into entire veins. Now he's gotten rid of the damn dust. He opens the door slightly, waiting for an oppertunity to flee while his earth clone remains where he originally was. Now he waits. His right hand crosses his arms and patiently waits on the assault force.
So much for avoiding the patrolling guards. Oh well. Landing smoothly on the rooftop, a ball of bones thrown in their direction. With a light step that appears as if she was dancing to some unheard music, Yuuka avoids damage from the thrown smokeball of spikes. But two other guards appear the Swordsman, and she isn't quick enough to avoid the ivory senbon shot at her, deep scratches appearing and staining her clothes dark crimson. A small breath escapes her lips as she suddenly blurs with abrupt speed, clapping a hand on the chest of the two closest guards to plant bone seedlings on them. Through her will the ivory grows and thickens, vines wrapping around each with a netting that will keep them from attacking further.
Meruin's head turns at the shout, his placid gaze immediately finding the source and knowing by his movements that not only Yuuka, but he as well had been spotted. The lobbed ball is seen and the Okumo finds his body covered in a chitinous shell before it even detonates. A glance at the guard turned guards — another was approach — and back at the ball. It exploded. Bone spikes. He turned his attention away from it, looking towards the Kaguya approaching, knowing that it was something his chitin would be able to take. The blade to the stomach slid along the chitin covering his form, the shell the color of the abyss growing to encompass even the strands of his hair.
The Okumo lashed out with a leg, looking to simply kick the Kaguya back and away, three more pairs of eyes sprouting. "Yuuka. We need to finish this. I'll prep the room, you come in after and collect Raiji and his tongue." And then he vanished, leaving the assault guard wherever he'd been. The window in the footop would shatter leaving the Okumo on the ground floor. Abruptly, he becomes as a phantom, vanishing and reappearing from place to place, never staying still, never touching anyone, mouth wide open in a straining roar, wind blowing from him at his every appearance, so swift was he.
And then people would begin feeling as though they were burning. Swiftly then, they'd begin coughing, hacking, and then they'd develop bleeding sores as their flesh began to die. And the coughing would suddenly grow much worse as their lungs began to fill with their own blood.
When Meruin makes a gas cloud the real Raiji can't help but smile. "Perfect.." He muses. Using that as cover while he throws the door open, speeding off through the small patrol that's set up around his compound. Using the small crowd (5 people) along with simple stealth to mask his movement while he attempts to flee the compound to the other side of the Kaguya village, to one of his safehouses.
Meanwhile, Yuuka succeeded in binding two of the Kaguya with the bone bindings, though the third was left alone by Meruin. He quickly runs up to his comrades, using his own bone to crush Yuuka's. "Nice try love…" He says, while the other two also pull out part of their arm and make it function like a blade. All three now stabbing at Yuuka while Meruin is left alone.
Meruin's extremely dangerous gas cloud quickly manifests inside the building. Raiji however just sits and breaths normally. Whot? His right hand however quickly responds. His bones forming over his body like an airtight armor while he turns his huge body to a nearby wall. Focussing before spinning around, smashing into the ground. Bones come out from the ground and crush the nearby wall up high, giving the smoke a lot of room to escape before they reach the ground in the very large room.
When the smoke has cleared Raiji's right hand grins and looks up, lowering the head armor of his suit of bone armor. "Little spider comes to play." He grunts at Meruin. Looking at him tauntingly. This big guy, he has a reputation! Even Meruin - should - know that he's good. In fact, while the big guy acts like he didn't think things through, the bones that crushed the wall have continues to vein up, suddenly lashing out at Meruin in one large thick and mostly sharp spike that has risen from the ground, along the walls, and thus strikes at him from an angle.
The guards at her feet taken care of, Yuuka knows has to move quickly before more guards intercept her. She needed to avoid them otherwise it would become more difficult to avoid killing anyone along the way. So move quickly she does. Her senses stretch as wide as she's able to, keeping herself alert as to where the guards were and to aid herself with the location of Raiji. Two Raiji's it seems. Finding the one sitting on the chair, Yuuka clenches her hand at her side lightly as her blue green eyes flick from him to the large guard by his side.
Not anger or fury, but sadness hinted in her gaze as she watches the man that was Raiji's right hand man, hearing Meruin beside her for a moment that feels as if to stretch on longer than expected. "This is the third time he has tried this move, misdirection." Yuuka murmurs softly, exhaling a small breath and dipping her chin with a small nod in agreement. Meruin will move in first, and he disappears at her side for another moment longer.
Yuuka sharply bends backwards, just a moment before a bone blade slashes through the air just where she was. Something dark flickers in her expression as she narrows her gaze on the first guard, "I am not your 'love'." she growls, twisting back to smoothly dodge two more blades and smoothly reach up over her shoulder, and in one motion yanks hard at the bone of her spine. The chain staff of the Clematis whips through the air as another dark, challenging growl curls at Yuuka's lip, "Who's stupid enough to try me first?"
Meruin's eyes narrow the slightest bit at Raiji's right hands's words and the lack of effect his assault had had on his boss. Abruptly, the Okumo turned his attention away from the seated man, scanning the nearby area, eyes sharply searching. But nothing presented itself to him before a hole was torn high in the wall to combat the gases filling the room down below, and the bone raised outside of the Kaguya's body arced out to meet him from separate angles.
The Okumo found his chitin resisting some of the assault, mitigating damage and remaining unharmed at various points, but many times the bones trees managed to cut furrows into his shell and the flesh beneath despite it's protection and his movement. By the end of it, Meruin was on the other side of the assault, the majority of his wounds healing as he regrouped to decide his next tactic.
Raiji's right hand braces, and then simply jumps up. Bursting a hole into the roof. "Not a lot of people who can take that attack…" He cracks his neck and lifts his gigantic right arm. which suddenly explodes outwards into a huge shield aproximatly the size of Raiji's right hand. His name, by the way is Dai. Spikes suddenly begin growing on the outer rim and front of the shield, while he points it at Meruin. "Two decision, one. Leave, and we'll let you live. Two, fight. And die." He smiles and slowly circles around Meruin before lunging out with his bone shield.
Meanwhile Raiji's clone stands in front of Yuuka. "So, here we are. Go ahead, strike me down." He says, holding his arms open. He waits for Yuuka to twitch before aiming a simple punch at her head. It's an earth clone obviously, but the punch carries a lot less weight than the real him would have. However, Raiji being there has a better effect, the three grunts found new courage, all of them bending and twitching while bones erupt from their bodies. All three of them rushing at Yuuka to try and cut her open!
Yuuka snaps her eyes up and narrows hard on the Raiji clone, the corner of her lips tugging with a slight smirk. It was enough of a twitch that he strikes at her first, throwing a punch straight at her, only to swing through open air. Likewise, the three guards that scramble to transform and attack are too slow, expertly dodged with fluid dancing motion. Her speed gives her an edge as she slaps a palm on each target, ending last with the clone of Raiji and planting a sliver of seed effectively. The next moment after, under her will, vines suddenly spout and begin entangling the guards and Raiji in a thick mess of ivory vines. "I'm not you…" she murmurs.
Meruin rises to his full height now that he was, for the large part, unwounded from the assault. His gaze leveled on Dai, mists gentle in their shifting, a complement to the placidness of his gaze despite the threat of the man. The attack comes in, the shield hilts, and the chitin covered Okumo slides back a few feet. Quietly, he says, "We're going to try this just once more. I don't believe you're someone we can allow to live."
And then he vanishes, moving into a repetition of the attack he'd done before. Over and over, he came into view just long enough to let it be known that he was there. A blink from one location to the next as he circled the Kaguya, the space in the middle swiftly filling with the invisible, caustic gas.
Coming up here seems to have been a mistake. His attack didn't seem to really have done a lot. And Meruin's using that attack again. Dai falls onto one knee while coughing ferociously. He chuckles. "Fool, this isn't even my final form!" tm. Yuuka succesfully restrained Raijiclone and the goon squad. Raiji clone however suddenly collapses into a pile of dirt. Seems like he got out of range far enough for the jutsu to wear off. Dai sighs in relief. "There, go ahead. Kill me now, in the name of the Kaguya. We will rise from the ashes like a phoenix, proud to call ourself a Kaguya…" He grins. "And then, my bretheren will eat your family spider-boy. I heard insect is - very - protein rich…" He grins wickedly. Dang fanatics!
Seeing the clone dissolve into a pile of earth, Yuuka quietly clutches her hand at her side into a fist as she stares at it for a hard moment before shaking her head and pulling away, entering the room proper to get a full assessment of the situation now that Raiji was gone. Seeing the huge Kaguya fall to one knee and sigh with relief that he did his job, she feels her stomach clench unpleasantly. "Meruin…" she murmurs softer. "Do not give him what he wants."
Meruin stops flickering as the giant man found his way onto his knee in heaving coughs. And still he talked. Through the pain and the poison eating at his tongue and throat and the blood beginning to fill his lungs, he found the will and breath to speak his words. Kaguya were such resilient things. It could take this one quiet a while to die, should the Okumo wish. His hand found it's way into the giant's hair, fingers clenching tight and pulling his head back, not allowing him to curl up as he'd pleased.
He paused, though, at Yuuka's quiet request, the Okumo turning his calm gaze towards her. His head tilted slightly, examining the woman as whatever flickered through his mind took it's time. After a moment, the subtle tension that filled his form fled him, leaving him appearing relaxed and limber. And then he said, "But I must." He jerked Dai's head back once more. "It was his dying wish."
And then fangs flashed, diving into the Kaguya's heaving throat. Immediately, a paralysis would set into him and the Okumo began pumping highly concentrated acids into his throat. It dissolved the flesh of the throat, swiftly gushing down to begin liquifying pectorals, lungs, eating at bone, and then… heart. He drew the liquified flesh back up into his body, drinking it down and accepting it's nourishment. Kaguya, as it turned out, had plenty of protein themselves. And no small smount of calcium. He let the body fall and turned to look to Yuuka.
"You'll have to ravage this corpse and make a public statement. Immediately."
A silent moment passes before the man's head is roughly jerked back and transformed Meruin dives his fangs straight into his neck, effectively ripping into the throat and dissolving everything. Flesh, bone, tissue. Her lips part with a small breath as Yuuka approaches, quietly watching the remains dissolve further with an expression not sad nor angry. "I can not." she says quietly. "All of this, each Kaguya that gets killed in this conflict on my behalf, only proves his point. That we really have not advanced the way I had hoped, the ideals the Kaguya Elders have for our blood is nothing more than a pipe dream when we ourselves can not contain what is inside of us. He wants that sort of reaction to prove he is right."
"You must."
Meruin gestures towards the body at his feet. "This is the product of Raiji's influence. If he continues to have any, far more than this will happen. You do not have to be a pacifist to avoid being a senseless warmonger. You do not have to be weak to show that you do not crave power for power's sake. And if you try to represent either of these, then you relegate your clan to turmoil and decay. You, Yuuka, have a duty to do. In this respect, your personal feelings do not matter. What is best for the clan is what is best for you, and for your daughter." He steps forward, fangs flashing in an abrupt movement, piercing Yuuka's arm and escaping in an instant, leaving no wound behind. Indeed, she'd only feel a relief of pain as her wounds healed. "You will mutilate this corpse. And you will make a statement to your clan on Raiji's discrepancies. You know for a fact that he has not acted as a clansman should. Tell others. Tell everyone. They should know that they have as little to prove to this man as you do." He turns away from her then, examining their surroundings looking for any others. "We depart when it's done. We'll discuss your words en route."
Watching the mess of a corpse, Yuuka stares for a quiet moment before exhaling a small breath through her nose. "I know. I am not a pacifist, nor am I asking my clan to be so. But this will not help my cause I think, only strengthen sympathy for Raiji. That is, if he is not gaining his sympathy through his genjutsu." She doesn't glance as Meruin as he approaches, taking her arm and in a flash of an instant bites into her flesh. With as much as she endures with Shikotsumyaku, Yuuka doesn't flinch, however she does begin to feel the effects of healing quicker than usual. Twitching the hand that holds the spine whip of Clematis, she barely flicks the end of it to snap the head from the body, the bone spikes along the length creating more markings in effect.
"I know you cannot have forgotten the tenets of Kaguya," replies Meruin, eyes still turned outwards as he listens to the moist sound of flesh being rent. "Power. Domination. They know these things, they know battle, and they know honor. Raiji is a coward, who has fled from every single confrontation he might have with you. Your people will not follow a coward. Nor someone who has sought to manipulate them through genjutsu. That." A hand gestures in the direction of the corpse "Is a declaration of your power. While it is only a step towards marking your dominion, denouncing Raiji's should hurt his enough to compensate. And if his support is nearly fully gathered through genjutsu, it cannot effect everyone at all times. And it will have even less of an effect if we make everyone suspicious of his every word. He has fled. He will not be where we will be in the next ten minutes." He turns then, gesturing to the corpse. "Heft your statement. We have to start crafting your speech."
Orders given, he slips off of the roof.
