Starring:
Date: November 17, 2010
Summary:
After a long journey from a far off land, Suzuyami encounters a giant sand beast while at the verge of passing out. Rescued at the last second by an unknown person.
"Enter Suzuyami!"
Somewhere just west of Sunagakure
A cool, early Morning Out in the Desert:
A long trail of shifted sands would run across a stretch of the desert, slowly fading away under the winds. The trail as straight as one can be within the uneven terrain of the desert, a trail left behind by a traveler. This traveler would be known as Suzu, definitely not one of her best days, insanity slowly seeping in. Vision blurred, she wasn't sure how much longer she could went on with such an unlucky streak of finding no food or water. Even for being in the desert this was troublesome, to the point where she could no longer think properly, all that would process through her mind would be the ragged breaths running in and out of chapped lips until a voice started to flood her mind…
'You're going to die out here. There is nothing out here, not a single friend or family, not even an enemy.'
Suzu would do her best to ignore the cruel sounding whisper of her own voice and continue to move along.
'Yes, that's right, nothing to even devour you, you will simply waste away in the desert sands. You see it now, do you not? Everything of the east, fabricated just like the story of demons. You are well aware that demons have nothing to do with this, they may not even exist.'
Suzuyami would stop, looking into her makeshift clothing to inspect a few containers, blood samples held within. Blood samples that she secretly withdrew from her father as she had a feeling from the start that this had been some sort of poison. The lack of knowledge, it is what kept the Shaman a simple, peaceful people… she did not neither to trouble them with what she could see.
'They knew it too, you were superior though they did not know how much more you were. Why make such a dangerous journey for this man? Because he is blood? Because he is your father? That will mean nothing years from now, especially within a small group of people that are nearly unknown. Just collapse into the sands and die, just as they will in time you are occ-'
Suzuyami would gain focus, the maddening thoughts would combine into an entity before her, a shadowy form of herself. The two would stare each other down, Suzu would hope it was a dream though she felt too aware to be within one. This was her first hallucination that was not induced by drugs, she was unaware of it, it had felt so real. The girl would not know what to say to the shadow, deep within her she knew that those were the repressed thoughts that she tried so hard to hide. The silence would continue for days(Five minutes in all truth) as the two entered a meditative stare down.
The silence would suddenly be broken by the screech that sounded all too familiar. A large bulge in the sand would start to charge their way before a beast erupted from the ground. Suzu would look to the shadow for help as she struggled to get her weakened limbs moving but, the shadow would just smile a wisp away leaving her to her death.
Sand would pour from the sides of the beast, hundreds of yards long. A sand worm of ridiculous proportions would let out a deadly screech, only half of its body out of the sand though it was enough to blot out the sun as it made the already small Suzuyami to look nothing more than a spec in the sand.
Kuoroke has had the chance to finish what he was doing and has been warily watching the person powerful enough to brave the desert on her own, trying to get an accurate perception of her ability. When the worm bursts from the sand, he grits his teeth, and removes his gloves. His face becomes hard, warlike, while he continues adapting his attire by taking off his glasses and replacing them with a pair of goggles. The entire change takes not more than the few seconds it takes him to stand up. Prepared as he is for a fight, however, he does not act yet. If she's in the middle of the desert like this and alive, he may want to see what else she can pull off first.
The girl knew she could not kill such a thing again, at least not in this condition, she could not rely on a heavy stroke of luck to aid her in taking it down either. Trembling fingers would slide into her clothing, reaching for her metal claws only finding that the weight of them would make her quite useless.
It would seem she was short on good ideas, 'There has been worse…' Her eyes would shift left and right behind the dark goggles. 'I believe.' As her mind slooowly ran through ideas on escape, it would eventually come to mind that all the did worm was screech some more. It was as if it wasn't after her at all, though it couldn't be sheer coincidence that she had ran into this thing so many times. 'If the desert was swarming with them, then how could something so large be in masses and go often unnoticed?'
Gently her hand in the air, the thing would continue to screech, causing the desert sands to shake, Suzu feeling she was slowly becoming deaf in the process. 'Deaf… that's it!' Reaching into her clothing, she'd pull out a vial tossing it off to the side, having it smack against a rock that just so happened to be nearby. Shattering, the vial would cause a loud noise as the crimson liquid within splatters against the sand and rock. Without hesitation the worm would quickly adjust, diving in the direction, devouring rock and all.
Suzuyami would use this opportunity to run the other way, continuing to head east in the direction of the Sand Village. Though the commotion of the worm would stop and so would Suzuyami, just to be safe. She needed more distractions… though she could not toss any more of those vials.
Kuoroke watches. He quickly picks up his gloves and regular glasses, and storing them somewhere in his robe, follows the girl. He fully recognizes the threat this creature poses to anyone caught alone out here, and wastes no time, moving at full speed, rapidly enough to catch up to the girl. "Got a death-wish? Move!" He barks at Suzuyami as he moves past her. On his feet, tattoos light up and fold out, over the soles of his sandals as he prepares to speed up further.
"Grwr. REEEEEEEEEEEE" Agitated? Perhaps this thing was, Suzuyami couldn't really tell. Though the ooze dripping, razor filled hole of the worm looked nothing but appalling there wasn't really any positive emotion it could express. She'd study it, curiosity a strong factor in her sitting around. Though she was also waiting for another heavy gust of wind to mask her next steps, lacking the grace of a ninja herself.
Looking off into the distance, she would see the sand start rolling their way and she'd prepare to make her next move only for Kuoroke to come out of nowhere and yell out to her. Her body would twitch, obviously frightened by the first human being she has come across in a while. "Uh, wha?!" There was no time to think, there was another human being. It was enough to make her body reflexively leap out of the sands and run Kuoroke's way with an energy that wasn't even known until now.
Through tunnel vision and muscles that were on fire, she'd press on. The worm would thrash their way, signalled by the yelling from Kuoroke, narrowly missing Suzuyami and slamming its face into the sand. For a moment it would be confused, though quick to pick up the chase, the drooling monstrosity rather quick for its size. "SKREEEEE!"
The teen's heartbeat was uncomfortably wild as it pumped its tired self, trying to keep the oxygen flowing. "I- Where-" Suzuyami would just give up, she lacked the air to speak for the time being.
Kuoroke watches his enemy move, and keeps moving himself. After a quick cost-benefit analysis, he decides he has no interest in fighting the creature. The benefit its death would give does not weigh up to the potential injuries he could suffer. If there was someone that could then drag him to the village, sure, but this cr- Kuoroke's decision is made, he cuts off his train of thought and moves on to action. The tattoos that have folded onto the bottom of his feet allow him to slide over the surface of the sand like an ice skater. He moves towards Suzuyami, as if charging her, with even a hand held low as if readied for a punch. Its goal is different, however: when he slides past her, he simply grabs at her, aiming to simply haul her off.
'My heart… it…' Suzuyami did all she could to ignore it though her brain would keep yelling at her, that her heart will explode if she kept this up. Though, risk the chance of explosion of a highly important muscle or, the one hundred percent chance of being devoured?
The decision was obvious and, she would make up for the aching legs by falling forward on all fours, scrambling to keep up though slowly falling behind. Her vision would blur, she'd start losing awareness though before her eyes went and completely shut on her, she'd spot the only thing that appeared to be a friend turn around to attack. 'It was… a good life. Though I failed…' Suzuyami would've tripped, though fall right into the grip of Kuoroke. He would find that the weight of the girl was nothing too serious at all, the tiny figure's weight mostly from the muscle she had gained as she was scrawny at that. Whatever the outcome was, would be in the hands of Kuoroke, though he would easily start to pull away from the beast. Its intelligence slacking as it doesn't think of continuing to go straight now that it didn't have a sound to follow, it would simply stop and continue on with its screeching, eventually disappearing beneath the sand once more.
As consciousness fluctuated, Suzu could've sworn she was flying in the sky all of a sudden. Her mind set her to envision clouds all about her, the half dream-stated brain would try to make sense of her being carried without actually knowing she was being carried. The dream would carry her all the way back to her village, feeling defeated, until she had come across an old mentor of her that had died long ago. A gentle smile on her face, words from the past filling her with a new sense of hope. 'You are the only one… Suzu-chan.' Words that she had heard many times, many times from that old woman. Though something about them made her feel much more important in this world, that seemed to be getting larger and larger as she continued to live life. She couldn't give up now.
Only one to what? For what? The dream need not be clear, it was enough to cause her to relax. Kuoroke would probably notice her turn in to complete dead weight at this point as he made his great escape.
Kuoroke ignores her complaining about her medical problems. If he were a medic, he could done something about them, perhaps, but as things are, he can't do anything about them, anyway. He just makes sure he's holding her comfortable, her feet aren't dragging too badly to slow him down, and rushes towards the village if Sunagakure. He throws a look at the limp body hanging in his hand, wondering if she's alive. But if nothing else, getting her to the village would allow him to identify her. She could have some interesting information attached to her, and even if not, Sousa would get to take a look at her heart, whatever's wrong with it.
