Starring:
Date: October 19, 2012
Summary:
None given.
"Kitsune Crisis Pt 4"
The Kitsune Realm in the Living Forest
"I'm glad to see you're all so willing to help." The larger kitsune starts as he stands before Fuuta and the others. He motions with his head for them to have a seat. The other kitsune gather around the group with eyes all brimming with hope and grace. The larger kitsune's eyes were a brilliant alabaster. He seems to have suffered a wound to his left hind leg but never the less he presented a powerful and wise front before the trio of shinobi. "As I said we'll start with recovering a few of our stolen starballs from some nearby Nogitsune strongholds. As you can see much of the life has faded from our realm. The three strongholds were once some of the most radiant and beautiful landscapes."
"The Living Forest. Once an area were the vegetation had as much diversity and personality as we did. The Cave of Times. A mystical cave where the past sometimes can be viewed by gazing into the crystal lined walls. The last stronghold finally is Sacred Shrine of Life where the newborn are brought to receive blessings. In that order you will venture to each location. Be warned however. There's no telling how the Nogitsune's influence has twisted and changed them." He finishes his explanation and looks to each of them. "Now if you're as willing as you say you are then you may begin. However you'll need a guide. I believe Yukihana has grown quite fond of….Sakuryu-chan?" he looks to Sakuryu. Fuuta blinks taking in all the larger kitsune said. "She likes to be called Raindrop." he smirks and looks to Saku then Soren. "Well I'm ready when you two are?"
The larger soldier fox gives a slow deliberate nod. "Very well, let's go off now so we waste no time." He starts towards the exit , allowing them to follow before he opens a side passage, flitting through the package at a decent speed, seeming to be following something unseen to the human eyes to the exit, soon emerging to the light a moment later. The glade they had entered into looked as if it were from a child’s dream… if the child had become fevered. The no doubt once beautiful foliage and crystal waters were twisted and blackened, the water looking ominous as it settles, gentle laps of the dark liquid caressing the sandy black shores. "This used to be the heart of the living forest…a place where life and the very spirit of people could be seen in the most beautiful of forms… now corrupted by a general of the Nogitsune…. Though this is by far not the worst you will see….or I have seen. Inside the heart of the shrine there will be traps, pitfalls, and encounters that will no doubt leave you battered and bleeding if you are not as fleet of foot as the wind. I suggest you turn back now for in this realm you do not die from fatigue and damage…no…" He gives a little dark grin. "You will slowly fade, your very existence fading till you are nothing, leaving your bodies as nothing more than husks with no mind or spirit to move with…" he looks them over seriously again. "Tell me once more… do you wish to go? Step forward and we will begin, but I would be very glad to spare your lives and take you home…"
The corruption of the forest twisted Fuuta's stomach and disgusted him down to his very being. Nature was something he was fond of and often took comfort in when alone. "It gets worse than this? Damnit all…" he growls under his breath. Fuuta grins as the soldier explains the risks should they become too careless in this world. "Well nothing worth doing is without risk. I can't turn back now just because of a few booby traps." Fuuta looks to Sakuryu then Soren. "You two take it easy and leave this part to the GREAT Yoko Fuutama. I'm as slippery as a fox. There's not a trap out there that can best me." he steps forward and looks to the soldier fox. He winks and looks forward eager to begin his task.
Sakuryu gulps a little bit "I'd hate to lose my mind…but I'd hate to not try more." As Fuuta goes forward and volunteers as he does "ugh tone back the enthusiasm a little…" She grumbles before nodding "Yeah I doubt they'd want my sick body slowing them down." She says with a little chuckle.
The fox nods and moves near the water’s edge. "You have to run fast…else you'll get caught." he says as he breaths out, energy flowing around his body before he whips his body hard, creating a cutting blast of air, he would stand by as the dark sickly muck spreads apart, ever so slowly making a path through the water before a door is revealed, once the path is held still the fox dashes off, pushing off the ground to get to the opening before the muck closes over the entrance once more.
Fuuta chuckles back at Sakruyu and pats her on the head. "It helps. You'll see when your time comes." Fuuta head alone with the fox and looks into the mucky waters. As the soldier fox gives his warning Fuuta nods understanding what he's saying. With the release of the wind Fuuta dashes or starts two but stumbles. His eyes widen. "My legs…" in this spirit form he had yet to use such extreme movements. He just got the hang of walking. "Crap." the muck oozes back onto him and he finds it stickier than tar. "Argh what is this stuff?" he struggles as it tries to stick to him. Something else occurs now. He feels the fade from before only this time stronger. He glances at his arm and he sees it flicker. The soldier fox's warning comes into mind now. "Oh boy…."
The soldier hits the door but sees the falter. "Damn so close." he growls and dashes and hits a gnarled tree, pushing off it and diving at Fuuta hard, the kitsune grabbing his scruff while only a little of the caustic liquid had gotten him, the fox throwing him onto shore as he hits the ground and tumbles himself, wincing as he hits his injured leg hard. "nnghhh. Are you okay?" he asks looking over the fading parts of Fuuta slowly. "Do you see the danger now?"
After Fuuta is saved he coughs a bit having got a bit of the muck in his mouth. He shakes his head and looks back at the murky water. When the kitsune ask him if he understands the danger Fuuta chuckles softly and muscles himself to a stand. "Just getting the kinks out this astral body. Don't worry about me." he stands up exhales slowly. "Alright let's do this." he shakes his head and tries to wake himself up shaking off the unnerving experience of fading away. "So what's next?"
The kitsune flickers his tail "What's next is what was first, stick closer this time, we'll try to get in there at once." He says before taking a breath, getting as close to the muck as possible before whipping even harder at the air, a large forced blast of air cutting the muck once more before he dashes off, making sure they would get into the door before the muck closed around them, the door looking as if it were some sort of secret tunnel deal, though Fuuta would only get a moment to look before the muck crashed around them again. With a little hmmm the fox looks around. "Be careful and walk lightly, even the slightest mis step might set off a trap.
Fuuta nods to the solider and chases after him after he splits the much again. Fuuta is getting the hang of moving but still wasn't as nimble as he is back in the human realm. Fuuta started to feel pretty good about himself now. "Hehe hey I'm getting the hang of this. Alright. Bring it on slightly creepy and decaying enchanted forest." Suddenly he trips over something and has to catch himself. His hands then press into a pressure plate and next thing Fuuta knows he's bombarded with poison tipped darts. "Oh….fffffox…" he hisses before he scrambles trying to evade as many of the darts as he can. "Ok perhaps this isn't going to be as much as a cake walk as I thought."
The fox gasps and tries to throw up a nice whip of air to knock away as many of the needles away though he misses some. "Damn, Please try to get this together." he says with a little twitch of his ears. "We still have a bit to go.." he says as they approach a long hallway, it looked as if the ground had long dissolved away, only bits of the holding beams were left for the ceiling. "With this we need to help each other… see we can't go here ourselves due to the lack of power…. please get on and we can share some power to get past here….give it a nice big boost…" he says lowering his neck so he could grab on, the fox wasn't too large bit being a spirit Fuuta would be able to do this a bit easier.
Fuuta comes to a stand after being saved by the fox again. He sighs "Hey you try moving in a fading body that you JUST got." he remarks looking to his form once more. It's nearly transparent now. Fuuta shudders at the thought of disappearing into nothingness. He'd doom more lives than his own with this failure. "Come on body get it together." Fuuta begins to growl softly making a fist. "I won't disappear here. Not in a hell hole like this." He blinks breaking the tension he was in and looks to the fox "Oh no offense. I was just kinda….motivating myself there-ANYWAY I'm ok." as the fox lowers his head Fuuta looks to him then the way before them. He sighs and climbs on "I guess I have no other choice."
The Fox flits over the beams after Fuuta Climbs on, large paw pads cracking and breaking the beams as it pushes off of them, flying through the air as it borrows fuuta's strength, barely making it as they land, a hard tumble coming to them as they hit the edge of the platform, Fuuta tumbling a little as he impacts. "F…f…final test." The fox says as he looks through a hallway, the room looks pitch black, there was an eerie feeling within. "None who have gone in have gone back…we don’t even know the nature of the traps set here or even if the Nogitsune have taken the orb from within
The tumble shakes Fuuta up but he's otherwise alright. He's more worried about the fox with the injured leg. "Hey are you ok?" he asks picking himself up. A soft grunt escapes him. It's getting hard to concentrate. He figured this was a side effect of having his body vanish. Fuuta turns and faces the darkness before them. "Huh. So I'm guessing that means these traps are especially dangerous." Fuuta steps forward towards the darkness. "Thanks for all your help but I think it's safer if I go it alone now." He stops glancing back to the fox. "I signed up for this so rest and leave it to me." The eerie feeling could be felt down to the last nerve. Fuuta knew that he was taking a big risk here and might not ever come back. "Hey you never gave us your name." he said before folding his arms.
The fox nods a little bit "Go with my blessing, I hope you can succeed where we failed." He says this with a grimace, obviously pained by the impact and the situation. "Gengoro….Make sure you make it back now Yoko Futama." He smiles a little bit and watches as the young man enter the darkness of the room
Fuuta smiles back and gives a thumbs up. "Gengoro. I like it. Nice name. We should get something to eat after all this is over. I owe you twice now." he chuckles. "Oh and in the event that I don't make it back. I want you to tell Sakuryu-chan…." Fuuta goes silent for a moment then shakes his head. "Nah forget it. I'll tell her myself." he laughs as he moves into the darkness. He felt a strange mixture of absent mindedness and surreal. He figured he was almost at his limit. It was one of the worst things being in the darkness like this unable to tell where the next trap is. Fuuta takes another step before he feels the floor shake. The vibrations beneath his feet alert him. "That that's your cue Fuuta." he mutters before taking off. He can feel the floor dropping behind him. He kept a good ways ahead of it though. He stumbled a few times but he was finally able to command his body somewhat decently. He reached safety on the other side. Fuuta sighs in relief. "That wasn't so bad…."
He continues to head onward hoping to find the orb soon. Just when his guard was about to drop spikes emerged from the floor. The first causes him to stumble and ultimately lose balance. He rolls and recovers though making his way across the spiky floors. It was a close call but with the orb in sight now he knew he was nearly home free. He reaches the altar and looks to the fallen Myobu atop the orb. Fuuta bows his head and offers a small prayer for the fallen kitsune. His eyes then go to the orb. "So this is it then? Never thought I'd get to see a Hoshi no Tama up close and personal like this…"
The traps almost got Fuuta but the tricky guy managed to really show his hand on the last deal just scraping by to get the orb, it was sealed inside of a small sack, a seal attached to the cord as he retrieved it. As the seal was broken and the Fallen Myoubu whose blood was tainting this very spot was absolved the darkness melted away, the traps were still there but now they could be more easily navigated, The soldier Gengoro meeting him as he comes out nodding. "Very good, let's get back quickly." He flickers his ears, leading Fuuta out a new path, tearing through some branches that were holding off a side entrance to bring them out in the forest behind the shrine. "Sorry we couldn't take this way before, It was better hidden and the muck door was honestly easier to get to." He says as he helps Fuuta out and back to the group.
Fuuta nods to Gengoro. "Yeah I've had all the fun I can take." he smirks. He follows Gengoro out through the back entrance with the orb. "Hey hey it's not a problem. I made it out in one piece. One rather transparent piece but one piece nonetheless. Never doubt Yoko Fuutama." Fuuta grins wide before winking at Gengoro. "Now to tell Raindrop and The Tough Cookie the good news."
