Starring:
Shuuren, Daoma
Date: May 30, 2016
Summary:
Daoma comes to observe Shuuren's completion of a weapon he's working on.
"Rebirth of the Blood Scythe - The Final Steps"
Daimyo's Training Area
After taking Imire along on the trip to grab the last pieces needed to complete the weapon, Shuuren has spent the last week in the underground oasis that is the lower level of his personal training area. Rather than a training area, this place has basically become a laboratory for his plant-based experiments. There is a rather ominous feeling coming from the area while he works, using chakra over and again as he has continually worked to cross-pollenate the various plants. This process has taken lots of time to force the cross-pollenation and quick growth to maturity to cross them again.
Adorned in his black combat attire, he stands before the mixture of plants that has continually grown to look more and more twisted through the jutsu. His hands move through seals once in a while, a look of determination in his eyes as he seeks to perfect the plant that will be used create whatever it is that he's trying to create. While he's been down here, he's had a Shadow Clone up top handling business, having powered it with natural energy so that it could stick around longer than normal, though obviously it would have to be replaced once in a while.
Daoma had spent a while watching the shadow clone, wondering if she could poke i with a pin or if that would be enough to destroy it. After a while she left another guard and went looking. Stepping through the training area and heading lower, she poked her head into the labratory, glancing about for traps or rigs. For another few moments she watched Shuuren at his work. She wasn't sure what he was working on but she did know something was a tad off in general and so she watched. He had ben poisoned and then shrugged it off, despite Daoma being extra serious on the way home. She crossed her arms quietly and leaned on the doorframe.
Shuuren's eyes remain locked ahead, though he's likely aware that Daoma has arrived. After moving through another set of handseals, he slams his hand down on the ground, summonining a white snake that appears around his shoulders. Once the snake appears, both close their eyes, beginning to meditate as it seems the next part of the process is beginning… Whatever he's doing is probably extremely serious and maybe even dangerous if the experiment requires the level of power he is preparing to use to make it.
Daoma knew better than to even pretend he didn't know she was there. But she remained quiet. She guarded him, though she had litle power compared to him. Still, when he slammed his hand and summoned the snake she blinked, eyes narrowing slightly as they both began to focus, preparing to do something with this plant. She calculated the distance between them then sighed quietly. Hopefully nohing would explode but at least if it did she could carry him out. Assuming that snake didn't get angry with her.
After the meditation goes on for a moment, Shuuren's body literally changes on the spot. His skin becomes white scales, his face serpentine, with purple markings along his eyes that resemble a snake's eyes, and a set of four horns sprout from the top of his head to give him rather dragon-like look. Were that not enough, when he opens his own eyes once again, they have turned purple and seem to actually glow with chakra.
With his transformation complete, the Daimyo goes right back to work. Instead of a plant jutsu, he reaches into a pocket on his jacket and withdraws a scroll, which he lays out on the ground in front of him before performing another quick handseal. A puff of smoke from the handseal reveals laid on it what appears to be pieces of a rather complex weapon, a segmented scythe like one might expect a shinigami to wield, crafted for flexibility obvious and even with a mechanism to allow the blade to turn. The weapon itself already looks rather ominous, deadly even. And then he opens another scroll to reveal specially crafted pieces of chakra metal that seem to have been made for this blade. Perhaps he plans on making an already ominous blade even scarier with these pieces and the plant jutsu he's been working on…
Daoma watched with a touch of curiosity on her face as he transformed. Strange how such a change could be alarming ad alluring. Still, she remained where she was until he spread that scroll and brought forth the scythe. She tilted her head and moved a bit closer, looking at the large weapon curiously and appraisingly. She did not get too close as she did not want tointerupt him or the process he spent so much time on. But she looked impressed.
"You can come a little closer if you want, but stay at least about twenty feet away," the voice of the Daimyo, now sounding rather serpentine in its smoothness, finally rings out as he looks over his shoulder at Daoma. "Be prepared in case you need to get behind something. The kind of poisons and toxins these plants have in them… Let's just say you really don't want to get hit by any of them." That said, he looks back ahead to the task at hand.
Moving through another set of handseals, Shuuren begins another cycle of accelerated life and death of plants though this insane cross-pollenation. It's like Daoma is getting to witness Shuuren sculpt evolution of this plantlife by hand into what he wants it to be, which is basically exactly what he's doing. Of course, judging by the sheer amount of foliage around these plants that wasn't there before, he likely started this process with a LOT of plants due to desire to get the traits he wanted and cross-compatability. There's no telling how many sets he's actually gone through over this time to get this to work. Were it not for his advanced Plant Manipulation abilities, this process would probably take decades to complete, maybe even lifetimes.
Daoma nodded and stepped forward, getting a better look at the various things beore Shuuren. His plants and the scythe… She flicked her crimson eyes over to watch him as he worked with the plants again. She found it strange how it was somehow enchanting to watch plants grow and mature so quickly, while still oddly ominous. Being at Shuuren's side had lately become more like poking a snake than usual as well. Daoma simply watched now… Observing, but ready to move if needed.
After going through a few more generations of plants, Shuuren stops for a moment and reaches into his shirt pocket again. Rather than a scroll this time, he withdraws what appears to be several bags of blood like one would expect to be used in transfusions. This might seem a little strange until it gets even stranger as he grabs a scalpel and opens them all to pour them around the bottom of the plants as if using it to water them.
As the blood begins to slowly soak into the ground, he shifts handseals and begins pushing the plants through further generations once again. After more generations, the plants begin to change to a darker color, slowly turning black as a likely indictator they have begun to feed on the blood as a source of nutrients.
Daoma blinked as he pulled out the blood bags. But when he 'watered' the plants with them she seemed to understand and whie others might be offended or frightened by it, Daoma only seemed to frown a little and glanced at Shuuren before watching the plants again. It was certainly interesting, and though she could guess the point of growing plants that fed on blood, she wnderd what his final aim was….
The plants go through more and more generations, whittling down more and more until it finally becomes on species of black vined and thorned plant. He shifts through another handseal then and sends the plant into the scythe, where it takes the chakra metal pieces and uses them to link itself into it. It seems to function almost robotically as it links the scythe's pieces back together like wires, becoming one with the scythe to in turn become the weapon itself as natural energy and his Tenjin chakra are fused into it to power the transformation through the chakra metal and the Blood Drinker to create a much more powerful weapon from what once was.
Daoma lifted an eyebrow as the plants turned and fused with the scythe. It was what she had expected but the appearace was a bit meaner than she had thought it would be. Still, a blood drinking plant and chakra metal scythe? She hesitated then stepped a bit closer, lifting her head and glancing toward shuuren, curious if the ritual was over or if he had more steps to perform.
It takes several more moments, but finally the weapon stops moving around, glowing with chakra for a moment before it finally becomes dormant as Shuuren drops his hands to his sides. He lets out a sigh of relief as the work is finally done, looking the scythe over before looking to her. "This was given to me by a guard you never met, from long before I was Daimyo. Its ability was that it sharpened itself through combat because blood sharpened it. Now I've given the abilities of the plant I created to mesh with it, thus why I needed the ability to survive on blood and chakra. All that power I gave it through the experiments does seem to have a certain unexpected side-effect, though. It's a bit worse for me because of how my chakra interacts with it, but great power is not without a cost."
Daoma turned her head as Shuuren began to speak, explaiig the weapon to her. It was something her brother would have deemed witchcraft (a fact that nearly made her snicker). But she stepped forward and nodded slowly as he spoke. Then she slipped around behind him and began rubbing his shoulders lightly. "It is impressive and while I do not want to see you in pain, I know that if anyone can survive this it is you."
As she starts to rub his shoulders, Shuuren takes a moment to enjoy that before saying, "It's not something that's dangerous to me." He gives a moment for her to think on it before pointing at the weapon. "Pick it up for a moment and you'll see what I mean." Should she decide to pick it up, she would feel something strange, almost like a voice in her head, but not quite… Something more empathic, as if the scythe itself is implanting its thirst for blood into her through its touch, tempting her to kill.
Daoma paused in her massage to peer at the blade. Picking it up she stopped to feel it's pull then smirked and stroked the back of the blade. "Silly. I am samurai. I'm used to controlling my bloodlust." Setting it back down gently she stood and looked toward Shuuren. "I will be certain to warn the other guards to allow you to pick it up if it is dropped in their presence." She slipped back over behind him and continued working on he knots in his shoulders and neck. "Is it done then, your great project?"
"You're only feeling a small taste of it because it's linked to my chakra right now," Shuuren points out. "Where it's basically whispering to you, it's more like a chant or a scream to me. If I let you feel its full power, you might not find it so mild." He then looks over at her and lifts an eyebrow as she starts to massage again. "The weapon is not for common knowledge. Don't mention to anyone… But, yes, it's done." With that he takes a step forward and brings his hands into a seal again, causing the scroll to take the scythe back into itself once more to cut off its call from the mind of the Daimyo. "Now… onto other things."
