Starring:
Date: July 29, 2015
Summary:
Arika is faces with herself once again, but this time she knows what to expect. It is that foreknowledge that helps her keep calm and continue on with her training.
"The Eighth Tailed Beast: Keeping Calm"
Sub-Levels [Sunagakure]
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The library is the first sub-floor of the Administration Dome. It is literally just down the stairs on the east side of the Kazekage Administration Dome and it is located one floor below the lobby/ground-floor of the structure. The Library is publically accessible and has a variety of texts in the form of books, scrolls, and similar. Below the Library, on Sub-Level 2, the Records Department lies. These records are more or less also publically accessible and thus there is next to nothing stored there that might be considered "secret" or particularly relevant to the business of ninja. The two floors below the Records Department both comprise Sub-Level 3, or "Restricted Access Records Department". It is guarded, watched, and requires authorization to enter — especially for foreigners, who may also be escorted. The only Sub-Levels lower than 3 are not actually part of the Dome structure at all. Sub-Level 5 and lower are called simply "the Catacombs". The Catacombs are a vast network of underground tunnels that predate Sunagakure by centuries, or perhaps millennia.
People stay out of the Catacombs.
They are very bad.
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After taking some time to eat a meal and relax, Arika would be brought back to the Catacombs by her sensei for the time being, Miyako. The One Tail Jinchuuriki has been much more serious throughout this training, acting a bit more like a person the Sand Village would probably rather forget existed, but it takes a person who's been through this training before to instruct someone through it. Standing back in the center of the room where they've been training, Miyako waits patiently for Arika's return with her arms folded over her chest and eyes closed, seeming to be in a meditative state of her own almost.
Arika comes back to the underground caverns after all that relaxing. She's not all that eager to go back to that dark place, but she has to. Especially if she wants to get out of Suna and stretch her legs. "Here!" Arika says, bounding into the caverns despite her reluctance to even come. "I gotta do that same thing, right, Miya-chan?" Arika asks a bit uncertainly. She can't help but look hopeful that Miyako might say she /doesn't/ have to go back and face the shadow.
As Arika arrives back, Miyako smiles and opens her eyes to look back over at her. At the question, she nods and says, "Yes, but I hope you've had time to think over what exactly you need to do. A better perspective is to remember that these are your feelings, the darkest corners of your subconscious. It's not something you can't pretend doesn't exist or is actually someone else entirely if you want to make it to the next step of this training. You have to learn to accept that such things are a part of you, are a part of anyone, but they do not have to define you or hold you back."
Arika sighs a bit. "I know…" I just don't wanna. The girl doesn't look happy at all as the last of her hopes are dashed. She plops down into the middle of the area, where she had sat before. Footprints in the sand are easy to see when the sand is almost never distrubed. "You gotta use that genjutsu on me, right? Le's do this already." Impatient, even if depressed. Well, that may or may not be a good thing.
"I know it's hard now, but you have no idea the burden you'll lift from yourself and how much stronger you'll be for doing this," Miyako says then nods and sits down across from Arika. "Here we go then," she says before the Genjutsu would start to take hold of Arika once more to sweep her away into her subconscious. 1 2 3 4… 1 2 3 4… 1 2 3 4… 1 2 3 4…
1 2 3 4… 1 2 3 4… 1 2 3 4… 1 2 3 4… That beat pounds through her body and seems to cast a sort of spell on the young girl as she focuses on calming her breath and slowing her breathing overall. The girl finds herself in that cavern again. It is empty, though. Completely. And then shadows begin to swirl and form the Shadow Ari. ~Come back for more, I see? It looks like your 'friend' isn't here. He's a little thief, remember. You need to watch out for him,~ the other taunts. Arika clenches her fist and forces herself to remember what Miyako said. Violence wasn't the answer… She had to accept this person… What she was saying… But… "Jiro-kun is my friend!" she argues.
She's at least starting to get there… Maybe there's hope that this will be the time Arika accomplishes this. Miyako simply watches and listens for now through their link, waiting to see what becomes of this meeting between Arika and this dark incarnation.
~If he's your friend, then why are you so worried? He's going to steal everyone away from you. Kaidan. Itami. Rikuto. Ayumu… So many of them are more interested in him than you. You're just interesting because of the eight tails! You'd be nothing without Gyuki, and yett… You hate him, too. So much hate for such a young child. So much jealousy…~ Arika chokes back a cry of frustration, but can't seem to reply to the darker Ari for now. All she can do is swallow back the urge to fight this girl with her fists: the first instinct in her body.
"Come on, Arika… I know you can do this," Miyako says, his voice stern and encouraging, though she's not totally sure if Arika will hear her right now. This task has to be accomplished if there's any hope of completing the next.
Arika doesn't attack. She is… starting to get some acceptance in her. All the things that Shadow-Ari was saying… they were true. And, while she hated herself for it, they were all thoughts she herself had. "I don't wanna have all those feelings… But if I gotta bear them…" she mumbles… "You… You're not 'you'. You're me. And I gotta accept that. So… I'll try not to hate myself too much… For feeling all that stuff…" She offers a hand to the shadow Arika, who takes it. Then the Other Ari starts to fade away, shadows not disappearing, as those shadows are always there, but they break away from the shadow-Ari and join with the 'real' Arika.
