Starring:
Nanashi (under the name Keiko), Arika (as Masao), Kuoroke, Tsuchi
Date: October 21, 2014
Summary:
Keiko finally catches up with the man who destroyed her life, but the consequences of what she’s done to get here may come back to bite her in a big way.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"The Unknown Reflection - Keiko’s Wrath"
Land of Wind - A small village in the far northwest area of the country
Mid-morning has set in on the Land of Wind, and the sun is blazing hot upon the sands of the desert and its unfortunate travelers. One small village in the very northwest corner of the nation is particularly unfortunate this day because it is exactly where Keiko, the mad Jinchuuriki, has tracked her ultimate target to. It's taken a lot of investigative work, generally of a nastier nature, to get here, but at last it seems she's going to get to exact her vengeance upon this man along with the village foolish enough to take him in. Of course, she figures by now that the people of this country that wish to stop the destruction are close to catching up to her as well, so she must move quickly…
Standing on the outskirts of the village, her form shaped to look like a common merchant girl, Keiko looks over some papers she's collected. The address is pretty simple, though there is some discrepancy on a few details of the place she's looking for, and she may only get one shot at this… It has to be right…
Masao, the man who Keiko is tracking down, is in hiding. He heard the rumors about the One-Tails running rampant trying to find him, and he's been leaving various red herrings behind him to try and avoid her wrath. He doesn't know that he's already been found… The small hut that he's living in for the time being is littered with seals. Strong ones in preparation to try and stop the Jinchuu that's after him if she catches up. When she catches up. He's being cautious, of course…
The man can't help but think to some degree that the experiment was a success. Keiko has been able to progress with the Bijuu, and she, while extremely violent, has displayed very valuable data. This data he makes sure to hide in a box that's enclosed by many strong protective seals. If he dies, at least his research will live on!
As soon as Keiko's track was figured out, Kuoroke set out intercept her, accompanied by Tsuchi, with her greater experience in facing this particular enemy. "We have to minimize collateral damage. Draw her out of the village as far as possible. That's the very first priority." He instructs, changing his glasses for a pair of more durable goggles as they approach the village. "That's priority number one. The secondary goal is to capture her." As they skirt one more dune, he peers at the village in the distance. "Come on, we have to hurry."
A nod is given by Tsuchi and she looks toward the village. "I will do what I can. I have a new technique that I can use. We will put an end to this." Performing the ritual, a moment later Sora appears ready and she explains the situation before he nods to Kuoroke and salutes.
After looking over the information a bit more, Keiko finally starts to move, seemingly just a merchant girl casually moving around the village. When she finally comes upon the hut, a sly grin touches her lips as she inspects it over, spotting the seals and such. "Here we are," she says, approaching it and emitting a low hmm before she holds a hand forward, firing several shots of sand at various points of the structure with intent to knock it down or at least test how much the seals actually protect him inside before she decides how she's going to approach getting him out or getting herself inside.
The seals actually hold up quite well. They were placed carefully to form a wall of energy that defends the house from attacks. One of them, however, is a bit too weak. A line wasn't quite right on it. So the barrier fails, cracking and breaking. The shot of sand ends up going through the wall, which alerts Masao to Keiko's presence. He scrambles a bit, collecting everything and quickly making sure that box of research is tucked away hidden. Quickly, he slaps an invisible seal on himself to make it more difficult for Keiko.
"There!" Kuoroke points, rushing towards the scene of the beginning combat. "Sora, Tsuchi, help me clear the area of civilians." He casts an experienced eye on the seal walls. "We've got time, but not much." With that, he slides off towards the houses nearest to the assaulted huts, throwing around orders to evacuate.
Another nod given and Sora starts off immediately to the right, heading into the eastern part of the village saying, "You got it, Kuoroke. I'll make sure the message is spread but remember me later at dinner!" With that he is off.
Tsuchi, for her part simply puts on a rare serious look as she moves to get people who are closer in. She breathes in deep and states, "Don't worry. I'll be putting the wind between them and danger." She salutes and starts directing people out.
Where's one place you don't want to try to screw with a being made of sand who can control it? Probably in a place made of it completely. Keiko doesn't really appear to be casting any jutsu at this point, but she has tapped into the sand under her feet quite easily to know Masao's location. She ponders a moment the merits of seeing him die with her own eyes versus not getting the chance at all before she makes a decision and brings her hands into a seal. Suddenly her body begins to take in mass amounts of sand, turning her back into her normal form, except what appears to be a helmet comprirsed of a model of Shukaku's face surrounds her head, her clothes turning into decorated armor of sand as she grows to a bit over ten feet tall. On top of that, sand then begins to pull up on the hut, covering it several times over before it suddenly implodes violently, intending to block any chance of escape while also trying to deal a grievous injury to the seal barrier, the hut, and Masao himself.
Masao, as mentioned, knew that Keiko was coming for him. Even though he ends up buried by a ton of sand, he makes a handseal to activate one of the traps he laid out near his house. This one was a draining seal that happened to be just outside his door. Why didn't he use that earlier? For now, he just attempts to hold his breath and dig his way out of the sand, the Uzumaki not very fond of the idea of drowning…
Apparently, the seal-maker's craft isn't as good as Kuoroke had hoped, and the time they had to evacuate isn't as short. The Councilman decides now is the time to attack: he pulls off his cloak, casting it aside, and moves in, lines along his limbs and around his torso lighting up brightly. "Move the target out of the village!" He barks at his companions as he takes off. His first attack isn't intended to injure Keiko, just to move her: he tackles her with his full strength, then grabs her to physically throw her further away from the village.
A nod and she let's out a whistle to Sora who comes running, "You got it, Kuoroke." She rushes along with Sora who flips around to send a blast of wind with his tail toward Keiko even as Tsuchi performs some quick gestures that calls down a swirling orb of wind that bursts out into a small cyclone. She then whips up another at that sandy grave. Sora speaks up, "I'll distract her!" A nod to him and Tsuchi rushes to the sand she tried to blast away to try to grab and move Masao away.
Kuoroke's strike would almost seem to go unnoticed, as it just passes through the woman's body like he's merely punching through a structure of sand, before she lifts off into the air above Masao's seal's reach and out of the way from Tsuchi's attack. A low growl escapes her lips as she asks, "Didn't your mommies ever teach you not to meddle in other people's games?" From her perch, she lifts her hands, causing massive amounts of sand to gather in the air above her like an enormous cloud that then begins to rain down basket-ball sized hail upon the village, intending to destroy everything and everyone inside it along with bringing hurt to her main target as well as the ones who just made themselves a part of this.
Masao finally gets out of the sand, gasping for air briefly and coughing a few times. He glances behind him to see Keiko fighting two shinobi and attempts to take his leave again, slapping an invisibility seal onto himself to try and snake away from the battle. He doesn't even bother to check up on the box that contains his research. He just wants to get out of here!
Kuoroke deploys his shields to deflect the striking balls of sand, but doesn't anticipate that they'd navigate around those shields and strike him. Still, he perseveres: after a powerful swing at her, he moves past her, towards the outer edge of the village, hoping she'll follow him.
The punch passes right through Keiko once again, who almost seems to ignore Kuoroke's presence, though in truth she's simply including him in her massive attacks. As she looks around, trying to spot Masao again from her perch, she growls a bit then brings her hands into a seal. "You coward, come back here and take your punishment… Tell me, do you know what you did to me? This noise in my head, what was I was trapped inside that cell with for what seemed like centuries… Can't you hear it?" Then the drums would start, attempting to take hold of the minds of the shinobi as they start… 1 2 3 4… 1 2 3 4… 1 2 3 4… 1 2 3 4… 1 2 3 4… They seem to carry on for ages, a madenning yet somehow soothing sound that gets louder and louder as the beat goes on. "Here come the drums…. They're coming for you, Masao… You can't escape them. Just like me… YOU CAN NEVER ESCAPE THEM!"
Masao uses the time he's hiding to create one of the more ultimate sealing techniques. It's in play, now. The seals are placed carefully, and he made sure none of them had the imperfection that his earlier seal wall contained. His voice rings out to answer Keiko, figuring that by this point, it's useless to stay hidden. "I know /exactly/ what I did, Keiko. And you were an excellent experiment. The data I gathered will be useful for the future, and you'll have played the miraculous role in this!" He can't keep the note of fear out of his voice, but he activates the seal, and hundreds of chakra threads shoot out to wrap around Keiko in an attempt to bind her in place. They seem to have a draining effect as well.
Kuoroke notices the attack and decides to help the old man for now. As the seals unwrap, so do the lines already glowing on his body: they erupt from his skin, splitting and stretching into sheets of translucent, glowing armour, which grows and grows. It's easy to move someone if you can punt then with a swing of a boot, which isn't too far from what the titan is doing. As he grows, he charges towards her, jabbing with a knee. The jab seem to come up short, if it weren't for the blade jabbing out at the very last second. The Kuroki raises his armour's knee, swinging towards it with his elbow: if the Jinchuuriki is impaled by his attack, another blade will draw her off and throw her far off.
Having had little to no impact on the situation with the Scientist, Tsuchi tags Sora to move the last of the people out of the way. As she watches the attacks go back and forth as she moves people, Tsuchi races back in toward the back of Keiko even as the seal is put in place. She rushes in with Sora, patting fists with him before they both go wide and Sora flips as he sends in an absolute storming barrage of kunai, senbon and throwing stars made completely out of lightning even as Tsuchi sends a massive gust of wind right at Keiko attempting to knock her up and off her feet, the wind to restrain her and the lightning to drain her. Even as they finish, Sora races up to beside Kuoroke and states, "I can't get the man out of the village if he won't go. He really shoudl move but ya know how some of you humans can be, stubborn."
He chuckles before Tsuchi appears behind him with a 'Gibbs Smack' to the back of the head before saying, "We'll give it another go if we can't stop her here." She nods and then spins around to face Keiko more directly after those attacks and prepare for another go.
Had Keiko properly judged this man's power, she'd have crushed the village in on top of him from the beginning… But now she pays the price as the seal latches onto her and drains the last of her chakra, binding her as he roars out in pain. "You outburst," she growls out ferally, her limbs bound uselessly as even her body of sand jutsu comes to a halt to leave a flesh and blood woman bound in this seal with no hope for escape as the Jounin Councilman rushes toward her with the blade that pierces her gut mercilessly. Her eyes look up at him with a fury and sadness as she feels the next gust of wind that serves to further trap her in this seal as weapons of lightning fiercely pierce her and send blood flying out. "No," she growls out, though much weaker as she tries to gather herself. "No… Why won't they stop?… Even now… They're just getting louder… louder…. louder……." Her form begins to quake, some of her wounds beginning to heal themselves from the inside out as she coughs up blood onto the ground in front of her. "I won't… die… I won't… die… I won't die," she repeats over and over again before her eyes finally shoot up at Masao. "WITHOUT KILLING YOU!"
Masao sees that his experiment (yes, that's all she sees Keiko as) has been effectively trapped and drained of most of her energy. He hops down from his perch and just casually walks over to the raging Jinchuu, taking a seal from his pouch. It's intricately designed, and the Kanji in the middle says 'Memory'. The man focuses a bit of chakra and places it on Keiko's head, which is fairly easy to do with her bound in the seal. "Don't worry, you'll forget all that rage soon, Keiko-chan. Hmm… I ought to come up with a new name for you… Should I leave that to you, Councilman?" he asks, turning to Kuoroke.
Masao bows slightly. "Thank you for being here, Kuroki-dono. Things might have turned out a lot worse if you and your team didn't show up. The seal on her right now will block all memories she has, so you might need to re-educate her if you want her in this form."
As soon as Kuoroke sees the Jinchuuriki subdued he shrinks again rapidly, the seals becoming inactive. The Kuroki takes a deep breath: this went with less collateral damage than he'd feared. He looks at the seal master. "We will." the Kuroki promises. "I'll also do my best to keep your whereabouts secret, as soon as we find you a new, less… destroyed abode. On a side note," while talking, the Kuroki takes off his goggles, and now slides the glasses back on his face, "the Kazekage would be quite interested in your research… as would I."
Despite all of Keiko's rage, she suddenly looks rather taken a back, if not fearful with she sees the man of her nightmares approaching with that seal. "No… Stop, you tantrum! STOP!" As the seal is applied, however, the color leaves her face, and her head drops to leave her in an unconscious state.
Within her mind, she opens her eyes to find herself on the sandy floor of the place she trapped Shukaku, looking up at him as he grins down at her and actually starts laughing rather maniacally as binds of chakra take hold of her limbs and yank her toward her cage. Despite her struggles, she is ripped up from the sandy terrain and bound within it as new doors appear on the cage and slam shut in her face. "NO! PLEASE NO! LET MET OUT OF HERE!" she shrieks as she pushes with all her might to pound on the cage doors as the world around her begins to go black once again to the sound of the never-ending drums… 1 2 3 4… 1 2 3 4.. 1 2 3 4… 1 2 3 4….
A look at the scene and Tsuchi frowns deeply as does Sora. Sora looks like he might say something and she grasps him by the scruff a moment, not that she could so simply stop him but he listens to the silent sentiment. She watches the thing go into place before looking over at Kuoroke, looking to Sora with a soft petting before looking to him again, "I don't like this…not a single bit of it." She shakes her head, "We need to extract the One Tail and be done with this poor woman." She looks at Masao with distaste before shaking her head and looking down a moment before looking to Kuoroke, "I will say…before very long…some things will have to change in the Land of Wind." She nods and then pulls Sora along, "Lets go get something ot eat once we secure our prisoner."
