Mission name: Target: Kagami (One-time)
Mission rank: B
Objective: The unification of the Unmei and the Spider Clan is about to happen!
Location: Any
Reward: 500 ryo

Mission Description: Take down Kagami, 'twin' Unmei leading the Kossetsu faction.

Mission Details: 2500 wc
Kagami could, aside from the ice blue hair, be considered a twin to Haka. The resemblance with her and with Sero is so striking that she truly believes herself to be the both of them, among other Unmei bearing a resemblance. Kagami, always talking in the plural form believes it is her rightful position to be Sero, seeking the destruction of his offspring until she has achieved the power to replace him. Perhaps it is no coincidence to find her out on the battlefield with this eerie perfect timing.

---

Name: Kagami
Age: 3 (spider age)
General Appearance: [x]
Personality: Cold, apathetic, suffers from dissociative identity disorder
Goals: Becoming Sero.
Abilities: B rank ninjutsu, genjutsu & Unmei KKG, B rank suiton
Strength: B-0, Endurance: B-0, Speed: B-0, Perception: B-3, Reaction: B-2
Items: -

The first of quiet nights had settled over Spider Island in a long time. The war that waged over the environment was slowly dying down. The most threatening factions had been dealt with, intruders taken out, points being made like only an Unmei could. Haka sighed deeply, her breathe forming small clouds high on top of the manor. She had slipped out of her own room to sit on the roof in her white dress. If the servants had seen her, they'd complain about her dress getting dirty since that seemed to be the thing servants were supposed to do, but the 'lady' cared little for such trivialities. To say she disliked it was perhaps strong, the girl sitting here legs folded, enjoying the subtle scent of a perfume once offered as a gift. Along with her long, white hair that was still wet from the bath she came to take just minutes ago, and the rare expression of a softer expression, she very much have looked like a lunar maiden with the way the moon illuminated the entire area at this point in the night.

Haka felt tired though. Not tired from a lack of sleep but more so exhausted by the prolonged warfare that had taken place. She had lost count on how many of her siblings she had slain to bring forward the unification of the entire clan. An endeavour far larger she had anticipated, for the opposition was not to be trifled with. Swaying her feet gently, her mind roamed towards those who were lost to the cause. Even if the island had returned to a certain peace there was still work to be done. Much work. Kagami's faction was still around and she had a couple of fugitives to take down. The lair had to be build and she had Summons to train. So much to do.

The spider knew well she was not alone now. With the death of a few power players among her kin, lost spiders were looking for a new lead. They had assembled, gathered under her growing power and influence. Sero the rightful Creator, his daughter the new rising Queen. But what about Momma? It was strange to hear her arachnid siblings gossip like humans, trying to figure out what the next step was. Some had dared to ask her. And they had been given their reply. "What about Momma? Momma remains Momma". As if she had any intention to replace her own mother. Haka was not the Spider Sage Animal. Haka was Haka. The Mother would always remain the mother, Haka merely used her growing power to give the spider clan a direction. Preferably before her life would come to an end.

How long did an Unmei live anyway? Most spiders didn't last a year. The oldest Unmei she met was five, maybe six years old. Instinct tended to drive them towards a fast-paced life. A fast-paced life rarely ended into a peaceful slumber. Brushing her white hair out of her eyes, Haka mused that she didn't care about a peaceful life either way. Dying on the battle field sounded like the most normal thing to do. But she was four years old already. An age far surpassing that of most of her sibling. Inching closer to that of the 'elder Unmei'. Would she be able to stretch her life? Reach seven, maybe eight years?

Haka shook her head. This sort of nonsense was for humans. Thinking about the future. If she fell out of purpose, Sero would give her purpose. If she fell out of prey, she would find prey in other Villages. If she fell out of reasons to wage war, she would wage war with humanity. It mattered not. Haka would see her clan evolve and die on the battle field like the huntress she was. Determination rekindled, the arachnid would stand up and enter her bedrooms through the open windows. Feeling oddly more tired than she usually was.

---

669

Mirrors. The entire manor was build out of mirrors. The reflective glass indistinguishable from the windows that gave the manor some transparency. From top to bottom, mirrors. Raising from her bed, Haka could instantly tell something was not right. A dream? She never dreamed. But... she was never this tired before either. Her bare feet would touch the cold floor of her bedroom, a dozen of Hakas mimicking her behaviour. Apathetic red eyes would glide over their existence. Their regal countenance noticed as they returned her gaze. The countenance of an heiress having decided to take over command. To rule over her land as fair as as judgement's blade. The similarities were Sero were so similar it was almost scary. Was he not the judge, jury and executioner over this land? Was she not doing the same, judging the rogue Unmei as traitors and executioner them on that account?

No. She was not Sero. She was Haka. Pulling her eyes away from the mirrors, she'd move to towards the spot where her door should have been. Just another mirror now. With a knob. She swung it open, walked through it. Ended in a hall of mirrors. And moved on. Through the mirror hallway mimicking her movement. The movement of a regal heiress. Taking over the land. ruling it as fair a judgement's blade. Haka would halt. Were her thoughts looping now? Weird. She wasn't used to dreams, so she had no idea what they were like. This world didn't make sense but all together it did make sense. She had been chasing Sero in hopes to understand the enigma he was to her. She resembled him. It would make sense that dreams mingled all of that into some hotch-potch. But why did it feel like she was being watched?

Haka would move forward again. Reach the end of the hallway and walk down the stairs to the second floor. But she heard strange sounds from the fourth floor. Sero's floor. She'd look up briefly. Mirrors, of course. Hakas looking down with that apathetic gaze of hers. Was she to go up? No. Sero's games were his. She'd move down, to the second floor. Passing Hakas. Always passing Haka. Their posture of that of a determined lady having decided to rule the land as the new power in charge. Ready to bring judgement. Haka sighed. This looping mind of hers was starting to get on her nerves, bare feet touching the second floor. More Hakas. Always more Hakas. She had decided. Dreams were a torture. She was glad she otherwise didn't have those.

The second floor was of no interest to her. She wanted to reach the first floor. The ball room, where judgement came to pass. She was an executioner wasn't she? Haka halted in her tracks. No. She didn't go there for judgement. She wanted to go there to place her piano. Play music. Stroke the ivory and black keys of the only art that could express whatever she felt like. Wordlessly. Haka would slip past the watchful eyes of the other Hakas and reach the first floor. Then she stopped again. Was the manor supposed to be filled with other spiders? Servants? Where were they? They usually asked her if she wanted pudding. Something was not right. She was used to her pudding questions. She'd have to execute them. In the ball room.

Haka rolled her eyes, internally groaning at the tediousness of this loop-dream. Bare feet would move on, the ends of her white dress tenderly stroking the floor. The ball room would be reached. More mirrors. More Hakas. Of course. She summoner her piano forward from her scroll, the black regal instrument appearing and waiting for her slender fingers to stroke the keys. The spider-nin would sit down, allowing the first tones to resonate sombrely through the room. They echoed emptily. As if they were in a faraway world, unable to reach the ends of the mirror-manor's confines. Much like the original, the mirrored Hakas looked annoyed.

"Genjutsu Kai."

---

691
Total: 1360

The mirror-manor shattered. The nightsky returned, the cool breeze of the night brushing over the roof. Red eyes gazing into another pair of red eyes. Her movement would be a blur, but Haka's fist struck her 'reflection' hard with a force that left little to the imagination of how irritated the spider-nin truly was at this point. The other Haka would eat the full force of her fist, flying back three meters and hit the roof again before she rolled off of it and tumbled down into the ground. Pursuing her subject of irritation, Haka dashed off the manor. As gravity pulled her down, her reflection standing up, her flying kick rammed the sorry excuse of a being back into the ground, creating a small crater in the process. Her reflection would spit blood.Backflipping off her target with the grace of a swan, Haka landed on her feet and stared intently at the being in the ground. The resemblance with herself was striking. Too striking. But there was a small difference. The girl's hair was a soft blue whereas her own was a silvery white.

"H-how did you brake our spell?"
"You failed to reflect the piano properly."
"We were careless..."

The blue-haired clone would stand up, brushing its hair backward.

"But you'll find our next spell unbreakable."

Her words had barely left her when Haka struck the girl again. One, two, three strikes. The breath would be beaten out of the clone, plexus struck, pressure point hit. A temporary paralysis as a result. Then Haka's whirlwind kick followed, sending the girl flying again.

"But why...", she asked, quivering lip, almost crying. "We could be Haka. No, we are Haka."

She'd stand up again. Dust herself off. She ached some, wiping the tears out of her eyes.

"But we are so alone. You could have stayed with the mirrors. Always someone to talk to?"

The blue-haired girl would wipe the tears away. Seeing Haka's more than annoyed frown, her monstrous aura roaring around her, the spider's killing intent was more than real. It didn't happen often that she looked annoyed, even less so that anger was visible, but the red eyes burned with a hatred few would come to experience.

"Let me end your suffering."

She'd throw a kunai in the direction of the girl, invisible chakra wire attached to it with the kugutsu technique. She'd dodge, rather nimble still despite the strikes, but the Dragon Fire quickly followed up. It's trajectory modified as it blazed across the kugutsu wire, Haka manipulating the strings to bend. At first impressions, the girl had not escaped the bending flames, her lithe figure completely engulfed by the fire. But the truth was different. Like a second skin, a film of suiton chakra stuck to her body, water evaporating as it had come in contact with the flames.

"You can not hurt us, we are to be you."

Two sets of hand seals would be formed at once as each hand performed hand seals of their own, Haka invoking her Shodō Mahō and marking herself with the symbols of vigour and longevity. As the chakra shaped itself to her will, she engaged again. Strikes enhanced by her jutsu, every new strike would shatter the second skin more until it broke through and left a couple of deep blue coloured bruises at the point of impact. All the while, Haka assessed the girl's speed and movement. She acted like a crybaby but her movement were fluid as water, making it hard for Haka to land a clean hit.

"We will take you with us."

The spider grabbed the girl's arm, proceeding to pull her out of balance with a single pull. As she shifted into the horse stance, Haka's free arm smashed into the girl's stretched arm hard. A snap could be heard, then a puff of smoke as she escaped Haka's grasp with a simple technique. Easing out of the horse stance, she could see the girl make hand seals in the distance just briefly before webs would shoot out of the ground and wrap around Haka's limbs and throat. Choking her. The spider-nin remained unwavering, refusing to give in into the creeping mind blank that approached with every second. Thinking, how this was possible when she had a barrier up. The girl was nimble, but she hadn't fought. Hinting that she was not quite as capable in martial arts. Ninjutsu, genjutsu. That much she had discovered.

"Don't struggle, doll. Soon you'll be dancing with the mirrors."

Light faded away before her eyes but the screams of the girl in the distance wouldn't go unnoticed. The difference between a trained shinobi and the strong albeit unrefined Unmei was the ability to cast jutsu without hand seals. With Kirigakure's mist clinging to the ground, Haka had the ideal transport of her own genjutsu - Mist Servant Technique. The girl found herself assaulted by a clone of the Osada but where she had believed a single strike to be sufficient, considering herself to have outsmarted the spider-nin by noticing it was but a shadow clone, the trick was not that blatant 'mistake'. That was just the lure. The clone would double, continuing its fight. And every time the girl took down one of the new clones, more and more Hakas popped in to interact with her. It would take a while before the genjutsu reached the end of its duration but all the while the girl was distracted and so Haka forced herself out of the bindings.

Seeing the girl stand in the mist by herself, dodging and dancing, striking and fighting, Haka proceeded with forming the technique that could easily be considered her signature technique by now - chakra arms. Walking up to the girl who would snap out of the genjutsu with heavy breathing, the red eyes would pierce straight to her soul, the indomitable will of the Aranean leader making her disapproval clear. The girl pretty much cowered in a corner, pleading mercy. Annoying the spider even more, who replied by grabbing her shoulders with two chakra arms before she snapped the girl's wrist with the other two. Lifting them up, large tears ran down her cheek, cries of agony disturbing the late night peace. She would have dropped to her knees but the chakra arms denied her that self-pity.

"You believe you can replace me. Cute."
"No, not replace... We are. We are Haka."

The snap of broken arms would follow, the chakra arms remorselessly rejecting her answer.

"You'll never be me."

Her arms ripped out of their sockets, blood spraying all over as the dead limbs were discarded without a glance.

"You'll never be Sero either."

Snap. Ankles would be crushed, Haka's chakra arms now letting her go. The girl would tumble into the ground. Unable to walk, stand, not even crawl forward.

"You are no one."

The black leather book at her side would come to life, Fuinjutsu bleeding out of it on its own accord to summon forth an old familiar. From the shadows rose the black widow known as Ameya, looking at the scenery before her and the glowering gaze of the arachnid that had summoner her.

"You found Kagami?"
"Bring her to Niamh. Tell her she is not to die until Noiralane grows tired of her screams."

Under the screams of denial and pain, the 'twin' would be dragged across the floor and into the summoning circle that brought forward Ameya. For a first time, Kagami cried out in actual pain and real fear, the insane arachnid no longer feigning emotions as she fully understood the punishment Haka had given her. Niamh, the clan's 'surgeon' was more than capable of torturing anyone for weeks, whereas Noiralane enjoyed the cacophonous screams as if they were the sweetest form of music. An eternity of terror would await her.

Perhaps Haka was a judge after all.

---

[EXIT]

1350
Total: 2710