Find the Village:

Verdandi had stumbled through the gate, the portal or whatever it was. With Haka at her side as usual. They were supposed to be mere visitors when they arrived at Sero's manor. Now she had gotten herself into a situation that was yet unclear as to what dangers it would behold of. Dandi gazed into the ashen brazed surroundings. It felt like they arrived in a completely dead world. The trees where echoing noises of pain and suffering. It was completely over the top nasty here.

While Haka would certainly feel right at home, Verd was fascinated by the scary things surrounding them. As usual she had a weak spot for anything that gave away a spooky feeling. But the dirt beneath her shoes was another topic. She 'ewww'ed away at the nasty damp beneath her feet. But quickly came to terms with what was fact and real. They had been dumped here and given clear first instructions to follow lead.

They stepped through the woods while the sun was yet still at its highest point. Warnings of staying here too long were yet connected with worries and wonders as to what cruelty may emerge from the grounds once nightfall would come upon them. Shivery breezes of wind passed them, for the ice princess a welcome kind of weather. She didn't like it getting too hot. It put her in a melting mood.

They passed the first few tree crowned sub forests but each biome of trees seemed to just be connected by the next, be it dead ones, dying ones, burned ones, ghostly ones and huge ones. But certainly... there was no lack of trees within any sigh around them. They had no leaves and the wind made them shake and yank sideways as if they were trying to grab on Verd's body.

The mist was getting thicker and certainly more annoying the closer they came to what seemed like a more central part of the forest. The solid muddy ground started to become swampy and threatened Verds pretty boots to sink in. Using the supernatural walking tech, she'd move past the mud and use its uppermost highest surface level to remain on top of it. The noises of the forest began to sound ghastlier and yet they had to charge on if they wished to find the village ahead.

At one point the trees in the seemed to come to life. Slowly unrooting themselves and falling off in direction of the duo, forcing the two to jump away and make pace to their walking, starting to run until the trees would finally stop their nasty drunk motion towards them. Certainly, a creepy place. Not something you’d wish to stay about for too long.

Verd scratched the back of her head and shrugged it off. There was no specific aura of an enemy to be found. The ghostly trees seemed to be just part of the dying forest. Not that it didn’t give away a pretty scary feel in the first place.


510

"Whatever", was probably the most bratty thought the spider-nin could come up with when she stepped through the Seal and entered Hansha. Destitution? Fear? That would probably work on weak-willed humans whom covered at the slightest brooding word heard by their sensitive ears, but it lost much of its effect on an Unmei born and bred in the Spider Island who ate fear for breakfast and breathed in the scent of destitution as if it was the very air she required to live. Spider Island had its ways of distorting the mundane vision of humans, and Haka's vision was not any different from it.

That was not to say the spider disregarded the terror her Creator could inflict. In fact, she was quite intrigued to see how this 'pocket domain' of his had been created, how the transportation Seal was connected related to it or how different this realm would be from the dark existence of Spider Island itself. For a first time, perhaps, the spider almost felt giddy at the thought she would be able to unravel part of Sero's Fuinjutsu secrets and pick up a trick or two to improve her own techniques with it.

General plans made, Haka walked up to Verdandi who was already observing this entire new area. Dead. Was it odd to say it looked even more dead than Spider Island? The trees were bare of leaves, an ashen grey in colour, its bony twigs almost begging towards the skies. The earth was a sickly sort of brown, filled only with rocks and dead wood. Even the sound of the forest was eerily quiet compared to that of Spider Island where the chittering and skittering of spiders could still be heard. It left an odd impression on the spider-nin, as it was the first time she experienced that which could be defined as 'the silence of the dead'.

Starting to walk the path laid bare before them, Verdandi and Haka followed it, the spider reasoning that it was the most logical thing to do to find a village. As the two of them emitted life, so too did the forest. As if it mimicked them in life force. A sick welcoming committee, as it were, the closer the two got to the village, the darker the games became. The mist thickened, the forest moved, the road became slicker than it could possibly be, but none of this fazed the spider in the slightest. More mist only meant a better camouflage and the mud wasn't something her inherent spider ability suffered from. Verdandi, on the other hand, seemed to grow increasingly more irritated at the realisation that this was not quite the place a princess would want to remain in.

Her gaze shifting sideways to catch a shrouded glimpse of Verdandi, Haka still considered that none of them should underestimate the games her Creator could bring to life, and while she hated the idea of relying on a human even in this world, the thought of having to lose the Ice Princess to this strange world seemed to open up the image of a future filled with boredom, an image she had come to loathe more than the idea of relying on humans for some strange reason. Considering it a burden, Haka nonetheless formed a strand of chakra and attached it to Verdandi, forcing the Puppet Technique's usually invisible colour to take on a crimson red hue for visibility between the two.

"Don't get slowed by the mud."

The idea... Perhaps she should simply leave this human behind, after all.

---

603

Verd strolled past the forest with her spider friend staying close behind. Sometimes changing formation to let Haka get into the lead position as she might eventually have a keener sense to this area. Verd would try to avoid the trees that resonated with chakra. Slowly finding a pattern into which of them would suddenly try and fall down on them. She could have sword that the last one they passed even stretched its 'arm' out in order to try and grab for Verd's leg as they passed by. A creepy thought that the woods themselves were trying to swallow them.

They passed the living forest after what seemed like an hour of running and or walking. The amount of trees became thinner and the vision would yet only get worse as the mist turned thicker. The further they walked on the clearer the surroundings would turn from forest into pure swamp. Verd started to feel how, despite the supernatural walking tech. Her feet started to sink into the upper surface of the swamp. Something was wrong. Soon she'd feel similar chakra as the ones within the trees rising below her in the swamp.

A sudden thick arm of swampy dirty mud would extend itself. One on each of the kunoichi's. Grabbing onto their ankles and trying to pull them down into the quicksand-like filth below them. Verd would quickly cut the one on her leg and was sure Haka didn't have troubles on her own. With Verd's sword in firm grip they walked on as more and more of these palms started to raise into the air. Trying to catch on their prey and swallow them down into the swamp. Soon they could see skeletons and armour. Remains of previous victims of the swamp. Burped back to the surface by whatever creature was at home in this pool of filthy. Verd motioned to her friend that it was time to quickly get out of here. The next entrance to another ashen forest biome was straight ahead of them. Leaving the swamp seemed of utmost importance for now.

Jumping as often as possible the palms that rose from the swamp were often too slow to grab on and when they conjured themselves in front of the two, Verd would slice her way past them. Eventually cutting one of the swampy palms mid-air as it would splat on her dress and cover it in dirt. Leaving the ice princess to curse loudly as to how the swamp monster would dare and dirty her beautiful battle outfit. An unusual trait that Haka should have gotten familiar with by now. Nothing new to say at least and they were certainly busy cutting swampy hands down as they went on. Finally reaching the ‘shore’ of the swamp and stepping foot back on more firm earth they had to stop and eventually look back. Panting hard they could hear a creepy sigh going past these lands as if the swamp itself was feeling bad about being unable to catch its pry and feast on it accordingly.

Anyhow. Time to move on. Leave this filthy spot behind and find their way towards the next ‘fun spot’ if one with twisted mind would or could have implied it that way.


550 / 1060

Haka could feel a tug on the chakra string a couple of times, as if Verdandi really couldn't keep up. For a reason or another, the human only ended up in more mud. At some point, after yet another tug on the string, she turned around to see Verdandi wielding her blade and hacking away at some mud that seemed to have wrapped around her legs. It made the spider wonder if Verdandi was going delirious or if there was something she was supposed to be seeing but couldn't. Verdandi then broke free form whatever torment was assailing her and urged her to move on quickly as if they were in danger.

Not minding the sudden antics of the human - they were already so unpredictable as it were - Haka would move on as suggested, watching how Verdandi randomly jumped up and down, until a bubble of swamp gas appeared, spat open and dirtied her clothes once more. Cursing the world around them, and swinging her sword once more at whatever she was seeing, Haka would suddenly move to stand right behind Verdandi, whispering "Genjutsu~", rather creepily in her ear, before moving on to walk on the firmer earth that would soon show up.

The area before them, as barren as all that they had passed, looked ashen and burned. As if Izumi had passed by just to lay waste to the environment in a random decision to burn it down, her katon fire spreading like a wildfire to devour anything it could get its hands on. Even if the air was cold, whispers carried by the soft winds, Haka could feel a smouldering heat emanating from the trees, as if they had really been burned just recently. The warmth otherwise harmless, Haka would take a glimpse at Verdandi nonetheless to see if she would be reacting to the heat as well since it was possible the land itself had a form of natural genjutsu. Just another test for its visitors. Her Creator did thrive on terror of all sorts, after all.

The road would lead on further still, the air slowly darkening with every mile travelled, which didn't say all too much considering the gloomy darkness that clung so tightly to this world. Bats could already be heard undertaking their nightly patrol, meaning soon enough things would 'go bump'. Not seeing the village just yet, it meant they would have to hurry if they didn't wish to be caught in the nightmares at night, but Haka somewhat wanted to try out how bumpy it could get just to see what exactly it would be about. She guessed Verdandi would prefer safety above adventure, considering she was already highly annoyed at the dirty environment they had to dredge through. More discomfort would not quite be the thing she was looking for. Deciding to move on rather than to play games, Haka started to pick up the pace.

---

490
Total: 1093

Hesitation had cost him. There was a fear still in his heart. It was a weakness that was hard to shake. Walking directly into the portal that Lord Osada had opened was what he envisioned doing in his head, striding forward without a moment to lose. If he would die here, lost in this abyss, then so be it. Those were the thoughts he had while he stood still, watching others make the plunge first. In those moments he was impotent in the most humiliating manner. Still and silent, unable to take any action forward. It wouldn't be too long though. He would have to decide. Willing his feet forward, Chigetsu would walk into the liquid. Death was something he could handle. It wasn't dying that he had ever been afraid of, especially now. While it was something on his mind, he would have never entered the Death Camp or volunteered to train at Lord Osada's manor if he had been. It was being a disappointment that terrified him. That was what he had been in those moments, and what he would have been had he waited any longer. He entered alone.  

He fell. Something had been torn away. His face collided down with the ground. Promising moments for his first steps on the other side. Something hard had collided with him. It was sharp and brittle. Pointed. He could feel it against his face as he lay there, struggling to regain what sense he had. Sharp nausea ran through his veins. It rumbled around, spinning with his internal currents. He wouldn't be at any risk of drowning if he vomited while face down, but it still represented an incredibly unpleasant scenario. So, he would stand, raising to his knee once his awareness sharpened beyond just the pain. Liquid ran down his face as he removed it from the ground. That was natural, likely just another effect of his hydrification. It was what he had assumed the liquid was, at least until his vision cleared down what he had fallen into. Not rocks. A corpse, ripped and half buried in the mud. The half-exposed bones of a human face had been what he collided into and felt. Old blood had been the liquid. It covered him now from his dive to the ground. Mostly in his hair, the liquid would seep in and mix with his own fluids. White hair now was stained red, and Chigetsu's pale face even paler.  

Unconcerned of his appearance, despite how his signature white hair was stained to match with his eyes, Chigetsu would trudge onwards. Getting away from the corpse was his primary objective. Finding some sort of refuge would be a second one. The forest that surrounded him was silent, the only sounds he could hear being a half liquid sloshing and the intense pulse of a heartbeat. Both were his own. Even with how loud his heart was beating in his throat, he should have been able to hear other signs of life. Birds chirping. Insects buzzing. From his recent experience he would have expected the chittering of arachnids. Now there was nothing. It was too silent. He felt empty.  

A prepared kunai would be pulled. It was useful to have a weapon close. It was against his better judgment that he pulled it out now though. Not from fear, but from loneliness. To the blade he would whisper, "I'm afraid." It was revealing his weakness. Speaking aloud to his delusions wasn't something he wanted others to ever witness. Even if he was alone, the act of speaking could draw attention. But the wisdom of his kunai was comforting. Even if it would berate him for his foolishness, having another voice in his ear would be pleasant. And then a response would come back to him, emanating up from the matte black blade. "I am too."

The path that he had been set on would be followed with a religious devotion. Being lost out alone in the forest would be a death sentence. The mist itself was comforting, something he could play to his advantage, but together with the trees danger could strike from any direction. At least on the path he didn't have to worry about losing himself. He followed without direction or thought. What he was walking towards, Chigetsu had no idea. It seemed as though each step resulted in a further darkness hanging over him, and so he was tempted to walk backwards to see if the light would return then. In his rattled state he barely recognized something so mundane as the sun moving through the sky, believing it to be some supernatural influence instead. At the very least he wouldn't have to worry in his aggressive stupidity about dehydrating. The mud that attached to him had its liquid drained away and kicked off as caked dirt. In mist he could stay hydrated forever. Should he be forced to have an extended stay out here in this hellscape the only things he would have to worry for would be food and shelter.  

Signs of battle would come to light as he progressed onwards. What appeared to be footprints left in the mud became evident. There were uprooted and mismatched trees, that seemed to hobble in Chigetsu's direction as he inspected them. Swinging branches and squirming roots would be avoided, and the boy would break out in the other direction with the speed of a gazelle. Even after he had left these horrible demon trees back in the dust he would continue to run. Beyond the swamplands he would sprint, bursting into an entirely new environment. It wasn't until exhaustion sucked him dry that he would slow to a stop, his legs pulsating and threatening to return to jelly. The distance he had covered while sprinting had been significant, but not nearly far enough.  

Fear had worked its toll on the male. It was almost as if he had forgotten what he thought earlier, of not being afraid of death. That realization would dawn on him now, a memory that dripped across his mind teasingly. It was as if his own mind was mocking him. Steadying himself, Chigetsu would point his kunai forward now. A deep welling scream built up inside of him, one that he would have a hard time suppressing. He wanted so badly to let out a battle cry now, announcing that he was a creature to be feared rather than a creature of fear. Announcing his presence to the entire forest with a yell like that seemed like a supremely poor idea though, something that he could recognize even in his current state. He would charge onwards as he did instead, kunai prepared to be run through whatever he saw next.

Two beasts of the night. Unpreferable, as there was only one of him. Still, he could stab with this kunai many times. As many times as he needed to. He would approach from behind. Away from the swamp there would be no sloshing of his footsteps, only a dull prattle of each against the dry pathway. His approach must have been obvious, but he would stop still before he got nearly close for a lancing charge. In his foolishness he had mistaken these two for horrible hell beasts, when it seemed they had been others who entered the portal the same as him. Slowly he would put the kunai down behind him and drop the expression of a mad beast. Assuming they recognized the now redheaded Hozuki as an ally he would go forth with them. Safety existed in numbers, and he couldn't exactly turn down a chance for that.

---

[1289]

Verd's body slowly laced with ice the moment she could hear footsteps behind them. Stopping in her path as her frozen armour slowly covered her like invisible glass, shiny and wet on the surface. She'd draw her blade. Was she being fooled again? Verd shortly checked back with Haka to make sure she was hearing it too. But before she eventually casted an evil frosty spell on the floor, Chi would step out from the woods and walk towards them as if it was like, the most common thing on the planet. Verd would sheath her blade and the frost on her skin would evaporate quickly into thin air. With a soft bow she welcomed her friend and by the look on Haka’s face she seemed not unfamiliar with him either.

Verd grinned, putting her palm against her waist and getting coy with him. “Well hello there storm-chaser. What are you doing out here?” She laughed. He had as much fun in this place as they so far. Haka seemed to have the least problems adjusting to the place. Making Verd wonder what kind of weird and disturbing lifestyle they must have on spider island. The surroundings were still a dump of dirt and rotten tree. Mud and slime seemed to cling on every surface. Mist and stinking air rounded it up as if the features of the place were competing against each other whether which of them would turn out to be the worst. Verd would sigh deeply. No place for a princess. But she couldn’t get too annoyed by it or would have to suffer under Haka’s judging glare for being a pansy.

“There’s supposed to be a village somewhere here. We’ve been tracking for hours but haven’t found anything but this nasty looking road here.” Verd pointed to the ground. The tiles beneath them could barely count as road in the first place. Maybe it once was a road many hundred years ago but now it seemed covered in ash and dirt. “Well if you don’t want to be lonely stick around… I won’t mind some company…” she said. Pretty sure that Haka would be able to somehow tune-out their chit chat as they would start chittering like birds in her ears. Haka wouldn’t really understand much of it. Not wanting it. She might pick up something about Verd complimenting Chi for his new hairstyle but it probably only got worse along those lines.

At least they were going forth. Pacing down the street. Passing by hills of burned corpses. Skeletons tied together to form an abstract kind of bone-themed artwork. A huge ass tree that seemed to have a face on it but didn’t talk. A very large fruit shaped like a human. Statues of stone that Verd could swear looked like really large bat-people. “I’d call him batman…” she’d say ogling the odd stone-frozen thingy and could swear that thing wasn’t just a chiselled statuette but alive… somehow…. Maybe inside… But along with all the odd things they would see on their journey down the road. Eventually all they could do is move on and they had to hurry. Dawn was upon them and they were specifically told not to linger in weird places at night here.


560 / 1620

A figure appeared in the mists behind them, all by its lonely self. The area around Verdandi cooled even more as she prepared herself against a potential threat, but the spider seemed disinterested at best. Whoever it was, he would be a fool to take on the two of them on his own, the world granting twice-fold the advantage to the ice princess and the mist-born huntress of Spider Island. Against all expectations, it was a redheaded kid that stepped out of it, sheathing its weapons as he laid eyes upon the two. A gesture of comfort... He recognised them. His hair colour different than what Haka had seen before, she needed a second to remember who this person was, so carelessly assuming safety. Chigetsu, the guy who had a body like pudding and strange tentacle arms.

"Why is your hair different, Chigetsu?"

Straight to the point, no masks. There was no fooling this spider. He certainly looked like Chigetsu, but was it Chigetsu? The land had strange ways of dealing with its visitors. Creeps, genjutsu, so why not miscoloured familiar faces while they were at it? Verdandi seemed to think otherwise, already welcoming the appearing Chigetsu without the slightest of worries, complimenting the recolour of his hair as if changing hair colour was the most normal of things to do, then started a word shower that would trigger Fuyuko into a chat-competition and seemed to forget this place wasn't exactly safe enough to drop the attention. No matter what perspective... Haka could still not understand how humans ever grew to populate the world.

The scenery changed as they moved on. Skeletons, trees, fruits, gargoyles. Haka was not exactly fazed by the gruesome display, instead intrigued at the creativity with which Sero had sculpted this world. It had his distinct macabre signature of working, but it wasn't the same as Spider Island. Verdandi seemed to be intrigued by the 'bat people'. Hearing the uncreative way she named them, it made her turn her head for a moment to correct her, "Gargoyles". The manor had a couple of those as decoration in the garden and thus the fables of these nocturnal creatures turning to stone by day was not an uncommon one to hear, but Haka had yet to see one come to live despite its reputation. The head servant had given their nocturnal life as a reason why they never seemed to stay at the same place, but Haka had considered that a play of the mist. If the stone statues here would come to live, she would not be so surprised about that. Her Creator was a peculiar man, finding creativity in things the spider couldn't understand. A strange sense of 'art' as some humans would call it.

"Rumours have it they come to live during the night, hunting those who intrude their appointed domain."

The sun would soon rise again. If these stories were true, they would most likely just sit and watch for now, waiting for the next night to hunt them down. The spider wondered if it would be difficult to take down a legend like this.

---

527
Total: 1620

"Red...?" He had almost forgotten. It was an embarrassing moment, that earlier fall. He would have liked that the memory never came up again, but that would have been too simple. Such an egregious change in appearance was sure to be noticed. He would stroke a hand through his own hair, brushing it forth to see its color through the peripheral of his vision. Blood. Absorbed into his form the smell was hardly present. Pulling now a few strands of his hair would release from his scalp, falling into a puddle of red goo in his palm. The goo would be offered to Haka, who seemed curious. He knew better than to assume it was a question of his choice in fashion. The scent of blood would be much more notable should she hold it in her hands, and the taste incredibly apparent should she take a sip. "I fell in some blood. It absorbed in." It was an unfortunate quirk of his, absorbing liquids through contact when he was startled. The only way he would be able to get this out was with a warm bath and a good deal of scrubbing. At least it wasn't orange juice.  

In truth Chigetsu was a bit overwhelmed by the chattering himself. Keeping up with Verdandi was a matter of politeness, but mostly he would listen to what she had to say rather than contribute himself. It was a sense of relief to him though, that there was someone to chat with some calmly beyond all that earlier struggle. As they came to the more peculiar scenery it became very apparent to Chigetsu that the worst had not yet passed. Strung together corpses and what Haka described as 'gargoyles'. He almost wanted to appreciate what he saw. Despite how Haka seemed to imply it would hunt them all down in their sleep there was no denying that this was all well-constructed. Perhaps he would have to try his hand at corpse artwork one day. While stringing them together like this seemed a bit of garish, the idea of carving bones into small trinkets was appealing.

"You're dreaming." The voice from the knife held tightly in his palm caused him to pause. "You're going to drown in your sleep, Chigetsu." The kunai would be put away, down into his belt pouch where its voice would be muffled. Out of sight and out of mind. Still, he could hear it speaking to him through it, but none of the words could be heard enough to be understood. He would have to invest in some thicker pouches to keep his weaponry, before he went insane from the mumbling.

As much as he was scared earlier, having these two at his side was a lot more comforting. At the very least they would be able to put up some sort of fight to whatever came near. Even though he put his kunai away he still wanted to. To stab and stab and stab. Anything that came out from the woods. He even could hold one in each hand. Twice the knives. If these gargoyles came out he could stab them too, although he wasn't sure if it would be any good with their bodies being made of stone. Maybe. He had never thought about weapons made to pierce through stone before.

---

[550/1839]

Verdandi sighed at the prospect of these horrid creatures. Even though one or two would certainly look good at the entrance to Heidel’s castle… The idea of them turning alive and eventually laying waste to her city at night was less amusing. She grinned at Chi every now and then. Well aware that their relationship had taken many ups and downs on their last visit. Wondering how he was coping with it. But this wasn’t the time to get into this. They would be able to chit chat properly at the village. If there was one… maybe Sero just played them and they would end up trapped in the wilderness at night with all these creatures coming after them. A nasty thought. Yet not something unbefitting of the man in charge here.

While Chi and Haka exchanged over the blobby blood that used to be his hair Verd scouted the surroundings. Taking in a good mental picture of the bat creature gargoyle thingies but actually having enough respect now to stay within…. safety distance from them. As they paced forth the road seemed to become more visible. Little sheds, abandoned yet showing signs of life, would pop up here and there along the road as well as various remains of raided and emptied supply caravans. Whatever was going on around here was far from being fun to those people. Verd seriously hoped there would be peo…. Before she could end her thought she would finally hear noises in the distance that didn’t speak of moving trees, swallowing swamps and dead people.

They slowly enclosed what did look like a huge gate. Verd would halt in front of it along with her companions. Picking up a stone she tossed it forth to see if someone would react. They could certainly hear human voices beyond the gate. The surroundings of this little village seemed still ghastly even though they probably had tried to remove most of the demon trees within a certain perimeter. The walls did look solid. The gate was not only stable but also seemed enchanted of sorts. Verd picked up another stone and as she threw it, a little hole opened at the gate and the stone hit a soldier right on his helmet. He probably almost fell backwards and gave away an annoyed glance once he put his head through the hole once more making Verd flustered. “Uhmm… sorry!” she said with an awkward laugh afterwards. He ogled them and seemed to be using a low level, basic sensory technique. Without a word he shut the hatch and yelled. “3 Humans, no dark aura.” Before this seemed to cause them to open the gate…. Letting the three of them step forward into the nasty looking village….


[EXIT] to continue in next mission.

460 / Total wc: 2080

Using all wc for the mission pay.

Haka would take the slush of red in her hands, the gelatinous mass feeling strange to her hands. She had seen how it reformed before, seemingly unfazed by the spider bites or the stabs of her own kunai. She would sniff it briefly, taking in the scent of blood and give the jelly a lick. It was blood, alright. Not quite how she would partake in it as a venomous wolf spider but the pudding person had spoken truth. Dropping the substance, she'd rub off her hands and move on with the group.

Marching on through the stone statues of the gargoyles, Verdandi and Chigetsu looked truly fascinated by them, each of them seemingly caught in a dream of their own, envisioning the magnificence of having such a craftsmanship in their own lair and equally seeing the terror they would deliver should the rumours be true. Haka had seen gargoyles at the manor, but never saw them take on a living shape. Still, even the spider had to admit that such vividly crafted statues were an impressive sight to behold, demanding respect and strength in their own right.

The three of them would eventually reach the wall that marked the presence of the village. Darkness and mist shrouded it, the entire complex looking like a bastion in the dark despite its rather simple construction. Verdandi would take a stone and throw it to see if there was someone, making Haka wonder why she wouldn't just walk up the walls and hop inside the village. The stone decisively hit something, upon which a voice yelled to open the gates. As they opened and the three of them stepped inside, eyes grew big, gasps were heard, the people pointed at the spider-nin in their middle.

"T-the Lord... He has returned..."

The guards, the people, who had seemed as normal humans upon entering did not quite look as much once they were inside. Pale skin, frail bodies. Spirits trapped into physical husks of the people they once were, delirious from being trapped for so long in this twisted pocket domain of Sero. Seeing Haka's white hair, the same apathetic eyes and the same monstrous aura engulfing them, they could only mistake Haka for the very man that had sentenced his prey into an eternal prison.

---

[EXIT]

387
Total: 2007

OOC: Sero gave me a few pointers concerning his Seal world and the village. Playing it out here.

The bit of goo that Haka had licked and then tossed would crawl through the dirt back to Chigetsu. Upon reaching his foot it would gloop back into his form. There would be a red stain on his shoe where it had entered. The blood was a pain like that. It would be much more coinvent if he could just eject it. Eventually this blood that was coating him would start to smell stronger, or so he assumed. The idea of stinking like blood in this barren land wasn't the most appealing, lest it attract every beast in a mile radius like sharks. A clean bath wasn't something he was likely to find though, even if they did manage to get to a village.

Just as Chigetsu was thinking this they would come upon one. Ironic. The entire place was dark and dilapidated, derelict and destroyed. Ruins. Hardly a village in any sense of the word, more like walled rubble. Something about it was familiar though. Chigetsu couldn't put his finger on what exactly, but it was as if he had seen this rubble before in a dream.  

Sucked dry corpses would shamble forth, revealing themselves as the occupants. His lip would curl. They weren't pretty to look at. Putting them out of their misery was an option that he had considered, it coming immediately to him just as he saw them. They were clearly too damaged to go on. This became clearer as their reactions to Haka became apparent. Fear and terror. He would sigh. If this was the state of the village they were supposed to find, then their chances didn't look good.

---

[280/2119]
[2000/2000]
[100 - Extra pay, +25 ryo]

[EXIT]