Mission name: Target: Dainashi (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: Destroy Dainashi and his gang (5 men, C-2 stats)

Mission Details: 2500 wc
Perhaps the most successful of the rogue Unmei, Dainashi commands a small group of mercenaries that are most of the time keeping themselves busy picking up missions where they can find them. The times he doesn't, he's much like a kid expecting attention by wiping out villages, attacking caravans or taking out patrols just to kill his boredom. Aside from being a liability in the eyes of Kirigakure, he resents Sero for not acknowledging him when he mastered his shapeshifting ability.

---

Name: Dainashi
Age: 5 (spider age)
General Appearance: [x]
Personality:
Goals: Avoiding boredom, discovering the limit of his power
Abilities: B rank ninjutsu, taijutsu & Unmei KKG, B rank katon, doton, raiton
Strength: B-2, Endurance: B-1, Speed: C-1, Perception: C-2, Reaction: B-1
Items: B rank heavy armour

A different perspective.

His boots left their mark in the dirt road that connected the lone bridge to the dark manor towering above the dead trees of the island. Behind him, five other pair of feet slowly came to a halt as he lit a cigarette and took a pull. The grey eyes of a trained veteran gazed over the land he had once called his home. Nothing had changed. The trees were as dead as he had left them. The wind carried the chitter of his siblings even now, whispering about an intruder stepping onto their lands. He had not missed this place. He had not missed the traitors that denied him his rightful position at his Creator's sides. But he had returned with a purpose.

"This is the place?"
"Shit... what a hell hole is this?"
"Spider Island."
"No shit, Sherlock."

As those behind him would bicker about the inhumane nature with which the island was steeped, the dusk-skinned man moved on without a word, blowing out the smoke he had pulled in. His gang was here to take down a certain sibling at the behest of another one of his siblings. Confusing, but the pay was good and he could do whatever he wanted to the island. What had caused this mayhem was beyond him though he was aware that not every Unmei followed the same points of view when it came to the Creators, but an all out internal war seemed... stretched. Things had escalated beyond mere differences.

"Everyone knows their duties?"

Confirmations of all kind would rise to answer his questions. Weapons would be drawn to add solid fact to their reply. They had already learned. Big talk meant little when the boss could slit your throat in quiet determination. The boss was not a human. He named himself an Unmei, and he had shown them the truth of that meaning.

"This is Unmei territory. Your enemies are giant spiders. Venoms. Webs. And other Unmei like me who kill just as swiftly. Don't take this lightly, you hear me?"

His baritone voice carried itself with calm confidence. A hint of pride despite his personal exile. His men remained quiet, a confident reply to his expectations. They were trained by the best in their eyes, but Daishiki was not too sure that in this island he was the supreme alpha. His contractor had clearly stated that the 'daughter of Sero' had successfully killed various Unmei and taken out reputable forces such as Shi and Shikkan. Taking another pull of his cigarette, his lips would curl into a grimace at the memory of those words. His Creator had deemed someone else but him worthy to be recognised to that point? He should have been granted that right years before her, yet was not given that respect. Crushing his cig against his armour, he'd flick the remnant away as he rekindled his determination. This 'Haka' would go down, if only to spite his Creator. To show him how wrong he had been not to grant him, Daishiki, that right.

"We move. Kill every spider on sight. No mercy, for you will be given none. No doubt, for they will not doubt."

Hoo-Hah!

---

539

Four men would hide into a crevice in the ground. Heart pounding. Eyes bulging as adrenaline and fear coursed through their veins. Had they underestimated this place? Daishiki swore. Two of his trained men were taken out with such ease he couldn't even believe that this was the same Spider Island he had left behind. His brethren ran wild with hunger, riled up by terrors greater than them driving them into a frenzy as they devoured everything that did not belong to their swarm.

"B-boss! What the fuck...?"
"I warned you this wouldn't be easy."

But he knew their terror. A wild mass of uncoordinated monsters doing as they pleased. These Unmei and spiders were different. They were too coordinated to be a wild swarm. The first of his men had taken out with such keen strategies Daishiki had almost believed he was facing trained shinobi. Strands of webbing had been fired out of nowhere, all targeting Guan at various sections of his body. Then he'd been pulled off the ground, basically been torn to pieces as his limbs were pulled from his torso in a cruel display of coordinated brutality. The spiders had then disappeared as soon as they had appeared, the whole event taking but a few seconds to be executed.

Then Roy followed. Out of the ground a swarm of countless spiders burst forward. It had engulfed the second mercenary and dragged him away as if they had been a flood of water of which its currents were too strong to resist. Disappearing in the woods under their guidance, the last thing to be heard were his screams of agony. The crew had given chase but by the time they had reached their ally, all that had remained was a half devoured body pinned to the ground by spears, his face distorted in a grimace of terror and pain.

Daishiki had never seen his siblings perform things like these. Was this the result of his own clan's internal war being pushed to its limits as only the survivalists would remain standing, forcing them to evolve into a greater nightmare than they already were? Was Haka the one who had orchestrated this cataclysmic purging of the weak in name of their Creator, an equally dark entity living on this island? Or was this Sero's doing as he grew bored and disappointed that so few of the Unmei measured up to his expectations?

"What a mess.", the Unmei would sigh. With every man lost the chances to take down their bounty diminished. The manor was still a healthy trip away from their current position and the sensation that they were being observed only grew the longer they remained in one place. "We need to move."

The men would rise to their feet, the three mercenaries following their Unmei leader through the dark woods. Avoiding the main road yet keeping an eye on it to find a direct course to the heart of the island. It didn't take long before a hoard of spiders ran to meet them, chittering about how appetising they looked. Surrounded from all sides, the underground was not the easiest to hold footing as branches, web and soft earth shifted with every motion. They'd have to hold ground, the four tearing through the encroaching darkness of monster spiders. One animal at a time. A tedious struggle for survival that would be broken by one of them falling into the entanglement of webs, cut loose just in time before he would be separated by his friends. Venomous bile was launched from a far in hopes to weaken them, systematically as a tandem of two rows continued up the barrage against the barrier of chakra Daishiki had raised in defence. As spiders crawled through the barrier to deal with the mercenaries from up close, the mercenary Unmei's eyes darted from one side to another to catch the leader behind the masses. Only to find none. These spiders were trained, their leader already several steps ahead of them, and merely waging a war of attrition as they sat on their throne to watch how everything unfolded.

They were at a disadvantage. The spiders were relentless. The venom burned through the barrier eventually. Though the mercenaries successfully cut their way through the spider horde, it didn't come with heavy casualties. Two of his men were wounded, one was tethering on the brink of death after one limb had shrivelled up to a useless piece of meat, the venom still coursing through his veins and making him scream in agony as it was burning him up from the inside.

"Put him out of his misery."
"B-but..."
"Do it!"

One swift movement of a blade later, the screams had ended. Daishiki took a deep breath. He had remained mostly unscathed in the skirmish. Not because of skill. But because the spiders recognised him as a sibling. Most of the spiders had avoided them, prioritising the humans that formed his gang instead. Old Unmei prejudice and hatred. Not everything had evolved within the Spider Clan which, as a lineage of arachnids, remembered all too well how humans treated the common spider. A typical case of hate breeding hate, a blood feud that would never come to an end if there already people who cared to acknowledge it.

"How are you two holding up?"
"Wounded but able."
"Good. Let's press on. We're almost there."

Three left. Daishiki was beginning to doubt if he should ever have returned. His Unmei heritage could respect his opponent, but his pride as mercenary wanted to see this through. And his own ego, of course, still believed that only him was entitled to a position next to Sero. The group would trudge on. The bleak forest would make way for the glimpses of a dead garden. The garden that preceded Sero's manor.

"I told you we'd get there. Now we need to find that brat"

His words would not be followed up. When he turned around, all he'd see were two floating corpses, a mass of chakra piercing clean through their throat. No sound had escaped them. No sound was caught when blood dripped onto the underground. No sound was heard when they fell down with a thud. As the corpses of his former colleagues dropped to the ground, Daishiki spotted the teenager behind them. Long white hair, apathetic red eyes, a stoic face. The girl wore a luxurious looking white dress, no armour, no shoes. Her nails lacquered a crimson red, sharpened. And that same monstrous aura the male recognised all too well as that of his Creator.

"S-sero? No... That can't be."

She didn't bother correcting him or answering him. Her gaze merely observing him with hidden contemplation.

"You're either Miyu or Haka. I'm your brother."

Her eyes would narrow ever so lightly at his response. Annoyed at his incertitude? Annoyed at his claims?

"Sero has no sons."

She didn't say more than that, the one sentence instantly revoking his attempted claims as Sero's son, her brother or her equal in every way. He was left to guess at her real name still. Reputation didn't say much about their looks. Miyu. Haka. The only ones entitled to consider themselves offspring of Sero by the dark lord's grace himself. Daishiki shook his head. What did it matter? He had to kill at least one of them, and he would do so. If he had to kill them both, he would do so. He had a reputation to uphold.

"Sorry girl, no hard feelings but you're marked for death."

Still no reaction. Did she not care? Did she not fear? Or was she simply unimpressed by his claims. No, that was not it. She was an Unmei alright. Words meant little to them, living by instinct rather than reason. Daishiki smiled against the melancholic feelings that welled up. If he had known about this future, he could have stayed to revel in it. But he had made his choice long ago. He had chosen the road of humanity rather than stay the monster he was supposed to be as an Unmei. As Sero's son. How foolish...

Well, there was no turning back now...

---

1391
Total: 1930

"Sorry girl, no hard feelings but you're marked for death."

Haka remained unfazed by his statement. Marked for death? How typical. Many bandits had claimed so. Many Unmei too. As far as she was concerned, being marked for death was part of her life. Every spider born was marked for death at the hands of humans, and thus by those Unmei profiling themselves mostly as humans too. Forsaking their heritage for whatever dreams they chased. But he was an Unmei, so he knew how the clan reasoned on those matters. There was no need to teach him again.

"Who are you to claim heritage from Sero?"
"Daishiki"
"I'll erase your name from his memories, Daishiki."
"I am the one who should have stood next to him!", the male burst out in shouting, triggered by the way she had weighed his claims.
"Then go tell him that."

Haka raised her finger and pointed at the double door that marked the entrance of the Osada manor. Daishiki blinked in disbelieve at her allowing him such an easy way out, his gut feeling telling him that this couldn't be the truth. But then again... Unmei had a simple reasoning. If she allowed him entrance, it meant she intended to have Sero deal with this. Haka could see the sudden fear rise in his eyes.

"Pathetic.", she spoke again, her voice cold and soft as the mists of Kirigakure. "Unopposed, yet fearful of your faith. Are you even Unmei?"

His jaw clenched in withheld anger, hands turned to fist. His eyes shot daggers at her but he moved on. Direction the double doors. Direction Sero. To claim what he believed to be his. Haka followed him, bare feet brushing against the grass of the garden's dead field. Chakra arms kept on a short leash. Together they'd reach the entrance of the manor, his hand would raise to reach for the door knob. But he would never touch it. Before he fully understood what had happened, blood sprayed all over the door as his arm was cut off clean. Shocked, he'd turn around to watch Haka stand at a meter behind him.

"Little fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away."

The expression on his face was golden. A mixture of shock at the loss of his limb, and disbelieve he had just been betrayed by his own kin who stood here reciting some poem. The one he believed to be Sero's daughter, had revoked her word?

"You are free to see Sero, but I never allowed you entry into his manor."

The man fell to his knees, clenching the open wound with his free arm. Of course. He should have followed his gut. When it truly mattered, he had discarded all he knew for one glimpse of hope to indulge his ego. The leader that had been watching her troops decimate intruders, the unexpected order within the chaos. The traps that had been sprung and neatly triggered as she had kept watch of his movement. The finishing move when she had taken out the last of his troops as an undetectable force. Every time... One step ahead. And now she had done it again. This should never have been a surprise to him.

"Y-You...? Your name..?"
"Haka Osada. Take it into your grave."

And at those words, his life would be ended by her hands, four chakra forms tearing through him and ripping him apart like he was but a ragdoll submitted to the wiles of a child's tantrum. After his body was torn to pieces, she inhaled deeply and burned all but his head to ashes with her katon affinity. To finish her execution, she grabbed a piece of wood nearby, tied it to the empty fountain in the garden and impaled his head for all to see.

One last warning for those foolish enough to approach the manor without her consent.

---

[EXIT]

661
Total: 2591