"Hey! Shopkeep!" Yūgen called once more. The words silent on the ears whom they should have heard. The shop was open that was certain, but something seemed off. Oh yes, because there was no store keeper here! Dragging a palm across his face he sighed into his hand. He had come here because he was in need of some weapons or armor in case he needed to defend himself. Yūgen was one of those types of ninja who relied almost solely on jutsu to support them in combat. Offense, defense, mobility etc. However they can't always rely on jutsu alone, especially given his condition... Honnari sensei supplemented their jutsu with archery, or rather the other way around. So Yūgen thought he'd take a page from their book and see what kind of items he could supplement himself with. Armor would be nice, however running around with that extra weight was just going to make him a slow target for others. A weapon of some kind would be most likely what he'd end up getting. The problem was that Yūgen can't wield any weapon effectively because of his body's weak stature. It was a vicious cycle of needing something but being too inept to use it.

He growled as the reason for his being here was reminded to him. "I wonder if I should just take something off the racks." He whispered to himself. In his smoldering rage he did something perhaps less legal.

Yūgen went around the clerk stand, and into the back room labeled 'Staff only'. As quietly as he could he slipped through the doors and proceeded to look around for the rumored black haired blacksmith, to craft him something. There were rumors that the Chuunin exams were turning around soon and he needed something to help him. Seeing as his current level of training wasn't helping much.. Though it seems that the blacksmith, wherever they were, couldn't be bothered to show himself!

After all his searching he couldn't seem to find the black haired craftsman hiding in the shelves or in a dark corner. Whatever they were doing they weren't going to come to him, that much was obvious, so naturally Yūgen would have to go to him instead!

While he didn't find the crafter in the, incredibly extensive, staff room, he did find a mysterious looking metal door. It was open and upon pushing it forward, it showed that it went downwards, the stairs illuminated by warm lights. Revealing the strange technology lining the walls. Yūgen inched closer to the door to see more of the oddity. Fury abated somewhat, he tread down the stairs. One foot forward and the other ready to flee at the first sign of danger. At this point Yugen was seriously debating whether or not it was worth possibly dying just to get a new item for a exam. Then again.. It’s not like he’ll die here, no, probably not. Hopefully. Somewhat more confident in his survival, and this basement secretly not containing dozens of traps.


However as soon as that thought passed through his head the stairs immediately turned into a flat slope and Yugen lost his balance, falling on his ass before sliding down to the unknown. He screamed, mostly in outrage and surprise, all the way down to the bottom.


"What is this place?" Yūgen whispered. After the stair slide trap he slid right into this massive room, filled with weird.. things. Everything was too complicated, and just looking at some of the things that were here just made him winced in pain at the strangeness. Like, this one thing right next to him on the right. He couldn't tell if it was a toilet or a horizontal decapitator! Yūgen turned to leave but the wall door behind him was already closed. Yay.

As he continued to wander through the strange room things actually started to look more organized. Not that Yūgen could tell what the hell was what, but everything seemed to be more in place. Clean. He turned around and walked backward, looking at the scene in front of him now. Yep, definite difference in organization from here to the door-

As he took another step back Yūgen tripped over something hard and fell backwards, crashing into a strange empty dome. The doorway, exit, closing with a metallic groan in front of him as he lay prone on the floor. "Oh dear fuck, what in hells am I in now?" A giant blender? Yūgen pushed himself to his feet and quickly dusted himself off before looking around the space around him. It was lightly lit so making out the general shape was simple for him. While the machine was spherical on the outside, inside it was more of a cube with rounded edges. As he evaluated what kind of trouble he was in the exit closed off and the entire cube came to life. Above him, an automated voice said.

"Please enter a name for this file."

A holographic keyboard and computer screen appeared in front of Yūgen, the same question printed on computer. Yūgen didn't know what was going on, and he wasn't going to leave evidence behind of his trespassing here, so he opted to not touch anything. Despite the insistent reminders from above.For a time, nothing happened. However the voice didn't seem very happy about this situation, and after five minutes or so things would take a dark turn. The voice repeated one last time. “ENTER A NAME FOR THE FILE: “ Though now Yugen was even more eager to stay away from the screen, even taking an actual step away from the screen in reality. At this the screen and keyboard flashed bright red and the sounds of bones snapping and break crescendoed off the walls, echoing with increasingly vigorous intensity. Almost sounding like drums before stopping suddenly. Around him the bland room sprouted with trees, coming to life. Grass spread out around the floor, the chirping of birds flew through the air, and even the scent of… no…


Yugen’s eyes widened in fear at the sight that beheld him. The visage of a small human child kneeled facing his way. However this wasn’t an ordinary child, around them was a the gore of a very decisively, very brutally slaughtered, dead human. All around this child was the entrails of their victim, some of their guts had spilled out onto the grass and fertilized the soil while some of, what appeared to be, their brain, was splattered against a tree. The child held the instrument of death in their hands. This was the demon child, known for their dealings with death and slaughter throughout the lower nobility. Charra Kyara, the child serial murderer.


“Long time no see, Yugen-sans.” They flashed a closed mouth grin his way, those red eyes part way closed and open.


Not to mention my former kidnapper.


Charra rose to their feet, hands gripping squelching with blood as they gripped into a fist, their other hand readying the stained knife. With a swift movement they thrust their knifed hand towards my heart and I flinched. Even out of reach, Yugen knew this one was not to be feared. While they didn’t garner as much attention as some of the other villains in this world this one could probably give the kage a run for their money if they wanted to. Killing was a effortless to them as breathing, how Yugen managed to survive captivity was a miracle. At the time they were hired to kidnap, not to kill, however killing the captive was a given once the officers were to pay up. Though this didn’t go to plan, as kidnapping a ninja’s only grandchild didn’t come without consequences. Yugen’s grandfather and a small team of ninja managed to catch Kyara off guard as they were cutting into me, waiting for them to arrive ironically, and seal them up before sending Yugen to a hospital. Kyara’s fate was never explained to Yugen, but they promised him that they were killed for their crimes and killings. There was rumors about some special power that happened when they died, though Yugen didn’t have any clear ideas what was supposed to happen, as gossip never intrigued him. Now he was really wishing he had just spoken up and asked.


“What’s wrong Yugen? Why so scared, partner? You think I’m mad? Why, just because you’re family got me killed, like what, nine times?” Charra laughed hysterically. “Of course I’m mad, mad that I couldn’t kill you back then!” With a laughing scree Charra lunged towards the young genin at lightning speed, knife primed to severe his head from the rest of his body. Yugen tried to lean out of range of Charra’s strike, however realized that it would be a worthless maneuver. Just in time Yugen managed to activate a defensive jutsu. A thick barrier of chakra just centimeters above his body appeared to block the attack. Charra’s knife held steady against Yugen’s throat as he stared at this child in front of him, no, this, demon. Their eyes glowed an unnatural red and their grin distorted into that of a maniac’s; it was clear Charra has long since abandoned their childhood for the joy of mass destruction. Spurred on with this new information Yugen whirled into action, his eyes widened and he prepared to launch his attack. Sneaking his right foot firmly behind Charra’s left foot he slammed his left palm against their throat, their choked expression and broken focus giving a good opening for Yugen to finish this. With his right hand he proceeded to blast Charra’s face with his only offensive jutsu.


“Repulsion Wave Ex-!” He started.


“Try again!” Charra laughed. Suddenly bursting forward with movement Charra shot their forehead forward and slammed it straight into Yugen’s nose. While the jutsu had done its job against the knife, Charra’s brute strength was too deadly to deal with head on, and it promptly broke upon impact. Sending Yugen flying backwards to the nearest tree with a scream of pain and a bloody nose. Charra had fallen forward with that force of that head bash and was on the ground, with a Charra had fallen forward with that force of that head bash and was on the ground. A moment later the pushed themselves to their knees, regarding Yugen with a weakened smile. "Not too bad, almost got me on my ninth reset, though not yet. Not enough power yet." Charra's smiled widened, the knife in their hand ready once more to begin slicing and dicing, but then the unthinkable happened. Charra started to cut themselves, everywhere.

“Heh, a sight you never got to see eh? I wonder how you’ll deal with my super form? HAHAHA!” Charra’s laughter echoed through the forest.


“Administrator Emergency Shutdown: Alpha.” A young boy’s voice reverberated through the forest. Charra’s face froze in fear then suddenly, everything else froze too. The reality of whatever Yugen was in sudden shutdown, bringing him back to the empty rubix cube he was in a few minutes ago. The trees dissolved in lines of code, and the lunatic smile Charra had on their face was curled in a snarl now, their eyes promising to kill him next time they met. In their place a new one appeared, just as lenient as the child murderer had been. The were raven haired and shorter than the norm in Konoha. Yugen didn’t know who they were personally, but the reputation that steel umbrella they carried was more than telling of their identity. Before him, in all their just fury, was the blacksmith who owned this shop.


“Kisei Ushinatta. It’s a surprise to find you in my lab, but welcome anyways.” They said flatly, with a hint of amusement and wrath. “Oh, and before you ask: Yes, you are in major trouble.”

---

In the end he managed to not get arrested for trespassing however there were a few conditions to this.

"You have quite an interesting chakra about you, so much so that you temporarily evolved my Virtual Reality machine. So every Saturday meet down here, I want to run a few tests on the nature of your chakra."

There was also the interrogation of who the person Yūgen faced off with, after the blacksmith observed and saved the data under the name of "Yūgen". It's hard to explain to someone who didn't have any concept of who Charra was, but Yūgen tried to give the jist of the story. Kisei responded with silent nods and mumbled acknowledgements to continue. At the end Yūgen left the store with a stern scolding, and a grope on his left butt cheek.

So to say the least, this next meeting at Saturday wasn't something he was looking forward to. Thankfully, he did manage to secure a promise for a new item, free of charge. It was just a matter for a few minor details and "What the hell do you want for a weapon (?)" which was easy. With a new item out of the picture for now Yūgen would have to double down on training his body and learning new jutsu.


2266 WC
[Exit]

~Using 1350 to train Reality: Sudden Expression of Psionics & 900 to train Reality - Bullet Hell: Slow Moving Bullet Hell Blossom when it's approved.~