| | | Reasons and Reminiscences [Private] |  |
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Ulkira
Age : 31
Posts : 1836
![Reasons and Reminiscences [Private] Vide](https://2img.net/i/fa/vide.gif) |  Subject: Reasons and Reminiscences [Private] Tue 05 Jun 2012, 2:31 pm | |
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• FLASHBACK •
“Do you know what a “Bijuu” is?” the man asked mysteriously, advancing a step closer to the blonde boy, his booted feet trampling over the lush grass underfoot. “Have you ever heard of them before, Kai?”
The blonde teenager, named “Kai”, frowned at the man: about five foot ten and garbed in a ground-reaching, mud-brown cloak draped over his shoulders and fastened over his shoulder by a silver clip. Beneath the cloak, Masquerade could just see the maroon shirt and trousers the man wore, the latter held in place by a thick leather belt. With the aid of the beating Sun above, the large hood covering the man’s head was throwing the majority of his face into shadow; but Kai could faintly make out the sharp, dark brown eyes watching him attentively from underneath the hood.
Kai narrowed his own gray eyes and shook his head slowly, replying, “No, I’ve never heard of them.”
The man’s white teeth flashed from under his hood as he grinned. “I see. Alright then, let me to give you a brief overview of them. You see, a Bijuu is a being - a demon - made entirely of chakra, chakra which has shaped itself into a creature of immense power; power that we can only dream of. The word “Bijuu” means “Tailed Beast”.”
He raised his hands till they were level beside his chin, each set of his fingers closed in a fist. “There are nine Bijuu in total. Each Bijuu has a certain number of “tails” which corresponds to its name: The Ichibi, the Niibi, the Sanbi, the Yonbi, the Gobi, the Rokubi, the Shichibi, the Hachibi, and finally the Kyuubi.” he explained, raising a finger with each mentioned Bijuu, until he had nine fingers lifted. “These beasts each hold unbelievable power within them, and if one can learn to use this power, they can achieve great things. People have tried numerous times to seal these beasts into the bodies of humans, to turn them into beings with great power. Many failed, many succeeded. There have been many Jinchuuriki in history, all created for different reasons.”
The cloaked man now pointed at Kai. “And you, Kai, are one of them! You are the Jinchuuriki of the Shichibi!” he announced dramatically.
Kai watched the man with steady eyes, not speaking for a few seconds. He then turned around silently and began marching away from the cloaked man with swift paces. Wacko, Kai observed exasperatedly. That’s what that guy is: a wacko.
But unnoticed by Kai, the man had vanished from his spot. He suddenly appeared before Kai, his arm pointed at the boy and his finger pressed against the latter’s forehead. The man smirked at the startled boy. “I figured you wouldn’t believe me,” he drawled. “Which is why I’m going to let you recall the truth for yourself.”
The tip of his finger suddenly began to emanate a dazzling white glow. Kai’s body shuddered visibly before he collapsed to his knees on the soft grass. He clutched his head in his hands as images and visions began flying through his mind, disorientating him with their number. He saw cloaked figures, with their faces hidden under shadowy hoods, encircling him; he heard their low voices in his mind as they murmured the name of strange handseals; and finally, he felt a brief bout of discomfort in his chest, as if something extremely large and heavy was being forced onto his body.
Unbeknownst to the blonde, a tattoo was forming on his chest: a tattoo that signified the seal holding the Shichibi within him. Slowly, the visions in his mind came to an end, and Kai slowly looked up from the ground at the hooded man smirking down at him. He could see his face clearly now. Thus, he could recognize that this man, whoever he was, had also been in that memory Kai had just recalled. He had been among the hooded figures, being the only one to not be garbed in a cloak at the time.
“Oh? So you’ve remembered, then?” the man remarked in mock surprise. He laughed and crossed his arms in front of his chest, leering down at Kai. “I’m sure you realize that I’ve just showed you what happened the night the Shichibi was sealed within you. Rather sad, isn’t it? To think that a mere infant like you had been, being made to undergo such an ordeal… You’re parents must have been a cruel lot. After all, what kind of parent would be sick and twisted enough to seal a demon inside their child’s body, and then abandon him afterwards?” His leer intensified as a soft chuckle issued from his mouth. “They probably never loved you to begin with…”
Slowly, as if his mind were far off somewhere, Kai raised his eyes to look up at the man. The stormy gray eyes were clouded over, signifying at a dazed mindset. “Why are you telling me all this?” Kai asked slowly. The dazed look quickly vanished and was replaced by one of suspicion. Kai rose to his feet and eyed the man distrustfully. “Are you here for my “Bijuu”, then? Is this some elaborate way of stealing it from me?”
The man chuckled once more, raising a hand in reassurance at the tensed boy. “Relax, kiddo. I’m not here to steal your demon. I’m here to help you, to teach you how to control it. I want to teach you how to turn your “curse” into a “gift”…”
“You want to teach me?” Kai repeated slowly, still eyeing the man suspiciously. “And why’s that?”
The smile widened under the hood. “Well, let’s just say I’m “invested” in your well-being,” the man answered ambiguously. He then raised his hands and lowered his cloak, revealing to Kai his bony, sharp face with the brown eyes, and the head of messy, short chocolate-brown hair. Kai stared at the man’s face as another image rose from the depths of his mind. He took an involuntary step back in shock.
“You… You’re him…,” Kai mumbled softly, his eyes wide in disbelief as he understood the memory. A memory of two faces smiling down affectionately at him; a male’s and a female’s. And the male in his recollections was none other than the very man who stood before him.
“You’re - my father, aren’t you?” Kai whispered, dumbfounded. Waves of shock were crashing down upon him as he realized the truth. This man, this scoundrel, had sealed the Shichibi inside him, had kidnapped him from his crib and taken him to that cave for the ritual. This man was responsible for turning Kai into a Jinchuuriki, into a weapon to be used by Konohagakure for their own safety. This man had single-handedly ruined both Kai’s past, as well as his future.
Unforgivable.
Last edited by Ulkira on Sat 18 Oct 2014, 5:23 am; edited 4 times in total |
|  | | Ulkira
Age : 31
Posts : 1836
| | Subject: Re: Reasons and Reminiscences [Private] Fri 08 Jun 2012, 1:04 am | |
| The brunette blinked in surprise at Kai’s words. He stroked his shaven chin thoughtfully. “Well, this is unexpected. I didn’t think you’d remember me after all these years,” he murmured, sighing. The mocking leer returned to his face as brown eyes locked with the gray ones once more.
“Yes, Kai, you’re right.” He spread his arms apart and shrugged innocently. “You’ve discovered the full truth, son. You’re mother and I never cared for you. She only gave birth to you, not because we wanted a child, but because we wanted the perfect host for Konohagakure’s newly-acquired Bijuu. The Bijuu I found for my village, and for its safety. And it’s time, my son, for you to fulfill this destiny of yours.”
He smirked at the speechless Kai, lowering his arms and strutting over to the young shinobi paralyzed with disbelief. As the man approached the boy, he curled his hand into a fist and thrust it at the latter’s face. The swiftness of the punch, the speed at which it was delivered, the strength behind it, it would all be too much for the novice ninja to handle.
Or so the cloaked man thought.
Kai’s hand suddenly shot forwards and grabbed his father’s wrists in mid-attack. The man turned a startled gaze down to Kai’s face just in time to behold a stunning sight. Kai’s eyes were changing in appearance right before him, the stormy gray coloring of his iris and the white sclera rapidly being devoured by an emerald green, insect-like appearance.
The brunette was so preoccupied by this revolting sight that he did not notice the danger signs. Before the man knew it, Kai had whispered the words: “Don’t touch me”, before tightening his grip on the older male’s arm. With a violent tug, Kai tore the limb clean off from the man’s body. The startled man howled in agony and clutched his bleeding stump of an arm as he backed away, staring in horror at Kai. The blonde’s insectile eyes were widened with murderous intent as an aura of crimson, fiery chakra engulfed his form.
Chucking the bleeding arm in his hand aside brutally, Kai gave an animalistic growl before lunging at the unsuspecting man. Before the cloaked figure could react, Kai’s hand had plunged into his chest and clasped itself around his beating heart. An expression of terror overtook the man’s face right before Kai ripped his entire heart out of his chest. The light left the man’s eyes instantly, and he slumped onto the grass lifelessly. Kai stared down at the corpse with the same crazed expression of bloodlust on his face, breathing heavily as his hand tightened around the immobile organ in his hand.
Kai then staggered, the aura of chakra around him beginning to fluctuate violently, growing larger and smaller erratically. The organ slipped out of Kai’s bloodied hand as he clasped his suddenly-pounding head. Dropping to his knees, the boy looked up and saw that he was no longer in the meadow, he was now in a large, darkened room; so large and dark that he could barely make out the walls or the ceilings. All he could see (or rather feel) was that a massive, shadowed figure lay before him. Behind the figure’s darkened silhouette, seven large, tail-like appendages could be seen swaying gently.
All of a sudden, eight glowing, yellow eyes appeared on the black, featureless shade, and swiveled downwards to gaze at the trembling Kai. A sudden wave of inexplicable fear had grabbed hold of the boy as his own disfigured eyes met the similarly-patterned ones on the gargantuan figure.
“Finally…,” a booming, feminine voice sighed from the figure.
• END OF FLASHBACK •
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Masquerade raised his eyes from the grassy outstretch before him as the memory concluded. No, it had not just been a memory. It had also been a dream, one that would find its way into his sleeping mind randomly and without warning. While relatively minute in number, every time Masquerade had this “dream” he would always wake up with a pounding headache. Said headache would plague his comfort for only a few minutes, during which he could seem to do nothing other than recall the dream that had induced it. Even after the bilateral throbbing in his head would subside, it would be a while before he managed to shake off the slight feeling of unease that remained.
Masquerade sighed and gently pressed a hand against his forehead - or more correctly - against the rim of his mask. A lone index finger tapped the metal rim softly as he fell into contemplation. Normally, he would push the dream to the back of his mind and think nothing of it. After all, he did his very best to not waste time brooding over his past, and especially not over this incident he kept dreaming about. Crying over misfortunes that had befallen him was never his thing; leave that to the other Nukenin with tragic histories. He preferred to keep himself focused on the present, on the “now”; and mulling over how he had a demon inside him wasn’t going to help that.
So then, why was he standing here, in a small clearing of trees, thinking about his Bijuu? Well, it may have something to do with a certain incident that had occurred this very morning...
Having awoken from the aforementioned dream and waited for his mind to come at ease, Masquerade had then decided against any further sleep and had elected to begin his day. Being the pessimist that he was, he did not predict the day as being enjoyable, and it appeared that he was right. He discovered that his travelling sack (which contained his rations of food) had been “ransacked” whilst he had slept. Masquerade surmised it to have been the work of a raccoon or another inquisitive animal, though this assumption did not do him much good. All he knew was that he was hungry and had no food.
So, he had tossed the heavily-torn sack away, flung his travelling cloak over his shoulder, and made his way out of the forest and to a nearby village. After congratulating himself on having the foresight to camp in a woodland close to a developed town, Masquerade had first sought out an eatery to satisfy his grumbling stomach, planning to do his shopping afterwards. He had soon found a restaurant that seemed suitable and had made his way inside. It was there that something interesting happened…
Last edited by Ulkira on Sat 18 Oct 2014, 5:24 am; edited 3 times in total |
| | | | Ulkira
Age : 31
Posts : 1836
| | Subject: Re: Reasons and Reminiscences [Private] Tue 12 Jun 2012, 1:36 am | |
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• FLASHBACK •
It was a small, cozy establishment, one with that atmosphere of calm and serenity that could only be found in the early hours of the morning: before the hustle and bustle of the working class began. Numerous round tables made up the majority (if not all) of the restaurant’s furniture. A lone waiter moved from table to table, noting down the customers’ orders before making his way to a counter at the back, where a bald man sat perusing through a magazine. The restaurant itself was not busy, with only three customers occupying the room: a man and a woman seated at the same table in a corner, and a second man sitting on one of the stools in front of the counter. Aside from these people, the eatery was otherwise empty.
While the time of day was certainly playing a role in the “slow business”, the fact that the quality of food here was lacking could also be a major factor. However, the aroma of food that had been wafting out from the building’s open windows had made Masquerade assume otherwise, and with the inviting smell managing to get a hold of his hungered mind, he had entered the structure and was thus standing in its doorway as he surveyed the interior.
Unfastening his cloak, Masquerade made his way to a table and hung the cloak on one of the chairs’ backrest before sitting down on said seat. His eyes fell on the menu before him and he pulled it closer, flipping it open and scanning through the list of eatables. Once he had decided to stick with the basics and simply order some milk and cereal, he signaled for a waiter and gave his order. Masquerade only had to wait a few seconds before his order was brought to him, and with a word of thanks he began his breakfast. As he quietly crunched the cereal in his mouth, his thoughts wandered to the dream he had in the morning. Very soon he was lost in his world of deep thoughts and musings, his visor-covered eyes glazed over as they stared blankly at the bowl before him.
“Hey, kid, that’s my seat.”
The loud, husky voice broke through Masquerade’s ruminations, and he blinked before looking up from his bowl at the owner of the voice. An average-sized man with a head of oily, messy black hair stood before him. The man was dressed in a plain kosode of a cerulean coloring, the sleeves of which were torn off (whether purposely or unintentionally, Masquerade did not know). A pair of matching trousers covered the man’s leg, ending halfway down his shins. Under the kosode, Masquerade spotted the partially-concealed katana strapped to the man’s hip. The man’s left eye was hidden under an eye patch, the large scar on the same side of his face signifying the eye patch’s already obvious purpose. The blonde Nukenin could not see any forehead protector on the man’s person, so he was going to allow himself the assumption that this man was not a ninja; or at least, not a Village Ninja.
The man leered at Masquerade before leaning closer across the table. “Are you deaf or something?” he demanded deridingly, the single gray eye glinting unkindly. “I said: that’s my seat. Didn’t you hear me the first time?”
Masquerade stared back at the sneering face for another second, before silently returning to his breakfast. The man’s mouth twitched slightly in irritation before he slammed a hand forcibly on the table. Masquerade’s bowl shook slightly from the force of the action, but the Nukenin kept his gaze fixed on his cereal.
“I’m not gonna say it again. This is my seat,” the man repeated, his voice low and growling. “I’m a frequent customer in this place, and I always get to sit at this table. Always. So get your ass off my seat.”
Still, Masquerade did not reply, nor did he react to the man’s words. Said man narrowed his eyes at the inattentive boy. A sudden silence had befallen the restaurant’s customers. To be more accurate, the three customers present had all turned their heads to watch the scene occurring at Masquerade’s table. Even the single waiter and the bald man behind the counter were watching curiously.
“I’m giving you till the count of five, kid,” the black-haired man announced. “One… Two ...”
“Hey now… That’s enough, Yusuke,” the bald man behind the counter suddenly interrupted, the statement delivered in a perturbed tone. “Don’t do anything unnecessary. Just take another table and leave him alone. What difference does it make?”
The black-haired man, who was evidently named Yusuke, glanced over his shoulder at the speaker. “Mind your own business, Tano. You know I always sit at this table, and I’m not about to let some weirdo in a mask steal my -.”
“Must we do this?” Masquerade finally spoke up. Yusuke looked back at the blonde Nukenin to find that the latter had yet to avert his gaze from his meal. “I don’t know if you’re purposely trying to start a fight - and if you are - I don’t know why; and frankly, I don’t care. I’ve had a bad morning, and I’d appreciate it if you just stopped this pointless antic and leave me in peace.”
Yusuke blinked, and then grinned unkindly. “Oh-hoh! So you can speak!” he laughed, slipping into the seat opposite Masquerade. He leaned across the table until his face was only a few inches away from the unresponsive Masquerade. “What? You had a nightmare or something? Got kicked out of your own house? Lose a bet? Eh? That it? Wimp.”
And as Masquerade dipped his spoon into his bowl, Yusuke spat into the bowl. He grinned triumphantly at Masquerade, his single gray eye glinting deridingly, as he leaned back in his seat and folded his arms over his chest. Masquerade’s mouth stretched into a thin line as he let his spoon slip into his “contaminated” bowl of cereal. He looked up at Yusuke, the latter’s mocking face reflected in the visor of the former’s mask, and sighed audibly.
“Very well. You’ve made your point,” Masquerade remarked in defeat, rising to his feet and picking up his bowl. “You can have what belongs to you.”
And with a flick of his hand, Masquerade tossed the bowl of cereal right into Yusuke’s face. The smirking man was caught unawares as the dish collided with his face and knocked him off his seat. Yusuke crashed onto the floor and lay there for a second before picking himself up. Cold milk and soggy dregs of cornflakes covered the shocked man’s head as he placed a hand on his forehead over the spot where the bowl had struck him. Once he had risen to his feet, he glared at Masquerade with a watery eye.
Masquerade calmly sat back down in his seat. “You can have your spit back,” he continued flippantly. Yusuke’s face went red with anger and his hand gripped the hilt of his katana, but a moment later he let go of it. He turned away from Masquerade, muttering darkly to himself as he grabbed a napkin from the table and proceeded to wipe his face clean with it. He then stomped past Masquerade, seething with anger.
A slow smirk slid across the masked blonde’s face as the soaked man marched off. As he had expected, the man was “all bark and no bite”. Well, that was not completely true. Masquerade had not been sure if Yusuke would walk away from him like he just did. He had indeed been expecting a reaction from the man, but he had not been one-hundred-percent certain he would back off like that. An assault of pure rage would have been more idiosyncratic, in Masquerade’s opinion. After all, a hot-head like this Yusuke clearly was should not enjoy being publicly humiliated. He would certainly wish to punish anyone who would dare embarrass him like Masquerade had. Yes, an attack would have been more characteristic of someone of Yusuke’s temperament. Even if he had attacked Masquerade, the boy was confident he could have held his own. He had been able to tell easily that this Yusuke was a mere push-over; in other words, not a threat.
Still, Masquerade had to give him credit for one thing: he hadn’t aggravated the issue any further than it already was. Attacking Masquerade would certainly have brought about such a result. It may just have been cowardice on Yusuke’s part, but nonetheless he had avoided doing anything rash.
The same probably couldn’t be said about Masquerade, whose actions had resulted in a broken ceramic bowl and two of a wooden chair’s four legs snapped. Certainly, the man behind the counter (who Masquerade guessed to be the manager) was looking displeased by the recent occurrence. No doubt he was worried that this might scare his customers off. Fortunately for him, none of his current customers had left their seats: they had all returned to their meal after Yusuke had backed away.
How compassionate of them.
And speaking of being compassionate…
With a soft sigh, Masquerade rose from his seat and approached the manager. He reached into his pocket and slipped a few Ryo onto the wooden counter. “Sorry for the mess,” Masquerade mumbled to the bemused man. “I hope this is enough to pay for the bowl and chair.”
Tano’s face broke into a gentle smile as he scooped the notes into his hand. “Ah, don’t worry about it,” he assured. He glanced at Masquerade’s spilt breakfast. “Would you like another bow-?”
An inexplicable look of surprise abruptly overcame the manager’s features. Masquerade had just enough time to realize that Tano was looking over his shoulder and not at him, before he felt a searing pain in his chest. Blood erupted from Masquerade’s mouth along with a yell of pain. The stupefied Nukenin slowly looked down to see a steel blade piercing through his chest. He then looked over his shoulder, and his eyes narrowed as he caught sight of a smirking Yusuke standing behind him, his right hand clutching the hilt of the katana piercing Masquerade.
Yusuke’s mouth widened into a malicious grin. “Woopsie.”
Last edited by Ulkira on Sat 18 Oct 2014, 5:24 am; edited 4 times in total |
| | | | Ulkira
Age : 31
Posts : 1836
| | Subject: Re: Reasons and Reminiscences [Private] Fri 15 Jun 2012, 1:01 am | |
| Every pair of eyes in the restaurant was trained on the sight at the counter, looks of shock mirrored on each face. Tano the manager looked on the verge of fainting, his trembling hands gripping the edges of the counter as he steadied himself. The man sitting by the counter hastily rose to his feet and hurried out of the building in fear. The two customers that remained shrank back in their seats, watching the scene in both fear and awe.
“Hurts, doesn’t it?” Yusuke sneered, grinning malevolently at Masquerade.
Masquerade snarled in pain as Yusuke mercilessly slid his blade out of the Nukenin’s chest. Masquerade swayed in place before titling sideways. He collapsed hard onto the wooden floor, his whole body as limp as a doll. Blood seeped through his clothes as his chest convulsed erratically; searing pain shot through his body due to his fatal wound. Through his blurring vision, the boy saw the world around him fading slowly into darkness. Even his thoughts were starting to become sluggish and jumbled. Despite all this, even as he felt himself fade, the only thing he could think was: He tricked me…
The gaping manager stared down at Masquerade’s limp form before rounding on Yusuke. The black-haired man was lazily wiping his sword clean on Masquerade’s coat, looking as smug as a cat holding a mouse. “What the hell, Yusuke?” the manager demanded hysterically. “What do you think you’re doing? You can’t just kill someone like that!”
Yusuke snorted loudly and sheathed his cleaned sword. “Relax, Tano. I did you a favor, you know.” He looked down distastefully at Masquerade’s still body. “This kid is a Nukenin, a rouge ninja. They’re all criminals who deserve to die, so he got what was coming to him.” He slipped into one of the stools by the counter and folded his arms over the wooden surface, nodding his head at Tano. “Now, I’ll have an omelet and a cup of green tea, please.”
Tano looked like he was going to protest, but with a warning glance from Yusuke, he sighed and left to have his customer’s meal prepared. Yusuke gave the bleeding Masquerade a glance and smirked nastily; a smug chuckle issued from his mouth before he turned away. It was amazing how easily he had played the boy: putting on that show about fighting for his seat, then provoking the boy into humiliating him, and finally leaving him with the impression that Yusuke was a wuss of a man. All of which led to the boy dropping his guard, thus granting Yusuke the opportune moment that he sought. And with the skill that a seasoned warrior like him possessed, he had swiftly cut down the Nukenin before he knew it.
It had all been so easy; in fact, it was almost sad how easy it was. Yusuke figured a Nukenin would be more alert and less prone to drop his guard, given how dangerous life supposedly was for them. In fact, Yusuke himself was not the strongest of combatants in the world, so if this Nukenin had been easily overcome by him, then he was probably the weakest ninja out there!
Bet this brat wishes he’d stayed under whatever rock he’d been hiding under, he joked to himself, chuckling softly.
The laughter came to a stop when a hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder fiercely. Startled, Yusuke looked over his shoulder and stared with widened eyes at the figure behind him. Masquerade was back on his feet, the river of blood seeping out of his chest having stopped, as if the wound had been closed. The boy’s face was completely still as he watched Yusuke silently from behind his mask.
Slowly, Yusuke grinned at the revived Masquerade. “Wow. I’m impressed, kid. I thought for sure I’d finished you off, but it seems you’ve got some tricks up your sleeves.” The amused grin shifted into one of conceit. “But that won’t change anything. You’re still going to -.”
He never got to finish his sentence, for at that moment Masquerade’s grip on his shoulder became vice-like; before the man knew it, he had been lifted off his seat and hurled across the room. Yusuke slammed violently into a wall before landing onto a table underneath. The table broke under his weight with a loud crunch, causing Yusuke to land face-first on the floor. Nearby, the two remaining customers screamed and ran out through the front door, at last leaving the shop empty. Even the stoic waiter surreptitiously slipped into the back of the restaurant, not wanting to get in the way of the impending brawl. Tano himself was refusing to come out and stop the chaos, instead electing to hide in the kitchen and watch through the windows on the kitchen doors.
After a few seconds, Yusuke rose to his feet, slightly disoriented as he wiped the blood trickling out of his mouth. He looked up in bewilderment at Masquerade, at a loss for words. Wordlessly, Masquerade turned to face Yusuke. A snarl spread across the boy’s face, his suddenly pointed teeth bared in an animalistic manner. A strange aura was enveloping the Nukenin, a translucent, seething aura of crimson chakra that seemed to dance around him like tongues of flame. A hollow, high-pitched growl suddenly issued from the boy’s mouth: an unintelligible noise, one that sounded almost demonic.
“Hrrrrgghh…”
Yusuke cocked an eyebrow at Masquerade, clearly bemused by the latter’s behavior. “Huh, looks like there’s more to you than meets the eye.” He grinned suddenly, his visage taking on a confident look. His hand moved to his katana and he drew it out of its scabbard. He brandished it at the stiff Masquerade. “That’s good. It’ll make this more interesting!”
With a battle cry, Yusuke lunged at Masquerade and brought his sword swinging down at the boy’s shoulder. Without a word, Masquerade easily evaded the attack as well as the follow-up strike that came for his neck. Yusuke swung his sword in attack after attack, but to his annoyance, Masquerade dodged each and every single one of his strikes. The masked blonde was moving around the older man’s attacks with an agility that was almost insect-like; and the entire time, he did not even break a sweat. It both infuriated and puzzled Yusuke, for he could not understand how Masquerade could be avoiding his attacks so effortlessly now, when earlier he had been struck down so easily.
As an irritated Yusuke thrust his katana at Masquerade’s blood-coated chest, the boy ducked and reached up with a hand to grab the weapon by the blade; at the same moment, his leg flew upwards and rammed his booted foot into the older man’s vulnerable midriff. The katana slipped out of Yusuke’s hand as he was once more tossed back through the air and slammed into a wall. Masquerade rose to his full height and chucked the katana aside.
“Hrrooaarrrr!” Masquerade cried in the same animal-like manner. He rushed at the disarmed Yusuke, who was just rising to his feet.
At the sound of Masquerade’s primal roar, the black-haired man swung his head up. With a grunt, he brought his hand up and blocked the punch that was thrown his way, holding the Nukenin’s clenched fist in his own. He then launched a kick towards Masquerade’s shins. The kick hit its mark, making the blonde hiss in anger from the pain. Grinning, Yusuke launched a mighty punch into the boy’s face, embedding his knuckles into the mask. This time, Masquerade was the one who was knocked back, soaring over an upturned table before hitting a wall back-first. Before the disorientated Nukenin could regain his balance, Yusuke had appeared in front of him and slammed him against the wall, a triumphant grin spreading across his face.
The force of the punch had caused Masquerade’s mask to come flying off his face, leaving his stony and immobile face exposed. Without thought, Yusuke pinned Masquerade to the wall, his hands curling around the boy’s neck and beginning to strangle him. A dangerous glint was in the man’s gray eye now, one that was almost maniacal. He seemed so focused on finishing off Masquerade that he didn’t even seem to notice the strange features that were Masquerade’s bug-like eyes. His murderous intent appeared to have blinded him.
“No escape now, kid!” he declared victoriously, grinning madly as he tightened his hold on Masquerade’s neck. The Nukenin hissed angrily as he felt his windpipe constricting from the pressure, and the subsequent lack of oxygen entering his lungs. His vision began to swim whilst his body began losing its strength. Yusuke’s grin widened at the sight of this.
“Hrraaaahhh!”
Masquerade’s hand suddenly shot forward and grabbed Yusuke’s face tightly. A howl of pain erupted from Yusuke’s mouth as he felt his skin begin to burn at Masquerade’s touch. He relinquished his hold on his victim and backed away. The Nukenin landed crouched on one knee, gasping for breath. He then looked up at Yusuke, who was bent over in pain as the skin on face seemed to be literally burning off.
Masquerade gave another high, snake-like hiss before lunging at Yusuke and grabbing hold of his face with both hands. Yusuke screamed once more at Masquerade’s acidic touch, grabbing the Nukenin’s arms by the wrists and trying to pull the corrosive hands off his face. However, the boy would not let go, his face eerily steady despite the blood-curdling screams issuing from his victim’s mouth; not a single sign of regret and hesitation could be seen on those unmoving features. The boy’s eyes were wide and unfaltering as they watched the man before him drop to his knees, writhing in pain and still trying desperately to break free of the torture.
Last edited by Ulkira on Fri 22 Feb 2013, 4:14 am; edited 1 time in total |
| | | | Ulkira
Age : 31
Posts : 1836
| | Subject: Re: Reasons and Reminiscences [Private] Tue 19 Jun 2012, 12:54 am | |
| “AAAAAHHHH!”
All of a sudden, Yusuke’s screams ceased and he stopped struggling. His body had gone limp, supported up now by Masquerade’s grip on his face. With a snake-like hiss, Masquerade let go off Yusuke’s face and stepped back as the motionless body fell to the floor. The face had been burned beyond recognition, the corrosive effect having eaten away at the entire visage. Yusuke was unarguably dead, and due to an extremely gruesome and horrific method.
Masquerade opened his mouth and gave an animalistic roar of victory, the crimson aura around him pulsating fiercely. But a second later, his entire body shuddered violently and he dropped to one knee on the ground, one hand pressed to his forehead as if in pain. The dead-look in his eyes vanished as a light seemed to return to them; his teeth returned to their original shape, losing their sharpness in the blink of an eye; and lastly, the throbbing aura around him died down, extinguished like fire.
With a groan, Masquerade raised his gaze from the floor at the restaurant. He took in the mess he and Yusuke had created during his little spar: furniture had been overturned and decimated to pieces; gashes in wooden the floor and walls could be spotted where Yusuke’s katana had struck after missing Masquerade; damaged decorative ornaments and shattered pieces of china lay around the room. It was a complete and utter mess that Masquerade stared at, before his eyes slid to the corpse of the man.
Masquerade stared in horror and revulsion at what remained of Yusuke’s face, realizing instantly how this mutilation had occurred, and who was responsible for it. Slowly, Masquerade rose to his feet, still staring down at Yusuke’s corpse, trying to comprehend what had just happened. He eventually turned his eyes away from the sickening sight, mouth twisted into a frown of distaste. Realizing that his mask was absent from his face, Masquerade glanced around for it and spotted it lying on the floor nearby, thankfully undamaged. He bent down and picked it up, slipping it onto his face before rising to his feet.
“My God…,” an aghast voice whispered from behind Masquerade. The boy turned around to find the manager and waiter standing over Yusuke’s corpse, staring down at his face. Tano and the waiter looked up fearfully at Masquerade, as if afraid he would kill them as well. Seeing this, Masquerade sighed softly and began walking towards them. The two men started and made to back away, but to their surprise, Masquerade merely strolled past them and towards the door.
At the entrance, he stopped and mumbled softly, “Again, sorry about the mess.” Without waiting for a reply, he vanished quickly into the sunlight.
• END OF FLASHBACK •
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Such was how Masquerade had ended up where he was right now. After leaving the restaurant, he had immediately left the village, doing his best to stay out of sight and lose any tail he might have. He had finally made it back to the woods, and had soon after found a secluded place to think; and think was just what he did.
He knew full-well what had happened after Yusuke had stabbed him; and he also knew why it had happened as well. Well, not exactly why, but he had a pretty good guess. It had been his Bijuu - the Shichibi - that had stepped in to save Masquerade and keep him from dying. It had lent him some of its power while taking advantage of his unconscious state to control him like a puppet. By doing that, the Bijuu had managed to defeat and kill the person who had almost done the same to Masquerade. The boy stroked his chin pensively. He deduced from this that, if he died, the Bijuu inside him would die as well. Therefore, in order to save itself (for Masquerade was convinced that the Bijuu had only “helped” him for its own sake) the Shichibi had assumed control of his body and gotten him out of the mess he’d fallen into.
Masquerade placed a hand over his chest, over the spot where Yusuke’s sword had pierced through him. The dried blood coating his clothes and the tear in his clothes both alluded to the aforementioned injury. Said wound had healed itself completely back when the Shichibi had initially taken over. No doubt this had been due to the Bijuu’s own power. Masquerade didn’t think he’d be able to willingly replicate such an astonishing regeneration capability; not with his current skill, that is. It seemed that the momentary burst of accelerated healing back then was just another attempt by the Bijuu to save itself.
The masked blonde lowered his hand and bowed his head in contemplation. It had happened. The very thing he had feared, the very thing he was trying to ensure did not occur, had come to pass. The Shichibi had taken control of Masquerade, and though it had only been a brief spell, it still infuriated Masquerade. While he was remorseful over what the Bijuu had made him do during that event, the fact that he had not been in control of himself, and that his body had been manipulated by someone other than him, was what aggravated him most. To remain in control of his mind, body, and life: that was Masquerade’s Nindō. But today, he had not been in control of his mind or body. Today, his actions had been directed in accordance with the Shichibi’s will, not his own. This was unacceptable.
Masquerade raised his hand, looking down at it. This creature won’t control me, he thought resolutely. I am the one who decides my future. I am the one who controls this body. Not some demon, not some village: only I. He clenched his hand into a fist. He would learn how to control this creature no matter what, even if it was the last thing he ever did; and he would start immediately.
“You won’t control me, Bijuu. No one controls Masquerade.”
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~ Topic Concluded ~ |
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