a whole undone

[Haru]

------------------------------

Rubble and ash lay before me in a grave pile. I rolled a small piece of the crumbled edifice in circles beneath my left tabi, mimicking the final swirls of smoke as they floated off into the sky.

This is what faith wrought. Trauma. Forced endings. In our world, faith was death, in that it forced in one a longing for another, less cruel world. The soon-dead had always used it, like cheap armor, to confront death before it occurred. They laid themselves in their caskets, shut and locked the lids, and waited arrogantly for it to overtake them. They had faith that faith offered more than death; that with an undying fidelity to their doctrines they would find something beyond this life once it was taken from them. I found the thought pitiful. I wondered, in their dying breaths, whether or not they finally realized that everything that they had hoped for, and all that they had lived for, had been a lie. That the world didn’t revolve around them, and that their doctrines had only ever been concepts, man-made. They had been lulled and lured by a mantra of false safety. But no one could escape death. It didn’t matter why—just that no one could. They didn’t understand; we had to show them the hard way. And their gods never came to their rescue.

In the end, they had been just like us. Just flesh and bone. No deity nor belief system would ever save them from that. The only belief that had ever mattered was belief in an idea. Belief in other worlds, in life after death, in a just world, were simply blatant attempts to escape from fear. All futile. Belief in an idea required a surging forward, into the uncertainty and the unknown, and not a sinking back. Pragmatic belief, I thought. Eventually I stopped thinking. I turned then from the rubble in a wind of flowing white, moving south now. The church was gone, but it would have been foolish to assume all of its members were. They scattered away, like ants yearning to be crushed. They had heard the news, I was sure; many had probably seen it, too. But no amount of running would save them. Judgement was inescapable. We would fall upon them like blood-drenched mist, steel-brandished and vengeful. Today would mark a mass sending. Any shinobi who had fallen into their trap would be removed from this world just the same. They were all the same. Wastes of space, all the same. I moved now to find them. I would.

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SPOILER: Click to show

{M}Hunt: Find the Remnants
Rank: C
Description: Find the remaining individuals who worship the false church and kill them. These individuals have denounced the new leadership and all that the reformation of the Bloody Mist stands for. Give no quarter.
Restrictions: Can be completed three times.
Rewards: 50 EXP, 1000 RYO

[Haru]

------------------------------

I was calm as I weaved swiftly through the labyrinth of wood and stone. Earthy tones mixed with fluttering faces and broken sounds—my figure remained in motion. I was in the air, eventually, and my soles caught the lesser traction of a rooftop before accelerating once more. There were cube-shaped buildings, modest in size, and tightly packed together in this region. They weren’t slums, but neither could they have housed the affluent. I was still quite a distance from my destination. Even further, one could still see the gaping hole left in our once-looming gate, as if announcing to all of the village its absolute defeat and ruin. Dark clouds of charred residue still loomed over the site of decimation, as well. They were foreshadowing, calling in premonition to the deaf air. What would life be like, as subordinates to the Leaf? A slow dwindling of numbers, as we were sent to our deaths through implicit attempts at attrition? Would the village be set to burn away slowly, without a cost, without a fight? A slow dwindling, to appease and entertain the bloodlust of our new masters. The once noble Kirigakure, dragged into the mud by the weak, would now be finally placated by a village more powerful.

Could it all be attributed to a poor and depraved leadership, or were we also to blame? It had to have been our fault somewhat. The surrendering of one’s pride went a long way in pacifying the one completely. There had been no attempts at revolution, under the despotic control—hardly any resistance at all. It was true, we had been defeated long before Konoha and its opportunistic numbers had come knocking. It was a more subtle defeat, but a defeat nonetheless. Some of us had attempted keep the nobler spirit alive, that of the Bloody Mist—the true Mist—hiding it from view only to let it out when our pious overseers faltered in their seeing. But the numbers were few, even in the beginning, and only diminished as time passed, and that poisonous cobra of a religion sunk its fangs into our shinobi-base completely. So many had succumbed; our numbers had been internally decimated. Yet, perhaps that prior, torturous era had merely been a weeding out, a means to separate the devoted and true from the weak-willed and insignificant.

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SPOILER: Click to show

{M}Hunt: Find the Remnants
Rank: C
Description: Find the remaining individuals who worship the false church and kill them. These individuals have denounced the new leadership and all that the reformation of the Bloody Mist stands for. Give no quarter.
Restrictions: Can be completed three times.
Rewards: 50 EXP, 1000 RYO

[Haru]

------------------------------

In a way, maybe the external interference of the Leaf had been what we needed. And although they may have merely ordered our eradication of the religious Mist in an effort to further reduce our numbers, and thus render us even more incapable of rebellion, perhaps they hadn’t. It could have went either way, I thought—but, whichever way, I knew that underlying any order that flying nightmare would give would always be the interests of the Leaf. If our interests didn’t coincide with theirs, our interests would be callously maimed and forced silent. What could one do?

For now, I would seek the remnants of that false Mist. Their welcome had been overstayed even before it was, and I could taste the blood of vengeance on my tongue. The hunt was well underway. The cool, mist-affected wind pressed on my clothes, slipping past a calm and determined expression before coming to rest behind. It moved as I moved, following me as I weaved through dim alleyways and tiny passages not meant for weaving. The sun searched for me in its warm violence, finding me and losing me again and again. Large, stony structures impeded either side; I was forward and unblinking, airborne before finding a different path. Occasionally, the sun caught itself along the collection of brisk and successive movements that I’d made myself, but for the most part only the chill of dark shade could be felt. Something advancing could be seen during short instances where shade succumbed to light.

In every other instance, I was an unseen slash and an unannounced culling. I was attuned to the environment of fortified shapes and sizes throughout my forward-flying motions, listening, watching, feeling—sensing in that peculiar way a shinobi of my ilk could. I could feel the air moving, crossing and fading, jumping and delighting in its jump. Stepping moisture stumbling overhead, falling diagonal, down and slow, full speed and then slamming softly into the earth. Any aberrance from the ordinary was sought; I only found silence. The village remained fear-stricken, following the events at the Gate—the hurried, half-gasped tales of the carnage left them tucked beneath their blankets, shivering, with the occasional peak through the window before running back beneath. I was out in the thick of it. The atmosphere was changing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

SPOILER: Click to show

{M}Hunt: Find the Remnants
Rank: C
Description: Find the remaining individuals who worship the false church and kill them. These individuals have denounced the new leadership and all that the reformation of the Bloody Mist stands for. Give no quarter.
Restrictions: Can be completed three times.
Rewards: 50 EXP, 1000 RYO

[Haru]

------------------------------

The world transmuted at my request, opening itself to that upon which nothing could be missed. In mere moments the district was scanned, and my targets located and locked onto. I stuck to the shadows. I was the shade itself, and I moved as the shade, shifting from sector to sector until at once I was before the first manor. The horned mask that had hung quietly along the back of my neck was finally slid over my face, and a deep gravity fell over my being.

The air around me stilled itself, my thoughts become as pure void—death was present, eyes of night animating my own, penetrating into my soul where things got darker and darker. Maelstrom of loathing. Chakra flowed through my right hand as it pressed itself just outside the door’s lock, forcing itself into it. A click would sound. Faces two rooms away would furrow in puzzlement. I was inside now, still in commune with the shadows. I could hear whispers, prayers, and footsteps from a different direction. Several more pairs of footsteps, ascending this time. I saw it all. The one that would momentarily turn the corner would be the first to go. My fingers motioned, and a glint of steel next appeared lodged into the wall opposite me. The body withered to the floor; blood poured from the opening in his skull, puddling around his face as I stepped up and over him. There were screams now, cries as they saw the demon mask and the white robes standing over the blood falling.

And then there were no more screams. The screams were replacing with a dent in the floorboard, slowly filling with a sweet mixture of tears and blood. The others tried to remain silent, but I was an owl and a fox, and my gaze couldn't be hid from. It moved through the walls, opening itself to their furtive movements. I crept lightly, filling the air with tense anticipation, swarming and crawling through the untouched spaces of the home. Pearls, gold, diamonds, furniture of white and sky blue, matching contraptions lining counters and hanging from walls, technologies unseen by the poor, given like human hearts to the unworthy. The wealthy and the religious, in our village they huddled together, conspiring and conniving. Coopting spirit, appropriating truth in the service of ill ends, malevolence consumed by appearances of benevolence. But I saw through it all. And so did my blade, as it lost its silent stalking.

It was loud and searing, in seconds, and then through them to stop the screaming once more. The remaining two embraced one another, holding eachother tightly, bracing themselves for what only was inevitable. I only solified their embrace, only brought them closer, as the glinting instrument slid gently through the both of them, like a kabob wet with blood. It was done. But, there were more. There were always more. I left the manor, seeking.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

SPOILER: Click to show

{M}Hunt: Find the Remnants
Rank: C
Description: Find the remaining individuals who worship the false church and kill them. These individuals have denounced the new leadership and all that the reformation of the Bloody Mist stands for. Give no quarter.
Restrictions: Can be completed three times.
Rewards: 50 EXP, 1000 RYO

[Haru]

------------------------------

Gradually, the environment would change. Passages opened themselves wide to the sun, arms outstretched as they took in the cool air. The hard smoothness of packed dirt replaced itself with the silence of warm, white-washed stone. Alleyways disappeared entirely.

The colors changed as well—no longer the earthen tones of before, but instead pristine greys and whites, with the occasional blues of sea and sky sneaking their way in across wide-flowing curtains, metallic gilding, and the variety of other meretricious decorations indicative of wealth in overabundance. A district housing the affluent of the village, replete with all of the amenities one would expect.

I glared with disdain as my gait began to slow, further reviling at flashing images of these sybaritic inhabitants engaging in their pig-mouthed and gluttonous hedonism deep within the gaudy lairs they had built for themselves. Throwing their lives away in an orgy of food and drink and comfort. I would have liked to see this place burned down just as the church had been. It wouldn’t have done, though. Their spending was necessary if we were to remain afloat as a village. One day, though, I felt that I would enjoy watching them burn away. The remaining members of the Church would have to do, for now. I knew that many of the higher-ranking priests lived in this part of the village. Most hadn’t been at the church. They were hiding now, probably packing. They didn’t realize that it was too late.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

SPOILER: Click to show

{M-2}Hunt: Find the Remnants
Rank: C
Description: Find the remaining individuals who worship the false church and kill them. These individuals have denounced the new leadership and all that the reformation of the Bloody Mist stands for. Give no quarter.
Restrictions: Can be completed three times.
Rewards: 50 EXP, 1000 RYO

[Haru]

------------------------------

Tabi’s lifted softly from a square of flattened stone. I was afoot, sauntering on slowly as my sight explored the region. The expanse of ostentation, of diamonds, gold, and carelessness, extended along the edge of the village for another kilometer or so. And then the surroundings shifted in their condition, slowly taking on time-worn shades and bare ornamentation.

They stacked on top of one another, squeezed and compacted, suffocating any fear of a negative balance. Eventually my sight wasn’t alone there, and I myself would enter the plain land. A warmer, more hospitable atmosphere could be immediately felt, upon entering, especially when contrasted with the blood-sucking coldness that preceded it. It was empty, like everywhere else at this time. Clothes fluttered in the wind, hung and air-dried beyond the reach of their entrapped owners. I moved lightly through the narrow pathways through this area, attentive and searching for the cloth or other memorabilia that would signal church affiliation.

A small pack of strutting fur and iciness walked by as I glided through. Our eyes met, and a kind of extrasensory understanding was felt between us. Mirumiya was away for the moment. A certain business had to be dealt with, is what was told to me. One could never be sure, with their surreptitious kind. Nonetheless, it was nice to see kin ambling by, seemingly unaffected by the turmoil that had been wrought not long before. Then they were gone, as was I. Something had suddenly flared into attention; robes, movement, circling, hands outstretched, chakra fluttering between them. A congregation.

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SPOILER: Click to show

{M-2}Hunt: Find the Remnants
Rank: C
Description: Find the remaining individuals who worship the false church and kill them. These individuals have denounced the new leadership and all that the reformation of the Bloody Mist stands for. Give no quarter.
Restrictions: Can be completed three times.
Rewards: 50 EXP, 1000 RYO

[Haru]

------------------------------

I was on them before they knew it, riving and rending their bodies into segmented chunks of flesh and sinew and spattered blood. I was calm and quiet under the mask—if only because the stillness augmented the gratification. I could focus completely, tearing through them surgically, the eyes seeing everything as it happened, where it happened down deep within them. I felt the rush. The euphoria of true vengeance flooded my being, enveloping me, driving me to do more. I was in another room. Clean before not clean, and then another, and there the blood flew as well. Household items, cluttering the once-empty air, screams cluttering the air, clawing and fighting turned to pleading and begging. I didn't hear any of it, really. I saw their mouths, their vocal cords, the frailness beneath their clothes, but it didn't register in any immediacy. Didn't call me to acknowledge, care, or concern myself. It was silent, to me, and the light of judgement was the steel dulling its edges along bones and brick.

I dislodged it from the counter beside a sink covered in muck, and then I was in the last room. I witnessed their fear and trembling, their lifelong charading away from death now nothing as death loomed above, laughing and beckoning. Their eyes, staring open, unwilling to close, feeling every moment, savoring their last seconds. Their hands grasped one another, and it drove me more and more. I was across the room in a thudding heartbeat, moving with a viciousness and a venom. Dicing the bodies, flaying the flesh, opening the heart as their life-force poured out in front of me. Another step and death was there once more, and the horns piercing skull through eyes as teeth grit in anticipation. Wind up the stairs, riposte, second, third, and once more. It coursed more through. I was awake, fangs gnashing, solemn though, and silent. The whispering would end with the steel sliding out from the mouth. Prayer would end with hands separated from the arms that were separated from the bodies that were separated from unmoving mouths and still thoughts.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

SPOILER: Click to show

{M-2}Hunt: Find the Remnants
Rank: C
Description: Find the remaining individuals who worship the false church and kill them. These individuals have denounced the new leadership and all that the reformation of the Bloody Mist stands for. Give no quarter.
Restrictions: Can be completed three times.
Rewards: 50 EXP, 1000 RYO

[Haru]

------------------------------

And then the house was silent, and I was inside another. It was day, but it felt night as I entered the next. A knife flung towards me.

Missed. HA. That was his only chance before his body lie messy on the floor. Steel was swung again. The pull of death was upon me now. Death frenzy. Opening wide to devour the life and the lifeless alike. Livers punctured, spinal cords split down the middle, piercing the calf and watching the rest squirm. Look at the ants. Look at the pigs, the cows, look see. Running forward and backward and in circles now. Escaping, escaping. No escaping. No god to save them. Noone helps. Death now. The night came to take them, even as the sun burned outside, like the hell that burned in my heart as I watched their pathetic scurrying. Steel swam and sunk, through blood, through orifices, between and inside squirm squish. No accidents, all intentional. All perfect, precision, the 90 degree angle, elbow sliced at the capitulum, the knee directly beneath the patella. More cries muffled as blood drowns the sound, then for good as the gargling comes to a close. Third and final, the one to end. Through the door, flying forward a form of white fire. Forward more through the body at the door.

Twice, four and six, stabbing the interior and the blade slides along the exterior. It rests on the inside of the cheek, looking into wide eyes one last time before digging through. And then there was no more standing cloth in the district of the affluent, and I would let the mask drop, allowing the wind to fill my body once more, composure and calm emanating, I left the scene.

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SPOILER: Click to show

{M-2}Hunt: Find the Remnants
Rank: C
Description: Find the remaining individuals who worship the false church and kill them. These individuals have denounced the new leadership and all that the reformation of the Bloody Mist stands for. Give no quarter.
Restrictions: Can be completed three times.
Rewards: 50 EXP, 1000 RYO

[Jae]

56 EXP gained!

Mission Reward: 50 EXP (x2), 1000 Ryo (x2)!