|||| Haikyo To Kashita Tō [Tower]

[Naitome]

廃虚と化した塔
Haikyo To Kashita Tō
<sup>______________________________ ★★★★★ ______________________________

THE RUINED TOWER</sup>

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It was like an enormous hammer struck the old tower down in the night; no-one understood how it could disappear so quickly, and while questions of the council elders whereabouts were dismissed as quickly as they were brought up, the dust settling on the remains of the previous Kage's legacy became a thick and obscuring rain-storm sweeping even his memory into nothingness. In the ash that remained, the base of something else shook itself free of the imprisoning wetland, seemed scorched into the earth and was surrounded by a faint electric hum holding the village in like a secret. It is a shell of its now rarely considered glory, congested on all sides with the skeletal framework of unfinished buildings rusting in the gloom. Compared to the overwhelming skyline of harsh metal clutching at the clouds, it is dated, ancient. An isolated ugly sore that bursts with glass and smoke whenever disturbed.

It contains a prisoner.

Located at the farthest end of the village and sitting in an abandoned plot of land, the Ruined Tower's sole occupant can only see the future, can only see progress at the expense of all else, while it sits, awkward and invasive and expanded over an artificial pit carved by machine onto the renegade metropolis of Ame. It is unclear how such a marvel of architecture could have fallen into this condition short of war that should have leveled everything in sight. But it matters not. The tower is there just the same. Though the intricacies of its construction have been gathered from the insight of the world's best designers and military strategists, it was not meant for the young man who walks its halls.

He will not leave, cannot leave, not yet. But perhaps you have come to persuade him. Of course, you will have to find him first.

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* Only a few stories high, the ruined tower remains that once belonged to the Amekage were never designed to cause the citizens to look up in awe, but instead move downwards, with sub-level upon sub-level of unstable foundations piled atop each other like steps. The entrance to the main tower 'lobby' resembles a shrine. There are no visible guards. The creatures that roam the rest of the village will not go near this place.

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DEATH ENABLED.

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[✪ AU-2]

location: sub-level 18

("Tch.")

A man falls, surrounded by his peers [5], who stand at an awkward state of attention as if called to account for some transgression. They are full of fear, and the young man whom they would call Lord is disgusted by it. It is palpable, a tense tremor through the atmosphere of the crowded space [20m x 20m] defining the 18th sub-level beneath the patchwork ruin that is the Tower. On a monitor, he watches the invading force of Amegakure nobles as they attempt to circumvent the grid network that once prevented any but himself from entering, and removes the edge of his katana from the falling man's back, kicking down on his lower spine to guide him gracelessly to the floor with a thud that resonates through pooling blood. His boot finds the side of the man's head as it careens with great force, denting in the skull and throwing the corpse against the far leftward wall, where the impact causes the softened bone to erupt into gore like confetti.

The scientists who huddle in the nervous chill of his presence whine among themselves, but do not truly speak. They are watching his movements, as he switches the view on the monitor to the lowest level, and the small black-haired girl in a cage who sits patiently and unafraid, twirling a single ebony strand about her finger. A loud whirring click begins as one of the monitors many lights blinks on and off in timing with the nearby [12m] freight elevator descending from directly in front of him, running through the enclosed room itself, and coming to a rest only after a few shuddering spurts of mechanized gears drip dust and oil onto the steel floor.

The man who exits, concealed behind a dark suit of armor, has been expected, but the gathered scientists still jump at his presence. ("You have arrived. Excellent. And now, you will leave."), AU-2 says dismissively, his hands working over the advanced control system and dispersing the image of the trapped girl with a few keystrokes. The monitor flickers, the stray digital signal bound and reconfigured to once again show the pipe-line entrance to the expansive grid beneath Amegakure, as well as the intruders poised to begin their entry.

("I trust that you've found my request with the Samurai Generals to be a legitimate one, and have traveled down here only to tell me how overjoyed you are to fulfill your duty and deal with these foul invaders. Your happiness has been noted. You may go do what you are paid to. Immediately.") A few more pushes of buttons connected to complex systems of wiring wound throughout the entirety of the country, the single monitor blooms outwards into a three-dimensional display that also shows the area immediately behind the pipe-line entrance. There is a shadow within a space 100 meters further south of where the 'intruders' fidget with the gate-way controls, and AU-2 indicates branches of hollow metal that extend to the far left and far right of this space.

("Funnel them into the main corridor. Do not allow them to deviate along the left or right junction. Destroy them without mercy, or I will do so to you.")

He explains nothing, only demands it, and does not even look up, only points a finger at the cowering scientists who move out of your way even without you being particularly close to them, and shiver with anxiety and terror.

("Activate the Echomire.")

He seems to have forgotten about his guest completely, as a scrambling of footsteps separates the bunch onto nearby panels which run through a succession of lights and dials plastered to each wall with shiny metallic plating.

[Tyro]

The journey to Amegakure was Akio's most interesting yet. Considering that this was one of the few that he had not visited, he had to submit that his excitement was getting the better of him. Leaving from Iron and once on the rapid pace to the village he wondered just how it fared against the others. Konoha seemed ever jolly. Even Mizu with it's ever present ominous mist had a small sense of happiness. It had seemed to him that whichever village people associated with, no matter their reason or occupation within, the lands itself as a whole was content.

This was not the case when he arrived. Firstly, the gates of the village were unlike anything he had ever seen. It in itself was a fortress, and though the path was mostly straight forward for him, he could tell that his own decisions in what may well have been a maze could have been his easy, painful, and monotonous downfall. Once he emerged on the other side, he noticed the sudden gaped disappearance of his chakra that was sucked away. As well as the lack of true guards.

The inside of the village was hardly any better. Akio had expected an advancement in technological discovery, as he had witnessed in the gates creation, but inside it seemed as if the entire of Amegakure was crafted from steel. Nothing was natural. Nothing was organic. This was not the beauty he expected. Nor the happiness, as he wafted through the scant amount of population, most of the people seemed to suffer from abnormal ailments. As though a mass of the citizens had their genes fight against normalcy for quite some time. He fought to keep his expression stonily determined, done with more ease as his helm and armor shelled his emotions.

He waded through the ever-present rain that he was told Ame would contain, and towards the Tower to inform their leader of his arrival. The rain offered no problem. It was somewhat chilly perhaps, but being raised in Tetsu bore Akio an affinity to the cold, if not so much against being so wet. What the water did bring to mind was his recent excursion to Mizu, where the Sanbi was obtained. He knew he carried the Beast within himself, had remembered the memory, and the pain of it forcing itself into his chakra network. However thus far, in the days afterwards, the Beast made no attempts at contact. Akio had tried several times, even during this very journey, to attempt to "talk" to himself, and inherently the beast. These attempts proved futile, and made him feel silly. He had thus decided to forego the attempts at contact with the Beast, and instead focus on the job he had been performing so far. Testimony to this were the standard two katana on his hips, and the bow strapped to his back along with the plethora of arrows on one of his thighs. He was just as amply equipped, Jinchuriki or not.

Arriving at the Tower he was again surprised. It matured as a tall building, but still small. Even smaller when compared to the Towers of the other villages. In fact, the Samurai's own headquarters stumped such a small building. He thought not to comment, but simply observe the nuance.

Once in the Tower he was directed to the creaky elevator of the building. He had ridden these before, without any problem, but this seemed dated. A stark contrast to the rest of the technology present, as shrouded by gloom as it was.

The elevator started a descent downwards. This also came with a light shock, which was easily recovered from before too many floors were covered, and made more sense as the Tower's reach to the sky was not very far. He kept silent, and rigid as the elevator operated, right to the shuddering stop on the eighteenth sublevel.




Akio still stood rigid, but from behind the mask, his eyes were searching frantic, examining the area. One person was easily discernable as dead to his left(?), fear was inscribed into several other men in the area at his arrival, telegraphed by their worried expressions. One girl, young, remained in a cage, and the final participant in whatever events had transpired was the single image of true power.

The doors of the elevator had hardly spent a second open before he was being spoken to. He knew he had walked in on something, clearly, and with the words coming would soon be asked (with perhaps a tone of an order) to leave. The man's speech in fact fought hard against Akio's own free will, speaking of his "duty" and "joy" to be a part of this operation. Akio tolerated it; but from behind the mask he breathed a deep exhalation in annoyance with the man's demands.

"I do only as my orders tell me. My joy and payment are but a consequence of these orders."

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He spoke calmly as his eyes took to the screens that shimmered a new image. He then spoke again, offering what was in truth a tip for his upcoming engagement. Then quite presumptuously implied, or rather threatened to destroy Akio himself.

Akio already was not a fan of this man. The aura around him was distasteful.

"Is there anything I should know about these intruders? "
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[✪ AU-2]

("They are intruding, that is what you should know about them. They are unlawfully entering an area that is mine")

His eyes change. The aura of malevolence around AU-2's body sends a pulsing sensation into the air and the scientists at their work-stations feel driven mad, to the barest edges of sanity by an inescapable fear. AU-2 has raised his head, and stares into the eyes of the armor-clad man who has entered, the familiar red-black pattern of the sharingan settling into light violet ripples that promise violence even as the world around him seems to slow to a halt.

("What you need to know is that they are driven. They believe themselves the true heirs to my city, and they will stop at nothing to wrestle control of it from me, destabilizing the peace I have worked so hard to introduce.")

But as you look around, the man's words ring false. There is a little peace here. There is only death and the unforgiving despair of a tyrant. The Uchiha presses a series of display codes into the monitor's off-grey surface as an image overtakes the static air directly before them both, showcasing the Tenzo and Kekkai clan symbols respectively. He raises the crescent of his palm up to slash impatiently through both, but their light projected image is undisturbed. His hand passes through them like water, and he snarls lightly as his gaze returns to the monitors.

("In order to defeat them, you must know that which already seeks to destroy the fragile alliance their shared history should have already prevented them from forming. What you need to know...is....")

And AU-2 looks up at you for the briefest of moments, his face no longer carrying the arrogant smirk that has become his namesake.

("Hatred motivates them. It pushes them. Hatred of each other, of the very family they believe justifies their intrusion. Use that against them. Destroy the bonds that allow them to overcome that hatred, and reintroduce it as the only way with which they can interact with each other. Feed their anger. The darkness inherent behind their posturing. Do these things, and you shall succeed.")

The monitor switches again to the tiny girl in the cage. Her faded red eyes, her black sweep of long hair, the pale skin that makes her seem doll-like an innocent even as the pixelated image refracts the sheen of fresh blood coating the insides of her restraints. She is playing with the tattered rags of her shoes now, her gaze unfixed, almost content.

AU-2 reaches a hand towards the screen, tentatively, as if momentarily compelled by some deeper longing, then snatches back his fingers, forming a claw, and slamming them down on the wide steel birth of his machines.

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[Tyro]

Akio's eyes stayed true to the changing hues of AU-2, the pupils twirling into the vermillion that he remained iconic to the Uchiha. Of course the famed clan's power was well noted among shinobi, Samurai, and ninja alike. The power his eyes had the possibility of possessing. Akio moved his own eyes away, diverting them from a direct stare to enclosing around the clone's body. He was well aware that he could have very much already been under the influence of the Uchiha's power, though he felt himself anyway.

He continued to speak regardless, answering Akio's query. The man spoke with a menacing tone. A tone unlike any that Akio had heard of leaders of the village. They had more noble premises to their cause, speaking more of a humbled land no matter their power, and giving credit where do. The way he spoke of the village as his. It set Akio on edge. Even the "peace" he spoke of, was obviously incorrect. The man with his brain still spilling from his head would surely attest to this criticism.

Regardless...this man was the leader of the village. It was Akio's orders to simply aid what he had established. Though he may not agree with this regime, or what the tyranny had produced, his opinion mattered not. It was not up to his decision to decide who to uproot.

The further monologue on hatred continued to upset Akio. It only further convinced him of this man's ill regard to life, and need for self-preservation. The words rung in his ears, but may as well have fell deaf.

"...I shall deal with them as I will."

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Akio was still in the elevators doors, but took a single step back into the machine. The step was an indication of his soon to departing, and his fingers shuffled to the buttons just as the screens changed to show the girl in the cage again. It was pure curiosity that fueled his question as AU-2 displayed an odd behavior and restraint.

"Who is the girl?"
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[✪ AU-2]

("Do not mistake my indulgence of your presence for a willingness to answer questions that are not your concern.")

Even without meeting his gaze, his aura has shifted into a cold and malicious foreboding it would be easy to mistake for an illusion. Like a monster from tales of old, simple proximity to the area where he stands is like being caught up in a sandstorm of murderous intent. His rage is like a force of nature. Even without shouting, it pierces through all in attendance and for a few brief moments, there is absolute silence. Reality seems afraid to make a sound.

Then, the building trembles. He raises his hand, as if merely pointing in your direction, and then closes his palm into a fist as an armored skeletal protrusion of dark chakra seems spawned from nowhere and wraps around the shell of you armor, binding you hands in place. AU-2 forcefully slams you into the elevator shaft, then edges it back up towards the surface with a mustering of unnatural strength. You will arrive on the top floor, probably shaken, but none the worse for wear.

His last words ring through the stillness of a destroyed Amegakure No Sato.

("And she is not a girl. She is a demon.")

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[Tyro]

Akio realized quickly that his somewhat brave response had pressed rather a big button. It wasn't the man's true words that signified this, for he did not yell. It was instead the sudden shift from his instructions to completely dominate the intruders present, to instead direct Akio personally with a definite malice. The sensation of having this man's attention on you was daunting.

It was unmistakably quiet, and unmistakably still in the room, but Akio still felt the sensation akin to the guttural roar of an army of demons, and the wavering balance of a drunk man.

The man's arm raised. The Samurai could not tell if his next action was voluntary of involuntary as his hand motioned to his katana, and his lead leg began to motion forward. Futile an effort, hardly able to begin before it ended, as an ethereal skeleton manifestation and grabbed his soul, using whatever power it contained to collide with him into the back wall of the elevator. Akio's resistance was all but fruitless as the doors forcibly closed, and the elevator rocketed itself into the air. The enumerated sublevels were hardly able to keep up until the first floor was closer within distance and the elevator began a screeching halt to stop accordingly The man's last words rung through the entire trip.

He came to nearly paralyzed on the first floor, the skeleton dissipating, and doors again forcibly opening as if they took wished for his immediate removal. A small moment of reprieve was granted before he took steps out of the elevator and into the lobby area, then out to the village proper.

His mind was definitely conflicted. The man was clearly a tyrant....

[—kyōfu]

[bg=Black] he distance between moments can be infinite; the fractions of fractions of seconds split forever into tension and empty space, falling apart into ash fading fast enough to question whether or not it was ever really there. A silhouette emerges between those instants. Where the vague dent of a choking man's cough in the surrounding burning sound meets a single waking grunt, it is the noise of becoming conscious, always moving forward...into freedom. Her two wide eyes glow in the dark recess of shape she has become. Across the span of one glorious thought, she is real now, and fully her own. The chakra she has just released is enough to reduce the entire underground structure to memory. She'd been asleep. There was a bad dream and a draining away of focus and then, light. One of the White Coats twitches from pain into stillness, his entire right side is simply, viscerally, gone. She'd called him Baldy once and he'd smiled at her; it is one of her favorite things to remember, that look absent of fear or malice. The remaining portion of skull and thin charred muscle stopping abruptly with blackness...she pushes her thumb against it and into his dimple, trying to see it again. She is cold, but for a few minutes, she presses against the cauterized chunk of corpse for warmth and hums comfortably. Far above, The Man With Strange Eyes would need to brace himself against his work station as the ground shook and sirens exploded suddenly with life. He would be warned a thousand times of something bad happening before the tiny monitor regularly showcasing Kyofu's holding cell becomes ash, and the image dissolves into static. The screams of the many who die in the fallout of the tiny girl's awakening blend into a piercing note that stabs its way violently past the higher levels; the ensuing collapse will force the ceiling down on whoever has not run in terror for their lives. She sits up. There is no longer an elevator, no longer the clear glass of a cage surrounding her and keeping her in the dark. The only way out is a 5 meter high section of pipe leading to the underground maze connecting Amegakure to the rest of Rain Country. Her first step... ...she takes her first step into the rest of the world.

[✪ AU-2]

("Bring. The defensive systems. Online. NOW.")

They answer his demand with pitiful complaints of its impossibility. The tower has suffered Class 6 damage to its deepest structure, causing an internal collapse that spread upwards all the way to the ground floor. The 'building' is, for all intents and purposes, completely defenseless from a single detonation, though as the computer monitors glare where they are not broken with a soft electric shine, he sees the remnants of its warning systems flash error messages in a panic. Subject AU-X1 has escaped. She cannot be tracked. She cannot be stopped.

("Reroute power through to the back up generators themselves, then initiate the main lock down sequence. If they want to invade, then they can stay here FOREVER. How exactly did the beast get out of it's cage? ")

They bore him with details; something about an energy backlash, a destabilization of chakra brought on by his shadow clone's destruction at the hands of the Tenzo Clan Head. He finds the idea amusing; he'd only wanted the Shikigami so that the Echomire could make copies of him, but now he was proving himself to be a most delightful distraction. The man was exhausted of nearly all his chakra, and AU-2 laughs at the notion of 'running out' of the near infinite power in his grasp. He laughs to himself as he watches the few remaining scientists scramble for answers in the wreckage, and the space surrounding his body shimmers slowly away from existence.

("Direct anything that would wish to penetrate the outer walls towards the girl. Feed her until she tires, and then I will reclaim her. There is something I must attend to in the meantime.")

His voice lingers behind for only a few seconds after the image of his body disappears, and those who hear his command grunt acknowledgment in unison before scrambling to carry out his orders. The outer labyrinth will shift and change as instructions are fed into the variety of machines trying vainly to continue functioning without their most vital parts.

The final chapter of this war is coming to a close, but one truth remains, one frightening realization that at the moment, not even AU-2 can do anything about.

Kyofu is free.

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[Pwn]

19 EXP - Nai¹
4 EXP - Nai²
16 EXP - Tyro