Kaleidoscope - 1 [Subject#852]

[Naitome]

特性 ██████████

^{''Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul. All species capable of grasping this fact manage better in the struggle for existence than those which rely upon their own strength alone: the wolf, which hunts in a pack, has a greater chance of survival than the lion, which hunts alone. But liberty for wolves is death to the lambs.''}

The Land of Rain. Yet another envelopment of water pretending to be solid ground; a landscape of ash and metal and stale air that tastes of copper and is only smoke drenched stone the widening light breaks into dust against the horizon. It is an emotional event. Wandering through these first few scrap-iron fields followed by the hiss of artificial machine hills, I see them settling into stillness, humbled. I feel strange. Continuously distracted. The porcelain mask concealing my features is uncomfortable only because I am overwhelmed with a restless sensation, agitated by the buzzing drill-song of falling sky. I cannot shake the unmistakable feeling of something wrong, even when I have left behind the ruined courtyards that scar the countryside and walk, soaking, inside of a building as unfinished as my own memories.

But I have been here before. I know it, even without knowing how it is possible.

I step within a brimming chassis of girders and twisted pipeline that leads into nowhere. Glass cages and locked doors guarding nothing but rubble. Whatever explosion shook its foundation into man-sized cracks running the length of the floor like neon rivers has left a violent echo that atrophies into vibrant multicolored oil. Pillars that were once separate laboratory walls glow a brilliant white in the darkness. It is early morning. The world seems small and furious. Through a skeletal hall ^{50 Meters} whose naked frame drops down like the grayed limbs of spiders, a distinct beeping draws my attention, a siren's call. I advance, unsure if I'm headed towards fate or folly.

A brief bit of concentration, and I pull the moisture from my clothes, drying them instantly, allowing the excess to drip silently into a small puddle behind me ^{2 Meters}. Outside, I can still hear the constant rain, and I shiver subconsciously while taking slow steps forwards, always forwards. My pace is cautious. Alert. It was once a spawning ground for horror and some residual danger still emanates from the atmosphere itself. I wipe my hand across my forehead, partially obscuring the right side of my face and becoming oddly surprised at the narrow cone of detail filtering into only a single eye. My breath fogs in the chill. I do not want to be here, but I persist, possessed by the moment.

There's something about this place...

And the words are devoured by the cluttered void of whatever secret this all once was, and I hear something click hard, metal-on-metal, and I call out almost against my will.

Hello?! Is someone there?!

I convince myself I am imagining things just as the last word is spoken, and blink repeatedly, clearing my head between a few precious instants of paralyzing fear.

☯

ame no kuni.

[Raglao]

Fearing. Running.

Running. Fearing.

The only two comparative phrases that could've described what exactly ran through Sae's mind. Frightened, cold, and wet, her bare feet pattered rapidly across moist earth. The rain, as always, poured endlessly throughout the entirety of Ame no Kuni, a country filled with nait-mares, so much so that it became one. Minute after minute, she ran, escaping the incessant walls of metal and liquid tubes that once surrounded her. She did not want to go back, so much so that she murdered scientist and bodyguards alike, even a samurai or two in cold blood. The weight of morality faded completely from her mind the moment she escaped. Only wishing to survive, she committed acts of violence that were normally considered to be inhumane. What other choice had they given her?!

None.

Traveling through a courtyard that separated two juxtaposed buildings, a momentous shoulder tackle blasted the door open and led her into a narrow hallway. She looked back frantically and realized the ground that she covered amounted to nothing as both bodyguards and samurai began to close the gap at an alarming rate. Crying for her life, she ran, fully knowing that she would have died had she continued to fight upon escaping her cage. In moments, she neared the respective end of the narrow hall, stopped, and looked left and right as the two paths lead to dead ends. Turning around, her body seemingly acted on its own, instinctively weaving through a fair amount of handseals before she withdrew a fair amount of breath and released it as a conjuration of fire. . .

One of Kouketsu's prime elements.

The building, weak yet, still functional, slightly teetered, threatening to collapse if it took further abuse. Unfortunately, for all involved, Sae offered not even a sliver of concern. The explosion from the fireball easily rocked the building down to its foundation, allowing anything above or below to hear the commotion. The fireball turned out to be highly effective, however, the expendable me at the front-lines were sacrifices that only allowed the squadron behind them to apprehend the failed subject.

A man, the size of a boulder and suited in armour, he charged straight towards her and reached out in an attempt to grab her. Almost as if she experienced the world for the first time, she experienced her first glimpse of death. Sae froze just for a moment, truly believing that after all the struggle, her life would've been taken from her. Blacking out for just a moment, she 'awakened' to find herself latched onto the back of the man whose neck was sliced clean open. Confused, she looked to her right hand, which, surprisingly gripped a kunai with every ounce of strength she could have possibly mustered.

They were falling down towards the lower buildings after having smashed through the wall against his will. Exhausted and stressed, she fainted once more as both her and the boulder of a man fell through the ceiling to the building that laid below them. A cloud of dust and debris filled the surrounding area as Sae lay sprawled out on-top of the man's back, unconscious and face up.

[Naitome]

特性 ██████████

^{''Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.''}

I am answered by the roof caving in around me, and leap backwards, even though there is little to protect me in any direction. Chakra pulses from beneath my mask as the compacted mass of metal suddenly expands, and the world blooms and breaks open and screams in a billion billion different perspectives and patterns and shows me into the center of everything. The fields of vision representing Sharingan and Byakugan overlap, and like a falling star dragging a junkyard, I watch in ultra slow detail as two figures land in a heap of torn down building. Though the enormous beams cast down through the ceiling are piled high and closely enough that I can climb to the floor above if I choose, I glance ahead through dust that can no longer obscure my sight to see the life-signs of two others...no...one other, as the mental and physical energy of a male in a suit of armor fades completely but a young girl's persists.

I recognize the armor's design instantly. It is hard not to. It is the traditional armor of one of the Samurai guardsmen of Tetsu No Kuni. What is he doing here? What is anyone doing here? What is going on?

I'm getting you out of there, hold on!

I already know she is unconscious, can see her heart beating slowly through her own chest, but I vault forwards and remove stray sections of collapsed wall in a frenzy trying to say reassuring words, even if I am the only one who can hear them. When I have cleared enough debris that I can pull her from atop the dead warrior whose slashed throat leaks discolored blood onto the floor, I hold the side of her face in my right hand, thumb clearing dust and small rubble from her lips, opening them to ensure that her airway is not obstructed.

It's going to be okay.

I say softly, though in the back of my mind, I know that caution is the only safe way to proceed. I do not know the circumstances of the young woman's presence, but I shake her gently, trying to rouse her from sleep.

I need you to wake up. We shouldn't stay here for long. Come on. Wake up.

The frustration in my tone is not directed at her, but at the situation. She appears young, fragile somehow, even though her hand grips a kunai so tightly that the circulation has been partially cut off to her fingers. She is pale, bruised, but there is something innocent in her resting appearance that endears me instantly to ensuring her safety. I want to help her, even without knowing what circumstance has led her to this fate.

Please, wake up. We have to go.

She is free of any major injuries, and seems to have fallen into shock more than anything. I do not need to look around to see the bodies of others still falling from far up above, wherever within the enormous compound she originally came from. Several men in uniforms, and others wearing the heavy metal indicative of the Samurai, pull themselves to their feet, anxious, enraged. They are high above where we are now but seemed poised to follow their brethren, and there is something malicious in the masked helms peering into the ruin below.

I am unconcerned with them. How criminal could such a young girl be, to deserve this much attention? This pursuit? I lean closer to her, almost whispering into her ear.

I need you to wake up.

☯

[Raglao]

A moment, just for a moment, all of her worries and problems just. . .vanished. Swapped with a moment of pure darkness, everything seemed so peaceful. She wanted to just stay there and let all of her problems and worries go - along with her life. Hurting and exhausted, she wanted it all to end, yet, a voice kept her away, sealing off the passageway that guided her to the next life. While she couldn't understand him, the tone of his voice strangely screamed with hope. Slowly, she came to, twitching her eyes sporadically just before they eased up and looked into Akuharu's own. Fully conscious at that moment, her eyes widened in unbridled fear, lifting herself up as she pushed away from you across the floor. On her feet, the kunai in hand raised and pointed towards Akuharu, shaking uncontrollably with fear as she backed against a nearby wall.

He looked menacing, yet, his voice suggested otherwise which only confused Sae further. Momentarily looking towards and out of the ceiling, she glanced up from where she'd fallen, watching the billowing smoke and enraged cries of the samurai's comrades. She knew they were coming and all she wanted was to get away from them, the pain, and the country.

"Pleuzo, uneff meit alrinah, PLEUZO!!!"
("Please, leave me alone, PLEASE!!!")

Her free hand came across her forehead and eyes, wiping away trickles of blood that weren't even hers at all. Slowly creeping to the edge of the wall towards a broken door, she peeked around the edges and made sure no one else knew of her position. Still breathing overly fast and erratic, she knew her nightmare hadn't been over.

Not yet.

Looking back towards Akuharu and the lifeless man between them, her attention jumped from one to the other, believing for a moment they were together, but she noticed something. The clothes on his back,while similar in material, they were different in design. Even so, he still couldn't be trusted.

[Naitome]

特性 ██████████

^{''But behavior in the human being is sometimes a defense, a way of concealing motives and thoughts, as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication. The language of friendship is not words but meanings.''}

She backs away, a frantic scrambling that emanates fear with such clarity that it is heartbreaking. But the words she speaks, an ancient dialect native to this part of the world but hauntingly fragile, child-like; I am visibly shocked and without having to shift my vision from the aimless back and forth darting of her own widened pupils, can see that our position is compromised by those carefully descending from above. Whoever has been chasing her, whatever assailants have left her covered in blood and shivering in the gun-metal gray detritus of the shattered compound are still coming.

How did she learn Vedic Kettai, the tongue of ore welders from a city long ago buried beneath the waves and rain? What is she? Why is she so afraid?

The instant her gaze is off of me, moving to peer around a corner of wall that might lead to others obsessed with her pursuit I already know the exact instant her gaze can and will return to me, and in the interim, move across the paltry distance she has retreated with steps that blur along the rubble. I am upon her before her head can turn freely to look at me, and place a hand gently against her opened mouth to stifle the scream my eyes have already told me she will attempt to make.

Sateios alrinah uzzo rekeh, nanda, chios nijah'h met-met.

Vaddo.

<sub>("You've been alone long enough, now, we need to get away [from here].")

("Look.")</sub>

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I say, just to her, my hand having already removed my mask, allowing her to look directly into my eyes as I nod upwards, at the Samurai making his way down a collapsed pillar, and towards where we now sit crouched against each other.

Senno. Na'meuff rocofale, gadesh ii. Me guran orra satei'n namarr jel mekken. Sivaam.

_{("Quiet. I am not your enemy, he is. I will take care of him, but you'll have to trust me. Don't move.")}
[/center]

I remove my hand from her mouth cautiously, ensuring that she does not attempt to make some brief frightened sound that might give away our position, biting my lip as the same water that once soaked into my clothing slides across the floor without friction, collecting before me. It is stained the color of blood just as it returns to stillness directly before the girl, and the red trickle from my bottom lip seems only to add to its depth. I perform a few handseals and suddenly, am gone, sinking into that same puddle with no visible trace that I ever existed, just as the Samurai's heavy boots scuff the floor, and he turns to see his prey.

He walks forward, not far^{15 meters} from where she has huddled in shadow, holding a large bow with twin swords gracing his right side. Each step carries him closer, he is watching, and believes that he heard voices other than the experiment's own, but knows that this cannot be true. He steps over the puddle of blood in front of her^{2 meters}, taking his time, relishing in the idea of causing fear and pain in others. Close enough to knock the arrow and draw back his hands, the bow twitches, taut...

....and I stand from the puddle of blood in one motion and twist the sides of his heavy helmet until his neck snaps.

When his body falls, stupid and dripping waste in the throes of death, I extend my hand out to her, looking once more directly into her eyes. I feel no malice, no hatred. Nothing evil coming from her countenance that would suggest she is anything other than a girl hunted for some reason I will only believe too trivial to mean anything at all.

Eronn fiarr met shen'me hilo kantuur ne'vilaga.

_{("Come with me if you want to live.")}
[/center]

☯

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[Raglao]

In an instant he lunged forward and cupped his hand over her mouth, dampening the sound of the scream that, by nature, followed. Suddenly she stopped, namely after Akuharu somehow spoke in a language she clearly understood. He claimed he hadn't been an enemy along with offering to aid her in her escape. With all hope seemingly lost, she -for lack of a better term- took a leap of faith and momentarily trusted the nameless man with her life.

Thereafter, the moment his hand moved away from her mouth, it closed shut and stayed that way as though her very life depended one it - go figure. The imminent formation of several hand signatures beckoned forth a transformation unlike anything she'd ever seen. The blood, the water, he fused perfectly with it on a molecular level, disappearing as a result.

With Sae in sight, the samurai assumed a level of confidence that only a shark could call forth once it caught the scent of blood from its wounded prey. Her heart jumped and sped up in tandem, causing all fear to rushed back into her body where she then hugged her knees in total silence. The closer and closer he came, the faster and faster Sae's heart began to beat as silent tears rolled down her cheeks when, suddenly, them an raised up while reverting to his normal self before the samurai. With a sleight of hand he twisted the sides of the man's helmet, snapping his neck in an instant.

Sae flinches and recoils in momentary fear as the unpalatable sound of his lifeless body drilled her already sensitive ears. Looking into his eyes, he spoke and demanded that if she truly wanted to live. A simple nod confirmed that she heeded his words. Standing, she responded.

"Whilo azu hilo?"
("Who are you?")

[Naitome]

特性 ██████████

^{''Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.''}

Her confusion is understandable. There are not many still living who understand the complexities of Veddic Kettai, who can adapt to its shifting syntax without devolving into incomprehensible gibberish, but the fear blanketing her frame is endearing, and makes clarity of intent my sole focus as I contemplate her question. There is some part of me desperate to save others, and though she has apparently handled herself well enough to escape the bulk of her attackers, the sounds of searching that creep down from the laboratory's broken pillars above suggest that leaving immediately is still the best course of action for us both.

Na'meuff Akuharu, gendai Uchiha. Gi satsuja ko'met ve Traa-Kiri. Chios impar uneff, nanda.

_{("I am Akuharu [ of the house of ] Uchiha. A shinobi of the Hidden Mist. We must leave, now.")}

[/center]

I reach forward, restraining the urge to ask for her own name, or to ask any question which might seem too intrusive for a stranger to require. My hand moves to take her own, and I pull gently at first, then with increased force, behind colossal structures which conceal us from the men hunting through the ruins to apprehend her, out and away from the compound itself.

I came here hoping to find some remnant of my own history, and think now only of leaving as quickly as I can. I am no closer to discovering exactly where I have come from, no closer to the answers which have kept me awake at night, teetering through nightmarish images I barely understand, but I have found something worth protecting, even if only in this moment, even if the value of such an act is as fleeting as our own paths into greater Ame no Sato.

The land is in turmoil. Upturned with the skeletons of giant machines. A pneumatic piston taller than any building belches black smoke into the sky, cracked armor plating and the heads of humanoid constructs leak oil and artificial light from their eyes like blood. Her pursuers are relentless. They have formed scouting parties that ride in the grip of legged metal chariots, skittish off-white blurs roaming the burnt countryside with strobe lights, shouting obscenities. They are angry now. Embarrassed. They have been eluded for far too long, and as we hide in the shadow of destroyed iron husks, there are few words that come to mind in order to comfort her.

Chidaso mar'gendai? Gi noi'sam? Gi kasar dal yarijah'dal, mokoro fek tensa?

_{("Do you have family? A home? A place to return to, anything at all?")}
[/center]
But I feel I already know the answer to this question; she would not be here if there was somewhere else for her to go. No one would. We are the same in that way, and as we turn a corner bordering a single crooked path through fields of shoulder-high debris, I pull her in towards my own body suddenly, index finger pressed to my lips to hush any complaints.

One of the Samurai rides his contraption across the ground we would have just crossed. The light from his machine sweeps across the desolate stretch of gravel and gears, and I hold on to her, willing her not to move, my eyes taking on the multicolored glow of the Two Great Dojutsu.

There is an odd moment of silence. I can feel a subtle shaking, a deep-seated uncomfortableness winding throughout her body at the mere thought of being touched by others, but if we are not absolutely still, we will be spotted by the Tetsu No Kuni guard. My eyes show me that the only way forward, is along a narrow scrap of silver sand guarded by a vigilant trio of Samurai, and my breathing slows as I try to figure out how to get past them.

The world quakes.

Her heartbeat increases.

We are moments from either death, or the clear road to freedom.

☯

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