Note: This story takes place in Kirigakure
Yomi leaned against the wall of her bathroom, having woken up way too early for her to do anything in town and way too late to think about going to bed again. Exhausted and groggy as hell, she found herself staring at her bathroom mirror, nearly nodding off as she managed to reach for the shower's tab, letting the hot water run as the small room started to fill with steam. Feeling slightly off, the jounin raised her hand to the mirror and whiped off the condensated steam, staring at her reflection as her eyes grew dull, the image in front of her fading into nothingness...
The whispers of the woods, the shadows of each treebranch illuminated by the sickly pail moon and turned into deformed, clawing effigies of darkness throughout the damp and dangerous woods on a small isle in an unknown location. The creaking of old, rotting trees, the squeaking and squawking of mice, bat and crow was all one could hear as a constant in the drearie place that was about to be visited by a single woman.
This single woman had traversed the inky depths of the sea, waded through the foggy, cold and clingy banks of the small isle's shores to finally reach the place she was looking for. At the center of this hauntingly forested little island, this particular woman clad in but the simplest of garments she owned, had found a single massive monument of easily ten or even twenty feet high. As it towered above her, the monument's surprisingly smooth stone surface adorned with ages of moss, tangle and various forms and arrays of dew and dampfilled cobwebs appeared to have the form of a man or at least she thought it did resemble the form of a man, yet twisted, misshapen and horrid in both form and appearance, as if the monument itself had been formed from the same demented mind which had managed to conjure up such a creepingly horrid place to begin with.
Slowly the woman's fingers reached for the stone monument's moss-covered, smooth surface, her warm skin nearly freezing and protracting frostbite just from the merest touch, making it feel as if the very air had started to sap her vitality and the stone acted as a conduit for said lifeforce and vitality towards something beneath it...or rather, beyond...
Not deterred in the slightest by the strangeness of both this place and the monument in front of her though, the woman suddenly placed both her hands upon the monument and as the feeling of sharp cold washed over her, she suddenly grit her teeth and bit her lip when at perhaps the only jagged part of the stone monument, she managed to cut but a single small nick into the skin of her left index finger, a small droplet of blood trickling through the point where her skin had torn and falling atop the statue's smooth stone surface.
Like a spider's web, the tiny droplet spread out, tendrils of red liquid seemingly forming all across the statue's form and as lightning crackled through the air, the woman could've sworn she had heard a loud menacing cackle coming from overhead. Yet dismissing it as but a trick of her mind, the follow of having traversed the scary woods of the lone isle, the woman's attention now turned to the sound of the stone monument moving, sliding backwards as the red liquid which had formed a network of tendrils upon the now strangely contorted form of a man now seemed to seep deep into a dark and menacingly silent hole within the ground below.
Making no sound, the woman smiled and her eyes glistened with a promise of power and she slowly clambered down the dark hole, eventually being swallowed whole by the darkness of the underground, not aware that the stone statue had begun moving forwards again.
Lightning crackled through the air, the sound of cackling yet again to be heard, a flash of light envelopped the monument and revealed the form of the stone statue in its truest form: a sad man from one side's perspective...a laughing demon on the other side...
Surrounded by shadows and dust, the woman clambered down the deep, dark hole, feeling only mush and mold at her fingertips, the sounds of bugs and beetles crawling near her and afar. At long last, her feet managed to step upon what felt like solid rock, yet smooth like glass. Allowing herself to take in a deep breath, despite a now damp and dank air filling up her lungs with the smell and taste of mold and decay. She let herself hang fowards, her hair touching the smooth floor as she coughed up every liter of air she had just managed to take in, her back heaving as her lungs wheezed and wained from the stress put upon them. Yet with her eyes towards the floor, she could see the sudden reflection of light illuminating the place in which she had managed to stumble.
The disturbing sound of a child's laughter made her snap straight up again, her eyes adjusting to the light, taking in the sight of black granite floors polished like a mirror, globes of eerie red light hanging from the walls which seemed to be akin to the statue above: smooth, yet rugged, as if they had been eroded by time and air, though the woman quite frankly doubted any actual air had any part in this sort of erosion.
Again the sound of a laughing child could be heard, yet this time closer by and much more sinister in tone, almost as if the innocence of the sound was being choked out by the twisted perversity of the place in which the woman had managed to get herself in. The chuckles came closer and closer, yet the woman saw no child. The sound of tiny feet stepping on the polished floor could be heard close by, yet no child could be seen.
"Whatcha doin'?"
Surprised by this sudden sounding of a child's curious voice right in front of her, the woman jumped back, holding her hands ready and clenched into a pair of fists, yet as she looked in front of her, there was nothing there. No child, no person, nothing except for the eerie red light illuminating the rest of a long, seemingly endless corridor.
"Are you lost?"
Again the child's voice could be heard, yet this time the woman could feel someone's beath passing her left ear, her hair faintly waving as she turned to find the origin of the voice, only to have her stare blankly at a wall. Yet again, there was no child to be seen, nothing at all bar the wall and the eerie red light coming from the countless globes spanning the ceiling. She waited and waited, but no sound came forth again, thus the woman decided to shrug it off and move on into the corridor, walking for what seemed to be hours, perhaps even days.
The air grew humid and warm, stifling and disruptive. It took away her sense of time, her sense of thought, her sense of self, as she had begun to almost function automatically, as if only her drive to find something was left to keep her going. Then suddenly she stopped, falling down to her knees as exhaustion overwhelmed her. This was all becoming maddening, pointless and impossible for her, she had reached her breaking point, until she suddenly could hear the laughter of a child again, so closeby, yet so far away at the same time. Looking around in desperation to figure out what this madness was, the woman noticed one of the glowing orbs floating down the wall, revealing a carving in the stone structure. In silence, the woman started to recite what she was reading...
Yomi looked up, the mirror's reflection hazy again with condensated water, she grinned with blue eyes and hair white as snow as she stepped into the shower, closing the curtain behind her.
The condensed mirror was being touched, a tiny child's finger writing a message for all to see...
Yomi leaned against the wall of her bathroom, having woken up way too early for her to do anything in town and way too late to think about going to bed again. Exhausted and groggy as hell, she found herself staring at her bathroom mirror, nearly nodding off as she managed to reach for the shower's tab, letting the hot water run as the small room started to fill with steam. Feeling slightly off, the jounin raised her hand to the mirror and whiped off the condensated steam, staring at her reflection as her eyes grew dull, the image in front of her fading into nothingness...
The whispers of the woods, the shadows of each treebranch illuminated by the sickly pail moon and turned into deformed, clawing effigies of darkness throughout the damp and dangerous woods on a small isle in an unknown location. The creaking of old, rotting trees, the squeaking and squawking of mice, bat and crow was all one could hear as a constant in the drearie place that was about to be visited by a single woman.
This single woman had traversed the inky depths of the sea, waded through the foggy, cold and clingy banks of the small isle's shores to finally reach the place she was looking for. At the center of this hauntingly forested little island, this particular woman clad in but the simplest of garments she owned, had found a single massive monument of easily ten or even twenty feet high. As it towered above her, the monument's surprisingly smooth stone surface adorned with ages of moss, tangle and various forms and arrays of dew and dampfilled cobwebs appeared to have the form of a man or at least she thought it did resemble the form of a man, yet twisted, misshapen and horrid in both form and appearance, as if the monument itself had been formed from the same demented mind which had managed to conjure up such a creepingly horrid place to begin with.
Slowly the woman's fingers reached for the stone monument's moss-covered, smooth surface, her warm skin nearly freezing and protracting frostbite just from the merest touch, making it feel as if the very air had started to sap her vitality and the stone acted as a conduit for said lifeforce and vitality towards something beneath it...or rather, beyond...
Not deterred in the slightest by the strangeness of both this place and the monument in front of her though, the woman suddenly placed both her hands upon the monument and as the feeling of sharp cold washed over her, she suddenly grit her teeth and bit her lip when at perhaps the only jagged part of the stone monument, she managed to cut but a single small nick into the skin of her left index finger, a small droplet of blood trickling through the point where her skin had torn and falling atop the statue's smooth stone surface.
Like a spider's web, the tiny droplet spread out, tendrils of red liquid seemingly forming all across the statue's form and as lightning crackled through the air, the woman could've sworn she had heard a loud menacing cackle coming from overhead. Yet dismissing it as but a trick of her mind, the follow of having traversed the scary woods of the lone isle, the woman's attention now turned to the sound of the stone monument moving, sliding backwards as the red liquid which had formed a network of tendrils upon the now strangely contorted form of a man now seemed to seep deep into a dark and menacingly silent hole within the ground below.
Making no sound, the woman smiled and her eyes glistened with a promise of power and she slowly clambered down the dark hole, eventually being swallowed whole by the darkness of the underground, not aware that the stone statue had begun moving forwards again.
Lightning crackled through the air, the sound of cackling yet again to be heard, a flash of light envelopped the monument and revealed the form of the stone statue in its truest form: a sad man from one side's perspective...a laughing demon on the other side...
Surrounded by shadows and dust, the woman clambered down the deep, dark hole, feeling only mush and mold at her fingertips, the sounds of bugs and beetles crawling near her and afar. At long last, her feet managed to step upon what felt like solid rock, yet smooth like glass. Allowing herself to take in a deep breath, despite a now damp and dank air filling up her lungs with the smell and taste of mold and decay. She let herself hang fowards, her hair touching the smooth floor as she coughed up every liter of air she had just managed to take in, her back heaving as her lungs wheezed and wained from the stress put upon them. Yet with her eyes towards the floor, she could see the sudden reflection of light illuminating the place in which she had managed to stumble.
The disturbing sound of a child's laughter made her snap straight up again, her eyes adjusting to the light, taking in the sight of black granite floors polished like a mirror, globes of eerie red light hanging from the walls which seemed to be akin to the statue above: smooth, yet rugged, as if they had been eroded by time and air, though the woman quite frankly doubted any actual air had any part in this sort of erosion.
Again the sound of a laughing child could be heard, yet this time closer by and much more sinister in tone, almost as if the innocence of the sound was being choked out by the twisted perversity of the place in which the woman had managed to get herself in. The chuckles came closer and closer, yet the woman saw no child. The sound of tiny feet stepping on the polished floor could be heard close by, yet no child could be seen.
"Whatcha doin'?"
Surprised by this sudden sounding of a child's curious voice right in front of her, the woman jumped back, holding her hands ready and clenched into a pair of fists, yet as she looked in front of her, there was nothing there. No child, no person, nothing except for the eerie red light illuminating the rest of a long, seemingly endless corridor.
"Are you lost?"
Again the child's voice could be heard, yet this time the woman could feel someone's beath passing her left ear, her hair faintly waving as she turned to find the origin of the voice, only to have her stare blankly at a wall. Yet again, there was no child to be seen, nothing at all bar the wall and the eerie red light coming from the countless globes spanning the ceiling. She waited and waited, but no sound came forth again, thus the woman decided to shrug it off and move on into the corridor, walking for what seemed to be hours, perhaps even days.
The air grew humid and warm, stifling and disruptive. It took away her sense of time, her sense of thought, her sense of self, as she had begun to almost function automatically, as if only her drive to find something was left to keep her going. Then suddenly she stopped, falling down to her knees as exhaustion overwhelmed her. This was all becoming maddening, pointless and impossible for her, she had reached her breaking point, until she suddenly could hear the laughter of a child again, so closeby, yet so far away at the same time. Looking around in desperation to figure out what this madness was, the woman noticed one of the glowing orbs floating down the wall, revealing a carving in the stone structure. In silence, the woman started to recite what she was reading...
"When the peaceful darkness falls,
the demon is set free.
When going past shadow and death, the demon beckons thee.
Resist the temptation, or be thrown into damnation.
Do not break the cage...
the demon is set free.
When going past shadow and death, the demon beckons thee.
Resist the temptation, or be thrown into damnation.
Do not break the cage...
Yomi looked up, the mirror's reflection hazy again with condensated water, she grinned with blue eyes and hair white as snow as she stepped into the shower, closing the curtain behind her.
The condensed mirror was being touched, a tiny child's finger writing a message for all to see...
