Pretty Bar for the Course

"Who installs a boxing ring into a bar? Isn't that just an invitation for bad news?"

Diana agreed internally as she took another sip from her drink, a simple Gladiator cocktail. Diana had slowly been making her way from restaurant to restaurant within the Heavenly emporium, each either providing something she could buy or watch, but this one took the cake ever since restrictions were loosened up. This one had been themed after the now-closed Blood Arena of the Land of Water, and in her humble opinion it felt...sanitized. Which made sense, but the fact that a deathmatch arena was inspiration for a bar like this one was a little strange.

"You'd think so, but rumor has it it helps prevent actual bar fights in the same way one makes a drug legal. Something about reverse psychology or another."

Another sip as she looked to the two men talking. Really, the whole place was filled with men and very little women, making her a bit of an anomaly at the current hour, yet no one had decided to hit on her so she couldn't complain. Her only guess as to why was the boxing ring itself; watching fights seemed to be more important then trying to impress a woman by fighting today it seemed.

"No shit? What will they think of next?"

The two men didn't really impress her, and her brief scan of their chakra earlier hadn't shown them to be that special either; not an element to their name and average chakra. They were a nice distraction from what she was working on though, The Seal. The stupid seal that so far, while all signs pointed to it working, there were things she still seemed to be missing. Part of the issue was the lack of summoning experience she had; sure she understood the basics from her studied of fuinjutsu, but the precise effects of trying to reverse a summon from another world was...well it was something outside of her paygrade. Sure liquor wasn't helping as while most didn't affect her too much, it didn't exactly give her a clear mind, just a different, smudged perspective.

She'd finish off the drink and rest her head on the table. "Ughhh. Maybe I need a different person to help with this."

It was at this precise moment that the bar doors threw themselves open.

"I am here to take your punches!" Irui crowed, swaying like a sailor. He stumbled left and right, picking his way around a couple and a pair of tables. Some how in his untensifying stupor, he'd never lost his mask, and this he was quite proud of. See, he'd grown very attached to the mask, and kpet adjusting it and fixing it.

There was something about this night he couldn't quite shake. Perhaps it was all the lights, the celebration, and comradery between nations. Beneath his mask and wraps of gauze he'd found himself grinning giddily. His face was warm, his limbs felt like liquid, his thoughts swam freely and the room seemed to always spin. He knew though that it would never last; Jashin's blessing would make sure of it. He'd lost count of the drinks he'd tossed back tonight in an effort to keep this buzz buzzing.

He stopped and spun around and set his eyes on the bar, to find a familiar figure seated there, working diligently on something.

Irui set his glass on the nearest table. Slowly but surely, he felt something uncoil from within him; reaching through his veins, bones and skin. It was the same as before, a creeping presence that crawled through his body, and devoured the alcoholic impurities in his blood. No sooner had he breathed out had Jashin's work finished.

The sound of the bar doors slamming into the wall surprised Diana, her jumping in her seat and reactively activating her sensory to see what the potential threat was. Before she had landed she knew immediately the not-threat was; the strange Dark Release boy she had met during an earlier drinking session. Just from a sideways glance he looked to be in a similar state as before, though his mask looked to have been repaired, good for him.

At least, that's what seemed to be the case until something about him...well sobered up. The smell of the bar was too strong for her to tell if he was faking it, but the small signs were there. A tensed muscle here, a small shift there; it was somewhat unnerving not having seen it before. She chalked it up to a jutsu of some kind or a clever ploy, she hadn't sensed the use of a particular jutsu activating, but his signature suggested something was at work. The abnormal chakra levels were something that she was curious about, yet...

A thought occurred as she looked back at her work, not keeping him off of her sensory. He could be what she needed. A way to relieve some stress. Maybe it was the liqueur whispering, but it wasn't a bad idea. A brief internal struggle occurred over her desire to not interact with others and her duties, duty winning after a short but cool mental battle worth of a story, but that tale wasn't for today. Finishing off her glass she'd set the dishware down and properly turn to the Dark Boy, giving him a smile that was simultaneously forced and genuine.

"I did not expect to see you again so soon shinobi, and I am glad too see that your mask is repaired. What brings you to this particular bar tonight?"

---

185/185 CP
Sensing Technique; -0.5 CP
184.5/185 CP

"I did not expect to see you again so soon shinobi, and I am glad too see that your mask is repaired. What brings you to this particular bar tonight?" Diana asked as she twisted around to face him.

She too appeared unfazed by the long night of the Festival, but stress and tension was written all over her face.

"Well..." He said, scratching at neck. He looked around, eyeing the assorted bar patrons, "truthfully, I wasn't looking for a bar about five--" He hiccuped, "five minutes ago." He lookjed back over his shoulder and dropped his hand to his side, then turned back to the woman.

"But here I am!" He added. "I heard there was a fight somewhere-- maybe I could catch the tail end of it if I stumbled fast enough enough." Irui padded forward, picking his way around a table and a waiter carrying drinks.  He craned his neck, and spied the woman's work; the corner of a sealing inscription of some kind. His eye caught a pair of characters in the lower section, a sigil and a nexus bridge.

So she's developing a seal-- Using it as a guidepost for something. That could be anything, from summoning, or attracting chakra to the inscription.  He refused to pry here, after all they were just the faintest of acquaintances.

CRASH

Bits of green glass flickered through the air. A man at the nearby table threw out his chair, and drunkenly brandished a broken bottle. "THAT PANDATHERE'S A FIGHT!"

"No-no-NO!" Irui gritted back. "I DIDN'T SAY BAR FIGHT!"

"BAR FIGHT!" Another man hollered, and pointed in their direction. "THEY WANT A BAR FIGHT!"

Diana listened to the boy, making small mental notes as to his posture and the hiccup, the smell being off but not unnoticeable as the smell of liquor. That was something she'd need to look into, suppressing more then just her chakra, but senses as well. Wouldn't be useful on average, but it would be nice to just appear more human. But back to the shinobi, even as he explained his story his eyes betrayed his brief peek of looking at her work. If she didn't need a fresh pair of eyes she'd've likely moved it to be harder to see, the work not exactly meant for possible threats, but Meiton almost certainly meant the Mikiri clan of Kumogakure, so he probably as close to an ally as she could get.

And then someone managed to misinterpered what the shinobi had said, even despite his efforts. she could sense people beginning to stand, and she knew she'd have to act fast if she didn't want the rest of her night ruined. She'd sigh before speaking, pinching the bridge of her nose as she did. "Not here too." Standing up she'd quickly form two hand signs and watched as the men would be encased in her crystals, using her precise control & sensory to form the crystal up to the necks and not crystalize their bodies in case someone else got the bright idea to try and break the crystals. It really wasn't that hard either, some raw crystal chakra on the outside prevented it from going further then she wanted.

"We do NOT want a bar fight, so you gentlemen can stay in there and sober up. You know the rules here, fights stay in the ring unless it's self-defense."

She'd wait a few seconds before sitting down, the bar having gone quiet after she preformed her jutsu, but quickly returning to normal chatter, but she would note the fear in some of their eyes. She didn't like it, but better fear then people getting hurt or worse. The bartender gave her a look, and she'd quickly respond. "They and the bar will be fine as long as no one breaks the crystals, and they are very hard." He'd just shrug before moving on to the next customer. Diana herself would just turn back to her recent...friend(?) and try to force a smile, though it came out like a fishhook tugging on one end of her mouth.

"My apologies, I am a bit...stressed right now. There are several fights that come and go within the boxing ring," She'd point to said ring in the middle, surrounded by a cage made to protect both the fighters and the onlookers. ""But unfortunately you just missed the last one." She'd think about her next plan of action. Somehow the shinobi before her had become sober rather fast, and if her guess was correct should have been stuck with some sort of dead liver the last time they met. This could prove to be an opportunity. "How about this; you help me with my work, you face me in the ring. How does that sound?"

---

184.5/185 CP
Sensing Technique; -0.5 CP
Crystal Prison; -10 CP (affinity)
174/185 CP

She sprung into action, carefully with little wasted movement. Her fingers danced through a short sequence of signs, conjuring crystals from the ground. It was nothing but stunning-- a flash of light, rearranging molecules in an instant into glimmering structures.

Ice release? Irui guessed, and narrowed his gaze. No, the air hasn't changed. Those are bonafide crystals, and she made them as fast as I can conduct Lightning He analyzed, and watching as they climbed up the man's body, torso and limbs, coming to stop below the neck. This woman could easily have killed him in an instant.

The bar fell into silence, and would-be fighters backed down immediately.

"We do NOT want a bar fight, so you gentlemen can stay in there and sober up. You know the rules here, fights stay in the ring unless it's self-defense." She'd return to her seat, and turn her attention back to him. "They and the bar will be fine as long as no one breaks the crystals, and they are very hard. My apologies, I am a bit...stressed right now. There are several fights that come and go within the boxing ring. But unfortunately you just missed the last one."

Irui took a seat at the bar, and swiveled around on the bar stool to examine the area. It was a standard boxing ring, pitted and scuffed with who-knows-how-many fights.

"Of course," Irui said after a moment, "I couldn't help but notice you'd drawn a nexus bridge in the seal's scripture-- you're drawing something to your seal, or sending something away?"

The barkeep placed a tall tumbler of water before him, and paused for a moment, shrugged and dipped a flexible straw into it before shuffling off to the next customer. Irui pulled it closer to himself, and wormed the straw through the opening in the mask. He sipped on it for a long moment.

"Those crystals are quite impressive--" He went on, now watching the entertainment unfold. The crystallized man fidgeted and struggled visibly in his cocoon, straining against the prison. His muscles bulged, wrists flexed, and he ground his teeth, with every passing second his face growing redder and redder. A vein bulged on his forehead. "Its a nice trick with Earth Style."

He half turned towards her, set down his water and offered a hand.

"Tatewari, you may call me Tatewari. I don't believe I got your name before."

Diana raised an eyebrow as the man spoke, a little surprised the man recognized parts of her fuinjutsu diagram that she was working on as well as to what they pointed towards. And he was right, which made it somewhat confusing as he decided to call her technique an earth jutsu instead of a crystal technique. For someone to know the complex intent of her work while not being able to recognize her technique or status was strange to say the least, and she was glad evermore to have met this person.

As his hand was offered, she'd note the curious mark upon his palm, but said nothing about it, already knowing what it was for as she shook it. "A trick indeed Tatewari, a trick indeed." She already knew the basics of how the Dark element worked, and with him knowing some fuinjutsu he was probably the best person to ask as the Mikiri were known for being able to break chakra down to their fundamental parts. "My name is Diana Moneta, and as for what this is now I am still unsure, but I am slowly figuring it out."

Letting go she'd take hold of herwork and slid it over to let her new work partner see it in full. "Originally I had made it to capture a bijuu to create a jinchuriki as a last-resort, but over time its intent has changed. The best way to describe why the change occurred it that when I dream, I see a location not marked on any map with a beast of myth, with a girl who bears a seal similar to my own design, albeit one that would result in an early death. It may just be a dead end, but I believe the seal to be a bridge or gate in the most literal sense instead of just a way to seal things away."

She'd look back to her drink and take a sip, the glass having been refilled without her realizing it. "You told me before that you wanted to see the world, but you never specified Kishin. If this does act as a gateway, you would be the first I would invite to explore it with me, but we would first need to get it working." She'd make a vagueish gesture to let him know he could look a it properly now.

---

174/185 CP

Irui listened intently while sipping through his straw. He too dreamed, and it seemed he wasn't the only shinobi with wild ones rattling about their head. If life had taught him anything, it was that every dream served a point, or was designed to rend his mind to pieces and put it back together. Sometimes, in all the chaos, he mused if there were truly higher powers messing with their realities; cobbling together dreams and nightmares, writing their futures-- and maybe this very moment too.

He swallowed, and looked around.

No, this was certainly reality. Truth was always stranger than fiction, and there was nothing more absurd about tonight than finding a bar built for bar-fights, on a floating island. What being could possibly dream this up?

"In my experience...." He said after a moment, pondering on his train of thought, "The most lucid, and direct dreams are those that are trying to tell you something. Its your mind processing an experience, or a problem. If you reach out for it, you may find your answer or its the universe' sense of humor."

He set his drink down on a nearby coaster, and looked down at the piece of paper. Her sealing was elaborate, with inscriptions upon inscriptions; binding words, shapes, and symbols. Sealing was part art and cryptography; a skill that translated text into action and forces upon the world via chakra. The more refined, nuanced and skilled the Sealer, the more powerful the inscription. Some of the greatest, most complex, and unbreakable seals, were often the most concise, with meaning and action imbued into a single pictogram.

She's going to be one of them.... He thought, studying her work.

"Have you ever studied the the Book of Changes? Its a sealing manual you may find interesting, it was written before the founding of the Hidden Villages. Some hexagram seals are derived from it." He offered, and traced the flow of Diana's inscription from the center outward. "I know I said I'd travel the world, yet here I am, traveling the world, at the Heavenly Emporium. I'd like to see the world beyond Kishin. The Book of Changes, its only a translation--and a rough one--of a text from overseas, from a distant land."

"I'd like to see a continent without Shinobi, without this... system. Perhaps it won't be quite so chaotic."

---

I Ching (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching)

As Irui spoke of his thoughts on dreams, Diana pondered what he was saying. She wasn't much of a oneirologist, finding that while her dreams were useful for coming up with new designs for various applications, she didn't find much use in studying them thoroughly. No, that wasn't quite true, nightmares were something she had looked into before, as they did help her understand her past, but even then that was rather limited, having had to go through several priests before she found one who studied dreams in a reasonable capacity. But Tatewari thoughts on dreams, while their own brand of odd, made some sense to her. If only she understood how to 'reach out', seeing as these weren't things she knew, and what little she knew of genjutsu wouldn't be enough to reach out though mental ninjutsu. "I will have to look more into how to interpret dreams then moreso then before."

She'd try to get a read on his thoughts as he looked over her work, though when he spoke she was caught a little off guard. "The Book of Change? I am sure I have come across it, but I do not believe I have ever read it before." She was almost certain she knew the seals of which he was referring to, having used a hex design to stabilize her crystals & steel. "I will have to try and get a copy for myself then."

Then there was his comments on traveling outside Kishin. "I have seen what it is like without the system in a few places. When I was younger I had visited a place where there were no shinobi, but knights and wizards; basically shinobi of a different name, yet their ways of using the craft was different enough saying they are just ninja is an insult to both styles. The chaos was there, but it was a different type, one that I could only stand for so long before needing to return. It was an important trip though, as without it I would not be the person who was making this seal before us."

"At the very least, if this seal works I am sure I would be able to show you one place without the system."

---

174/185 CP

Irui set down his glass, and stirred the straw through the ice for a moment.

"I see." He said disappointedly, with a sigh. "Its the same story, same writers, but with different packaging. Maybe this is just human nature, and I am the naive one. Or perhaps is it humanity not knowing any better...." He left the rest of his thought unsaid. Maybe people only knew war and struggle, and needed to be shown another future.

Perhaps we need to be forced. He mused. Knights and wizards-- foreign words for samurai and onmyoji--they were the same product, with fresh paint and signage. If anything, it told him that humans were predictable, complacent. His fingers tightened around the straw, crimping the plastic, working it between the fingertips, as he continued to observe the seal while making small talk.

Irui pulled his straw out of the drink, and pointed back to the arena.

"These bar-goers are eager for another fight. Care for a spar?"

[3]

The tone in her acquaintance's voice did not bring her joy as she contemplated what he was saying. He wasn't wrong in a sense, humans overall did not like change as she herself found time and time again, but just as many times she had been shown the worst, there we stories of those trying to do good. The closing of the Land of Water's Pits, Masaru Tatsudashi rebuilding Iwagakure, and that of Kumogakure's Jashinists being a rather pleasant folk despite their beliefs. So, she decided to muse for a short bit.

"...When looking at the system and it's chaotic order as a whole, one can easily forget to see the small kindnesses. Just because it is nature for humans to fight, it is also a person's nature to care for others. I have found that nature no more apparent then the existence of the Heavenly Emporium itself and what it has done to bridge the chaotic gap misunderstanding can bring. Despite the war, here we are, talking to one another. Just last week I talked with a young Hyuuga and a Yokai about our love for art. Much longer before that I comforted a Yuki in her time of need."

She'd finish off her glass and flip it over to make sure the bartender wouldn't refill it again, then looked to Tatewari."But I have waxed on long enough about that long enough. Perhaps Titania was right in that I have listened to too many sermons in my studies, be they Jashin, Hakkin or of the Sage. You held up your end of the offer, and as such I shall hold up mine." She'd pack up her belongings, put them in a small storage seal, then turn to one of the bathrooms. "After I change of course. I shall only be a moment." If the Mikiri didn't stop her, she'd head into the bathroom to get changed. Her clothes, while made to take some heavy damage were still her casual clothes after all.

---

174/185 CP

When Diana exited the bathroom, changed into her boxing outfit, she'd grin and make her way over to the ring. At a first glance with more of her skin revealed that while she wasn't the most physically fit for a shinobi, it was clear she kept in shape enough from her work. combined with her under armor that blended with her skin, she could feel a few of the patrons stares, but they were filled with a wariness, not quite fear or respect, somewhere in the middle. it was clear to her that they still remembered what she could do to them, and were trying to balance the urge to be drunk dickheads and their preservation instinct. Were it not uncomfortable in the moment, she'd've likely found it simultaneously funny and a bit worrying.

Stepping into the ring, her opponent was going to be a fearsome one, she knew it just from looking at him. Dark release was something that could counter most of her abilities. She just needed to be quick enough to catch him off guard. Small as it was thanks to her experience with him drinking she knew the man would be able to outlast her, likely in both physical defense, physical strength, and just an overall stamina battle, the latter noted thanks to her sensory. But she was still going to put up the best fight she could and indulge her Kotōshura bloodline, just a bit. After all, it was just a bit of post-work fun, and with her Iron Armor she'd be able to tank a hit or two.

Their battle was a spectacle to behold, one that the bat would remember for a while until a much bigger event pushed the fight to the way, way back of their minds, that of the legendary invasion of the Idaina Kujira and it's invasion on the heavenly emporium. And yet somehow by the end of the night, somehow Diana had won out against the man who called himself Tatewari. But that was a tale for another time. Picking up her belongings she'd turn back to her beaten companion, and gave an honest-to-god genuine smile.

"Thank you for the fight Tatewari, I hope that next time we meet it will be even more interesting then before."

{Exit}