Dragonball M, Chapter 1: Silent Menace Aproaches!

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

The Nevadian let out an audible sigh of relief.

This wouldn't be as delicate a subject as he had feared. Although Jinzi had struck him as a more than reasonable type, the Nevadian was no stranger to men of wealth or power who had little qualms about reneging on their agreements if it suited their interests. The art of negotiation, of words, not fists, was often a delicate and tricky process.

"Well...I'm not sure what Kami told you about me." Held began, rubbing his jaw as he thought over what to say.

"...But, I didn't come to Earth on purpose, frankly. I was on a mission to a planet that was called Agrippa....Nice enough planet, but there was some sort of global---"

He paused, shaking his head slightly.

"...That doesn't matter right now. It's ancient history."

He frowned, if only slightly. It didn't matter because the planet was vaporized, its people no more than a vague memory. This was not the time for yet another requiem on the part of the Nevadian.

"Either way, my ship was caught in the planets explosion, and by the grace of Kami I managed to avoid becoming cosmic dust, and I woke up here."

He shrugged slightly, accepting the reality of the situation.

I guess I should be thankful that I'm apparently so important to the fate of this world. I don't think I would have been able to fly myself out of that mess during the best of times.

"...Don't get me wrong, it's been a great three years, but...Well, I have to get home sooner or later, yeah?"

“I understand. When I can, I will help you get off Earth.”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Ishtar nodded. "Hm ... well I am glad to see it ended the way it did."

Turning to leave, then, the Oni stopped short before turning around to face Kami once more. "I do not know if you have been entirely alone since accepting the mantle of Guardian, but if you ever wish to speak, consider my mind an open door for you."

Kami smiles.

“Thank you, Ishtar. I do believe I shall take you up on that some time soon.”

[The Dog]

Nunlil laughs.

Not mockingly, but in genuine mirth. Her head rolls back and a deep belly laugh echoes around her. She stops, still smiling.

“Bold aren’t you?”

She walks over to him, and being taller, leans in and whispers in his ear.

“Still not enough for someone like me. Like I told Sarada, I’d break you.”

She leans back up and walks away, still smiling somewhat.

Midori walked after Nunlil and called out "Excuse me, Miss Nunlil. I have a question to ask you."

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Kami smiles.

“Thank you, Ishtar. I do believe I shall take you up on that some time soon.”

"If my years of travel on the path towards enlightenment have taught me anything, it is how to listen." Ishtar flashed a smile, before nodding. "If there is nothing else, you wish to speak of at current however, I shall leave you to your peace ... I am sure you are tired, this day has not been an easy one."

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Midori walked after Nunlil and called out "Excuse me, Miss Nunlil. I have a question to ask you."

The Oni pauses.

“Yes?”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"If my years of travel on the path towards enlightenment have taught me anything, it is how to listen." Ishtar flashed a smile, before nodding. "If there is nothing else, you wish to speak of at current however, I shall leave you to your peace ... I am sure you are tired, this day has not been an easy one."

“Indeed. I think.....I think I’ll rest a while. It has been so very long since I slept......”

Kami guides Ishtar out of the room and then closes the door. Sighing, she lays down on her bed and is soon asleep.

[The Dog]

The Oni pauses.

“Yes?”

"Well, I've been trying to learn about 'sex', and I asked my teammates, but that just resulted in an argument. But several of them find you appealing, so, and I hope you don't find this insulting, but what is it about you that makes them want to have 'sex' with you?"

[Lord Falcon]

“I think that is it, Asha’rah. I’m calling the spar.”

Kami floats down and powers down too.

“For a moment I saw you, goddess. You were and are breathtaking.”

Asha'rah dropped her illusion and recalled her orbs. Staggering to her feet, she stilled her body long enough to bow. Soft golden light enveloped her body, repairing the damage bit by bit. Without the urgency of combat, Asha'rah could afford to take it slow on her depleted reserves.

"Thank you, Kami. You remain a very intelligent fighter despite the heights of your power. If I were Fefe, I would rue the day I stepped foot back in here with you around."

She had managed to straighten when a random thought struck her. Perhaps it owed to the memories reawakened within her before the spar, perhaps it was the praise she had just received, perhaps it was simply a focused mind finally allowing other thoughts to creep in. In any case, she found a subtle difference in how she regarded Kami, and wanted to ask her something.

"My memory remains unclear in some areas. Tell me, does the role of Kami forbid you from having a name? Not of discarding your old one, that seems inherent. But are you specifically forbidden from having a name now?"

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

“Indeed. I think.....I think I’ll rest a while. It has been so very long since I slept......”

Kami guides Ishtar out of the room and then closes the door. Sighing, she lays down on her bed and is soon asleep.

Ishtar offered a simple wave as Kami ushered her out of her room, and with Zurvan's Grimoire in tow, the Oni returned to the Lookout.

At first glance it appeared the other's had returned, which was good ... and yet the transport itself was missing entirely. Jinzi seemed to be in relatively good spirits however, and seeing that Nunlil was safe set the Oni's mind at ease.

She leans back up and walks away, still smiling somewhat.

Offers her cousin a fond smile as she passes by. "Glad to see you are well, Nunlil."

The Nevadian let out an audible sigh of relief.

This wouldn't be as delicate a subject as he had feared. Although Jinzi had struck him as a more than reasonable type, the Nevadian was no stranger to men of wealth or power who had little qualms about reneging on their agreements if it suited their interests. The art of negotiation, of words, not fists, was often a delicate and tricky process.

"Well...I'm not sure what Kami told you about me." Held began, rubbing his jaw as he thought over what to say.

"...But, I didn't come to Earth on purpose, frankly. I was on a mission to a planet that was called Agrippa....Nice enough planet, but there was some sort of global---"

He paused, shaking his head slightly.

"...That doesn't matter right now. It's ancient history."

He frowned, if only slightly. It didn't matter because the planet was vaporized, its people no more than a vague memory. This was not the time for yet another requiem on the part of the Nevadian.

"Either way, my ship was caught in the planets explosion, and by the grace of Kami I managed to avoid becoming cosmic dust, and I woke up here."

He shrugged slightly, accepting the reality of the situation.

I guess I should be thankful that I'm apparently so important to the fate of this world. I don't think I would have been able to fly myself out of that mess during the best of times.

"...Don't get me wrong, it's been a great three years, but...Well, I have to get home sooner or later, yeah?"

"Three years is not what I would consider "ancient", Held." Ishtar commented as she approached the man. "Though I suppose it might be given your age ..." The golden-eyed Oni offered with a soft chuckle. "Planning a return to the stars however ?"

[grampagen]

With Totoma having departed for the night, Ochazuke turned his gaze towards the sky. At the hour where the separations between night and dawn ceased, he bore witness to a transcendent moment in the sky. The blackened expanse consumed the waking hours and in the vast emptiness began to bloom imperceptibly to the hues of the morning. Time passed; the division between early and late, arbitrary. Only words to encapsulate human understanding of the small, everyday miracle as the Earth turns.

What did it mean to have something to fight for?

He'd had an answer for the young man once, when he used these hands to enact the will of the one he'd called Master.
_____

Master. Such a confounding vanity. For the sake of another, he'd received the honours as befit a closed inner-circle, pursued prestige as befit the man who decided for him exactly what that would mean. Master Chahan's honour, saving face, as he followed his teachings and broke fickle disciples into accepting the two thousand years of insight and technique. A legacy of refinement went into the methodology of the Crane School, Ochazuke's mind, body and spirit cast into the mould of a weapon. Yet a tool, cast, rendered and sharpened to fulfill purpose, remains a tool.

There was a time when he had reached out beyond the confines of his deigned purpose to decide his own destiny, a journey he started only after he was sent by his master's behest. A chance encounter at a Crane-Adept dojo in Ori City showed him a strength of a true rival. That local girl, who fumbled into the dojo on wobbling legs sucking down a fiery bottle of burnt vanilla and tamarind between the sweat-locked sweep over her reddened face, defeated the prestigious Crane novices, the senior students, and the deputy master. In a flowing moment of exquisite brutality, by slashing elbow, crashing knee and thunderous kicks she nigh-effortlessly cut through the assembly gathered to fight and die for Chahan. Hollow indecive fists devoted to nothing fell that day to Hakkyoku Ko-ou Ken, the Eight Limbs of the Tiger King.

Chahan had sent him to the dojo to assess the strength of the Crane School. After witnessing their pitiful weakness, Ochazuke proposed to kill her under the guise of a prospective student. For the honour of the Crane School, Kaibyo and Kenshiko, the Twin Tigers of Ori City, would die by the hand of their neophyte apprentice, Zosui. He'd convinced himself that hidden in plain sight, he'd ascertain their power, learn their weaknesses and wait for the right moment to strike.

The moment never presented itself. Not while Kenshiko turned her head to roll a punch, or when she praised the precision of his imitated hand. It never came when her hardened face spoke the ancestral credo and stretched her limbs through the wai kru, then melted into pride when a student finally figured out how to kick through her instead of at her. There was no opening when Kaibyo returned from another round of drunken Crane-hunting, only to see another battered student leave because of 'protection fees' he'd have to cough up to keep trouble from making him an appointment - just like so many of the others. Or when Kaibyo fell back into the bottle; or while Kenshiko bared her proud fangs to test the resolve of their remaining students. He got so swept up in the fervor of the role, he'd forgotten the shadow he was chasing for the hotblooded spirit that screamed at him to refine his talent. Kenshiko's unyielding hand pushed him to greater heights spiritually than he had even been before. But while one sister was happy to have a devoted pupil, the other was wise to what was going on. A hellish training regimen could only be conquered by time. Kaibyo saw through his lack of sweat, there where she lay surrounded by her emptied vice and squalor. So revealed, they began the exchange of secrets that sealed their doom.

Looking back, he realized he had died long before Chahan put the Dodonpa through him. He only felt the life-in-death when the internal energy works that flowed through him were loosed through young men his former master trained to be his replacements. The death of the Tiger School was written through the untrained kikojutsu that flared from their souls to ignite their bodies. In a fair fight, these untempered souls would never win. But this was war.

For so precious a thing as that, the heart that was destroyed finally beat, awakened to a will of its own. But the legs that carried the young master Kaibyo's proud kicks were no more. Zosui could only clutch her remaining hand and hold her close, and Ochazuke watched her die.
_____

The constellations fell apart as morning broke. The White Tiger of the West closed its eyes as the stars slowly winked out one by one.

[Lord Falcon]

Karine was completely spent by the time the training was done, her limb felt like barely functional noodles that happened to be currently attached to her body while she just wanted to go somewhere and lay her head at the moment. Despite her exhaustion, she felt rather proud of herself for having come this far. When Ash'rah had started the last half of it, while she struggled due being tired, she didn't once complain or stop trying even if that internal offer always remained tempting.

Everyone had that other voice in your head that told you that you couldn't do something, that it be easier to put it off for another day. She wasn't sure if it ever truly went away, but she found the best way to deal with it was just..do it. Simply taking a step towards whatever the goal happened to be was the start, how you got there wouldn't matter if you never even took the baby steps. This training was just one of those things, she was positive there be many more trials of things she needed to do given time.

Karine took a moment to catch her breath before addressing the monk. "Thank you for taking me in to teach me. I didn't say anything the entire time and pushed through it, part of me wanted to take the easy route but I knew I wouldn't be content with that. I think I learned a bit more about myself today, not just from you but Kami. I'm more capable in hand to hand and other things, I just..I guess..I need to stop putting others on a pedstal because some here have more training and practical experience then me."

Funny because she'd get on Totoma about something like that, and here she was doing it. At least now she realized it and now could make steps to correct it.

A trainer might help enhance motivation that was already there, but could not create what did not exist. Karine had shown her resolve to better herself by overcoming her own mental limits, and for that she deserved a measure of respect. Asha'rah leaned back, looking skyward as she considered Karine's words.

"It may be fun and satisfying to put a person on a pedestal, but is it ultimately but an illusion. All things strive, for all things are fallible. Totoma, Kami, everyone. If they were infallible, there would be no need to struggle."

She looked at Karine.

"Your emotional center may change over time. Who do you hold dearest to you today?"

[Tami]

"It's been going... well... it's been interesting."

Reading through the assorted tomes had given an insight into the Dino School's previous form of organization, which was a little better than what they had currently. Much like with the recommendations for flight, the other techniques he had read up on were cryptic, to say the least.

Either intentional or not, Jorg Fourmen's ramblings had forced Charco to try and piece together the techniques on his own, with the tomes as mostly a vague guide.

"The instructions could definitely use some work."

OOC: I guess somehow it is morning already. Instead of 'Daylight Savings' it is like 'Nighttime savings'. Looks like Cleric is skipping us ahead, so this is optional.

"When do you ever find an instructional guide that lays it out in four easy steps?" Megan then stood upright away from the wall she had been leaning against and walked towards Charco, "Care to spot me while I practice a new technique? Or would you rather find Zaofan and get something to eat first? Assuming that they actually brought something edible back."

[Sub-Zero MKA]

Jack was about to say he thought saving his life was worth a little more than a dinner. Then he remembered how much Sarada could eat and had to reassess that statement a bit.

"I suppose we could let these two debts cancel each other out," Jack scratched his chin, a small grin forming on his mouth, "Or..."

Jack took his cigarette out of his mouth and grinned even wider, "Or we could always raise the stakes."

He was willing to cancel the two debts out, to which Sarada would have been glad. Then, he suggest they raises the stakes.

Him raising the stakes was what got her into debt in the first place. But, it wouldn't hurt to find out what he had in mind.

"Before I agree," she said cautiously, "I want to know what you have in mind."

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Asha'rah dropped her illusion and recalled her orbs. Staggering to her feet, she stilled her body long enough to bow. Soft golden light enveloped her body, repairing the damage bit by bit. Without the urgency of combat, Asha'rah could afford to take it slow on her depleted reserves.

"Thank you, Kami. You remain a very intelligent fighter despite the heights of your power. If I were Fefe, I would rue the day I stepped foot back in here with you around."

She had managed to straighten when a random thought struck her. Perhaps it owed to the memories reawakened within her before the spar, perhaps it was the praise she had just received, perhaps it was simply a focused mind finally allowing other thoughts to creep in. In any case, she found a subtle difference in how she regarded Kami, and wanted to ask her something.

"My memory remains unclear in some areas. Tell me, does the role of Kami forbid you from having a name? Not of discarding your old one, that seems inherent. But are you specifically forbidden from having a name now?"

A sad smiles follows.

“No, but it faded from me the more I plucked away at Fate. Another price to my use of the power.”

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

"Well, I've been trying to learn about 'sex', and I asked my teammates, but that just resulted in an argument. But several of them find you appealing, so, and I hope you don't find this insulting, but what is it about you that makes them want to have 'sex' with you?"

She quirks an eyebrow.

“Every person has different tastes. Some prefer small or tall, thin or thick, innocent or seducer, weak or powerful. There are many different ideals behind why someone finds another attractive enough to have sex with them. My guess would be some are attracted to my body because it is fit. Perhaps others to my height, or strength even. I cannot actually say for sure.”