Senescence (P)

Not so long ago, the sound of rain pattering against the roof had been the only company she could hope for. The empty house had never felt more lonely, and when the heiress sat in a lonely corner of a lonely room room, she wallowed in her pain and her desire to return to the way things once were. It had started with her mother. She’d never been given the opportunity to meet the woman by whom she’d been brought into the world, though she had seen pictures, and heard her father speak of her, in the deepest depths of her memories. A picture of her still hung on the wall, even in their house, so far from Tengakure, so far from home, so far from where she was, in this forested land of fire, drowned by the sea.

She’d wallowed in her pain, in that place, and had nearly lost it all, because she could no longer bear to rise each day and continue on. She was on the edge of losing it all. On the edge of giving up and taking everything away, returning to her parents, and leaving Haru to rot in that jail cell, the last legacy of the Tengakure Hyuuga clan.

And yet, she had not. She had grown, risen beyond the fragile shell of what she had once been. She was strong. She had embraced what she had become, forged herself in anew in steel and baptised herself in blood. What she had become was best exemplified by the armor she was wearing. Ludwig was alone in the training ground. Most Konoha ninja did not dare go near her, and the heiress didn’t care.

His steely flesh was stronger than any foe she’d ever faced, and his sheer stature was a terror to behold. The icing on the cake was the massive blade he wielded, ten meters long, which was currently swiping at tall trees, chopping them cleanly into pieces. She had only just developed this puppet, and was testing his speed on this innocent flora. It was no real harm, after all, right? Konoha ninja could probably grow more in an instant.

Her byakugan was activated, obviously, because otherwise she couldn’t see through Ludwig’s shell.

Not so long ago, the boy had thirsted for blood, and hungered for destruction. Nowhere was the only place he truly felt at home, and his desire for vengeance had yet to be sated. He had lost so much in so few years, and the dark pit in his heart wanted nothing but the rest of the world to feel the same. He had thought he'd find beauty in war. A love for the rampant bloodshed and almost unwarranted violence. It was natural to him. To the boy, it was home.

He had forgotten that he lost his home long ago.

Flits in his memory caved and gave way to the scenes, played hazy like a tape wound a little loose. The wyrm raged across the battlefield, mind lost with his destined opponent. Instead, it dove to the masses and tore through their bodies like paper. It was...

"Horrible..."
"Satisfying."
"The first taste of real action i've had in too long."

God, he was still getting used to that.

The boy trekked from the wartorn, bloodbathed front lines to...well, he didn't really know. His compass had long since been pushed aside, and he had instead been wandering aimlessly through dreary backstreets. It was the thunk of something heavy impacting the ground that snapped him from his daze. The ANBU perked his head, looking to the direction the sound had come from. Narrowing his mismatched eyes, the boy would disappear as a murky purple haze engulfed him.

And in the same fasion, he would emerge about fifty meters from a massive, bipedal and humanoid...robot? Mech? Something of that fashion. It wielded a blade, equally as large, that chopped clean through the surrounding trees. The boy's right eyebrow would raise, and in a split second decision, fueled by the untamed beast and the bloodlust of Kalamity, the boy's muscles would twitch, ever so slightly, as the desire to shred the hulking metal behemoth raged.

Perhaps he wasn't quite 'off the high' of the battle yet.

But luckily, before flying into an unnecessary battle blind, the boy picked up on a familiar chakra signature, inside the behemoth. One belonging to Aryll Hyuuga.

Well, this was...a turn of events.

Altar would walk towards the giant metal...thing, and clear his throat, raising his right hand over his head in a sign of greeting. "Didn't take you for much of a lumberjack, Aryll." the boy would say, a grin playing at the edges of his mouth.

Aryll saw Altar coming from a mile away, of course. Literally. She smirked as he approached, at almost exactly the moment where the thought occurred to her that trees were hardly a fitting test subject for her new design. When he arrived on the training grounds, the metal automaton, its back currently turned to him, would rotate quickly, pivoting on its left foot and turning about face towards the boy, The hatch springing open as Aryll disengaged her Byakugan.

”And I didn’t take you for a comedian, Altar.” She quipped, Ludwig lowering his blade to his side, reducing it to a mere 5 meters in length and depositing it safely and securely upon his back. He knelt, reaching inside the cockpit, as he clasped his hand around Aryll’s chair, turning her to face Altar and depositing her before him. Aryll disconnected her strings when the puppet returned to a kneeling position.


”What do you think of my new toy?” She asked the man, studying his face. ”He’s a bit of a step up from Thane, bless his heart.” She said, glancing back at her creation with pride. You could tell from the glint in her eye that this was a passion project, and that she drew no end of entertainment from the intricacies of this giant metal automaton. This one in particular looked far evolved from his predecessor, being infinitely more simple, and yet, infinitely more grand.


”I was just testing his reflexes. He’s quicker than me, as far as I can tell, but I can’t really test him as well as I’d like on a few old trees, you know?” She explained, hoping that Altar would get the hint.

The boy would shrug as the girl was helped from her machination by it's own arm, Aryll controlling the giant mecha via thin chakra threads. Intriguing. This giant metal suit of armor was a puppet. And a heavily weaponized one, if it's looks were anything to go by.

Just from a cursory glance, Altar could tell the puppet was built with simplicity in mind. Yet, that didn't mean it held no power or purpose. Judging by the sheer amount of forestry it had cut down, and how clean the cuts were, it held some speed and strength in it's somewhat spindly arms.

"I suppose i'm full of surprises..." the boy would say, the buzzing in his ears growing just a bit louder. "It's...impressive, Aryll. It's very...barebones? You had something streamlined in mind, i'd guess." the boy would continue, stealing a quick glance at Aryll. She had nothing but pride and joy in her eyes. She adored this metallic behemoth.

"Adoration."
"Pride."

The words seethed in his mind like static. Loud. Far too loud. His body wanted to lurch and his arms nearly shot to his ears to try to blot the inside noise out from the outside. Luckily, he got away with a minor wince, perhaps a look of discomfort. He wasn't really sure at the moment. The episode over, Altar would walk up closer to the giant puppet, tapping it's appendages and looking in the open area. It was padded and looked oddly comfortable. 

"Solid. The craftsmanship is top notch. Comfy looking cockpit as well." The boy would say, returning to his place as Aryll tried poorly to hide a proposition for a spar in her words. The boy would chuckle, turning to face Aryll again.

"You want me to fight a crafted iron giant?" the boy would say, his eyes slowly lighting up. The telltale grin now spread across his face, the boy would crack his knuckles.

"Deal. Let's see if it can keep up with lightning."

As Altar examined Aryll's creation, she studied his features. His comments confirmed what she had already assumed were his opinions, but she appreciated the gesture nonetheless. 

"Barebones?"

"Thane had too much steel, too many moving parts. It got in the way and slowed him down. This fella is way faster." She said, smiling at her creation. She noticed him glance at her, as she turned her head, and fixed her gaze on the puppet. "So... Yeah, I guess I was." She added, as an afterthought. She did so love to talk about herself, and her creations. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed him wince. "Too much to take in all at once?" She teased. She wasn't one to judge on such menial things as a small flinch. 

He commented on her machine now, noting the craftsmanship, which caused Aryll to glow with pride. He commented on her own quarters within the machine, and she shrugged. "A lady does what she can. It's mostly in case we take a bad fall, since I bring my own chair along." She commented, tapping her wheelchair with her left hand. 

He took the hint, and agreed to fight. She smiled at the banter. 
"Before lightning comes Thunder... Oh, wait." She said, stuttering and falling off at the end of her sentence. "You know what I meant. I'm better than you." She sighed, speaking quickly and turning her head to end that particular moment as quickly as possible. She applied her threads once more to Ludwig, placing Aryll inside as the machine began to whir to life, standing up to his full height, some ten meters, retreating a small distance so that they were about 10 meters apart, and drawing his sword, swinging it in an arc that would land it in the dirt at her feet, digging into the ground in its now-extended 10 meter form. 

"Bring it on." Aryll said, her fingers controlling the puppet outstretched before her, her right hand twisting in a clawed motion as the hatch closed, the veins on her Byakugan activating as her face became obscured. She would let him make the first move, it seemed only polite. 

AP: 686/687


-1 Byakugan

The boy laughed and let loose a genuine smile at the girl's failed attempt at pre-spar banter. It was humurous. A reminder that not everything had to be doom and gloom all the damn time. Who knew humor could be so important?

As the girl rose back into her metallic titan and walked back, Altar took a few seconds to study the behemoth's back. He couldn't determine any weak points, and severing the threads was a no go, unless he wanted to try and get inside the mech with her. Somehow, he felt like that was a mistake. Noting the puppet's movement as it turned around and buried it's sword, one important thing leapt out at Altar. The hatch was closed.

She was dependant on her byakugan, incased in a thick shell of steel that would render her other senses useless. The boy grinned, a plan forming in his mind. Vision was all she had. It was time to kick the crutch.

...was that offensive?

Nonetheless, once the hatch closed the boy would ready himself, taking a fighting stance, slightly lower to the ground with his knees bent and his hands close together. And with no movement but the opening of his mouth, the boy would expel a fine powder from his mouth, coating the area in front of him with a blinding shimmer, drifting out towards the puppet. The thick cloud of powder, condensed with his chakra would most likely serve to cloak him as well.

Once the powder was expelled, the boy would hone in on the girl's chakra signatures and form a set of handseals, being surrounded by four heads of burning flame once completed. The boy would launch them out, one to the direct side of the girl's behemoth puppet, and the other two about five meters further from the puppet's sides. Four more heads would surround the boy as he lay in wait, hands at the ready, keeping an eye on the girl's chakra signature and the movements of the giant puppet through the powder.

"Time to give 'em the old razzle dazzle."
"That was awful and you should feel bad."
"I already do, Chomei. I already do."

And like that, the fight began. As Altar began to expel some sort of powder from his mouth, attempting to cloak the area, the Hyuuga girl would visibly roll her eyes, for she knew that Altar had a byakugan of his own, and she knew that he could see through this stuff too. Had he forgotten to use it? Or had he truly never had this experience with another White Eye? Either way, Aryll would show him the error of his ways, because presumably, he was blinded by the powder, since he seemed to think the byakugan couldn’t see through it. She had a simple plan.The armor was making her confident, and for the first time in a long time, she felt powerful again. 

Ludwig advanced, beginning his move towards Altar, entering the powder as a few flaming skulls or something flew at her. The flames would glance harmlessly off of Ludwig’s armor, unable to melt through the solid steel that Aryll had forged her masterpiece from. After Ludwig’s first step, closing the distance by about 5 meters, Aryll’s index finger would twitch, and Ludwig’s blade would come around towards Altar in a horizontal arcing motion, swinging quickly towards him and aiming to sweep his feet out from under him.

AP: 684/687


-2 All-Seeing Eye

Altar would raise an eyebrow at the girl's ability to see through the thick, chakra filled powder. Well, that established that the Byakugan could still see through it, much like the hidden mist jutsu he had tried to make use of so long ago against Haru.

And the eyebrow would be raised further as the demon lanterns glanced harmlessly off the giant puppet's large frame. The boy would make a quick handseal at the girl's advance, and raise his hands in the air above his head in a faux gesture of surrender.

"Ya got me, ya got me..." the boy would say, the giant blade swinging through the air at him.

"Chakra flames can't melt steel mechs."

The young ANBU would finish his confusing and nonsensical rambling as the blade would finish it's arc through the air, just short of it's intended target. Instead, it would impact an arm, roughly the size of Altar himself, that had formed to completely shield the side the blade had swung at. As the blade impacted the arm, it would wrap itself around the blade and pull it further to Altar's back and opposite the swing side, torquing the blade in the motion as well in an attempt to force the behemoth off balance and force a weaker grip on it's weapon. As the arm would wrench the blade back, Altar himself would step forward, hands now at his sides, and another arm would extend to grab the mech's front most leg, pulling it back and upwards.

And obviously, as no move would be complete without flair, assuming the mech was sent more off balance by the upheaved leg, Altar would push forward to it's now lowered head, and send an arm to grab the mech's cockpit, pushing it down, much faster and with more impact than gravity could hope to manage.

Obviously, all arms had combined and were placed for convenience in the attacks described, and everything was liable to change if the hilariously over-the-top plan didn't come to fruition at any point.

~1365 AP remaining~

As Aryll advanced, Altar retreated slightly, stopping her blade with what appeared to be an arm made of chakra. In what was clearly some extreme bullshit, he wrenched her blade forward, pulling Ludwig towards him and forcing the giant puppet off balance, with Altar advancing in an attempt to grab Ludwig’s foot.

And man, would he get the foot.

Ludwig lurched forward, and as Altar reached for the construct’s foot, it would erupt in a sudden burst of speed, localized chakra cannons located across it forcing it forwards faster than Altar would have anticipated, avoiding the arms and colliding with Altar, likely sending him flying backwards. Aryll would lower Ludwig’s foot, regaining balance and placing the machine’s blade back at his side.

”If you’re gonna pull cheap shit like that, I’m not gonna hold back either.” She taunted, but her words were likely lost on the Shinkou at this point.

Altar would find himself sent flying by the foot of the giant automaton, evidently not prepared for the sudden burst of speed. Immediately after Aryll’s quip, a voice came from afar, interrupting her flow, or perhaps, throwing off her groove.

”Lady Aryll!” Came the feminine voice. A member of the Hyuuga clan, one who had been assigned as Aryll’s attendant during her stay in Konoha. ”Lady Aryll, there is an urgent matter that requires your attention!” She declared, approaching the giant automaton as if she were trying her damndest to pretend it was just another person. Ludwig froze. Shrugging the puppet’s shoulders as if it were disappointed, it knelt, the hatch opening as it pulled Aryll out, setting her and her chair down in front of him.

”Very well.” Aryll said, disappointed. ”I’m sorry, Altar, but it looks like they can’t get by without me now that I’m here. We’ll have to do this some other time.” She said. And with that, Aryll would take her leave, pushed by her attendant, and followed by Ludwig, whom she controlled leisurely with her threads.  


(Exit)
(TWC: 1570) 

+14 AP
+1570 words towards ninjutsu spec