Ruins Rebuilt [Kay]

Death ends a life, not a relationship. Sakana read these words in a book sometime ago, he couldn’t remember which one. In the troubling times after Senshi’s death these were the words he clung onto. The boy didn’t know if life after death existed, or if there were gods looking down upon him. But he forced himself to believe that his friend wasn’t truly gone. 

When the Rot Lord enacted his wrath upon the village, all religious shrines destroyed and turned into rubble. The citizens that followed the Goddess Etro, rebuilt a shrine in her image. A small statue that depicted her image stood with place to kneel down in front of it. It was nothing compared to its former glory though, the building that used to overflow with believers now was empty except for a devout few. Many of her followers abandoned the faith when the deity did nothing to stop the village being turned into rubble in the destruction just a few years ago.  Others feared the consequences if the kage ever saw them. The boy didn’t know the new raikage’s policy on religion, but he also really didn’t care either.
 
Sakana found himself wondering the area around the shrine, on that arid morning. Despite not liking to arise from bed early he found himself not being able to sleep for very long. The only sound in the area  was the whistling wind as it came in contact with the statue. There wasn’t another person in sight. The Meijin didn’t really know what his expectations were for visiting the location, but he figured that paying his respects formally might be the first step in putting his mind to ease. His steps were light as he pulled his body towards the small cousin that stood at the foot of the shrine. Kneeling down seemed too… strange to him, praising the goddess of death when you weren’t sure you believed in her seemed disrespectful at best, destructive at worst.

 The bijuu took the opportunity to attack Sakana when his mind entertained the awful thoughts, “Stupid humans mourning your own dead. What’s gone is gone. Here you are pitying the solider instead of trying to gain justice for your fallen comrade. That jounin was strong enough to take me down, you should be terrified of whatever took him down.” In more than one way the bijuu had a point, Senshi didn’t go out easy. He felt sure of that, and he knew he should be doing his part to solve the mystery. He had heard that Komon and Komori had left on another mission to do their own investigation. But one thing the three tails didn’t understand was the feeling compassion, losing an ally was one of the worst pains a shinobi could endure, especially if you have to spend you time wondering how or why it happened.
 
If anyone were to approach Sakana, they would find him staring blankly at the statue, completely lost in his thoughts as he tried to figure out what to do.
 
WC: 507

One of the most interesting aspects about humans is their reverence for the dead. Every other species known to man did not care for their dead, instead casting them off. Whether this was some sort of survival instinct or natural selection was anyone’s guess. Yet, people. People treated their dead with care, defiling the bodies of the dead was a great offense. The mission that Kay had been on not too long ago was proof of that, at the very least. Instead of forgetting those that lived before them, humans chose to revere them, respect them, and sometimes even idolize them.

Except for their kage, or rather their former kage. The leadership in Kumogakure was a fragile yet ever changing thing. Kay, however, had little to no knowledge of the upper hierarchy, instead most of her focus had been on missions or various going ons within Hakai’s academy. Due to this, one could say that Kay did not get out much. After a few missions among other things, she had begun to wander around Kumogakure in her spare time. She was too cooped up within the academy for the most part, and she was interested in exploring her new home. So much so that she lost track of where she had been, admiring the scenery which was not contaminated by plague, death, and rot.

After quite some walking away from the village and to the mountains, Kay had happened upon a worn and somewhat hard to see cobblestone pathway. She turned around and looked back towards the village, the rot field surrounding it clearly visible but the wailing screams an echo. She blinked at the site. The girl had not even been in Kumogakure as long as the other shinobi, but still, the morbidness around it was beginning to grow accepted. Not in an endorsement way, but rather that this is part of reality and there was nothing to be done about it, at the very least by her. Perhaps someone else will claim the throne soon. Turning back towards her walk, she chose to follow the aforementioned path, leading her further and further away from where she had just begun to grow comfortable navigating. Hopefully, she would not become lost. But it seems someone else had. She came to an abrupt stop when she noticed a discouragingly small statue and a boy who looked lost. The forests of Kumogakure were somewhat tricky to navigate, so perhaps he had been using this as a home base as it were. “Hey there,” Kay said casually as to not startle the boy several meters in front of her. She took a moment to analyze the boy in front of her. He could not have been too much older than herself, but he looked as though he had not slept in quite some time. “What brings someone like you all the way out here?” she inquired.

WC: 489

Approved