Under the Moonlight [Makoto]

"Yeah, we need to get out of here. They're persistent, and numerous, but kind of slow. If we find somewhere safe and we don't let any of the dead ninja follow us we can probably wait it out. They don't seem very perceptive. Come on." 


With that Yuri turns and starts to run. Heading deeper into the village as their light feet run along the rooftops. Metal sheets, ceramic plating, and whatever else used in the construction of the village making a light rhythm as they tried to get away from the zombies. Though as the group thinned out the nature of the village took an odd turn. Feeling as if it went on forever, the construction became more warped. Houses stacked on houses, collided into each other. It stopped being a village and started to become a labrynth of wood, metal and ceramic. The village became a prison and it almost felt like it was trying to cage them in. 


Then there were the corpses, for whatever reason the bodies of zombie nin, scarred and eviscerated with massive claws along the chest and neck. Effectively decapitated and half eaten, laying in piles. Eventually there was no more progress to be made running on top of the buildings. They extended too high and too far, though in that labrynth construction. 

"Maybe we can hide inside one of these houses?" 


That was the idea Yuri proposed. Seeing if she could pull open one of the windows.

WC: 2211

"Wait it out? Until they rot?" She follows along, holding her centipede tightly for whatever feeling of safety she can get in this mess. Everything was becoming more and more like a nightmare, the warped structures reminding her of some of her dreams back when she was a child. Back then, they were always full of crawling things...

...Zombies scarcely seem an improvement. Especially when the world itself seemed to be closing in on them, cutting off any escape. She gently pushes Yuri aside, making a mild effort and opening the window with that overblown strength of hers. A blast of rancid air blows out, clumps of torn meat splayed across the ground. Makoto steps in carefully, looking around.

"...Welll, I don't think there's zombies in here anymore...Someone must have gone through here before us."

She crouches down, examining the flesh while covering her nose with one hand. "Bite marks on these, too..."

TWC 1381

"Eugh." 

Yuri pinches her nose, trying to swat away the rancid air as she climbs through the window. The room was cozy, bordering on cramped. Small chairs, soft cushion, woven rugs and blankets occupied the space of the thin walls trying to keep out the weather. The room marred by putrid blood staining the furnishings. In the center, a decayed corpse on a pile of splinters. A short table torn to shreds, as well as the blanket and the heater. It'd be a small wonder that the toppled heater hadn't caused a fire if not for the massive amounts of blood. In fact... 


It was almost too much blood to have come from the shredded, near unidentifiable body. Was whatever made all of this injured. Feeling bile ride at the back of her throat, and nausea from the scent of blood and dust mingling in the air, Yuri opts to clean instead of question. Quickly moving to grab the corpse and unceremoniously toss it out the window. The body long since desecrated by this point, and she didn't have any way to burn it either. Before getting to work removing the worst offenders of some, the bloodiest carpets and other ruined things like the shattered table. 


It left the room cleaner, but alot sparser before she slams the window shut. Shaking her head before letting out a sigh. Stress was creeping along her, a winding tension in the muscles and bones, and she couldn't afford to get strung out. Trying to catch her breathe in the moldy apartment as she drops on to one of the pillows she just tossed on to the ground. 

"Let's take a break for a bit, pretty sure this had been getting to our heads." 

She'd rub her eyes if there wasn't much and more blood on those too. The thought made her twist in her seat and look around for a sink. 

"Want some tea? Maybe you can tell me more about yourself? Something, really, to take a second and help us relax. It doesn't seem like we'll be figuring out why this is happening after all." 

Her eyes widen momentarily when she finds it, scuttling off her seat and hurrying over to the sink. The soft hiss of the faucet a sign of normalcy as Yuri starts washing her hand. The cold water mixing with the blood and carrying it down the drain, as she waits expectantly for Makoto to speak.




WC : 2619

Makoto nods quietly, making sure not to breathe too deeply as she takes a seat on the ground, making sure not to dirty her...already bloodied outfit. Well, nothing to it- She slowly removes her shrine maiden clothes, remaining in a blessedly clean shirt and the red skirt. Truth be told, she was already feeling so, so tired... It's actually a bit of a struggle to stay awake, clutching her head slightly. "I'd love some tea. Well...truth be told, I've been pretty sheltered all my life." She begins, looking at her centipede. Her...God. "I was chosen by Yul when I was seven, and they took me aside from all of the other children to be trained as the next clan head."

"You were always scared."

"I had..." She chuckles a little "I had nightmares for weeks. And my father didn't approve. But that is how things have always worked in the shrine. I guess- But I've been making a lot of friends lately! It did take a while, but things have been looking up. And...Yul has always been there for me." Makoto affectionately pats the centipede, which coils around her hand. "I've been enjoying time spent with Mitsu, but, we did get off on a bad foot when we met."

"He called me a bug, and she got offended."

"It's rude!. I don't go around insulting people's religions!"

"Well, of course. You're better than him."

"Thank you!- In any case, hmmm... Oh, I've also been learning how to cook lately, now that I can get away from all the other temple staff and actually try it for myself. It's actually really, really fun."

TWC: 1661

Yuri wasn't too deeply into the theological scene. She had her own preconception on what a god was, but looking at the worm that word didn't come to her mind as she sets a pot of water to boil adding in the loose tea leaves. It was a bit of a vain hope that the scene of tea could fill the space and give it a more refreshing scent, or at least drown out the smell of gore and dust. The scent was a bother and she couldn't really imagine waiting out an entire night like this. 


Reverence and divinity were the kinds of things that were deeply personal and dependent on one's own experience. It was like respect, but different. People could respect each other regardless of knowing them well because of things like empathy or senses of obligation. Empathy didn't entirely extend to the gods. Reverence wasn't a thing where you saw one as your equal, it was a subordinate relationship. A god could give you their respect, but you didn't respect a god you worship the same way you respect a person you consider equal. 


Yuri just didn't get that same response of reverence when she looks at Yul, it just wasn't the same to her. She could get how Mitsu would just call them a bug. Because they looked like a bug , and physically were one as well. Letting out a sigh as the water starts to bubble. So was it wrong? They were a bug but also considered a god by some. If someone called Yuri a god she would still be just a human to others. So the distinction of what seperated a god and what wasn't was ultimately up to people. At least as far as she knew. 


She'd probably just use their name though. At least to avoid any conflict. Her father always told here that there were two kinds of fights that would last days and nights. Clashing blades with a warrior, and clashing words with a monk. Putting a strain over the teapot before pouring the contents of the pot on the stove through the strain into the teapot itself. She clicked her tongue as she forgot to warm the teapot first, but just resigns herself to be a little less than ideal. Now it just had to steep for a few minutes. 

"I was never really about religion. My father was more focused on ideals and stuff. So I can't say I relate very well. Plus it was just me and my dad living far away from everyone, so I only saw people kind of rarely. I was taught how to be a samurai, and told to think on what to fight for. My dad told me I could come to Kirigakure to find myself. In a way being a shinobi is related to my roots, and getting connected to them is supposed to help. I'm not sure if it is though." 


She grabs a wooden platter to hold the teapot, the cups and a put the strain in the sink, before going back to the center of the room and setting down the platter where the table had been. Kneeling in front of it and pouring out tea in both respective cups. 

"There are many ideals for me to consider, though I've been getting closer to what I've been thinking about."


WC: 3182

"...Mm- I can understand. Though... At the same time, I feel I am horrible at explaining my own beliefs." She smiles a little, seeming embarrased. "...To make the world a cleaner, gentler place, even if you have to wade through all the filth in it. That's what Yul is..." She pauses, shaking her head, trying to find the words. "Samurais, huh...? I suppose we have very different backgrounds."

Yul coils close around her body, resting it's head on her shoulder. It seems to be dozing off. Makoto leans her head against him, sighing. "...He is. An insect, I mean. That's not the important part, though, but I guess it'd be easy to miss what he does for us. What he's done for our clan, for so long. The reason we can keep going in this world is...because we know, in the end, that we'll see it through. That as long as we try to do whatever world we can in the world, we can wade through all it's horrors. Or so I was taught. And now..:"

She wrings her hands. "...I don't know. I've talked it through with Yul a lot, though of course I'd never bring it up to the clan elders, but... I fear that we can never do it, you know? Really make the world better, like this. Just mend the wounds that will be opened again. Several generations of people like me, and yet...The world is like this anyways."

Makoto sighs, closing her eyes. "Ideals... How has being a shinobi helped, then? Get closer to it, as you said."

TWC 1929

"Hm." 


She hides the meeting of the tea cup and her kids as she drinks from the bitter draught. The strong scent of green tea gave her a bit of distraction from the wretched smell around her, and drinking it gave her some to to think as well. She'd been in Kirigakure for a while, a year or so, but she'd only been an actual ninja for a month. There wasn't much action yet, but working was good for the soul, and she'd met some interesting people so far. 

"Just being somewhere new, in an unfamiliar position has been good for making me consider things. You can talk about things like sin, and guilt, and justice, and compassion in a room while you're being on the proper way to act, but it isn't the same as actually practicing it. Though there's still some experience I'm lacking. Have you learned anything from it?"


Wc: 3334

"Learned anything... I guess I've learned the world is a lot scarier than I thought. But also that I am a lot stronger than I figured I was. And... Well, hey. That I've been really lonely and missing out on life!" She raises her own cup of tea almost like it was beer, before taking a dainty sip. "...And now we're surrounded by the living dead, so I'm glad I got to enjoy myself. And I learned I really enjoy healing people."

"...When you say it like that, yeah, the clan elders are." She pauses, deliberating on it, as if she's going to say some great blasphemy. "...Rather full of shit. Never seen them do medical work or clean."

Makoto leans back a little. "But everyone else is super nice, at least."

TWC 2064

Yuri nods, pouring out another cup of tea before going to sip. Just ad the cup reaches her lips her whole body shutters, hot tea spilling from the cup on to her hands and face as she drops the fragile glass with a delicate cracking noise. Pieces shatter ing on the floor as Yuri doubles over in pain. A pulsing on her temples as she feels her skin start to burn like fire from thw moonlight dancing on it. Wracked with growing pains as memories of blood and teeth and claw floods her mind.

The moon was singing to her, as she remembers the Savage bodies on their way there, the memory now filled with nostalgia. This pain rich in Dejá Vu as her body starts to get bigger, and bigger. Disconcertingly lanky, human skin stretched on an ill fitting frame belonging to a wolf, before fur begins to sprout in odd places. The soft colors of her eyes replaced with an icy blue as she stares at Makoto and begins to rise. Tearing off the human clothing, instead of the usual Yuri it was the hunched over form of a hulking werewolf. Almost too big for the room itself.

Yuri releases a blood curdling howl. It sort of made sense now why the zombies had begun to circle. They'd been savaged by a beast, but when the beast was weak of course they'd circle in for the kill. There'd have been no other chance. The thin discolored scars wet no weakpoint, the skin was thick, and the fangs razor sharp. Yellowed razor teeth glistening in the moonlight, and that reflective blue light in their eyes that could see in the night like day. It was well built to be a predator. Powerful muscles knock aside the platter with the tea pot on it as it shatters and stains the wall with glass and drink, as Yuri immediately goes to pounce on Makoto.

WC: 3657

As the fragments fly through the air, there is a moment where time almost seems to stop. Porcelain cuts the side of her face, blood splashing through the air as she pushes herself up on reflex, everything moving in slow motion as everything slowly falls into place in her mind. The fur, the torn apart dead... That thing standing in front of her. Was it even still her-

-These thoughts catch up to her in an instant as Yuri's body smashes into her, knocking her into the wall with a sickening crack. The pain doesn't even register- her body feels numb.

Yul is asleep. She cannot count on them for this. If anything, they seem to have completely vanished from around her at some point, making her feel even more exposed and vulnerable. Can she even-

-No. Hesitation will mean she dies. And if she dies, she'll never get to make the world a better place, and definitely not be able to save Yuri from whatever this is. She finds a grip on the werewolf's arm before she bites, and flushes her entire body with chakra, slamming her palm into it's stomach and pulling back. Her muscles burn in a moment of agony, shaken out of their numbness by the influx of raw strength. She digs her foot into the ground and throws her back through the window with the force of a cannonball, the wall itself shatering as a too-big body is pushed through glass and wood exploding into a million shards mixed in with torn fur.

The moonlight shines down upon the priestess, body burning and bloodied.

"...Then, let me show you how much I've learned directly." She adopts a fighting poser, looking down through the hole in the now crumbling wall. "Apologies in advance for the broken bones."

TWC 2367