The Nightmare Solution

Mission Details:

Mac came back to his office after a long day of work, completing all sorts of minor tasks from the village, keeping busy by bringing the elderly their groceries, helping kids with their trick or treating, helping wounded veterans put up spooky decorations for the holiday, all tiring, somewhat spiritually rewarding work, that left a bit to be desired in the ryo compensation for all the energy it took. Mac passed by his secretary, notably taking a nap in her desk chair, and slowly and quietly opened the door to his private quarters, not wishing to incur the wrath of the woman who functionally brought him into the ninja world. Sitting in his chair, Mac began to type up a mission report of all he had done that day, being sure to include each little detail that would ultimately fall on deaf ears.

Making some headway on his work for the night, Mac thought he might take some time to rest his eyes, resting in his chair allowing himself to fall back into it. To Mac’s surprise, he didn’t feel his momentum stop as he leaned back and felt like he kept falling and spinning backwards. Attempting to open them up, he continuously tried to wrench his eyes open, first just with concentration, second attempting to raise his arms to the eyes, he found that he was almost paralyzed, tumbling in complete darkness. Feeling himself fall and fall, he would eventually get his reprieve as his back was met with a soft stop, one that defied how fast he had been falling previous to the full stop, no longer tumbling and now feeling his eyes had lost their restrictive nature, a sense of ease came across Mac as the scent of pumpkin and crisp autumn breeze greeted him into a place he knew couldn’t be just a dream. 

Finally getting the chance to open his eyes, Mac took in all his surroundings, revealing himself to be stuck dead in the middle of a heap of both trash, candy wrappers and discarded caramel apples, and hay, all gathered together in a cart of some sort, crashed a bit into a farmhouse. Picking himself out of the hay and trash bale, he would take a look around the familiar domain to his dreams, a place he knew now by the name of Yugakure no Sato. Stretching out and attempting to clean the bits of candy, the wrappers, and the apples with their sticks from his coat, Mac would try to look around the surrounding area to see if he couldn’t find anyone else, given that most the other times he awoke here he could usually find some of his other Kiri Shinobi. Peeping out into the closest road, Mac made himself scarce and hid as the first people he saw were a group that seemingly radiated evil energy all clad in the same robes, all bearing the same symbol, a circle with an inscribed triangle pointing downwards, all in black on top of a deep crimson canvas of a robe with a pale yellow rope used to tie them all together.

Tracking the movements of these groups of three, he would find they all were making their way to a building, a lone warehouse in the village that, as far as Mac had seen, seemed wildly out of place. Instead of the sheet metal and wooden houses that comprised the rest of the village, all pointing to a vaguely halloween like theme to the construction, this building was a concrete tower, so boring especially contrasted to the Pumpkin shaped shop next to it labeled “Butcher” and the skull reminiscent castle it was opposed by, on the same side of the street Mac was on. There were two guards in front of this concrete building, all checking to make sure that only the right people would come in, but Mac couldn’t see any form of face recognition, just a simple check of papers in order and making sure all participants had the right robe on. Watching to observe the patterns and flow of people, Mac would see it was almost a hard number on groups of 3 entering, a weird practice but not one he was in the mood or position to critique. 

Something about this place, about its out of world nature, about the people here actually looking like they know what they’re doing and that they were okay with it, told Mac that they would know whatever the hell it was that was going on in Yugakure. Something told Mac that this was one of the only pathways to uncovering the mystery, the only pathway to the truth.

Trying to think up a plan, Mac would think the simplest of solutions would be to just run right through these guards, start kicking ass and taking names, but this wasn’t viable, it would not get Mac any of the answers he so craved and would get him and potentially others killed. He would have to find someway to get past the guards, get in, get the truth, and get out. Pondering about potentially taking out the guards, Mac would try to size them up physically. They looked tough, combat veterans, certainly had the eyes of killers, their hands were concealed under their cloth, a probable sign of holding weapons. Gazing at them and observing their posture, Mac would be lucky to see an unlucky member of the Village Hidden in the Clouds, Kumogakure, attempt to rush the guards and break into the facility, only to be met with both moving like a flash and, seemingly having weapons grow from their cloth, a twin pair of swords piercing their chest, before they pushed off each other and split the poor assumed genin in half. Taking on these guards would not be an option for Mac, they were obviously too strong.

Looking towards the groups that would be entering the facility, Mac resolved that if he could find a group of fellow villagers, find a group of these entrants, maybe, just maybe, they would be able to catch them all by surprise, accounting for each other’s mistakes, and sack one of these groups, stealing their papers and their robes to break into the building and start their way to discovering the truth behind Yugakure, and potentially even putting a stop to the repeated nightmares that had been plaguing the individuals of the ninja world.

Realizing he would need some help for this endeavor, Mac would begin to search the surrounding area for any sort of comrades he could use to assist him in solving this mystery. Keeping a low profile, he would try his best not to be caught by the robed figures, but keep himself open to any potential allies that would be able and willing to assist him in his current goal.

WC: 1140

It was finally the end of another incredibly long day. She'd accomplished alot since her win in the first round of the genin tournament. She was able to take a few days to practice baking soufle', She almost got her sister to try it by telling her it was mappo tofu flavored, The dishes and clothes were washed, and she'd even prepared for her next fighing endeavor with some fuin seals placed by Saya. Thinking about it, she probably should have taken some time and actually put some more training in, but the mission set on her desk had worried her enough that she needed to take some time off. THis mission however, came as a complete surprise. As she laid down in the center of her king sized bed, sleep easily taking her, she never expected to be brought to this horror scape of a village. She'd heard her sister and pinochio talk about the strange land of tea or whatever it had been called, and she'd found herself here once, but When she looked around, seeing strangely empty streets where she would expect the warm glow of their night light, Lets just say it was clear that today may not be such a great day.

Ai glanced about the dark streets as blue threads sparked to life at her fingertips. She wrapped them around the Saya and Coach puppets. Boy it was a good thing her puppets were also somehow transported to the strange dream world. Could you imagine if they werent?! Then she noticed someone. It was her first person seen in the town, so that struck her as odd. maybe he was a Kiri ninja? Could there be more of us stuck in this odd place?

She waved at mac, not wanting to bring too much attention to herself, but as she put on her brightest smile in hopes of bringing some comfort to the situation, she noticed what was obviously their goal. There was a big warehouse just at the edge of their village. It looked pretty heavily guarded. Well that wasn't great. She could only assume that their task was to break into the warehouse and......yea thats about where things stopped. Thankfully Ai was just the tool for the job. Between her new sanch syrup capture field jutsu and the coach puppet who was quite literally a snap trap, She had the techniques required to help take these guards out silently. Standing behind her, the coach puppet searched his backpack, pulling out a sign that simply said "dibs"

"Hey. Uh. So... I have to guess we have to get in there? I have a bad feeling those guys aren't going to just step by an--oh. Well that's exciting. One them is a girl! Yay gender equality." Taking a better look at the guards, she'd noticed that they were both wearing wierd cultist outfits, but there was just a whisp of long hair that emphasized the more slenderly built guard was probably a girl. That was just neat.


(TWC 503)

Once again there was no rest for the weary. As Yuri finally finds her way to the rough hewn sheets of her bed after a long day the slow motions of her mind drifting to sleep as she clings to the sheathed sword of her home, there was only a desire for peaceful sleep. There was only a weathered exhaustion on her expression as she wakes up to find herself in Yugakure, faint memories of nightmares and trials playing in the back of the mind to give her some vague expectations of what this place might hold. Letting out a sigh at the familiar taste of dirt in her mouth as she wakes up in a ditch by the roadside. Spitting the taste out, she sits upright as she takes in the strange surroundings of the village. Faintly familiar buildings, a plain tower, and a butcher shop. The buildings were all similar to each other, so there really wasn't any point to checking those out.


The tower and the butcher shop were the odd ones out, though she had a bad feeling about the butcher shop. Her instincts were telling her that the meat being butchered there wasn't anything she'd want to eat. Plus who knows, she may be the butchered meat if she checks that place out. The thought made her gulp slowly, before turning her attention back to the towers. Guards, checking in people though it didn't seem that detailed. The last people going in being a group of three. It was simple enough. Though getting in herself may not be so simple, she'd need to wait around here for who knows how long, figure out the criteria to get in, then get in herself.


"Man, I'm starting to get sick of this, is it too much to ask for? A little bit of rest?"

Groaning to herself as she clambers out of the ditch, the hem of her pajama legs being stained by dirt, reaching out of the ditch and to the side of the read she rests flat on her chest as she examines the area for people. It was quiet, besides the people guarding the tower she couldn't see anyone el-


Then she noticed, there was someone else, there was a pretty dependable feeling from one of them, and the other felt a little eccentric. Could she just stay sleeping in the ditch and hope to wake up? As her hand gravitates to the hilt of her sword the resolution coming off of it was a fierce 'No'. There was a strange feeling in the air, and maybe if she got to the bottom of this it would all be over. No more being transported to this place constantly, peace would come. So she hurried over to the two waiting Nin. If someone else had already been watching maybe that meant they already knew the whole song and dance of this place, it'd save her some time to check them out at least.


"Yo, you're scouting out this place too right? I don't know either of you but...yeah, I'd like to deal with this mess if you're willing to let me in on it. That's what you're gonna do right? I'm Yuri Karuma, I'd share where I'm from but loyalties don't matter while we're in a strange land yeah?"

She sniffles slightly from the night air, tugging on the chest of her pajamas. It was kind of awkward honestly. She didn't know these two that well so she may have been a bit presumptuous to assume their intentions, but it wasn't like she had much of a better option. Working alone was rarely as effective as having friends. Though she was also assuming that these people were from strange lands. Though if they weren't why were they spying around?

WC: 634

Getting caught slightly off guard by the sudden appearance of someone he assumed was a fellow Kirigakure shinobi, accompanied with two puppets of their own. Mac was instantly thinking of the possible strategic value these puppets could provide, but also the potential folly of trying to sneak around an establishment with them. Taking a moment to think up a solution, he came up with a solution, these puppets would - this thought was interrupted with the arrival of a third person, by no means a flaw but perhaps an additional complication to the soup of a plan Mac was attempting to cook up. Before Mac had the opportunity to introduce himself to either of them, a woman, looking to be around her early twenties in age, but carrying herself as someone perhaps much younger, spoke up with talks about how these guards didn't look like they'd simply let them through, before going off on how one of them was likely a woman, at least in sex. A slim figure and longer hair with apparent breasts does not a woman make known plenty of men with a feminine body and women with a masculine, might want to watch assumptions with this one, but then again this was likely a harmless observation, Mac would over-cautiously think to himself, trying to categorize all the information he had received into a cohesive plan that would allow all three of the members to exercise their strengths in an effective manner.

"That's the thing dame, we are going to get them to let us right through so we can get some information without raising any sort of alarm, I have a feeling the secret to whatever it is that's been going on with this village is behind those doors, and these people don't seem the type to give out that information, even over their dead bodies, but if we can get them to part with it unaware they are informing us of anything at all... then maybe we could take this whole operation down and put an end to the nightmare's plaguing the citizens of our village and I'm assuming the whole ninja world," Mac would explain, emphasizing the element of being let through the door. Watching the younger of the two ladies approach and start asking questions, Mac would start again with something he thought he should get out of the way, "Name is Duncan McNally, but you two can call me Mac, getting your names would make this a lot more easy to follow so if you wouldn't mind parting with them, that would be helpful. Say, you with the puppets, you seem familiar, you dream of any monster dance parties recently? And yeah, right now I'm doing some scout work, loyalties are to getting to the bottom of whatever it is in the hell that's going on with these dreams, haven't been able to get a good rest in the past ten or eleven days it feels like, but if it puts any of you at ease, I am currently working with the Village Hidden in the Mist, I'm only a genin, but I have some pretty vast policework experience behind me."

Allowing time for them to introduce each other to... well each other, Mac would attempt to take the ball again and run with it, opening with, "So here is the elevator pitch, the shortest way I can put this, we sack some of these motherfuckers in their groups, get some way to immobilize them before they are in eyeshot of the guards, knock em the, pardon my French, fuck out and yank their clothes and paperwork, dress like we are invited to the party and walk right in the joint like we were meant to be there the whole time. Now I ain't the most skilled at immobilizing johns, or knocking out mooks, but we got enough of us that if we go to town on em, and hit em hard, it should work out just right. If either of you got tips on wielding weapons or making them weapons better, I'd gladly take the advice, otherwise think I'm just going to take a plank and crack it on them robed cultly looking bastards. Main thing thats important here though is that we don't damage the robes too much, or make too big a noise, so I ask we don't use any fireballs, and if you intend to stab em at all, please don't be lethal with it, we don't know if and what they're guilty of, due process is a son of a bitch, and if you do aim to maim, at least leave their cloaks in tact. Now the reason I'm suggesting all this is so we can avoid any sort of complications from a confrontation with the guards, and so we can look like some people that might get some information. This is likely the source of the nightmares but for all we know this could just be some safehouse for those who got stuck here too long, we got to keep things as quiet as we can for now. Is that understood folks?" Mac would open the floor for the both of them to throw out suggestions of their own or to ask any questions they may have. Should he not prompted to respond to anything, Mac would begin to move into action, cracking off a piece of the wheeled cart he found himself in at the beginning of this instance of the same nightmare.

"Now, I have seen a few places that may be good ambush points, but if one of you wants to use any you saw, you all have had a better look of the surrounding areas than I have, I've basically been stuck up on this side scoping the place, so your advice here would be of a lot of assistance," Mac would state, attempting to cement the idea that he was genuinely interested in knowing their opinion on all this, as well as their strengths and weaknesses so that they may be best placed into the ever evolving plan he always had in his head. Should they provide a place or default to one of the alleys Mac had seen, he would get ready with the rest of them to pounce on a group of three of the cloaked figures, just enough to get them through, using any tactics the others taught him, using his guile, and using his determination to mess these cultists up, without tearing their cloth, going along with whatever trapping method either of the two could use. If the plan required him sticking back, being a team player, that is exactly what Mac would do. When the chips were down, and the cultists too, he would quickly begin disrobing them, grabbing the credentials he had seen previous groups hand to the guards from each three before instructing the others to follow in his movements, putting the robe on and handing them each the credentials, in a place ready for expression towards the guards. Aligning himself with the others to be in the same position as the group of three that now sat naked in the middle of an alley, Mac would walk with them to the door to be checked by the guards

WC: 1,214, TWC: 2354

"Ai senju. Nice to meet you Mac." She would give the man an odd look at the suggestion of monster parties. Why would she..... Then it hit her. She'd heard pinochio telling pupnochio about a dream mission he'd been in that involved some sort of dance party in this very place. That was a pretty wierd thing though. They looked nothing alike. Maybe he'd seen the pair as puppets around the village at some point. It would honestly be quite surprising to have heard that anyone in the village wasn't aware of her little sister, whether through direct interaction or word on the street. She was constantly out and about causing trouble in some way shape or form, so it was a pretty easy to accept assumption that Mac had seen Pupait and pupnochio with Saya somewhere and recognized the resemblence. The puppet did look exactly like her in every way.

"You're probably thinking of pinochio. He's on our team sort of. Since he uh. Changed he's not really been around myself or my little sister much, but one would be hard pressed to have been in kiri and not at least seen her around. She's the one who stops traffic in busy intersections to put on elabrote musical performances?" With their introductions out of the way, It was time to get on to the meat and potatoes of the mission as it were. So there were two guards. They needed to kidnap them without killing them or making much noise. Ai had the perfect techniques for the job.

"So. I can get them if yall want to make sure no one else comes up and give me some backup. Watch this." She formed the hand seals quickly,

Ram. Tiger. Ox. Boar. Bird. Dog.

She held the chakra, preparing to release her jutsu as fingertips shifted and contorted. THe two puppets, which were not on the team and therefor couldn't get them in trouble if their faces were seen simply uh. Walked up to the area where the guards were. The moment they were noticed, before the guards could actually react a thick and powerful blast of sticky suiton poured from the Ai puppets lips. The startch syrup capture field jutsu held them tightly in place, covering their faces to restrict oxygen and making sure they couldn't actually be a threat.

"Grab their stuff quickly. I can move the syrup off the parts you're working on. Once all their items have been taken I can make sure they won't cause us any trouble." And so she did. Assuming things went as planned, Ai would shift the syrup holding their body to ensure they were locked to something while the team got the cloaks and anything else problematic from them. What happened next.... Was unique.

THe coach puppet approached. Taking a leap he would fall on the first guard, his back opening up so the man slid safely into the open space in his chest cavity. After another leap and holding maneuver there was a metalic vrrrrr followed by a flash of light inside the puppet. There was no further movement form the guards.

(TWC 1026 first mission wc done for me! )

Yuri watches the entire scene play out with a slight unease on her face. From the approach of the puppets to the guards, to their apparent capture in the sticky starch fluid, to the unsettling disappearance inside the coach puppet. Puppet users, controlling freaky creations to cast jutsu from. She'd never seen a puppet user before but as she recoils slightly at the odd and unnatural nature of them all she really had to say was. 

"Puppets are creepy..." 


Though she couldn't complain too much, when Mac had asked her for them to handle the strangers nonlethally her mind had hit a rut. The only equipment she had with her was a sword and she wasn't sure she had any techniques or pure strength to just smack them with the pommel. Not to mention a single slash from her and there'd be blood everywhere unless she did it right, but even that would require her to kill someone. So admittedly it did come as a relief when Ai took a handle on the situation. 

"Though these guys are pretty creepy too." 

Though it wasn't just the feeling of being creepy that was unsettling her, she was definitely starting to feel like this was familiar somehow. There was a similar symbol that she'd seen on them, that she'd seen before in the waking world, but she still couldn't place it. Was it possible that the 'ritual' in the real world was causing whatever was going on in the dream world? There were more questions than answers and she was honestly getting sick of it. 


Murmuring a quick thanks to Mac as she hands Yuri the disguise, she dresses with an eye for detail this time. 


She didn't like the whole wearing socks with their sandals thing, but she bore with it. The cloak's body fit well enough, but the arms and collar were a bit too long. The sleeves finishing a little past her wrists and the collar going up to her nose. If she just raised her shoulders even just a bit too much she could obscure her eyes. It was this point where she was really starting to wonder if Mac's suggestion to not damage the clothes were still valid ideas...though if they got suspicious of her she could end up in the butcher's.




That was enough to change her mind as she sighs, taking Karuma and strapping it to her waist. With dressing finished she could go back to theorizing. So if the murder scene and the people here use the same symbol they're likely connected, not to mention she's seeing other people mystified by this place here, so she probably isn't the only victim. In fact a part of her felt like she saw a friend here before, so if that's the case it may be that the ritual is affecting everyone in Kirie.




That still left one issue though, why? What benefit was there to trapping everyone in a nightmare when they sleep. Using a genjutsu to scare someone was kind of pointless. Her brain felt like it was wrinkling as she starts to realize that if everyone is trapped in a nightmare then that means of something bad were to happen they wouldn't wake up. That's when it starts to click for her. Was it an attempted assassination, or maybe a theft? Though who'd be important enough for that...remembering the strangely religious angle she also considers another potential option. 


Maybe they just want to kill whoever they can. 


The idea of someone that bloodthirsty runs a chill down her spine as she visibly shivers. Her hand reaching to her sword for a source of comfort, she could almost hear someone gently telling her to calm down as her hand grips the hilt. Letting out a sigh of relief she turns to look at Mac, nodding. 

"So you're basically acting as the leader yeah? What's the plan now? I'm guessing we don't really have any idea of what's in there so are we gonna split together and look over the place too to bottom or are we gonna stick together? I don't really have a preference as long as we do it quickly. I have a bad feeling that if we take too long the worst'll happen." 

She spins the credentials in her hand. A part of her felt like she was being overdramatic, but it was hard to just be casual when someone's life was at stake. Pocketing the prized papers. 

"I'm pretty sure I've seen the symbols here before at a murder scene too, so it's a bit concerning to me that we're seeing them pop up again so soon. I'm pretty sure these are the same guys who were involved in the murder in Kirigakure, so let's go in assuming that they'll try to kill us the second we're found out. Probably at the butchery considering how...weird that murder scene was." 


She felt like she should've realized that sooner, but better late than never. She didn't want all of them to go in under the assumption that peace is an option. Now all she had to do was figure out why people were going in but not coming out yet. It's probably not just some kind of outpost if that were the case and it's a tower so maybe it's a kind of gathering,though the reason why all of them would be gathering was still eluding her. 


The truth was in reach though, all they need to do was cut through the darkness and then they'll see the truth, probably. She was hoping all this theorizing and effort wasn't for nothing, though that little voice that told her to calm down was also assuming her that this would work out.

WC: 1609

“Must have been that, I remember it stopping traffic once, hell of a lot of paper work to sort out in the aftermath of that little stunt, don’t know if it was good though, was too sloshed to see the cart ahead of me, let alone the reason it was backed up. Say, I can see the resemblance, you two have the same eyes, you and pine cone,” Mac would state bluntly, unintentionally being rude, but being rude nonetheless. He would watch as the group all seemingly agreed to his plan, but a sense of dread would fill him as instead of filling him in on any potential ambush points around this warehouse, he saw Ai jump into action, beginning a march towards the two guards Mac was hoping to explicitly not alert to their presence until after they got their cloaks. But this was the reality of things, there wasn’t anything the detective could do now to change it.

"Well shit," Mac would think aloud, seeing the guards become absorbed into a syrup, before a puppet swooped in to finish off the job, completely disrupting his plan to slip past them with the entirety of the cult being none the wiser to the imposters among them, allowing them to end up sneaking around at the leisure and gather information slowly, but no sense in complaining now, “Well I guess that is what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men, only figures it would hold true of some of the shoddiest to boot” Mac would mention as he saw Ai rush off to take out the guards of the front door, an action he specifically advised against, but was accomplished regardless, it was not like there was anything he could do while it was happening to stop it, but regardless it would require Mac to once again go to the planning well and think up a potential solution. They were down to two physical cloaks and two copies of entry documentation, a rough conundrum for them to attempt to enter, far too many questions they’d have to answer if they were down a cloak and not enough documentation to attempt and wave it off. Seeing Ai catch all the guards in syrup, catching them like mosquitos in amber, Mac would make his way over to the mess surrounding the guards in front of the door, covering their mouths as they were prevented from alerting the rest of the cult, even as they were essentially swallowed by Ai’s puppet.

“Yeah I don’t think I’d particularly like seeing one of those across from me in terms of any sort of battle scenario, too many moving parts going in too many unnatural directions for me. I’ll leave playing with toys to kids like you,” Mac would say with a laugh, trying to be sociable with Yuri, “Say that sword, assume you know how to use it, while Ai is cleaning the syrup off them mind showing me a few moves?” Mac would ask, trying to both gain knowledge in weaponry, as well as show a genuine respect for the younger of the two genin. Laughing at her comment on the creepiness of the cultists, Mac would chuckle and add on, “You got that right.” Eyeing the now open equipment, Mac would thank Ai with a quick and tired note, obviously showing signs of disappointment but not of anything held against the puppeteer, he should have done a better job communicating he thought. Approaching the cloaks he would find a sword deep within one of the guards cloaks, grabbing it, papers, and a cloak for himself, he would twirl it around and ask Yuri for help regarding his stance, before again he would spill his plan to the rest of group in terms of information gathering and putting a stop to the nightmare menace.

“Uhh… I guess I will act as team leader? Well think of me less as that and more as an equal level plan maker role, don’t have rank on any of you, just have experience. Sorry if I stepped on any toes with the planning, just have an active mind.” Mac would admit, before going realizing that he had seen this image before when Yuri brought it up, a murder in Kiri alike. This got his plan cemented and had him starting his grand explanation once again. “Alright, I have a plan again now that the last one fell through. We are in a bit of a time crunch now that we took out the guards, and while they might not be seen for a bit it’s going to bring up inevitable questions, so here is what we do. Yuri, you and me are going to put on the guard’s robes real quick, Ai, you said you were created by Saya, think you can make yourself look like one of these cultists with some sort of sweet cosplay trick? Somehow look like you’ve transformed into one of these joe shmo cultists but do your makeup or something to make it look like you are all beat up, we’ll say that your three man group was attacked while you were trying to enter, but us the excellent guards managed to save you, the lone survivor, checked your papers, cleared you for entry, but said it might be a good idea to close doors as people may have stolen the identities of other members of our organization. Vague terms here are great, they won’t reveal us. This also causes chaos on the main area as people start accusing one another of being traitors, this allows us to slip by in the dissent, and make it out of the main group. From there we’ll go to the second story, what I think must be the top floor. From there we can likely find an office of some sort as well as get a better view of the main floor. They had a bunch of warehouses like this back in Key and I hope it shares a layout. We get upstairs, look for documents upstairs, get information, and get out or get down to business, that work for everyone” Mac would say, ending with a question to get everyone on the same page.

Getting everything in order, Mac would proceed with his plan as well… planned. Stepping in frantically with his two accompanying team mates, he would regale them with the story of assailing ninjas attacking another group and attempting to steal their document, go into how there could be imposters among them, and overall just try to gaslight the shit out of enough people that they started doubting themselves and their friends, getting them to start confronting each other. Eyeing the multiple sets of stairs, Mac noticed the only one with the familiar symbol of Jashin was guarded by quite a few elite looking cultists, with their hoods down bearing pale faces and widow’s peaks. Seeing this, Mac’s ambitions eclipsed his original goal of just sew chaos, he specifically wanted to target these elite soldiers as suspects. Shouting to the crowd, he pointed towards the vampires on the stairs and shouted, “Say, didn’t the group that attacked you look like them, that sure is suspicious!” before seeing the vampires haul ass to try and quell the rabid crowd with genjutsu, clearing the path for them to make it up the stairs and into what Mac believed would be an office with all the documentation one could dream of on this organization and whatever it was that was happening here. Opening the door with the symbol of Jashin engraved into it, expecting to find a room full of files and notes, Mac revealed that it was indeed a room filled with nightmares ripped and pasted back into his wildest dream yet. "Wrong Room"

WC: 1303, TWC 3,657

Even if the comment was a kind of off handed, unthought mentioning, the Saya puppet's vibrance dulled visibly as Yuri and then Mac confirmed they thought puppets were creepy.

"Hey. That's not nice. My little sister isn't very cre--oh no. Nope. Not doing that. " She shook her head, trying to clear it like an etch a sketch. She'd really just personified the Saya puppet exactly how her sister did. maybe that really was just a puppetry thing?! She wanted to comment about Saya's antics, but it seemed that Mac had only seen the tip of the iceburg and while infiltrating a creepy cult building didn't seem like a great time to describe the constant antics of the puppet princess. She could definitely see them grabbing some tea while she told him all about Saya later tho. Maybe she really did talk about her too often. Focus Ai. Focus. It's mission time.

"SO. I do have a plan. Bare with me." As she spoke, two things happened in tandem. First, The coach puppet grabbed the backpack that was always on his back, slipping over to the side so he could rummage through for something. Suprisingly it wasn't a sign this time, though he did pull out ten different signs while searching. Finally he found what he was looking for. Now. Tho those who aren't following the main story line involving our dear beloved heroine, this will seem strange, but In the coach puppets hands he held an exact copy of the cloak they'd taken from the two guards. How did he get it, you may ask? That would be spoilers. I could never reveal the main plot on this quite interesting but quite secondary chanel! what kind of a narrator would I be if I were to tell you that by pure happenstance Saya had made cloaks for a performance she was planning that looked exactly the same, and while most had been held on the clothing rack in her dimensional storage, Each of the puppets had been given one.

THe second was a bit less slick. Well. maybe that's not true. Once again the hatch on the back of the coach puppet opened, allowing Ai to climb the slats of his chest to slip inside. With her top half hanging out she let out a sigh, Kicking downward sevearl times to make space, and then she disappeared inside her ridable puppet.

"So. The twins thing would be wierd. My saya puppet looks exactly like me as you've probably noticed. So I can just ride in here aaaannnnddd" The threads that controled the saya puppet extended, wrapping around her wrists to give the illusion that she was a prisoner. "If we get seen, this is a prisoner who was sneaking around. We can ask where to bring her, or let them take her in and when they get close bing bang boom. Opperation ninjutsu through the puppet is a go. "

And so they explored. Ai was not particularly fond of the methods that Mac used to manipulate the guards. Her sister would have been PISSED, but saya wasn't actually here so that was mostly fine. When he opened the door, she gave him an odd look.

"What. What was in there? Was it a changing room?! that would be so awkward."


(TWc 1576 1k towards first mission finished, 576/1334 towards second mission finished)

"Yeah I can teach you quick about weapons..." 


What follows was an indepth but hurried explanation about Weaponry usage. Basic stances for different kinds of weapons ranging from polearms and spears, swords, knives and kunai, giant hammers, to even the more exotic ones. Everytime she made a point it would go on another important but long winded tangent, also discussing points of leverage and the importance of skill, good reading and misdirection in a close fight. She also makes sure they're aware the optimal leverage is near the grip of the blade while the most impact force will be at the end of any weapon you use. 


It was honestly difficult condensing what was effectively nine years of education on weaponry into a half hour, and there were alot of points she didn't get into since she focused on the fundamentals, so things like specific stances and strategies had to be skipped, but she was pretty happy with the end result. Nodding to herself and still kind of perplexed on what was going on with Ai as Mac speaks the plan back to her. 

During the whole execution of the plan Yuri mostly kept to silently watching, it wouldn't really be useful to reveal her age by speaking. Though it was funny seeing the panic from the false accusation. The sight of the vampire did stir something in her memory, of a graveyard...and a monster mash. It wasn't something to mull over too much though, making sure she was spared the I'll effects of genjutsu as she continues to follow behind Mac. The hairs on her neck we're starting to raise, her hand gravitating to the sword on her hip imperceptibly as he opens the door. Almost as of she could tell things were about to go wrong in the next few minutes. Her silent tension turns out to be for not much as Mac opens and then shuts the door, letting out a disappointed sigh as she scratches her head. She didn't really get a good look of what was in there though, but judging by his reaction it was probably something awkward. 

"Could've also been the bathroom." 

Yuri places her hands behind her head. There was still that weird feeling that they were about to head into a risky situation but now she was less sure where it was going to come from. 

"Maybe try another door this time? Or I dunno ask around? It's a tower right so it probably goes higher too. Maybe we should start at the top? Everyone knows important stuff in a tower is always at the top."

WC: 2044

Mac would appreciate the help from Yuri, trying his best to follow the directions presented to him from his fellow genin, eventually getting the knack of it with intensive practice. For the rest of the dream he would wield the blade with proficiency.


A pale aura infecting his face as he turned around Mac shut the door as hurriedly as he could and tried his best to shake off the palpable fear. His vision was overcome with a recollection of what was inside past the door. Pulsating up in down, a convex pattern of differing shades of red each with a time variant pulsating of luminescence only visibly reminiscent of a breathing motion. Amongst the wet pink lighted substance was a complex wiring of blue tubing, staying stagnant as the floor shifted in mold around it. In the center two shapes laid legs crossed, heads in opposing directions. In their pit of fleshy flooring some mechanism seemed to turn each in different modes as they operated like a fleshing clock, 8 minutes to midnight the two people read, in Mac’s estimation. As he remembered, he gazed at them for only a moment, but in that moment both looked back to reveal eyes without true orbs within but instead holes in the flesh that mimicked the same building they were in, with irises matching the same patterning of the room, two humans forming a circle, all convoluting into one horrifying life altering, inescapable image stuck in Mac’s head for what he knew to be the rest of his eternity.


Closing the door and making sure his security, he would turn to the responding his companions, a strand of hair of his noticeably turned grey far earlier than it would logically turn such a shade. “Sure,” Mac would let out, seemingly out of breath from the horrors he just witness, “We’ll call that the changing room, and it is full of people so make sure not to check in there, wouldn’t want to be confused for some kind of creep,” he would say, having no choice but a flat expression as he was entirely emotionally and mentally drained from the experience he just witnessed, trying to move on from this subject in it’s entirely as quickly as he possibly could, and stunned as hell from the events he would do something he hadn’t frequented since this nightmare began, he would shut up, and not just for a moment, he would just blankly follow Yuri who had suggested the next plan of action, a blank expression on his face. Eventually, the guidance and suggestions to ask around would provide them with enough information to find the ritual room, where they would all enter, and the immediate danger of the scenario would rouse him from his trauma induced catatonia. Looking around the ritual room, he would see 3 central figures performing a ceremony around a symbol to jashin.

WC: 484, TWC 4,141


(OOC Sorry for the late post and the short post at that, just got really busy)