Phantom Disco [IO]

Mission Summary:

It was… insoluble. One minuet the orphans were standing within a yard, and then the next waking up — in a room? The tale bearer would raise his head from the cold burst floor. The smell of roe filled his nose sharply, twisting his face from the stench. Frigid was the air to his skin, despite his tunic. The orphan wrapped his arms around himself, never quite feeling a chill such as this before…besides on that terrible day. His eyes flickered about the very room he discovered himself in. Nothing stood out to him besides the cobwebs that heavy dressed the dusted furniture. No light gleamed through the tattered blinds which meant that he was in the night hours. 

“Yokito! Yami! Where are you?!” He roared as he realized he was alone. His brothers were in the  same vicinity as he was. Submerged by the same thick fog as he — why were they not in the same location upon waking up? Questions flood his mind, but swiftly dismissed as he had no doubt in their skills in handling themselves. 

He stood to his feet, brushing the dust from his shoulders and chest as he whipped his hair of any remaining. He would approach a door to his left and once opened he would find himself within the foyer of the mysterious building. The sound of…music? Yes, music would reach his ears. “Coming from outside?” He asked himself. Moving towards the window of the building to take a glance out. His eyes widen, what he saw was out of the ordinary. “W-what is this?” Monsters out in the yard, seem to be dancing. He moved from the window as a means to collect his thoughts. “That’s not possible…yet, I can see it as clear as day.” 

He learned that this was no mere Genjutsu, noting that from his prior encounter with the fog. This was something beyond his means of understanding. 

His eyes flickered to the far right of him. “Did that…?” Noticing something strange. He gradually approached a lopsided panting. As he did it shook subtly and flung from the wall right at him. His eyes widen as his adrenaline shot through his body allowing him to sidestep to the left out of the trajectory of the composition. It crashed to the ground behind him, breaking in the process. Satoshi looked concerned for a moment. What exactly was going on? And more importantly….where was his brothers?

[WC: 407]

"Just as I planned," Yuuma thought to himself. His feet touched darkened soil, one foot in front of the other as he emerged from the mist along a path. After that night with that horrifying situation and those other ninjas who seem to slip from his mind. Although he can remember to sound of their voice, he can't seem to piece out the features of their face. All he can recall are expressionless impressions of the situations that confronted them. Curious, Yuuma had sought out that same mist that had whisked him away before, and this time enveloped himself within it fully. The sensation of falling was still there, but the landing was not so jarring as Yuuma opened his eyes to find himself along a path. The path wound in front of him, leading through what seemed to be a cemetery and to a much larger building beyond.

Yuuma wasn't certain who put a cemetery next to what appeared to be a hotel, but then again very little made sense in this place. Where ever he was. Deciding against lingering on the thought over long, Yuuma would continue down the path, scanning the surroundings as he drew near the grave-laden grounds. As he drew near, he could see figures moving amidst the darkness of the ground. Bent, crooked figures that flailed about in the darkness as though they were caught in a wicked breeze. The strange creatures gave pause to the shinobi's steps, his hands coming to clasp at the opposing wrist of the other in front of himself. A stance he normally took in order to find resolve in his travels. It had become a comfort. Steeled in his nerves, he pressed on down the path and cast a glance to the figures as he went.

They never moved to stop him. In fact, the only movement they did do was that odd flailing. It seemed so purposeful, yet without any sort of results. They didn't move far, they didn't strike anything. It was almost like they were...dancing? For only the slightest of moments, Yuuma allowed himself to find that odd before quickly reminding himself. "Right. Strange place. Not everything means something." Still, he couldn't help but contemplate just what was making these creatures do this. People with broken arms and bent necks, long gashes running down the length of their bodies, or missing entire sections of their body altogether. The dead had risen to conquer not the living, but the dance. If this place was meant to horrify him like the last, it was certainly doing a poor job of it. Or perhaps Yuuma simply found himself more mentally prepared than he had been before.

Approaching the patio of the hotel, Yuuma would climb a few small steps to the front doors and give a pause. Craning his neck back, he would look up to the many windows that faced the cemetery. Some with lights and others quite darkened. For just a second, Yuuma could have sworn he saw the appearance of a young man with long, black hair and a matching pair of black eyes appear for just a moment. The image was gone in an instant, and Yuuma was left wondering. "What a strange place. Am I all alone here? Something inside this place must be making those creatures dance...perhaps it is in this hotel?" A slew of questions that Yuuma's mind took its dear sweet time to process resulting in him standing and staring at the door for several long minutes. Finally, a hand would reach out and pushed the pair of double doors leading into the hotel open before taking a few striding steps inside.

WC - 612

One moment they were supposed to meet each other in a town called Falhalt and the next Yami surprisingly found himself waking up in a room with not a single sign of his brothers. "Do you have any idea what's going on?" the young Shinkou asked the other presence that usually occupied his mind but decided to remain quiet for some reason. "Of course, of all times now you're not saying anything". Not thinking too much of it at that time the ashen haired youngster would later come to realize how odd it was for Hikari to stay silent. His Yuumei he'd given a name after finally coming to terms it wouldn't be going away anytime soon but for now nowhere to be found, just like Tokito and Satoshi. 

For now the River youth came to the conclusion the first thing on his list should be to find out where he was and what had happened that could have caused all of this. Walking over to one of the windows in the room Yami made note of his surroundings, noticing the desolate town they were in and one he would not recognize in the slightest. "One thing's for certain, I'm no longer in Falhalt". His eyes scanning the streets, a figure standing there looking up almost as if they had seen something only to disappear immediately after. Just when he planned on checking and investigating further the boy could suddenly hear a familiar sound coming from outside.  Opening the same window he stood at earlier Yami, to his surprise, noticed music being played somewhere in the distance.

Soon the streets became flooded with .. zombies. The undead crawling and strolling around as if they were having the time of their lives, well not quite considering they were dead but anyhow. Instead of running down the River youth decided to keep watch over them, intrigued by how those corpses were just moving on the beat of the music, almost as if they were being guided by said sound. It was only when he heard a noise coming from downstairs, one that sounded like a door being opened. Could it be his brothers or did one of those zombies made its way into the hotel? "Only one way to find out" the Shinkou thought to himself, taking slow steps until he reached the stairs hoping no zombie needed dealing with. 

(WC: 397)

Tokito knew something was wrong when he woke up here; he knew something felt off. The sound of birds chirping was gone, the air felt still, and the people that were usually bustling around this season were missing. Some genius had put a cemetery next to what appeared to be a hotel. That was the strangest of them all.

That was until he saw the figures dancing in the shadows. The cemetery was full of creatures who were currently dancing to some tune. The boy started walking down the street towards the cemetery; werewolves, vampires, and worse danced around him. 

As the river orphan inched closer and closer, he noticed something odd about the cemetery. Yes, something other than the storybook creatures doing the thriller dance. There were four different jukeboxes stationed in sections of the graveyard. He had two brothers.

”Might as well get to it then.” Dashing into the cemetery, quickly discovering that the creatures did not like this whatsoever – they wanted their party to continue, and they weren’t about to let a fourteen-year-old ruin it. What would he do? If both of his brothers were around, they would have made short work of that rubble. But facing them alone was a different story entirely.  Silent as a cat, he made his way blending with the crowd and following their dance until he was finally in front of the jukebox. With a palm thrust, he shut it down. His misty eyes widened as one of the vampires had jumped his way. 

"Young boy, I am Ghost Lineal Kyuuketski," He said through fanged teeth and raised his crimson cloak to his eyes. "Fear my wrath!" Tokito stomped on the vampire's boot and headbutted him with so much force that his nose cracking could be heard back in Konoha.

"Dance with me then, garlic eater," Tokito said to the reeling predator and made for the katana on his hip. 
"What's the problem with you, man?" The vampire cried, the ominous tone of his voice earlier having left him. A pale bony hand covered his bleeding nose. "Have you never heard of fucking roleplaying before?"

WC: 345

In chronological order, the events of the hotel grew stranger and stranger. Indecipherable manifestations would find Satoshi as a witness — the Uchiha growing ever more weary of it all. His mind would first land on the idea of this all being a powerful illusion, Genjutsu perhaps. But no such illusion would be powerful enough to escape his keen eyes, he and Tokito being of the same clan, Satoshi’s eyes were much keener in the sense of Genjutsu. Whereas, for his younger brother’s eyes were more keen in the sense of reading the body of its most minute fluxes. Yami, not being of the same clan, possess unique eyes himself, but even his wasn’t nearly as keen in the art of chakra as Satoshi, but when it came to other things, Satoshi’s and Tokito’s eyes did not hold a candle to their brilliant brother’s. 

Rouge eye, styled with three tomoes fashioned in a triangular set with a pupil at its center. Danced from corner to edge of a new hall on a new level of the hotel. Documenting every moment of the experience. But nothing! Not a single trace or speck of chakra residual that he could see. This left the orphan in a realm of perplex. Fairly, he was quite amused by this game. 

But, little did he know…this was not just some game of hide-and-seek. This was so much more than that. This was a haunting, to wear down the psyche, to drain the body which in turn will inevitably cause dead to their true selves in the waking world. 

The sensation of another’s presence would stand the hairs of his body on end. Yet his eyes could find nothing of a signature. If there was any other time that he needed his brothers, this…this would be that ideal time. Before him manifested a ethereal form of a man. This man would peer at Satoshi with noxious anticipation. “Who are you, what do you want with me and my brothers?” The orphan inquired. Not knowing of the fourth man within the hotel. Not until later. The specter would growl in his response. “You know very little to be the one with the most promise in regards of the consciousness. Uchiha, if I’m to guess?” It’s deduction skills were both astonishing and concerning, if he was being honest with himself. 

The very direction of its attention when speaking to Satoshi made him feel anxious. “What of it?” His clap back was no less stern, but did not carry the same influence to the shadow as it did to him. It laughed, wallowing booms that shook the hotel and yard. The Uchiha’s ears would ring, wincing — barely keeping his eyes from shutting completely out of fear of losing sight of the apparition. “Such lost gallantry. You need not waste my eternity on something so ad-lib. It will grant you no accolades from me, mortal.” He wasn’t quite sure how, but the man knew this devil was speaking the truth. “What is it that you want, specter?” He found the will to ask, Satoshi was filled with a despair that did not allow him to capabilities to move forward. It was as if the ghost was in a constant Display of Power that was +200 to him. 

Beads of sweat would run down his cheek to his chin, dropping to the tattered wooden floor. The ghost hissed as it spoke again. “What do most being, or rather, non-beings like myself want? To feel what was once given to us and took for granted. The wind that was nothing but a second nature, now abandoned.” It’s words were difficult to decipher through at first, but as it spoke he knew what it want. “You…wish to feel alive once more?” The air grew cold and still. The eyes of the ghost gleam as it found some source of acknowledgment for this mortal. It was then that Satoshi noticed something…a mirror behind the specter. His face blurred. 

“I see. This explains a lot.” He thought to himself. Understanding came from that small notice. 

[WC: 680]
[TWC: 1,087]

The inside of the hotel looked like something almost out of a movie. It was stylized, near perfectly so. Spider webs clung in thick, visible clumps along the walls and trailed the hall all the way to the ends that turned and produced eerie light down either side. The carpet under his feet squished with vague moisture and the smell of rot and decay clung to his nose. The entire experience was, on a fundamental level, unpleasant to just about every sense one had. The hand of Yuuma would reach up to waft aimlessly before him in a vain attempt to dispel the unpleasant assault on his sense. In spite of this, however, he'd push on to the open room that sat not far beyond a small walkway leading from the door he had entered. The lobby of the hotel had a massive set of stairs that would split on the far wall and head up to the next story of the building to the left and the right. A counter set into a section of wall signaled where guests would usually greet an attendant to arrange a visit though it currently stood empty, devoid of anything remotely resembling life.

Yuuma would put his mind back to his first experience in this place, the sensation of waking up chained to a wall. Although he had found himself in company, it seemed like this time was different. Whatever was going on around here didn't seem to offer a lot of explanation. Instead, it was just more and more questions. Still, what he could discern was that it was not just him experiencing these things and indeed there were others stuck in this nightmarish place with him. Or at least there was last time. He had cupped a hand to his mouth in order to make a shout through the building to see if anyone else was around though his process was interrupted by a set of boots stepping down one of the flights of stairs. Yuuma was in the middle of the room facing the steps when he spotted a white-haired boy stepping down to the landing at the bottom of a set of steps. White hair. Red eyes. He seemed alert and cautious, just like Yuuma had been, but now there was only so much space between them. Best not to make any sudden moves.

For a few seconds, the pair would simply look at each other, stuck in their positions before Yuuma would speak. "Hello," he started, breaking the silence. His own curiosity was written over his face, his hands tucked into the sleeves of the opposing arm in front of him. "Are you...from this place?" Yuume inquired, lifting one hand from the jointure to motion around them vaguely as though he were speaking about more than the hotel.

WC - 468
TWC - 1,085

Standing face to face with the stranger Yami confirmed there were no threats inside the building, but outside the hotel they were in. "I'm not exactly picky when it comes to accomodations but even I would prefer a different kind of establishment" the Shinkou replied to the question asked. "So no, I'm not from around here. One moment I was with my brothers in Falhalt and the next I suddenly woke up inside one of these rooms". During their entire conversation the ashen haired male noticed the music never stopped playing, the undead most likely still dancing to the tunes of a song.

Realizing staying inside wouldn't do them much good Yami figured their best option was to go out and find a way to deal with the strange occurences taking place, hoping it would allow them to return home again. "Feel free to check around this place but I'll be going outside to try and deal with those zombies, perhaps even give them peace". Even the dead deserved to be put to rest, again. By the time he exited the building the streets had already been filled with a horde of dancing creatures, aimlessly moving around and following the rythm of the music.

Although they appeared harmless at first, Yami knew he couldn't take the risk of endangering the villagers when those zombies would finally wake up, all the more reason the Shinkou needed to take action and end things before they could get worse. Placing his right hand on the sword's hilt while his left would hold the handle Yami dashed at the horde before unsheathing the blade powerfully, the only intention to slay as many zombies as possible. Turning around the ashen haired man noticed another undead making its way towards him, the River youth swinging his weapon downwards as he cut his target in half.

It was then time for the grand finale, dark flames originating from his hands after forming the necessary hand seals. The wave made out of Shade chakra would be expelled towards the approaching zombies and those caught in it soon realized it was their last song. As the undead were laid to rest darkness suddenly took over Yami, his eyes closed and consciousness lost.

Exit

(TWC: 770)
Claims with 25% max stat discount:
- 750/750 Flying Swallow
- Mission rewards x2, using Beloved Presence (12000 + 400 D-Rank bonus ryo, 60 AP, 10 Tickets)

Exiting.

Claims:

6,500 Ryo (w/ Chuunin bonus)
30 AP
10 tickets
Spending 1000 WC on C-rank Ninjutsu Amplifier

Approved