A Journey Beyond [P]

Pulling in one long focused breath as he entered his dash, the symbol tingling on his neck for an instant before he heard Takashi’s voice in his head, Koutaku snapped the fuma shuriken open mid-movement, and spun. His wires snared his Fuma shuriken as he released it, tangling in its handle and whirling it around in an expanding spiral that forced anyone attempting to close the distance to retreat, defend, or otherwise evade. Releasing enough wire for the weapon to make its way into one of the room’s pillars, Koutaku spun to a stop, his body low, one hand placed on the hilt of his katana as the beast hurtled through the air towards him.

His chakra surged through his body and he found himself wreathed in wind as Wind Release: Wind Rejuvenation activated. Lowering his stance, his energy pulsing down through the sheathed blade, his left hand flashing through handseals to activate what was perhaps one of his signature techniques.

Drawing his blade in a single sinuous motion, Koutaku whipped it forth in an arcing horizontal strike, with a catch. As the blade swept through the motion, it rapidly doubled in length, its blade becoming faintly flexible as well such that it snapped through the air like a thunderous whip and tore the beast in twain. Ending with his blade pointing backwards, Koutaku’s eyes darted from side to side, noting the approach of five individuals at once. Ahead of him a vampire, rushing at him with hungry abandon, its claws bared, jumped into the air and sprouted wings before diving down at him. On his left one of the shinobi finished their handseals and unleashed a score of fireballs into the air, their paths curling into arcs and weaving around his allies.

To his right two individuals closed, one a slow, musclebound shinobi, each step sending dust into the air, while the other was sickly, thin, and wielded a pair of hook swords. Smiling, Koutaku blurred through the handseals for Earth Flow Spears, and then bid them rise on five sides, erupting from the floor and blocking their sight lines. However, before he could do anything further, the vampire reached him, and Koutaku faced him. As it dipped in the air, using the claws at the ends of its wings to slow its descent on the spears, Koutaku stepped into its slashing claws, and used Feint.

Ducking beneath its strike, Koutaku drew his sword forwards as he slipped to the side of the creature, cutting one of its legs off with an effortless swing. Then, preparing for the future, he prepared Tobiishi, retaining it in the Hoji seal of his clan, before using a second maneuvering technique once he’d reached a point above his earthen spears. Jumping off thin air, he descended on the two close-range shinobi. Twisting as he hurtled down towards them, Koutaku let his back face the two, and then promptly performed yet another two sets of handseals.

The gale erupted from his body, spreading to its maximum radius of five meters as it did so.

Emerging from within that deadly gale were several bullets of wind that expanded in an arc. Some struck fireballs from the air, while two others injured the limbs of his oncoming adversaries. Carrying his motion through, Koutaku tugged on the wire he’d kept in hand, turning himself mid air such that he flipped directly over the two shinobi he’d been falling towards. Caught off guard, the two were struck by the wall of wind well before Koutaku got to them, slamming the thin one into the ground, even as it cut them both. Landing in a slide, Koutaku used his chakra vision to track Takashi, the other assailants, and any techniques that might be headed his way. At the same time he pushed forward, dragging his katana up in a vertical arc, the blade cutting straight through the floor and then whipping forth in a vicious CRACK.


The technique promptly sliced the sickly shinobi in half, and thus he remained prone while his ally turned on the intruder and let out a gut wrenching howl. Charging him, the man’s voice shocked Koutaku into stillness such that he reacted barely in time to block. Raising his blade, Koutaku widened it into a shield with Sokumen Henkou, causing it to shorten in exchange. However, the man’s strength was so great that it pushed him backward, sending him flying.

Meanwhile, a horde of freakishly fast zombies rushed Takashi, while some kind of banshee took to the air and cut the thick sticky strand that she’d adhered to the ceiling. Clearly worried about the efficacy of her deadly scarf, three shinobi turned on her at once, one slamming their palms to the ground and causing spears of earth to erupt towards her, while another released several bolts of tracking lightning at her person. The third shinobi began closing the distance between them, drawing a massive club as she did so.

Spoiler:

Takashi jumped into a leaping cartwheel after she’d manoeuvred the other werewolf into Koutaku’s path to die, careening through the air in a tight loop as she tugged herself further up towards the ceiling by tugging on the silken strand she’d shot up to the ceiling. Her eyes scanned the locale for the nearest threats to her, clocking the elderly woman from the hotel they’d been in some ten metres away from her. Takashi let out a seething snort as she locked eyes with the garishly loping and lanky form and headed directly towards it. She stumbled slightly as something above her cut through the strand of sticky silk that’d anchored her to the pillar she was heading towards, and she descended rapidly towards the ground. At her mental command the folds of her scarf widened themselves out as much as they could, the flowing wind chakra running through them aiding in this manoeuvre and causing them to balloon out enormously and slow her down tremendously. Utilising the feint technique she suddenly arrested her momentum and used the scarves to launch the enormous burst of air they’d just gathered up in a billowing sweep outwards towards the shambling corpses that were moving around to mob Takashi. They were swept off of their feet by the force of the air and crashed to the ground in a sickening crunch, only to find the scarf whipping itself around and severing each of their heads from their bodies in a single graceful twirl.

Takashi mirrored the spiralling motion of her scarf as she started moving again, bounding towards the pillar that her silk had been attached to earlier. She crouched down into a slide towards it, ducking low to avoid another sweep of the banshee above her’s ghostly claws, and then pivoted by digging her right foot into the ground and placing her hands on the ground with a thrust, sending her left leg skidding back in an arc as she turned 180 degrees and launched herself up towards the banshee above her. The creature let out a cacophonous wail that blasted fetid air directly at Takashi’s centre of mass before bringing its cruelly twisted claws down in a swipe aimed towards her face. With a rough snarl Takashi accelerated towards it suddenly using bull rush, the force of her movement and the kunai in her hand sufficient to batter against the banshee’s claws and thoroughly crack them with the force, pushing the creature away from Takashi and up into her awaiting scarves. The tips of the two ends loped ominously low and then shot upwards at a sharp angle towards the creature’s wings, tearing through the creature’s body and severing it into three separate pieces as she landed on the ground with a thunderous crack and began to run directly at the old woman.

Rotten foliage and sticky mulch twisted around the receptionist’s knotted, whiplike limbs as she surged towards Takashi, hands outstretched again in that terrible motion from before. She was clearly relying on the same level of fear being present within the kunoichi before her, but the gesture just steeled Takashi’s will and inflamed her desire for vengeance even further. She ducked down low beneath it and slipped through her wide grasp with ease, ribbons of her scarf trailing around her as she grabbed at them to direct the weapons to slice through the woman’s joints as she moved. The creature responded by contorting its limbs at impossible, headache-inducing angles; its outstretched fingers loomed ominously closely towards Takashi’s vital organs, but she utilised Split Second at the last moment to twist her body violently midair and her scarf suddenly animated by itself once again, following those unnatural contortions and slicing clean through them as Takashi torpedoed past the old woman. As she whipped past the scarf aimed for her midriff and for her neck, and she was only narrowly able to avoid the first scarf before the second adjusted its course to cleave directly through her and bisect her.

Takashi turned around and her hands whipped down to her sides as she assumed a familiar, dance-like stance at the end of her manoeuvre. Then came the three shinobi, each firing some variety of attack at her from afar. She clapped together the handseals to activate Temple Style: Discovery of an Incomplete Truth, twisting the fabric of her scarf with a wickedly keen infusion of wind chakra--the earth spears came at her first, and she manipulated the scarf to extend to its full length out, rigid, and cleave downwards in a rolling motion to blunt the emerging spears of earth before they could get close enough to harm Takashi. As her scarf sliced through the earth she accelerated just a little to move deliberately into its path, pole-vaulting forwards and gripping the edge of the technique to allow her body to continue its momentum only until she was fully extended before using the Feint technique, arresting her momentum entirely and then channelling it all into completing her touchdown with the ground safely behind the raised pillars of earth. Lightning bolts quickly crackled into them, reducing all but the one directly in front of Takashi to rubble, as she darted forwards towards the shinobi that had cast the earthen spears in the beginning.

Her Kunai was flung directly towards his throat as the scarf suddenly snaked up through the air with a whipping motion, its green tip flicking up from underneath him to bisect him vertically. He dodged the scarf in that instance but the kunai tore directly through his windpipe and through the other end cleanly, causing him to fall to the floor in shock as his death came in heaving, wracking breaths. Takashi turned and continued running towards the shinobi with the big club, leaping into a crouch with her arms sailing behind her as the scarf lunged ahead. The shinobi brought the club sweeping across the floor hoping to send her flying across the floor and into one of the pillars. Takashi simply leapt directly upwards, pushing off from her heels, and barrel rolling horizontally through the air as her scarf once more billowed out wide with air to catch her fall and redirect her momentum with a blast of wind towards the shinobi that’d shot the bolts of lightning at her earlier. With a single hand she performed the necessary handseals for Sokumen Henkou, doubling the length of the scarf but shortening its width to compensate. The additional range she achieved with it allowed the scarf to slice through the caster shinobi’s right shoulder, severing his arm from his body, before sweeping up in a tight circle to separate his head from his body too.

The other half of her scarf wound its way around the bigger shinobi, his arm rearing backwards as the tip of the scarf snaked its way down to his hand deftly cut through the wrist and deep into his oversized torso. He roared out in agony as he fell backwards, and Takashi brought the tip of the scarf up from underneath his falling back over his head to slice directly through his skull in a single swipe downwards. Takashi emerged from the manoeuvre facing the shinobi in the centre, sending a pulse of thought to Koutaku to indicate that she’d dispatched her share of enemies and was ready to go for the fucker in the centre that’d spawned this awful nightmare.

Spoiler:

Gripping down on the wire he still had wrapped around his forearm, Koutaku whipped his arm to the side. There was a terrible crashing sound, and then a demon wind shuriken hurtled straight into the hulking shinobi, who barely managed to bring his club up in time to block the strike. Using that point as an anchor, Koutaku arrested his momentum, then activated Tobiishi, creating an earthen disk behind him, which he pushed off in a burst of tremendous speed. Hurtling towards the man from behind, his body parallel to the ground, Koutaku forced the man to turn and address the oncoming threat.

That was his last mistake.

Flicking his wrist, Koutaku tugged at the wire attached to his demon wind shuriken, and instantly it triggered the mechanism that ejected the four blades from the central ring. Laughing as two of the blades skewered the shinobi’s shoulders, Koutaku brought his knee up to his chest, and then tapped his foot down against the ground, pushing himself into a soaring jump. The man had raised his brutish weapon and was lowering it in one tremendous swing at Koutaku’s skull.

Yet, he had no fear, for another platform formed in the air before him. Snatching at it with one hand, Koutaku wheeled around it in a tight 90 degree turn, before tweaking the motion at the end such that he threw himself diagonally up and to the right two meters. A final platform formed, which he landed on, reorienting midair in an instant as the massive club struck the ground, cratering it. Now pointed towards the brute, Koutaku twisted his hand, fingers curled into claws--and used a technique.


The wire from his fuma shuriken suddenly twisted inwards, wrapping around the man’s midsection and constricting with incredible force. Koutaku knew it wouldn’t be enough, however, and so he rocketed downwards through the air and in a single iai slash, severed the shinobi’s head clean from his shoulders. Eyes closed, Koutaku utilized Split Second to narrowly evade the strike of another shinobi, moving again to twist from the path of a fireball as it careened his direction, but failed to strike. Opening his eyes, Koutaku darted between two ghouls, leaving wirebound kunai embedded center mass, before ripping them out with a deadly flourish, severing their bodies in half at the waist. He wove between enemies, blocking a strike to his right, before twisting till he was back-to-back with a foe. Jumping off their back, Koutaku pushed them into the path of an oncoming technique as he used them to carry his momentum forwards. Entering a headlong Bullrush, Koutaku swatted zombies, and the occasional vampire from his path as he cut a swath of death to make his approach towards the figure in the middle.

Behind him was a wake of blood and dismembered limbs, viscera, splayed across the seal-marked floor. Joining with Takashi, but approaching from the opposite side of their target, the young Iouchiryo twisted his hand and then summoned his fuma shuriken back to it. Its blades slotted into place with a familiar click and Koutaku finished handseals in the same breath.

A sheath of chakra surged over his body even as the wind that he wreathed him faded and he slowed back to his regular speed. As he headed off the figure at the center of the diagram beneath their feet, Koutaku caught sight of a wolven creature just as it was snapping its jaws down on his arm. Smiling, Koutaku watched its teeth slide off him even as he retaliated by summoning his wakizashi into his hand and slashing the beasts’ muzzle in half, his blade cleaving easily through its braincase in the process.

The beast fell to the ground behind him, joining the pile of gore that had once represented their opposition. Meanwhile, the last four shinobi interposed themselves between Koutaku, Takashi, and their master. With two on each side, it was hardly an even match.

Willing five earth, then ten earth spears to descend from the ceiling some twenty meters above them, Koutaku combined the use of two techniques into one crushing maneuver. Descending from on high, a square pillar of earth pushed downwards from the ceiling, its dimensions 5x5 meters. While that would have been enough on its own, Koutaku had created his earth spears on the same section of the ceiling, turning it into a descending wall of spikes.

Performing the dog handseal, Koutaku activated the transformation technique as well, creating another two arms, with which he drew his wakizashi and second demon wind shuriken respectively. After all, it paid to be prepared. The two shinobi on the other hand, noticed the rumbling earth descending from the heavens, and darted towards him at speed. They’d have no choice but to engage him in close quarters, where he could easily divide and conquer the pair--both from one another...and from each of their precious limbs.

Spoiler:

Takashi had rushed forwards as soon as Koutaku had started his manoeuvres, the telepathy seal that she’d picked up able to allow the pair to mentally communicate exactly where their techniques were going to land. With no fear of accidentally running into Koutaku’s techniques Takashi surged forward, her scarf still glowing keenly as she faced off against a shinobi wielding a naginata first. The shinobi, having rushed towards her to clash steel, left behind an ally with a bow and arrow, knocking an arrow into the crook of the bow and beginning to take aim.

Takashi was faster than the shinobi with the naginata by a small but noticeable margin, and the sheer length of her weapons allowed her to mount the offensive on him before his reach could even contemplate getting near her. Her left scarf soared in the air towards the samurai’s right shoulder and her right scarf did the same only to his left hip, approaching from totally opposite angles. Takashi brandished a shuriken and flung it to the right just as she began the manoeuvre, where it intercepted an arrow that’d been aimed directly into her own shoulder and clanged upwards as it redirected the arrow down into the ground. The naginata was brought up in a sweeping swing, attempting to clash against what looked to be a simple silken scarf, but the sheer force of Takashi’s chakra flowing through it and the speed it moved at was sufficient to cleave through the sword like butter, with Takashi activating metal crusher through her right scarf to thoroughly destroy the sword at its hilt. Her left scarf found its mark and tore directly down through his ribcage and heart, snaking back on itself as it manoeuvred its way out of his body.

The other shinobi reached into a quiver and pulled two arrows out, one adorned with an ominously dangling scrap of paper--they were both loaded into the bow with practiced ease and aimed at Takashi’s right knee and left shoulder respectively. With a quick dip down Takashi launched herself forwards into a low roll, twisting out of the path of the arrow aimed at her shoulder entirely. The right side of her scarf surged forwards and cut directly through the arrow, an errant fibre suddenly fusing with the rope that’d held the tag to the arrow and carrying it along with the motion. The scarf sailed towards the ranger’s bow, slicing through its string with practiced precision and depositing the explosive tag on their clothes as Takashi surged forwards, outspeeding her scarf. She made a single handsign with her now-free right hand, summoning a readily marked kunai, and used the flat of the thing to press the bow into him with considerable force and knock him directly back into the path of the descending pillar of earth. His last moments were a muffled cry as a stone pillar utterly pulverised his body, and Takashi twisted past it to move towards the real villain at the centre of the room.

Meanwhile a bo-wielding shinobi had surged forwards towards Koutaku, twisting the staff around himself in a spin so fast it was almost a blur to behold. The quarterstaff’s edges pulsed blue with the flow of infused chakra, and behind him slightly to the right a kunoichi had withdrawn a long spear that seemed to roil and seethe with barely contained lightning. She jumped up into the air with considerable strength, aiming a penetrating strike towards Koutaku with that ominous energy only seeming to build. Just as the strike reached the arc of its momentum the crackling erupted in a wide spray of bright, hot hooks of searing lightning that threatened to melt through Koutaku’s flesh should they impact him.

Spoiler:

Eyeing the enemy as they approached him, one leaping into the air and unleashed a spray of vicious lightning that lept and sparked downwards at him, Koutaku pushed his heel down, and let his right leg swing out in front of him, taking him into a slide as he whistled in several precise tones. As his body twisted in place, he threw each of his demon wind shuriken, one forwards--up--and to the right, and the other to the left mirroring it. They each trailed five lengths of wire as they traveled through the air, the wires crossing in a net in front of him. Then, having initiated Temple Style: Discovery of an Incomplete Truth, the wires and the pair of goliath shuriken they were affixed to found themselves joined by a pair of sinuous coiling gales. Gripping the wires between his fingers, his hands closing, Koutaku pulled each Shuriken into a different trajectory, creating a pincer attack that would have skewered the airborne shinobi, had she not whirled her spear into place, using each end to stop the oncoming weapons for an instant long enough for her to bound downwards from the weapon. Pushing off it, she instantly summoned the implement into her hand, landing several meters away. Koutaku however, had more immediate concerns to deal with as the bo-wielding maniac closed the distance and whipped his wooden bludgeon at the Iouchiryo’s right side.

It was a bold decisive choice, but it was nonetheless the wrong one. Letting go of his wakizashi with his second right arm, Koutaku flicked a kunai into hand and drove its flat against the staff, slapping it upwards in a sudden deflect, before giving his wires additional slack. Dropping the kunai with his off-right hand, Koutaku snatched his katana from midair in a reverse grip and plunged into a piercing strike with the tip of the blade. Caught out of position, the shinobi responded admirably, raising his left arm to take the blow through his hand--rather than his neck. However, as he blocked the blade a sharp CRACK echoed out, deafening him in the instant before a blade of pure force gouged out his eyes. Dropping the blade, Koutaku utilized Kazanami with a sharp whistle as he ran behind the man, drawing a line of chakra along his back, which promptly split him in twain--the deadly blur that he had become continued forth towards the man’s last remaining ally.

Having been given scarcely moments to recover, the woman had only had time to initiate another lightning release technique. Thus, with her chosen weapon gathering lightning along its length, she took a low stance, the tip of her spear aimed at an angle downward towards the floor. He barely paid her preparations any mind, his eyes darting between the points on her body that best indicated her next few movements. Then he used his extra limbs to grab his wires at different points, returning both his katana and wakizashi to their sheaths with a pair of whistles. Wrenching downwards on the wire, he altered the momentum of both his weapons, driving them out of the sky and to either side of the woman where they drove into the earth with tremendous cutting force.

She let out a small laugh, exhaled sharply, and then thrust her spear into the ground. Jumping arcs of lightning immediately sprang forwards from her weapon, rapidly crossing the distance between her and Koutaku. With great disdain, Koutaku let go of his wires--the tension held by them being wrapped around his forearms. As he moved, he dismissed the transformation technique and drew his wakizashi before sheathing it once more in a single fluid motion. A blade of wind pressed forth, parallel to the ground, and utterly nullified the lightning before tearing her feet out from under her. Then, as she fell, Koutaku was upon her, over her, past her, and wires constricted around her neck. A sickening gurgle, a series of pops, and then a vicious series of gushing tears later, his wires sheared through her neck and divested her of life.

He didn’t even slow, curving his trajectory to close with the mastermind behind it all. Then all hell broke loose. The descending earth above suddenly warped, shattered, and exploded back upwards and outwards as an unseen force struck it. The seated figure remained utterly still, but his eyes had opened. It seemed that the man had taken notice. Koutaku observed him in turn, swallowing any shred of fear he felt in that intimidating instant, before he once more performed the handseals for Sokumen Henkou. This time, he dismissed his demon wind shuriken, and maneuvered his wires behind him. With expert flicks, and several motions, he threw shuriken out behind him and then snared each with a wire, tying them off with slight movements of his fingers and arms.

Then, without hesitation, Koutaku drew each wire back, and then thrust each in a different direction. Each wirebound shuriken struck a pillar and embedded itself. With his wire spooling to new lengths, he made his approach, both blades sheathed with only distance and wire between him and their opponent.

To Takashi he had only this to say, his words slipping swiftly into her mind.

“Pin him and distract. I’ll take him out!”

Spoiler:

Takashi replied in the affirmative to Koutaku’s mental directive, surging forward with her scarf trailing behind her in looping whorls. She made surging motions forwards towards the robed figure, at one point using a brief body flicker to just adjust her course slightly to the right in order to avoid a scintillating sphere of iridescent energy that suddenly began to manifest behind her. She dipped forwards and to the right, making sure to weave low as she moved in order to be able to spring into motion whenever she needed. She threw the kunai in her hands directly at the figure with open eyes, but a pearl of dark flame burst into being just before it got within a metre of him and clattered to the floor harmlessly. Takashi changed tactics and began moving up towards the left, closing the distance very suddenly with an accelerated burst of speed. Her scarf whipped in great whorls around the man’s location, only the last metre or so of the scarf being manipulated as a weapon rather than as an ersazt (and flexible) haft. Takashi made stabbing motions as the whirling trills of her scarf surrounding the man reached certain points along their arcs. Again and again some strange phantasmal force would arise to block the scarf before she could make a proper swing towards him, but nevertheless she persisted with her onslaught.

While the scarf got its little jabs in Takashi used her left hand to summon her kunai back to her hand, throwing it into the weaknesses in his guard she could identify when he commanded his protections to shelter him from her scarf’s relentless onslaught. He still managed to misdirect the kunai’s arc with a particularly intense and bulging stare, causing Takashi to repeat the motion but this time she performed a few additional seals to run a current of chakra through the weapon using Flying Swallow. Her throw was more accurate the second time around, primed at exactly the moment that he moved his hands in a circular motion so as to direct his mysterious powers. The enhanced kunai sailed through the air at a breakneck speed, managing to just brush up against his arm deep enough to draw a spurt of crimson blood erupting outwards. He recoiled in equal parts ecstasy and fury, turning to face Takashi with a murderous intensity in his gaze not apparent before--she saw in that moment how truly unhinged he was, shuddering to herself as she remembered what he’d put her through before. Now distracted, his focus peeled away from his powers, Takashi’s right scarf flew towards his right arm.

The cloth gripped it tightly and wrapped around and around the arm until it had managed to fully bind his hand, and Takashi pulled it down the ground with all of her might. Her left scarf shot in simultaneously, swatting again and again at his face causing him to howl wildly and bat at his eyes. ‘Now! I won’t be able to hold him for long!’ she thought, not even looking towards Koutaku’s location to scope out where he was or what his plans might have been. She simply had to trust that he was in position and his follow attack would be lethal--but she did trust him. She knew that he’d want the same kind of revenge she did, especially for the ordeal that he’d gone through earlier in this bizarre sequence of terrible nightmares.

Even then he railed against her manoeuvre, wildly bucking and thrashing about as he tried to the best of his ability to escape the bonds. He conjured eerie flames to eat through the silken scarf, but Takashi’s infusion of water-natured chakra using Temple Style: Discovery of an Incomplete Truth allowed her to surge enough chakra through the weapon to overcome its effects entirely, overwhelming it and him. The left end of her scarf sliced directly up through the bottom of his foot through his leg at that moment, scything out again and splaying the bottom of his leg open in a grisly display. He howled as pure agony lanced through his body, the spray of blood around him forming into a strangely familiar circle beneath him. Just as the rivulets were beginning to connect to one another in order to form the triangle Takashi whipped him upwards into the air for Koutaku’s manoeuvre to connect and finish the job once and for all.

Spoiler:

Flowing between the numerous instances of falling earthen debris, Koutaku made his way rapidly towards the seated shinobi even as Takashi began her relentless assault. Then, leaping into the air, Koutaku activated a pair of techniques. First, chakra pressed down from his feet as he utilized the Surface Walking Technique, then he felt his entire body take on an artificial lightness as he accessed a jutsu that he’d picked up several days before.

Having waited long enough, Koutaku once more activated his enhancer, chakra roiling in cascading waves of power through his entire body. It suffused his muscles with strength, enhancing his reflexes, and shrouding him with wind affinity chakra. Then, he touched the first flying piece of debris and bounded through the air, pushing off pieces of debris even as he twisted his body gradually, turning in spirals as he rose into the air. The wires twisted behind him in response and then he initiated a Body Flicker.

Turning into a streak of color due to his sheer velocity, he built up even more momentum and swiftly reached the height of his climb. The technique ended as he arrived, his orientation upside-down, looking straight at the head of the puppetmaster of this insane situation. In a crouch, so he could exert as much force as possible, Koutaku whistled several times in quick succession and then shot downwards in a blur of flashing silver blue. Chakra surged through his wires, touched the wirebound shuriken, and doubled, then tripled their size. Bending the rules that they were typically bound by, Koutaku then quadrupled their size, and tore them from their pillars and inwards as he rapidly descended.

Mentally, he called out for Takashi to retreat in a body flicker, denoting the exact trajectory she needed to take. He saw her swiftly disengage in response and in that moment he acted.

Clutching at the wind bullet he twisted it into a smaller size and released it downwards, enhancing its speed with a tremendous burst of chakra, and shielding himself with the Seal of Protection.

The projectile hurtled down into the man, who looked up too late, the air crackling with his power before the massive bullet slammed him fully into the ground from his airborne position. It struck him so hard however that he bounced a meter back into the air, and then Koutaku was to him. Clutching at his body, Koutaku used Tsukamu, maneuvering below the man and kicking him upwards in the same instant. The shinobi hurtled further into the air and then the wires collided with his person, wrapping him up tight. Spurts of blood colored the air crimson and then Koutaku finished his final series of handseals.

His wires flashing with a sudden burst of tearing wind chakra, they suddenly erupted outwards in a gore-laden sphere, utterly eviscerating their adversary as the wires surged back outwards in a torrent of force. By the end of the technique, there was nothing recognizable that remained of the man, only blood and viscera spraying across the ground, ceiling, and floor. Exhaling sharply, Koutaku let his wires go slack, his techniques fade, as he let exhaustion overtake him.

Looking to Takashi he nodded as the dream began to rapidly glitch and destabilize around them.

”See you in the real world.”

Then everything snapped into darkness and his consciousness was briefly obliterated.

---

Shooting up in his bed, Koutaku blinked rapidly and glanced around his room. Then he laughed, relief surging up through his body in an uprising of emotion. Tears beaded in his eyes and he let them fall. He remained that way for perhaps a minute or so before the feeling receded enough to let him rise from bed. Already the strange dreams were growing hazy, though even without the distinct memories...he was changed, though he likely didn’t know it.

Quickly getting ready--and snatching a quick breakfast--Koutaku left the Iouchiryo house and surged in a series of body flickers to meet Takashi at their appointed spot. They were going to do some trick or treating tonight and even if he was a bit old for such things he figured that he deserved something relaxed.

He’d even brought along a fake cauldron to carry candy in. Having informed Takashi the day before, he was looking forward to what she brought in the way of costumes for them.

Spoiler:

Takashi awoke the next morning with a sudden jolt, her memories of the night prior’s tribulations vanishing quickly into the murky depths of her mind. She went through her usual morning routine as if nothing had happened, making sure to pick up the two costumes that she’d made for her plans to go trick-or-treating with Koutaku and some of his cousins later that night. Normally she’d stay at home to help the Yuganori transform one of the buildings in their estate into a haunted house for some of the local children to enjoy, but Kinuko had given her permission to take the night off this year in recognition of her easing more into shinobi life.

She arrived at the designated location in her costume, dressed as a witch with a silk spider sitting on her shoulder that could spray sticky webs when a string on its back was tugged. She handed Koutaku his costume, a rugged and fluffy werewolf with a tail that he could manipulate with wires. As they got together and donned their costumes they had a brief discussion about the very strange dream they’d apparently shared, and Takashi gave him a wry smile as she bundled them all together to get them ready to leave for the night’s festivities. She made sure to pay special attention to his cousins’ costumes, fussing over them and sneaking a few smaller pieces of candy to them while Koutaku wasn’t looking that she’d picked up especially for them. They had a brief laugh together behind Koutaku’s back before Takashi started to get in character and chased them down the street on her broom. They squealed in delight as she continued to chase them, cackling madly all the while, and Koutaku could be quite certain he heard something in her laugh mocking the way the elderly woman laughed during their last fight.

Spoiler:

Smiling as he met with Takashi, his two cousins trailing after him, he was grateful to have her along. It would make managing the two rambunctious children that much more tolerable. As they went through the night, Koutaku found himself enjoying things tremendously. As the night wound on they gathered a truly ridiculous and unhealthy amount of candy between the four of them, enjoying a good time all the while. Through it all, he even managed to shrug off the strange sense of deja vu as they walked past the mission center at one point. Eventually, things wound down and he bid Takashi good night as he led his two tired and sore-footed cousins back home. Having had a proper day off for once, Koutaku decided that he’d go to bed early after a session of meditation.

It had been a wonderful Halloween evening, and he was looking forward to next year.

Spoiler:

You guys are hecking menaces. Nice job. Approved.