A pole light lesson

Spoiler:

Rin strode through the snow clogged streets, the harsh biting wind of winter wrapping around her as night began to fall, the various street lamps of this village began to illuminate the streets all on their own, it was an interesting construction and one that Rin would likely have paid more attention too if she wasn't lost in some strange town with no real idea how she had gotten here, at least for now her own skill with manipulation of space time had proven ineffective at escaping the town and did little more than create some minor ripples within the fabric of the world as a whole. She was just glad that she had been clothed in attire warm enough for such a heavy winter climate. Her thick, wool coat was looking a little weathered with all her experiences throughout the day having already worn on it a little and her brilliant pink and blue wool infinity scarf had started to fray in places, but all in all she still looked presentable.

Rin's boots made a noticeable crunch as she strode through the snow that clogged the streets; in theory she could use her chakra to keep her suspended above the snow, keeping her footsteps silent, but even if she knew how such an action was taxing for her in her current condition, she had the chakra reserves certainly but the pain that her... infection caused her was more than enough to dissuade her from using her chakra on something so frivolous without any real need or truely even desire to do so.

Which is no doubt why the children ahead of her heard her coming at all, as she rounded the corner of the street she was striding down she was privy to the panicked scrambling of a number of children scattering as if escaping a grownup, it brought back flickers of fond memories of her own childhood, before life had become nothing but pain and disappointment after disappointment, memories of playing with the other street urchins, of being a queen amongst the thieving urchins of the streets, and of enjoying herself; but that was a long time ago and her memories of that time had faded into inequity.

What first brought Rin out of her internal musings was the sight of two urchins still left standing along the side of the road, one with their back to her, a child with long brown hair stood squirming as if unable to move, whilst the other child, a boy from what little Rin could see of his frame stood facing towards her, squirming in a similar manner. At first Rin thought she might have accidentally stumbled upon a young couple kissing under the light of the street lamps, she almost turned and took a different route, giving the two young lovebirds some space, but something about how the girl moved wasn't quite right.
wc: 483

Rin watched as the girl squirmed awkwardly, her feet took her forwards almost absentmindedly as she tried to work out what exactly was happening here, a few moments later the angle had shifted enough that she could see the pair a little better. Each of them stood illuminated under the bright lamplight, with a light dusting of snow falling down upon them, and each of them had, somehow, managed to get their entire tongues stuck to the pole. Rin had to suppress a whistle of surprise as she saw that, the pair of them really had managed to win the idiot award. Taking a few more steps forwards, the snow crunching under foot as she strode towards the pair, one of them called out. Rin assumed it was a plea for help but to be honest it just sounded like garbled giberish to her. 
Just as Rin took a few steps forward, planning on standing next to the pair, so she could lean down and examine exactly what had happened to the pair, her senses flared up, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she felt that faint buzz of one of her mirror images voices echo in her head. Codex, one of the two mirror images she had following along a few buildings behind her keeping watch let her know a moment before a figure stepped into her own view. What she saw was a beautiful woman wreathed in a beautiful Red dress, white fur trailing around the edges as if to frame her beautiful pale complexion. Rin's eyes couldn't help but trace over the woman taking in her figure, the way the dress seemed to cling to her frame almost as if it had been tailored just for her. The woman screamed wealth, and not the kind of new money that had to flaunt their wealth with gaudy displays and piles of riches, no this woman radiated her superiority.

Rin looked up at the woman, meeting the woman's gaze with a faint blush. There was something about her cold stare that was so intimidating, and yet it felt... Not quite lonely, more withdrawn and reserved, it spoke of someone who bore the weight of responsibility on there shoulders and who had long since given up their own enjoyment for that of their obligations. Rin had to shake her head for a moment as she looked away, almost entranced by the woman's gaze as she had been... It even took her a moment to realise that she could easily have fallen prey to a genjutsu making eye contact like that, but realise she did and chastising herself she forced her chakra into a cycling pattern to clear out any foreign chakra. She did't find any of course but the mere act of pushing that much chakra through her channels made the corruption within her veins pulse, greedily feeding upon the energy within her veins as it continued to pulse outwards, digging into her flesh and scouring away more and more of her spirit. 

Rin couldn't help but tisk to herself in irritation, ever since the ragdoll had cursed her with this seed of corruption implanted deep within her spirit she had been forced to be incredibly cautious about her use of chakra, for over two years she had managed to survive on only the barest hints and scraps of chakra, she had fought using only her wiles and skill, and had survived albeit barely. But ever since coming here she had been forced time and time again to continue using more and more chakra, to cast techniques that the corruption could feed upon with great abandon and each time she could feel the infection getting worse. It wasn't just the pain, although that got worse each time as well, no the corruption itself was spreading, when she had first been infected it was barely more than a tiny infinitesimal speck of the Demon of stitches corrupt chakra, hidden deep within her spiritual body; so small in fact that she hadn't noticed it until it had had the chance to feed. For a moment the escape from sunagakure flashed through her mind, the blood, the fear, the uncertainty and the immense pain; the aching absence of her dominant arm and the pulsing empty void of pain that sat within her eye socket. If she had simply looked in a mirror, or even a reflection she might have been able to recognise the infection sprouting out from the horrid hole in her skull, but she couldn't bring herself to look at what had been done to her.

For months she had avoided even the slightest glance at her reflection, even as her spirit and body began to weaken, even as jolts of pain seemed to spasm through her body in the middle of combat. Her team had fallen apart shortly after her return and days later the bandit lord alliance tore itself apart, they had all been expecting the ragdoll to accept them and instead he had sent back their best and brightest torn to shreds and crippled beyond belief. With their support gone Rin had thrown herself into contract after contract, trying to reclaim the respect and fear that she had once been given as a matter of course, but it was obvious to all that the events of that day had left more than just physical scars. By the time Rin finaly brought herself to look in a mirror she was a mess, thin and malnourished, her hair matted and covered in dried blood, she had washed herself in rivers from time to time, but never thoroughly and never with enough attention to fully clean such things; but that was not the worst part, what the worst part had been was when Rin looked at her face, the horrid gash that was her empty eye socket was bad enough, but there deep within sat a thick black cord pulsating with sickly corruption, a seed that had grown enough to bury not just into her physical body but into her spiritual body as well.

She had sought doctor after doctor, specialist after specialist, but those that would even look at her all told her the same thing, that the damage was done and her spirit itself was filled with the corruption. They gave her powders and poultices, drugs of all sorts to help suppress and slow the corruption, but nothing could stop it and even removing any physical evidence of the corruption did little to slow its advance.

This latest expense was just another step closer to her death, or whatever was destined to happen when the corruption finally consumed her whole, but this expense extracted a price higher than what she had expected, still standing there having only just glanced down from the woman Rin could feel a strand of corruption weaving its way into her lungs, a mind splitting pain shot through her as she doubled over in pain, coughing as a thick congealed mass of corrupted blood pooled in her lungs. She let out a hacking cough, blindly grasping through her pocket for a hanker chief as she brought up that mass of corruption, catching the mass in her hanker chief the mass seemed to almost pulse with corruption, the natural chakra in the air around her even starting to warp and twist around her for a moment before attacking the clump like an infection, the blood seeming to turn first to stone then to dust as it did so. 

Rin frowned in disgust and concern at this new development even as she tucked the hanker chief back away and looked up again. Looking up again the woman seemed to be closer, as if she had approached the children during Rin's brief moment of indisposition. Giving the woman a reluctant smile she offered an apology

"My sincerest apologies miss, it seems the cold does not agree with me" she said as she stepped forward, the lie obviously a polite excuse to give the woman a way to avoid the topic of what had just happened. "I was just about to offer these two young children assistance in their..." Rin paused trying to work out the best way to describe their situation, eventually she just settled on the most likely truth "predicament, children do seem to do the oddest things some times" she said, coming to stand next to the woman and bending down to examine the frost covered pole. The two children squirmed awkwardly, both trying to shift to look at them without moving enough to hurt themselves.

The two youths seemed to have managed to stick the entirety of their tongues onto the pole, the frost and temperature difference fusing their tongues to the metal. Turning back to the woman again Rin spoke "Hmm, Any ideas miss..." Rin paused realising she hadn't gotten the woman's name she simply left the implied question hanging as she waited for a reply
wc: 1498
TWC: 1981

Rin, seeing the woman approach the pair of young ones who had managed to get themselves stuck in such a predicament strode forward to meet her, eying the woman sheepishly before giving her excuses, when the woman took the out that she had been given Rin gave her a slight smile and an almost imperceptible nod of appreciation, it had been a long time since rin had moved in the sorts of social circles where such subtleties and quiet communications were used, but some habits are happy to resurface months, years of even decades later as they are needed, and this woman was very clearly the type to move in such high class circles. Regardless Rin was grateful for the woman's tact in allowing her to avoid acknowledging the horrid weakness that had just overcome her.
Rin watched as the woman circled the children, pacing in a manner that reminded Rin more of a predator stalking its prey... no not quite stalking, more as if it was toying with prey when it had no real desire to eat, there was an energy there that, whilst not malicious, spoke of faint amusement and superiority, even as Rin continued talking.

Nodding almost imperceptibly in agreement with Rin the woman seemed to take her statement about children doing odd things to heart, Rin could see a flicker of wistfulness cross the woman's face as if staring back on days long gone, though that was quite odd; now that she was closer she could tell that under the fine clothes and wealth this woman couldn't possibly be any older than twenty five at the oldest, her young youthful appearance more than enough evidence of that. Rin once again found herself wondering for a moment if this was some form of trickery, certainly a number of experts had developed ways to disguise their age and briefly Rin even considered if she should cycle her chakra again to release any genjutsu that might be responsible for such things, then she remembered what had happened the last time she did that, no she couldn't afford to waste such energy on something like that right now, not without it posing some sort of immediate threat.

Rin watched the woman pacing cautiously before she saw the woman smirk, catching her eye she  reached out with her hand and... did something, Rin could feel a subtle twisting of the world, the natural chakra around the woman almost seeming to quiver for a moment before heat emanated from the aura around her. It was odd, perhaps it was a technique but Rin wasn't even sure if the woman was aware she was doing it, there was a certain feel those who had started to develop skill with natural chakra had, some radiated the energy they had stolen with the world, others simply seemed to move as if perfectly in tune with the natural world, more still had visible traits, albeit subtle ones, slight calcification of the skin, burgeoning hints of animalistic traits, odd markings that reflected an aspect of the natural world. Certainly some of those signs could be hidden easily enough and this woman could possibly have one of those signs that were easily hidden, but even then it was the way she exercised her chakra, it didn't seem like she was aware in any way that she was controlling the chakra of the natural world, and yet it obeyed... 

'oh, thats exactly it isn't it' Rin thought to herself as it all clicked into place, the woman wasn't exercising her chakra in harmony with the natural world, she wasn't even actively trying to control it, but her aura was so commanding, had such a sharp sense of authority that the natural world itself took her lead. The woman barely touched the pole with her chakra, a brief brush of flame and the natural chakra within the pole seemed to quiver, as if in resonance with the woman's spirit it changed and became warm, as if it had always meant to be warm and was just returning to its natural state.

Rin couldn't keep the surprised look off her face, she had no doubt the woman had no idea what she had just done, and yet to Rin a whole new world of posibilites had just opened up, if it were not for the corruption running through her veins, hindering her every move and stifling her growth, this insight could have made her a true powerhouse, indeed even as much as she hated the ragdoll she had witnessed something few had, and even fewer had lived to tell the tale afterwards. Whilst markedly different she could see the similarities, the potential within this woman to walk a similar path, twisting the world to her own whims and to her own nature through sheer force of personality. Rin shuddered a little at the memory of the accursed blight of the sands, but for the first time in a long long time, that shiver of pain, disgust and terror was tempered by something else... Respect. Not for the monster himself of course, but for the potential of this woman, for the potential he must once have possessed, and in this moment she even felt a small sliver of gratitude to the woman before her, perhaps she would never realise what she had, never realise the potential that represented, but Rin saw it and, with it, saw a path for her own future, tenuous though it may be.

Lost in thought Rin almost didn't notice when the boy leapt away from the pole, a faint scent of singed flesh filling the air, though thankfully the boy seemed relatively un-harmed... at least unharmed from the heat. 

The boy let out a sound of gratitude, though one that sounded like no language she had ever heard, it took her a moment to realise the boy's tongue, stuck to the pole for so long, had become semi-permanently elongated, hanging out of his mouth like some sort of bizarre monster. The sight was absurd and she would have laughed if not for the seriousness of the matter.

Rin opened her mouth to ask the woman if she knew any healing techniques when the woman, perhaps thinking along the same lines as her asked the same. 

“Do you perhaps have the ability to heal that for him?” the woman asked, glancing at the child's elongated flesh before returning her attention to the pole. Rin had to resist the urge to immediately turn her attention back to watching the woman work, any moment of detail could be incredibly valuable to her, but the woman was right, this child should receive medical care first. Pondering the situation for a moment she spoke, simultaneously transmitting her words to codex, one of the two mirror images of herself that was keeping watch from the rooftops. "Medical techniques have never really been my forte, but codex has some rudimentary knowledge on them, enough to give this little one some help i expect" she said, glancing in the direction the clone was, even as it jumped from the ledge of the rooftops, landing on the street and rushing forward towards them.

The mirror image was, almost a perfect copy of Rin, at least at the moment its form a simple simulacrum of it's creator, although as people are want to do it looked, quite literally like a reflection of her, the missing arm that she had hidden under her coat sat on the opposite side of the woman's body, the coat she wore fluttering in the wind enough to reveal it even as she landed upon the village cobbles. The missing eye Rin's long strip of hair covered was on the woman's right side rather than her left, the clone's own hair combed to the other side so as to obscure the missing eye from casual view, though once again the wind blew it's hair about leaving time for the injury to become visible even if for only a few heartbeats. Perhaps the one difference the clone had from its creator was its purity, unlike Rin who's missing eye occasionally weeped with corruption, a deep seed of black threads writhing within it's depths, the mirror image's wounds were mundane in nature.

Codex made its way forward, kneeling down to assess the child before channeling its chakra into the kid, a soft glow emanating from its palm as it rather clumsily applied healing chakra to the child. It took some time and it was rather obvious that codex was self taught, but the child's tongue slowly began to heal, retracting into his mouth and returning to normal. All the while Rin had turned her attention back to the woman, it had only been a few moments and the woman had returned to channeling her chakra into the pole, the natural chakra around her seeming to bow to her whims as if a subject bowing to its ruler. Taking an absent minded step forwards she even felt the nature chakra within her seeming to quiver, as if only her presence kept it from obeying the woman; even the corruption inside of her seemed to react slightly, though rather than quivering suppliantly the corruption seemed to twist and writhe within her, as if a predator tying to rise up and stake its claim.

Rin quickly took a step back, unwilling to allow the corruption to run wild within her. When the pole finaly heated enough to let the young girl loose Rin had to stifle a gasp, the poor girl's tongue was stained a horrid dark blue, a clear sign of frost bite. The poor girl would likely loose her tongue and as much as Rin's heart went out for the girl there was little she or codex could to to such a wound, perhaps if codex was more skilled it could help, but it had not yet reached that level of development, and there certainly wasn't anyone within the village proper who would be able to cure such an ailment.

Even as the girl leapt into the woman's arms, hugging her in gratitude Rin felt her heard sink, she would have to tell the girl, better that she heard it from someone now rather than be surprised by it, or worse ignore it until the slow necrosis of the flesh caused even more damage. Rin was just about to open her mouth when she felt something surprising from the woman, as the girl leant into the hug this strange woman gave her a pat on the head, as though giving a strangers pet an short sign of affection, but what was important wasn't the nature of the pat, but what came with it. The woman's chakra system seemed to shiver for a moment before running through her channels in a new way, a rush of healing chakra flowing out of her and into the girl.

Before her eyes the girl's tongue turned from deep blue to a healthy pink before retracting into the girls mouth, with nary a sign of the unfortunate state it had been in a moment before. The surprise was clear on Rin's face as she spoke... "if you could heal so effectively why ask me for help in the first place?" she asked, genuinely confused at the woman's actions

WC:1887
TWC: 3868

As Rin asked the woman her question she saw the woman glide towards her, seeming almost to flow above the snow, though she felt no chakra being used, no technique to do so, it was simply the sheer grace the woman projected that left her movement so perfectly balanced as to be almost imperceptible as anything other than flight. When the woman came to stand before her, close enough for Rin to feel her breath on her face... at least close enough that she should have been able too feel the woman's breath. Rin froze up as she realised what had felt wrong about this woman all along, the entire time she had been standing here, despite the cold, despite the frost and the snow, she had not once seen the woman's breath on the air, the woman had been taking short breaths, but even when she spoke, not a single puff of mist had appeared. She let out a short gasp, catching herself a moment too late to stifle it, almost as if mocking her her breath pooled out into a mist as it came into contact with the frigid cold, and all Rin could do was try to keep her calm.

Who was this woman? what was this woman? Was she a puppet? no that didn't check out, even as Rin stretched her senses out she knew she would find no evidence of chakra threads anywhere, nor could she detect any other abnormal fluctuations in the ambient chakra that might indicate some sort of remote control or projection technique. Just to be sure she sent a quick mental command to codex to verify her own findings, whilst still a little odd at times the mirror image had shown to be exceptionally effective when it came to using sensory abilities. A moment later Codex had confirmed her results and she was left frantically searching her mind trying to work out just what this woman was, was this some sort of bizare technique? She had heard the occasional rumour of individuals with the skills to Raise the dead, could this be something like that? No again that didn't make sense, there was no evidence of any control techniques in the area and no one would be foolish enough to raise someone this powerful without having some way to maintain control over them. Rin's mind continued to spiral, digging for some sort of explanation even as the woman continued examining her.

Then the woman looked her in the eye, and her mind went blank, not the sort of blank that she would expect from a genjutsu, no it was far more subtle than that, it was like the woman was staring into her soul, her very gaze penetrating deep within her. Rin could feel a blush rising against her cheeks, it didn't inherently feel uncomfortable exactly but she couldn't help but squirm a little at the... intimacy of it, she opened her mouth to say something, though she had no idea what to say when suddenly the woman's eyes flicked to examining the ruined mass that had once been her other eye and her mouth snapped shut, pain radiating through her heart though she had no idea why that hurt so much.

Thankfully the woman's look only lasted a moment, her eyes flicking over to examine codex before returning their attention to Rin as she spoke, answering Rin's question with a smirk.

“Capabilities, my dear. To see how… Handy, you would be.” the woman said before pressing her lips together, her playful smirk returning to something more neutral as she continued. “I also wanted to see if you would present the ones who were hiding. I see one, but the other.” She said, motioning her right hand upwards even as she finished her thought “Seems to still belong to the wind.”
That sent Rin's mind back into damage control, whirling as she tried to figure out how the woman had known about her mirror images, neither she nor codex had detected any techniques being used by the woman that might have let her detect the presence of her two guardians. Rin's panicked train of thought was interupted however as the woman spoke once again. “Perhaps you’d like to introduce me to the other?” She said, the woman's eyes narrowing and a sense of danger immediately shot to the front of Rin's senses. This woman was not one to cross lightly and she would certainly not appreciate being denied in this.

Reluctantly Rin sent a mental command to Vis, the Mirror Image obediently leaping from the building it had been keeping watch on. At first glance the clone would look identical to Rin and Codex, however to a particularly discerning eye there were some very minor differences from the other pair. Though Vis looked weathered and worn just as it's creator the physical strength and durability of it's body was clear in its movements, sleek muscles rippled with power and unlike codex when it landed it had no need to drop into a roll to cushion its fall; it's body instead absorbing the impact with barely any effort as it landed on its feet and started striding towards them. It's spiritual presence was weak, almost non-existant and because of that it was so much harder to detect, but somehow this woman had sensed it, striding forwards curiously the clone let a smile briefely touch at the corners of its mouth. It sensed a fellow predator and though it would obey its creator it still was curious to meet it's fellow predator.

Even as Vis began to approach the woman spoke again, her face returning to a pleasant smile again now that she had gotten what she wanted. “Codex, is this one’s name. But what is… Your name.” the woman asked and Rin found herself wondering whether to give this woman her true name or an alias. Perhaps the smart thing to do would have been to use an alias, but... Really there was little point in that, Rin had not really been active enough in the world to earn any degree of renown or infamy so why bother giving an alias. "It's Rin... Rin Togakawa" she said, glancing down shyly, feeling slightly awkward giving her name for the first time in... well years, she hadn't had anyone show enough of an interest in her to learn it since before... Rin felt the corruption stir within her again, seemingly disturbed by the direction her thoughts had taken. Shaking her head slightly as she tried to draw her mind back to the present, Rin focussed back on the woman noticing for the briefest of moments the faintest hint of a glow fading around her eyes, but just as she was about to question it Vis arrived.

Pre-empting the question the woman would no doubt next ask she introduced Vis as well, a little more confident now that she wasn't, at least technically, talking about herself. "Ah and i suppose i should introduce you to Vis as well" Rin said, gesturing slightly to the Mirror image with her remaining hand


WC: 1185
TWC: 5053

As Vis walked past the woman, coming to stand next to Rin and Codex, she noticed the faint hint of a smile playing at the strange woman's lips, even as she mentally scolded Vis for it's posturing. Rin wasn't blind, nor was she a fool, each of these clones were reflections of her, but distorted reflections, each one taking on specialised aspects of herself and amplifying them to better suit their purpose, and though Vis was strong, it was no where near strong enough to rival this woman, a thought that was confirmed a moment later, Rin saw the woman's smile flicker for a moment, turning up into a grin that almost looked like a true predator, for a moment she even thought she caught a glimpse of fangs where her teeth should have been, but that was surely her imagination... at least thats what she would think until much later where, upon review, Codex would report the same thing. 

Regardless with that glimpse of the woman's smile Rin felt a pressure bearing down on her, emanating from the woman as she unveiled her spirit, the sheer pressure being put out by her mere presence enough to push her to her knees even as Codex and Vis dropped to the ground twitching from the force, barely able to stay conscious, she could see vis struggling, trying to exercise its own power in some small way and push itself up, but the effort was futile, like a kitten trying to fight a lion, vis's own aura flickered for a moment, barely visible around it before dispersing into nothing. Perhaps the worst though were the pair of children, the girl having just stepped back from hugging the woman in gratitude a moment ago, and the boy standing next to her had both gone bone white, each one passing out from the pressure as they collapsed in the snow. Rin could Feel her own chakra pulsing in her veins, the instinct to respond by unveiling her own aura hard to suppress, but to do so would give the corruption within another chance to progress and so, fighting against years of instinct she let the woman's aura wash over her, forcing her down even as she gritted her teeth trying to resist. 

Seemingly having captured her prey the woman took a step forward and Rin could see the snow that lined the city street, having slowly been pressed until it was almost as thick as ice crack under the pressure of her spirit... no not just the ice but the cobblestone beneath cracked and shattered under the spiritual weight it had failed to support. Again Rin could feel the energy of the natural world bending to this woman's will, the chakra all around her seeming to still as if even the world itself was afraid to take a breath in her presence, and with that step she felt death approaching, a true predator had found her, and at the very least she would not be dying on her knees. If she was to die she would do so raging against her fate even as she cursed the butcher of the sands for putting her here. With an audible shout of frustration she would unleash her own aura, pushing herself to her feet with a visible force of will, the chakra flaring up around her even as the corruption inside her writhed in pleasure as it began to feast upon the bounty of power it was suddenly being provided. A shimmer surrounding began to surround her, the air around her rippling with her own spiritual energy for a moment as the faint image of a silver white fox appeared behind her, one leg horribly scared, it's once brilliant silver fur barely covered the many lines of black pulsating corruption running along out from the horrid gash of a void that was it's Right eye. Though the fox let out a cry in unison with the girl, its own cry was mournful, the cry of a once proud beast who fights knowing it is about to die, though as if in response to that call the corruption that filled it seemed to throb with power. 

Rin could feel the same sensation within herself, that horrid seed of corruption within her throbbed with power, ripe for the taking, all she had to do was give in and let it feed to its hearts content, without words it seemed to sing a siren's song to her, offering power and safety, that endless void of corruption radiating from her eye offered the power of the ragdoll, free for the taking... Only it wasn't free, even if that was what it claimed Rin would never trust something so vile, one moment of weakness would be all it would take. She could draw upon that corruption and maybe survive in body, but she knew instinctually she would be nothing but a puppet, a living doll for the corruption to feed upon, those threads of black corruption would be all that she was, nothing but a meat sack with no will of it's own.

Even as the corruption fed and writhed, even as it offered her power she refused, her aura receded and she seemed to hunch over under the pressure of the woman's aura again, barely standing she lent against the pole, her own fingers curling around the burning cold iron as she tried to stay on her feet. Hunched over she made eye contact with the woman and though she could not muster the energy to speak she glowered, a look of defiance that said even if she died she would do so on her feet, she would do so as herself, not as some mindless puppet or helpless prey.

Then the demon before them spoke, her voice echoing with the sheer power that she represented, though rather than hostility, rather than the hunger or arrogance of a predator ready to feast, what came out were the polite words of the woman they had been speaking to all this time "A pleasure to meet you, Rin Togakawa… As well as you Codex, Vis. My name… Is Remika Nagai" she said a soft smile gracing her lips in direct contrast to the vicious aura that still pressured the world around her. Then, as if by some miracle Rin saw the first rays of sunlight peak over the rooftops of the buildings, framing the woman in a halo of light. 

The woman let out a soft sigh, and spoke again, even as Rin could feel little but the blood throbbing in her head, the corruption pulsing in her veins as it continued to burrow deeper into her spirit and her flesh. She could feel that sharp pain in her chest again, the agony from earlier multiplied ten fold. Even as the woman spoke, saying something about breakfast, even as her aura retracted, softening and returning to the placid calm that had surrounded her before, even then, Rin's vision began to pull into a pinprick. Without the pressure of the woman's aura, the adrenaline of the situation, Rin collapsed, not just to her knee's but falling completely limp, her hand, now frozen to the pole as the children had once been, the only thing keeping her even half upright as she began coughing profusely, a congealed black corruption splattering the pristine white snow as she brought up more of it, her missing eye weeping the horrid black liquid even as blood began dripping from her other orifices.
WC: 1254
TWC: 6307