A Token gamble

[Doing all the Missions listed for the V day event, will link upon request]

Kira looked up at the brilliantly lit building that sprawled out before her, the size and scope was baffling, impressive, surprising, incredible, she really was stunned at the quality of the building and the impact it made sitting here in the middle of nowhere. Whoever had decided to build a giant casino lit well beyond any reason and marking a giant target for any bandits who might be interested in trying their hands at such a location. Perhaps more impressive was the effort involved in staffing such a construction, the building's space alone was enough that it would take hundreds upon hundreds if not thousands of people to properly staff, and that wasn't accounting for securituy, changes in shifts, support staff, chef's, bartender's, and so on, hell the amount of money that must have been spent on stocking the building with fine food, wine, spirit's, snacks, and other amenities for visitors would likely have been enough to bankrupt a small country... in fact perhaps it had, the land of tea had been long considered something of a joke, empty of any ninja village or even any significant military might the land of tea didn't even have the funds to keep enough of a mercenary force on hand for sudden attacks, indeed the only reason it hadn't collapsed long ago was the lack of any wealth building in the country making the place not worth the effort of an attack for most of the major and minor powers within the world.

TWC: 250

One might think kira was done marveling at the building, and even looking on from outside one might think that assumption to be right, she after all had begun rising up the steps of the building, the slightly elevated foundation the tower was built upon designed in such a way as to provide a hexagonal array of steps that surrounded the building, making it seem all the more grand and impressive, like a throne sitting upon a dais. Even as she climbed those steps she couldn't help but continue to marvel at the sheer complexity of the engeering feats that must have been required to achive something like this. The mastery of the universe that must have been required to even begin to comprehend how one could begin a construction like this.

Architecture and engineering weren't her forte after all, she only had a passing knowledge of the basic principles that underpinned the professions and even those were second hand experience, gleaned from the books on the subject she had selected for reading within her grandfather's library. All the same those constants were the basic building blocks of reality, the fact that this building which rather than slowly decreasing in size as it rose up out of the ground and into the clouds, remained the same, a single stark pillar that remained the exact same size, completely ignoring the laws of gravity and physics that should bring the building crumbling down at even the slightest of breezes. The force breaking it in twain

WC: 253
TWC: 503

"The Casino is a place where I can gamble on anything. Even if it's not gambling, there are always games to play."
- St Valentine, Master of Chance

Rin stood outside the massive building that was the famed, and freshly built St Valentine's Casino, the massive building was beyond impressive, and the stunning quality of the building only served to reflect the majesty of the famed master of the place, though much as with her experiences with St Nick the famed manipulator of space and time, the reputation of St Valentine was, up until a few weeks ago, thought to be something of a myth, the mysterious figure had long ago faded into myth, and yet once again the world had been graced with the sudden appearance of a being akin to a god. She had already received reports from some of the early scouts who had been sent to explore this place, a massive tower like building that had suddenly appeared within the land of Tea, the building towered up into the clouds, seemingly endless, and of a night shone like a beacon visible from neighboring countries. Perhaps more notable still was the sheer size of the building within, the exterior of the building was massive enough but the report's all agreed that stepping inside was like stepping into another world, one filled with lights, sounds and gambling tables further than the eye could see... and that was just the first floor, from what the few explorer's that had made it further said the building got more and more bizarre as they went deeper within.

Taking a deep breath Rin strode up the steps of the building, her shining outfit itching slightly as she did so. The brilliant high quality silk evening gown clung to her in ways that felt... just ever so slightly odd, it had been quite a while since she had worn proper formal wear, and to top it off the stump of her arm itched, the high quality prosthetic arm the craftsmen of the land of Rice had made for her was amazing, but it still felt strange, new, something she would need to grow accustomed too before she would be able to ignore the new strange sensations. The brilliantly plated limb was made from some of the highest quality materials available to the country and had been worked on for weeks by the brightest craftsmen within most of the known world. The pure white chitinous material of the limb cut a stark contrast to the deep black silken evening dress she had adorned herself with. Her normally long white hair that had been left to grow wild and unkempt had been trimmed back to a short cut with what could be salvaged of her long locks tied up into a simple bun over her head; that one had been somewhat embarrasing, she had ended up having to have Vis and Codex do her hair, she still wasn't used to her new limb and had kept fumbling the attempts, still learning how to use the limb and still getting accustomed to the sensations the rudimentary neural links the limb was beginning to form with her own remaining nerves.
She walked into the grand lobby of the building, the vast open room was packed full of people, all dressed in their finest finery, all drinking, eating, talking, playing games and generally enjoying themselves. Rin took a moment to look around at the crowd, the sight was truly awe inspiring, she was glad she had taken the time to stop by and check out the place in person, even if she could have sent someone else to investigate the place, just this sight alone was worth the trouble. Looking around and examining her surroundings closer she wondered at the sheer number of people here, the casino itself was enormous, easily larger than any building she had ever seen before, the sheer amount of people and the sheer scale of the building were enough to make anyone feel small, and yet despite that there seemed to be an air of excitement and enjoyment that flowed through the place.
Looking around to examine the people here she couldn't help but notice the wide array of attire that could be seen adorning the patrons, certainly everyone's garb could be considered 'formal wear' and it was all of fine quality, and yet there were styles that looked entirely bizarre, different from anything she had ever seen before, in other places people wore clothing that was considered fashionable decades or even centuries ago, and yet more people wore clothing that she could vaugly identify as formal wear from across the distant sea. It was almost as if the clothing had changed in the last few years, the styles had become more... exciting, more daring, more provocative.
Perhaps more importantly, perhaps not, she noticed that many of the women that were wearing outfits that would be considered scandalous elsewhere, dresses that were very tight, revealing, showing off skin that would normally be covered by clothes, were worn instead of wearing dresses that exposed very little, leaving plenty of flesh on display, and it was clear that these ladies weren't trying to hide their bodies, they were clearly proud of them. Women wandered about the building flitting from table to table dressed in scandalous skin tight leotards whilst wearing bunny ears of all things. A few men wandered around wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, and whilst she found the idea of such lewd clothing rather... unexpected in such a location, she couldn't deny that the man's chests were well defined and muscular; not exactly her type but then, there were even a few effeminate looking men striding from table to table in those same bunny outfits; this place really did seem to cater for all sorts of tastes.
The place was filled with music, loud music, thumping music, loud music that set the entire building shaking. People danced, sang, drank, gambled, laughed, and generally enjoyed themselves. There was no doubt that the place was a success, and as she watched a few of the dancers began to move to the music, moving to the beat of the song, their movements becoming more seductive, their hips swaying and their breasts jiggling, Rin couldn't help but feel a little jealous of the girls dancing, it was obvious that they were doing so purely for the sake of entertainment, the music had made them happy, and that made Rin's own feelings quiver, vicarious happiness mixing with that bitter pain of her own tormenting history.
As she looked around the room she saw that there were a lot of young men here, and she was surprised to see that they were not just the usual gang of rowdy, drunken wastrels, they were actually all dressed in suits, something that made some sense given the implicit dress code of the place, and yet it still felt odd. She really couldn't fathom the seeming complete lack of anyone who appeared even middle class here.
Her eyes were drawn to a large group of men sitting at a table near the centre of the room, dressed in expensive looking clothes, sipping drinks and laughing loudly. They looked like businessmen and merchant's, except perhaps for the fact that she couldn't see any pouches, wallets or other places they might hold their wealth. Intrigued Rin stepped to the side, out of the door's walkway and up against the wall, taking the time to observe the men.
They were all foreigners, and all looked to be from one country, and yet none of them looked quite alike. Some had hair that was black, others blond, some had brown, some had red, and yet all of them had dark eyes. None of them were particularly tall, and none of them looked especially strong, yet all of them seemed to be in excellent physical shape, and all of them were dressed in smart suits, but there was something strange about them, watching as one of the men ran out of chips, loosing the game they were playing in what must have been a spectacular fashion given Rin expected the man to stand up, or perhaps be ushered out by whatever hidden guards must be responsible for moving on anyone who has been milked dry by lady luck; and yet instead the man simple pulled out a sheet of silver black metal and placed it on the table for a moment before the bunny girl who was dealing for the table, simply passed the man back a fresh stack of chips.
The whole thing was just too surreal, but Rin's attention was soon diverted as a waitress approached the table, bearing a tray of drinks. The men immediately stopped talking, and all looked to the woman, and Rin couldn't help but wonder if they were waiting for her to speak.
"Drinks gentlemen?" she asked, and the men all nodded in reply.
She poured them each a glass of an amber brown liquid Rin could only assume to be some variation on whiskey; even from where she stood, a decent few meters away, her finely honed senses could pick up the harsh biting scent that permeated the air when the bottle was opened and uncorked.
The men all drank their drinks down in one go, the waitress taking the empty glasses from them and placing a new full one in front of each man, before turning and walking back towards the bar.
"Well that was interesting," one of the men said, his voice deep and raspy.
"You think so? I thought it was just another boring night."
"Oh, you'd be wrong there," he replied, smiling broadly at the other men, who all laughed.
"I mean, sure, it's fun to drink and gamble and dance with all these pretty women, but I'm not exactly in the mood for that kind of thing right now. What's your name anyway?" one of the larger of the men slurred, the alcohol in his system evidently enough to impair his thoughts.
Deciding it was best to move on for the time being, Rin made her way deeper into the building, slipping from table to table as she took in the sights, she flitted from machines that seemed almost magical, the difference in technological development so wide and grand from what she had seen within her travels that, if it were not for a few exceptions, she would have been left with no recourse but to assume they were indeed simply powered by some sort of esoteric magic. Even with those few examples that acted as enough of an outlier for her to have some small, minor, infentesimally insignificant examples of concepts that could, hypothetically be extrapolated to such a scale as to create something like this, she was still not entirely convinced that there wasn't some form of magic involved, the few potential examples all operated based on being supplied with chakra that was fed directly into a fuinjutsu array who's seals stored and then slowly released their power over time, supplying the constructions with a slow trickle of energy that allowed them to operate for a limited time; but those constructions, and the sealing arrays that were used to create them were bulky, requiring massive amounts of space and being simple in their function, only able to perform a singular task. The only way she could think someone might be able to create a device like this was with an inordinate amount of space, space so vast that they were able to string together hundreds of thousands of these simple devices, each one designed to perform a singular function and even more thousands of thousands of devices to sort and order the which devices needed to be used at any one point in time.

The concept alone seemed ludicrus, outlandish, bizzare. The cost alone involved in such an endevour would bankrupt multiple continents, not countries, but continents, and that was just to create one of these devices, perhaps even more insane than the cost was the powering of such a device, each of those incredibly complex sealing arrays would require power, and whilst a single shinobi might be able to power one or two of those arrays, in order to power the multitude of arrrays required just for the sorting functions would require more shinobi than there were in the known world. Yes certainly the function of the seals themselves were, in essence quite simple, they still required quite a bit of energy tooperate independantly of their creator. As she understood it the way around that problem was generally to have the array use the stored energy within it to power a subsidiary array who's function was to draw in ambient chakra from the world and use it to power the sealing array. This method worked to power one or two arrays, if designed with just the right level of power draw it could even be enough to, under ideal conditions, power 5 arrays for a near indefinite amount of time; but to power the number of arrays that were being considered here... well even half that number would drain the area around it dry of ambient chakra in mere moments; and the full amount being considered here might even be enough to drain the world itself dry.

More than a little intrigued by the device, Rin stepped up to the construction; examining it curiously. It was, to all outside inspection; basically a slate gray box that had simply been decorated with gliter, gold and false gemstones; a glowing sign above it proclaimed the device siumply as "Lucky lady luciels luxurious lounge lark" An image of another of the bunny girl esc women, though this one drawn in a far more cartoonish style, sitting to the side of the glowing words. The woman blowing a kiss towards the observer. Below the glowing neon lit sign and borderline lewd erotic image was a screen, displaying an image of a number of slot wheels. The device was... Rin didn't really know how to explain it; she had seen vaugely similar devices using pure mechanical force and complex physical randomisers to attempt something vaugely similar, but this was an entirely different
Wc:2378

Kira glanced to the side, blinking in surprise at the aura she felt slightly behind her. Her spiritual senses had never been the strongest; she was not one who had trained for combat; nor was she one who was well equiped for stealth missions. She knew the basics of course, but she was not the sort who had experience picking up on the aura's of others; hidden or otherwise. Indeed being able to pick up on the aura's of others was an entirely new thing for her; which is why it was so terrifying when she felt the aura behind her; feeling like the power of this individual was at least 3 fold as strong as she was, the raw power on display left her shaking in place, completely forgetting about the building before her and its oddities. She could hear the footsteps approaching her from behind; the slow clicking of heels on stone as this stranger approached, feeling to her like the world itself was being drawn along in their presence; but fortunately for kira the figure strode past her with nary any attention given to her at all; as if she was no more than a gnat, not worth the small effort of the figures attention. Kira breathed a sigh of relief even as she watched the figure step up to the doors of the building; stepping inside without even a hint of hesitation, at least to kira's eyes. Once the woman had stepped inside Kira took a moment to calm herself.

wc: 254
TWC: 757
ThWC:3135

Once she had calmed herself down from witnessing the terrifying presence that had passed her by Kira went back to examining the odd architectural quirks of the building, even now she could see the trees and plant life in the distance swaying under the force of the light winds that blew in through the country, and even still the building remained un phased, it certainly should have crumbled by now, that or the building would need to be constructed of a material stronger than anything she had ever seen, no not just seen but even heard of. Shaking her haid one more time in amazement she started ascending the stairs again, approaching the luxuriously adorned pair of transparent glass doorways which seemed to almost shimer in the light, like gold under a bright toarch the doors beckoned her, encoraging her to stare deeper and deeper into the depths of their reflective scheene. She wasn't sure how long she had stood there in the end, wasn't sure if it was seconds, minutes or hours, couldn't even tell if anyone had tried to get past her' no her full attention was fixed on the pair of doors. As a space time dabbler herself she had the capacity and knowledge to examine such constructions and artifacts without fear of the information being leaked. Instead she stood there staring at the doors, seemingly lost in her own world as the glint of gold and silver began to draw her in. She could feel herself falling.

WC: 251
TWC: 3386

Rin looked over the device, intrigued and curious as to both the design and how that design related to the implementation of the obviously intended function of the device; that function being, rather expectedly, the illusion of randomisation within a device so as to allow the automation of a system of gambling. Deciding it was worth the cost of admission, so to speak, just to get a good look at how the device worked, Rin stepped up to the device, examining the control panel and looking for a way to start the device. A big glowing Red button flashed on the corner of the control panel, Writing sitting atop it. The writing alone was interesting; it seemed to swim and swirl in her vision for a moment before she was able to read it, the kanji for spin emblazoned atop it, or at least thats what it appeared like at first, but something about the words felt... off. Focusing on the button Rin examined her senses as she read the symbol again, noticing how it seemed to shift and warp whenever she tried to focus on a particular part of the word.

Frowning and turning her attention inwards she examined her own perceptions for a moment, her senses, her emotions, she took a deep breath in, allowing the chakra within her body to simply flow, she felt the energy around her, and within her, felt how it moved, swirled and so on. She felt how it passed through her meridians, felt the energy as it quivered, flowing into her dantien, and there, almost imperceptibly, the slightest of quivers that flowed against the natural path of her chakra, so minor she might have been imagining it, and yet as she watched, waiting and observing her chakra she saw it again, and again, one of the most subtle traces of foreign chakra she had ever witnessed, one so small and minor that it could slip past even the most intense of passive detection techniques, but that was not the most inteesting part about the foreign chakra that seemed to be settling within her spiritual body, no what was most intriguing was the function of that chakra, the more she stood there, watching the chakra work the more she began to understand the complexity of the technique, the faint vibrations within this chakra so complex and so rapid it was like an entire mind pulsing as its neuron's fired over and over again, calculating, and as she watched she came to be sure more and more that that was exactly what the chakra was doing, not just the basic sensory replacement calculations most genjutsu produced as a basic function, no this was something far, far, far more. Opening her eyes again and allowing them to pass over the control pannel of the device again Rin kept her spiritual senses trained upon the foreign chakra, watching and observing, waiting to see if her instinctual hypothesis was correct, and indeed, just as expected as she glanced over the various symbols she noticed the same pulses within the small sliver of chakra pick up ever so slightly, allowing her vision to pass over the rest of the consol and instead turn to glance at a nearby table, the numbers and symbols layered across the table iliciting a similar response. This was undeniably the source of the chakra's calculations, this technique, one of the most advanced genjutsu she had ever witnessed, was imbued with what could almost be described as a rudimentary mind, capable of reading information from the target's brain and then identifying what parts of that information was a language, it then analyzed the language and replaced that information with the host's own language.

The entire concept was utterly ludicrus of course, to create a burgoning inteligence, imbue it into a genjutsu, and then use that genjutsu for something as simple as translating words within a casino... well it boggled the mind the amount of resources that must be at the techniques creator's disposal to be able to devote such a massive amount of time and effort into this effect, still allowing the foreign chakra of another to exist within her system was anathema to her, the memories of when such a thing had been common place for her more than traumatic enough that she avoided such things like the plague... and yet she couldn't deny the usefulness of the technique's effects. Humming to herself in thought she sat down at the device, examining the chakra again.

WC: 752

Kira's mind was scattered, she felt like she was falling, she had been staring at the building a moment ago, taking advantage of her new spiritual senses, she remembered that, and yet now she felt like she was... somewhere else? She saw? no felt? neither word was quite appropriate to what she was experiencing. She could feel her eyes still staring at the building, feel how they trained their gaze upon the door's of the construction, and yet that was not what she was experiencing. Instead it felt like she was gazing upon a gigantic set of chains, each one forged from stardust and light, the very laws of the universe themselves seemed to be forged into those chains, the world itself warped and formed into something undeniably more. She couldn't even begin to comprehend the complexity of those starforged chains of law, but the more she tried to look away the more she felt herself being drawn deeper, the chains themselves seemed to resonate with her, pulling her in even as they began to curl around her, tightening... wait no that still wasn't quite right, the chains hadn't moved, and neither had she... so how was it that the chains had started to coil around her? How was it that the chains held her down, kept her in place and sung to her of a million impossible possibilities she was forbidden to persue? Had they always been there? could it be that the chains were not some construction of man, but rather the law's of the world itself made manifest?

WC: 261

The Chakra construct that was circling slowly through her spiritual body, she had decided it best to refer to the loose mass of energy as a construct, It had the form of a basic genjutsu, but the functionality was so advanced that it was more appropriate to think of it as something with at least some basic trace of rudimentary intelligence. Rin observed calmly as the construct continued it's work, slowly circling through her pathways, occasionally letting out a quivering pulse of imperceptible power as it found something to change. She watched and observed as it calculated a million different variables, watched as it altered the strands of her senses with the most minute and deft touches. She watched and observed as the strand of foreign chakra not only did it's job but did it well.

Rin sat there for who knows how long, she sat there watching the foreign strand of chakra like one would watch a show, finding enjoyment and entertainment in the sheer complexity and skill that was required for something like this, she found enjoyment in the same way one who had begun to take steps into the ranks of master chess players might marvel at the skilled complexity a game between grand masters might exhibit, capable of understanding enough to appreciate the complexity of the lines of play, to understand the theory and the implementation of that theory, and yet completely incapable of crafting the ideas and strategies involved on their own.

Rin marveled at the way the sliver of some foreign power so seamlessly integrated its will with her own spirit, so subtle and imperceptible as to be all but impossible to notice if you didn't know what you were looking for. She watched and observed the sliver, intently observing and noting the constructs every action, every pulse and deviation detailed in impeccable detail as she seared it into her mind. She took note of every possible variable she could observe, detailed every action and analysed those actions for any possible rational behind them. She observed everything until there was nothing left to observe, and once that was done, once she was confident she had drawn out every possible drop of information from the construct without disecting it... she began to prepare for her next step
wc: 382

Kira stood there staring at the chains, gazing at them with her spiritual senses for what felt like decades, Each chain was made up of hundreds of links, and each link, composed of thousands of smaller chains interlocked over them. Like one massive tapestry the smaller chains formed a part of a larger whole, and that same larger whole was to its own larger chains as the smaller chains were to it. Each faccet of the universal laws seemed to be tied to these chains, each one of the smaller chains representing a basic law, and each of the greater chains represented a constant composed of those basic laws, as she gazed up those chains seemed to feed into larger and larger chains, the immutable and unbreakable rules of the universe composed of hundreds of smaller laws... but as she gazed at those chains, trying to read and understand their meanings, she began to notice something.

The chains that wrapped around the building before her, and indeed the chains that surrounded her in some places, were different. Around her she noticed small flecks of black, tiny, immutably small and almost entirely indistinguishable, but these flecks floated from a small cluster of the smallest chains, and as she looked closer she saw those chains were cracked... not quite broken, but some of the small links within them were strained and at broken in places... somehow she had an innate sense that these chains were tied to the concept of death, though more than that she could not discern.
wc:257

The chains that wrapped around her were many of course, and few of them were broken, but still she could tell that for whatever reason, some small, minor, almost certainly unimportant law of the universe no longer applied to her, it was guess work of course, a combination of intuition and inference of course, but she suspected the broken links had something to do with her abilities around the dead, certainly few others had the ability to raise the dead, even if only as mindless puppets. With cautious optimism she began to try and touch the chains, her own hands simply passing through them like they weren't there, next she tried her hand at using her chakra. Tapping in to the reservoir of spiritual power she had within her Kira began to guide that energy out of her body, attempting to wrap it around the chains of the world, yet once again it passed through them like they were nothing. Kira frowned, if she didn't know any better she would think that this was simply an illusion... she even tried cycling her chakra in a genjutsu release technique, but nothing happened... well that wasn't strictly true, having drawn her attention away from the chains she noticed the vision began to fade, the chains not disappearing exactly, but rather starting to fade into the background of existence as it were. Now that she knew what to look for however, the young necromancer was able to notice the presence of the threads everywhere.

wc:251