To Begin Anew.....

[Kimiko Aimi]

The Failure stood there, facing the dimly lit man who remained hunched over. Her friend that brooded over the thoughts of his endless rage and hate for those that murdered his wife. The endless slaughter that had no real goal. No true ending that Garret would find peace, or happiness. There was no peace for the man if he continued to walk down this path. But for Garret, he knew this. The Wanderer was completely aware of the fact that there was no means of peace should he continue onward. What resided around the Failure was testament to what he wished to do with what remained of his life. Piles and piles of blood and bodies, within a world that had no other perspective than that of death and blood. Garret would find no salvation in this way of life; in this world that he restricted himself too. He wanted nothing more than that. The life of the blade and the carnage that it brought to those that it struck.

Kimiko continued to listen as she paved the appropriate thoughts down into words that needed to be spoken. Garret himself had admitted to the obsession. His fixation in eliminating the entire species of Hollows. None of it would matter as their numbers will never change. What Garret wanted to accomplish would mean the end of him, and quite possibly transforming him into the very monster he sought to destroy. "I want to free you from this burden, Garret. This affliction of yours. Because........ I believe that this isn't what she would want for you." Kimiko dared, understanding what it would mean to involve her. "You drown yourself in this 'thing' and become more like the Hollows with each passing day. I fear soon, your soul will be consumed by this affliction, and become the very thing that you wish to rid from this world." Kimiko drew closer. "That is why I want to free you from it, with what little time I have left now." she admitted.

The Failure didn't have much time left. The body she possessed beyond the borders of the man's soul was breaking. Having not the true capability to naturally enter into the man's soul, it was out of sheer will power that she was able to enter. The amount of energy and force required to do so, while maintaining Garret's body seized, meant straining her body, and spirit. Her legs in Garret's inner world were dispersing. Turning no more into ashes as time fled. "Where does the beast reside, Garret? Where is it now?" This was the extent that Kimiko could do for the man. She was going to silence it for all time, burying it beneath the cold unforgiving ice that sought to end the parasite that dared to feed on her friend.

Her breathing quickened. "Please do tell me Garret. If anything, she wouldn't want you to reside in this world. Even if you believe that there isn't anything worth living for.... Please use this freedom to search for that purpose, even if it takes you a century to do so, my friend." she uttered to the man.

[RayginX]

What Kimiko had to say had an affect on the man. Mentioning his wife, Cassandra, caused a reaction in Garret. Her name, her memories, were essentially open and festering wounds that were exposed for anybody to stick their fingers in. The Rogue twitched when her name was mentioned, closing his one remaining eye as if the very name caused him pain. Turning himself back towards the bonfire, as if exposing his back to Kimiko would block out what she said, the man could not deny the effect her words were having on him. He knew, deep down, that what he was doing was the farthest that Cassandra wanted from him.

The life they aimed to have in the Rukongai was supposed to be one of peace. No fighting. No bloodshed. Just spending their afterlife together. Over seven hundred years of marriage spent together. There were plenty of fights. Plenty of good memories. The two knew each other as they knew themselves. They had seen many of their friends come and go. Yet, each time Garret remembered he was forced to relive that moment of helplessness. He was forced to see the sight of his beloved being torn apart by the soul starved monsters. Who could fault him for his quest for revenge? Who could fault him for wanting to forsake his humanity and burn himself on hatred's black flame?

Garret didn’t even realize how deep his brow had furrowed. He didn’t realize had hard his teeth were pressed together. Here, in his inner world, his emotions were far more exposed. He couldn’t hide how he felt behind his strong and silent demeanor. Kimiko would, more clearly than she ever had before, feel the vortex of emotions that always lay beneath the mans scarred body. What Kimiko said was right. Cassandra wouldn’t want this for him. Those peaceful memories they had together had been coated in blood, as if a picture had been splashed on, and all he knew anymore was this battle. Cassandra wouldn’t want this.

He knew what Kimiko said was truth. He could feel himself becoming more and more like the Hollows each passing night. Each night, in each battle, he could feel more and more of what remained of his humanity slipping away. His body raped by battle and the Bakkoto. The Rogue opened his eye, and for a moment he thought he saw something in the pyre before him. He thought he saw his wife, sitting there, looking at him. No doubt it was merely a figment of his breaking sanity, but he had seen her face for a mere moment. He saw the sadness she expressed.

The Rogue exhaled, his body loosening up as he turned back towards Kimiko as she said her peace. Her body was breaking apart, even in this realm, and Garret understood what that meant. She was willing to go this far for him. For hers and Cassandra’s sake, for those two closest to him, he would go through with this. The Rogue raised his head, a familiar, and strong, fire of his will was alit in his eye. ”It’s here.” Garret answered, sloshing through the ankle deep mire at his feet to approach Kimiko. He cast his arm outwards, waving it across the horizon. The boundaries of this swamp of blood was simply darkness. The bonfire that burned at the center was the only light, surrounded by a abyss that never seemed to end. ”It resides out there in the dark.” Garret answered, before he began to step back towards the bonfire.

The man reached into the flames, causing him to wince in pain as the tongues licked and burned his flesh. Grabbing the red hot handle of that familiar sword, causing his flesh to hiss and scream, Garret pulled it free from the corpses with a roar. ”It hides because it’s scared of you. It's always feared you, because you always stood in its way. It couldn’t come out when you were around, so it tormented me from the shadows to let it in.” Garret explained, taking his place beside Kimiko once more.

”Darkness always fears the light...but is never too far away from it.” the Rogue commented, before stepping past Kimiko and closer to the edge of dark. Lifting the blazing sword high above his head, Garret roared before recreating a familiar sight. He brought his sword down, slamming it into the mire, causing the flames of his soul to explode outwards and into a wave of flame. The furthest depths of the inner world were exposed as the lake was set ablaze, bringing more light into the world.

And there it was.

At the furthest reaches of the flames light, the two would see it there. It shifted as it was exposed to the light, causing it to rise from the lake of blood. It was no Hollow. It was simply a beast. A beast in all black. It rose upon its four legs, standing to its full height and easily towering over the two humans who were a good distance away from it. A beast in the shape of a hound. Yet, at the same time, it was a horrible disfigured and mutated monstrosity. No hound possessed a jaw with such length, nor eyes shaped light bolts of lightning that burned with hateful coals. The black beasts abdomen was torn open, its ribs exposed and stomach gutted. A beast with a insatiable, endless, hunger. Numerous swords and weapons were plunged into its back, and it was missing its right eye just as the swordsmen was.

It stepped forward, causing the lake to rumble before it reared back and released a roar. Like a hurricane the force behind it buffered Garret, causing him to raise his burning sword to defend himself. The world around them was being affected as well. The shadowy figures that were locked into eternal war were becoming distorted, their actions breaking from their normal programming and becoming erratic. The beast charged once its bellow was finished, jaws open wide and causing its head to split as it rushed them. Garret could hear it. He couldn’t hear it in words, but he could tell its intentions. It was coming for them both. Both at once. It would consume them both here and be free to rampage and feed to its hearts content. All it needed was Garrets body. Kimiko was a threat. It would kill her here, where she and it were most exposed.

[Kimiko Aimi]

The great shadow revealed thy self. True to its nature, the beast clung to the shadows in which kept itself safe, beyond the scope of what was pure and righteous. Just as she had seen it in the outside world, what shape it took on here mirrored what she witnessed donned over Garret's flesh. A Hound shaped armor figure took hold of him, stirring about as much as any of the Hollow that he had slain before hand. This beast that revealed itself before the pair was the reconstruction of the man's anger and hate towards those that wronged him. Layers of stored rage looking for a means to justify itself with what little it could do. For what Kimiko saw, and managed to piece together based on her own understanding, what plagued the man, the Bakkoto, and the obsession within him have twirled and created what stood before them now. The black hound had finally revealed itself to them.

This was the very creature that housed all the man's malevolence. It seethed as the shadows kept most of it's form obscure. A dark silhouette that moved swiftly through the land of shadows and dread. The opportunity that was desperately sought out was here. It was here that the Failure desired to end the man's suffering. With all her strength, she would be here to vanquish the darkness that swell within the man's soul. However..........

Kimiko's body splittered. Forcing the connection between the two had taken its toll on the woman's body. The strain of pushing beyond her Sensory limits reached up to the surface of her collar. Beyond the inner realm, what seemed to the spectacle of beautiful reiatsu swirling around the air, upon closer inspection was really a scene desperation. Prolonged exposure the reiatsu within the woman's body flared, erupting forth from the cracks that rooted up along her body. Together with her inner self, the two slowly dropped down to a knee, panting heavily as the spiral of energy raging to escape the fragile frame. "Garret.....I don't......have much time left. All I can do....is provide you the opportunity... to deliver the neces----sary blow. So please, if this is what you want.......... Do not hesitate." The porcelain shell of the Failure snapped along the ridges of the tear ducts as the chill of the Flood roared to life.

Before, the mass of aura that kept itself at bay by the willpower of the Japanese woman was set free to rampage forward over the Wanderer. Unlike those scenarios from before, Kimiko had kept firm control over how the Flood acted out. Directing it with either hand motions, or that of her thoughts, it kept a complacent and fluid nature. Itself was an art form in which acted as the paint that Kimiko's brush was stained with. The world was her canvass to be coated with that of her Flood. Now, what shackles she held onto were released, enabling the wave of reiatsu to storm as it was always intended to be. A miniture hurricane would be a better description as what it would appear to be as the continuous wave of reiatsu washed over the small plane of darkened liquid.

Generally, a near ten foot wave of piercing wind shot forth before splashing downwards before shooting back upwards into the air. Garret's skin would crawl. Having been exposed to the drastic change in temperature, what liquid would be there would be layered over with ice. The man himself remained untouched as the wave had split towards both sides, expanding outwards toward the Hound. The purpose wasn't to freeze the beast immediately, but to remove possible means of evading as what came next would force it into the position that Garret would require. "A drop of water ripples across the ocean surface, a leviathan rises from his slumber. Sprinkled on the bones of the beast! Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring. Move and become the wind, stop and become the calm...." Kimiko began to chant. More noticeably, one of the phrases the man would come to recognize as the Failure had used on him earlier on in their fight.

A double incantation. A dual cast of mixing two Kido spells together in order to confuse and enable the use of two spells rather than the one. Risky when exposed. Vulnerable to an assault if not guarded. Little did that matter to the Failure as her Flood was what kept many from advancing onto her position. A single touch from reiatsu that was strengthened with 2100 behind it made it all the more possible to instantaneously turn a subject into a statue. "... Go forth, depths of the sea, rise from your slumber to drown the land in your magnificent expanse; turn earth to sea, air to liquid, bring forth your deep embrace...." Kimiko continued on, staggering to bring herself back to a standing pose. Double incantations utilized more reiatsu as two spells are conjured at the same time. Both that may cause a loss of an immense amount of reiatsu. Easily noticeable, and easily avoidable. All of it was too much of a risk for the user to really place onto themselves. If they were alone that is.

"Garret! Move out of the way!" she beckoned to the man in front. "...The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle! Hado #40: Gouzen Demizu (Roaring Flood)!" the Failure called out first. Garret's peripherals would have caught on to the woman point directly in front of her. A single notion to allow the water to originate before erupting from beneath the dark pool of grim. Both hands composing the water's nature to shoot upwards before creating the twenty foot tsunami wave that was to pushed towards the Hound. The small tidal wave length was that of twenty feet from side to side, easily removing the need to visually see where the Hound would be expecting to motion towards. Towering over the three individuals in the dark world, the Failure motioned the wave forward to the open plane before them.

Sounds of glass and shards shattering, dripping down into the pools beneath them. Casting the first spell tore the woman's left arm from the shoulder socket, leaving behind part of Kimiko's Yukata empty. "Aaaghh!" Kimiko cried out, before snapping back to attention for the next spell. "Hado#63: Raikōhō (Thunder Roar Cannon)" The right hand rose upwards, directing toward the position in which her strained Energy Sensory could tell her. Already, Kimiko had reached her limits. Pushing beyond them now, even as a Failure with all of her power, was inconceivable. Still, even with that in mind, the roar of the Raikoho escaped the palm of her hand, releasing a widestream of electrical energy out towards the Hound. And when contact was made with the rush of water, the combination of the super heated energy with the chill of ice and fluids, burst forth a powerful cloud of super heated steam. A cloud wide enough to cover the small area in which the beast would most likely scurry around in.

But again, the chance that the plan would come to frutition was indeed slim. With what little light her reiatsu could bring to the inner world, what could have been done here was done. All that was left was for Garret to take his shot with what Kimiko had to offer to him.


OOC: It's late now, so will deduct the reiatsu cost at a later time.

[RayginX]

Suddenly hearing something akin to the sound of cracking, Garret turned his attention from the charging horror and brought his attention to his ailing comrade. She had dropped to her knee in pain from the stress of what she was doing. His single eye locked onto her, widening a tad when she spoke to him. Her words were a warning. She confessed to not having much time left and he understood that this would be their only chance. She would buy him that opportunity with her life and, in the end, the decision was entirely up to him. The skin along her tear ducts fractured and split as if she was made of some stone, signaling to him that she was on the verge of breaking apart entirely.

She unshackled her power. Garret watched as the power that Kimiko always kept in check was allowed its full freedom. It was as if a hurricane had consumed this dark world. He could feel the chill biting at his skin from her reiatsu. Garret watched as her Flood spilled forward and around the Beast, cutting off its escape and sealing it in. "A drop of water ripples across the ocean-” he suddenly heard, giving Kimiko his attention yet again. She was chanting an incantation, aiming to further increase the power of the spell she intended to cast.

Suddenly he was warned to move. On cue Garret leapt upwards, his physical strength aiding him even in this world, getting him out of the way as Kimiko as she birthed a tsunami from nothing. Fresh, blue, water rushed across the murk and filth that polluted this world of his and straight into the maw of the charging Beast. Against the tremendous force that powered Kimiko, the Beasts charge was not only halted but was even reverted a bit. It even seemed that the dark hound would be lose its standing position entirely. But it held fast. It anchored itself firmly and took the brunt of her wave and even, horrifyingly, began to move forward slowly.

Kimiko’s sudden screaming caught the Rogue’s attention yet again, and he watched in horror as her left arm became the next part of her body that she lost. But despite the pain she had to be in, she was not done. With her last remaining arm she took aim yet again, and this time fired an attack of pure electrical mayhem. Like a lightning bolt across the sky, the beam fired true and came to collide with the very Beast itself. The resulting, and intending, explosion had an unknown effect on the Hound but it’s screech of pain was heard amongst the other sounds. Super heated steam created an intense cloud that no doubt would burn whoever was foolish enough to enter.

But, Garret knew now was the time. As his feet came to touch the waters again, the Rogue wasted no time with charging. He didn’t spare a moment to look back at her. He knew that, to do so, would have been an insult. Kimiko was sacrificing everything for this. She was throwing away her life for this one chance to stop the darkness inside Garret, once and for all. The Rogue sneered. His lips peeled back into a frustrated snarl. If this is what I want? You’re cruel, Kimiko. The words played in his mind as he charged forward, blazing sword in hand.

You do all this as if I have a choice. You break yourself, you destroy yourself, all for this. All for me. You do all this for me.

Garret entered into the steam, his skin burning in protest as he entered into the incendiary cloud. He didn’t need his eye to know where it was. But as he charged forward, Garret was suddenly blown backwards. He felt something hot slice into his stomach, splitting the flesh, muscle, and guts asunder. Garret realized what it was. The Beast, just as Garret did, knew the Rogue was coming. In the hopes of defending itself it had swiped forward with one of its arms, despite how damaged it was, to try and stop him. Yet this didn’t stop Garret. The Rogue roared and charged again, despite the pain.

You do all this for someone like me. You use your life to save a wretch like me. Why? I’m a man whose done nothing but kill. I’m nothing more than a man who wanted to burn himself with revenge. How could you take away the one goal my life had?

Something was swinging through the steam. The beast was swinging its tail, hoping to smash Garret and stop the Rogue. But, suddenly, the tail simply passed through Garret. The Beast, stunned, watched as Garret suddenly vanished. It quickly looked up, to see the Rogue above him descending upon it. Soul Steps. One of the few trickery techniques Garret possessed. Garret had used the technique to augment his Shunpo to create a afterimage out of his own Life Force. The man roared, with sword held back above his head, before finally plunging that thing too big to be called a sword directly between the Beasts eyes.

Yet...how can I ever call myself a man if I let your sacrifice go to vain..

He stood atop the beasts snout as the flames of his sword began to insert themselves into the wound he made into the beast. ”This...is what you want?” Garret suddenly heard, a voice all too familiar to him, from the Beast. Releasing his sword and leaping backwards back onto the flooded floor, Garret stared up at the Beast. It was stuck in that position, unable to move, and Garret noticed why. Kimiko’s Flood that had been hanging around to create a perimeter to keep the beast inside was causing the water to freeze. Ice was crawling up the beasts body.

”You’ll throw it all away...you’ll throw Cassandra’s memory away...for what? What reason is there to exist without her...without your goal? Does that woman mean more to you than her?” the Beast asked a silent Garret. The aged, white haired, man simple stood with a hand over his wound. A frown painted his features before he knew how to answer. ”I refuse to let my life be controlled by another's hand but my own. Cassandra will always be a wound in my heart. But I will no longer defile my love or memory of her by using her as tinder anymore.” Garret replied, before turning away from the Beast.

”Fool...stupid fool. You and that whore...you may suppress me for now...but you can never kill me. I am thou. Thou are’t I. We are one and...the same. I will return and when I d-”

Garret didn’t even watch as the ice finally finished consuming the Beast. There was only silence. Finally, silence. Garret didn’t even acknowledge the snow that was suddenly falling down around him. He merely, in silence, approached his breaking companion. He stopped a few feet from her, his ankles deep in the water she had created, and he simply looked at her. ”Is this it, then? Is this where we say our goodbyes?” Garret asked, not mincing his words. He could see what was happening to her. He knew what was coming.

[Kimiko Aimi]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Setting}

"I-it's cold now." For the first time in a long time, the drops of snow that fell upon the lucid pools of dread brought life to the dark scene around them. For the first time, what remained frozen in time could fathom the sensations around it. A sense of time that was once thought to be kept stilled now moving forward. Moments treading ahead as much as the fragments of self fell, impeding themselves into the pools below. Life continued on. This idea itself wasn't solely for the Failure, but very much for the Wanderer. A sense of progression in a world that seemed to have stood still. Motioning around, the Flood remained unfazed by the change within its host. Silent it was. Motioning, it danced back and forth from their formation. "It's cold now. And yet, warm." Kimiko chuckled at the sense of nostalgia and irony that it all brought forth to her. It was the same as that day a thousand years ago.

A sensation she thought that was once forgotten. She could feel it once again. Her nerves tingled and spiked. Her body remained knelt, motionless as she acknowledge what may come. "I'm sorry, Garret. This...may not be what you have desired. Even I thought as such, and acted with such greed and malevolence. I am sorry for pushing this onto you." In the stir of the vortex, her soft words would not give in. Not to that of the fragments that fell from her mental shell, nor to the mark left behind. "I thought this would be the best means to help you, yet, I acted alone..... without consulting you on the matter. I did so out of greed, and selfishness. And because I did so, you were hurt. I am sorry." She remained as before. What little physical strength she had in the man's Inner World was utilized to usher a traditional Japanese bow. Slight movement of the head, a sign of their people of respect, and that of apology. Kimiko mourned for what her transgressions had brought upon Garret. The only man who understand the meaning of their stand-still. One who had the potential to understand the weight of their sorrow, pain, and anger. Both may have been born in different times, but could never be closer to each other than that of their own experiences. And in that experience, Kimiko came to a conclusion to find a means to break that stand-still.

Garret's world proved that his darkness grew as strong as the man himself became. His own testament just as Kimiko's Flood was her own. In time, the man would come to find himself in the same conclusion as Kimiko had; an end. Garret was the first and only individual that she could call a friend. As they stepped along side each other, she watched him. Short of a time it may have been, she watched him. Garret struggled with his demons day and night. Carrying upon his back the weight of his past, bearing the hate in his hands looking to break pieces from it. Each step taken forward meant finding himself where he first began. A repetitive, never ending cycle. "But, I could not let it continue. This stagnant lapse. This sense of repetition of malice, anger, sorrow, and suffering. I just could not bare it. It was as though I was looking into a mirror." Every day spent with him, the Failure more of herself in him. What he would become.

Day by day her power grew. Day by day it slipped further away from her grasp. In reality, watching the man's body encased in her ice, she knew that it too would one day keep the man away from her. Away from people. Away from dreams. Away from hope. And away from peace. A lesson learned as she came to know Garret more. Only by being with the Rogue could she finally understand what it meant to be alone, and the damage that those results would cause. Kimiko failed as a teacher. Providing strength wasn't something she was capable of doing. Her efforts with the man was proof of her lack in ability to do so. As such, Kimiko pondered. The Failure sought a way to help the man. Together their strength grew, only making it more apparent as to what could be done. If her power continued to grow beyond her own control to destroy..... then let it's potential be used for something good; allowing it to expand, push against what did not wish to yield. Allow it to become a veil that would protect. "I saw the solitude and dread that would come for you if allowed to continue. Like me."

The mountains and hills that surrounded the pair shook. Reiatsu flares sprung snapped from the parting shell. "This was...... the only thing that I can do for you.. To give you something that I believe that she would have wanted for you in her passing.........Peace." Another flare shot out from the Failure's body, erupting from backside of the spiritual body. Although the two realities remained separate, each eruption of energy shook the fabric of the Inner world. Kimiko's form was about release the energy that had been building from her time of rebirth as a Failure. "It would not be much longer until my body fails me, before it fails to hold it back. I do not want that to happen. Instead, I would rather use what light I have left, and make it meaningful." she admitted to her fear, and that of a single hope. "This........ is all I can hope to do for you, Garret. I am not a good teacher, or a good friend. But, if there is anything that I can provide you with......from the bottom of my heart I pray. A time of rest, a new future; a new horizon." The strands of silver hair pulled back as her head reclined back for their eyes to meet, repeating the lessons she had learned from her previous life. "Please, do not repeat the same mistakes as I have and continue living with this inside. Do not fear what the future may bring."

Another eruption, stored pressure exploding from the left shoulder. The Flood withdrew, returning back to the side of the Priestess. It painted a serene layer of ice beneath her knees. A soft gloss of crystal white and blue patching a single spot within the Wanderer's darkened world. On top, a freezing woman. Remaining pieces of the woman's spiritual imprint stilled, coated in a film of ice as she brought her right arm onto her solidified lap. "To hope for something better is to move forward in life. You will never forget what has happened, but never will it have control over. Because to hope is to live, Garret." The film continued upward as the Flood caressed her body. "I do not know if this is the end. I am not certain if this is good-bye. However, if you continue to step forward, if you so desire to continue to hope, then I will be there." Her chest stiffened. The Failure's remaining shoulder ceased to show the signs of its previous activities. "You may not see me, but know that I am there."

In its embrace, the body that remained kneeling froze, leaving behind the little essence that the Failure carried. A single solid patch of ice and snow with a translucent figure remaining in position. "And always will be." the echoes of that essence utter before falling into silence of the Inner World. Her connection was severed, leaving behind the pieces and fragments of her reiatsu within the depths of the man's spirit. Beyond the Inner realm, the storm subsided. The explosions have ceased. What Failures were known for was the destruction left in their wake. Upon the end of their cycles, the Failure's Flood would enter rampancy. Lashing outwards at all matter of life around them. Kimiko's case would be no different as ice would formulate along the mountain sides and spiking across the surface of the Rogue's skin. But nothing. When coming to, opening the eyes to the soul, before the Rogue stood a statue.

Splintering icicles from the ground, arching around the sides of the knelt woman figure the tips remained peeled apart. Flora in design, the sides and rear of the body stretched outwards panning to match the formations that the Rogue bore witness to before. A thick layer of ice spread out from the rear of the body. The layer reaching to caress the upward curve of the hill behind, allowing the energy to be contained, with the woman inside. Here the Failure sleeps, her body lost in the Flood that was cast over the mountain side.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Reference}

[Johnwaluigi]

Garrett: 62 paragraphs + Draw = +1700 TP

Kimiko receives no reward, having been killed in a DE thread.