Outbreak

[Diatenshi]

Taverns are often where stories are shared, strangers meeting over a pint and telling stories of their wild adventures. As the smoke from a middle-aged man's pipe floated up he captivated his audience with a fanciful tale. In the lands formally belonging to Fountain Country an eerie rumor has begun to spread, at first thought to be nothing more than ghost story, people have begun to think it may be something more sinister.

As the man tells it supposedly, an entire village was destroyed in a night; the survivors speak of the dead walking the earth, cannibalizing friends and family alike. Those bitten or scratched would experience bleeding from the seven orifices as if cursed or possessed. Worse yet these people would die without medical intervention and once they did, they too would rise up and begin attacking the living. The area around the village and surroundings now being called cursed. None would risk their lives or those of their families to travel near and those fool hardy enough to explore the area seldom returned.

The most striking part of the story however was that amongst these monsters was a young girl, maybe 6-7 in age. She had pink pig tails and was grasping a small teddy bear. Her skin was pale and smooth like milk with bright eyes that bespoke joy and curiosity. A perfect picture of innocence and yet... It was this very air of innocence that made one's blood run cold. The mayhem and violence didn't seem to perturb her, rather she seemed to revel in dancing and laughing as bodies were torn apart.

The man says his companion attempted to save the girl, rushing out to pick her up and carry her away from the monsters around the village. At first he supported his friends thinking, assuming that the carnage around her had simply broken her mind. But no, this seemingly healthy young child ripped his friends arm off and ate it. She was the worse monster of them all.

For across her face and saintly white dress was the blood splatter of her victim. He still recalls her vibrant yellow eyes alight with glee as she tore his friend limb from limb and devoured his body bones and all. And above all, he spoke of a song the little girl would sing as she played amongst the monsters. A song about playing hide and seek...

As he finishes his tale many of the audiance are pale with fright yet one young man sneers and claps. "Very good, a wonderful tale old man. Only children would take this as anything more than a simple ghost story." His words and laughter would give the room some life again as others nodded their heads thinking how unrealistic the story was. After all how could the dead walk?

"Your wrong! I've been by the village this past week and while I did not approach, the surrounding areas have been corrupted! Overgrown by this strange fleshy growth that clings to the ground and trees, the very air tainted by a red mist that taste of blood!" An attractive lady rebukes the youths dismissal adding to the story with her own experiences. Soon the tavern is in an uproar its patrons arguing over the veracity of this haunting tale.

[Izanagi]

Shinjiro sat in the corner of the water country tavern. He had been quite troubled recently with a number of distressing rumors out and about. Both Maido and the Mizukage had gotten themselves killed within the same week, it seemed. The details were still inconsistent but his following up with various bounty hunter guilds and it seemed to be true. There was also the matter the recent deaths of a Suna and Konoha Bannin each, murdered together by an unknown assailant. The strongest in the world had begun to be thinned at a staggering rate. And now it seemed to fall on him to ensure Kirigakure was strong enough to fend off any who would take advantage of their current state. At the very least he hoped the deaths of Aimi and Katsu would deter any other invaders. But more than ever he needed trusted allies that he could hone into fine weapons.

It was therefore rather fortuitous that he stumbled upon these rumors of a zombie outbreak. He had his suspicions from the moment he heard of a horde of the undead. But as more details were presented any doubts he had were eliminated. It was Toukai Chisaki; his first girlfriend that had been missing in action for nearly a year now. It felt all too familiar to the disappearance of Kazuki Amaya, the first girl he ever kissed. War had a way of separating one form those they cared about. He had even lost touch with Yuuto lately.

Though hearing that Chisaki was still alive filled him with a sense of duty, to recover her and care for her. She was the first person to truly see and accept him for who he was rather than trying to change him into something better suited to their vision of him. He had Asami now too, his apprentice and fellow swordsman of the mist. She was expecting a child, one he had sired. They would need to be protected and kept separate from Chisaki. She was already emotionally unstable and possessive ordinarily, there was no telling what her state of mind would be like now. Clearly something was wrong or else she would have returned to the village of her own accord. Shinjiro grinned a wicked smirk as he heard the patrons arguing about the validity of such claims. Perhaps he could have some fun while also practicing a technique he had been working on. Since he was a teenager, he had been able to transform himself into animals, fully or partially. But only recently had he truly delved into the full potential of Vorashu’s powers. His mastery over the Genma had grown dramatically over the last year. Now, he realized he could transform himself however he saw fit and could even do the same of others or spawn entire creatures of his own design at will. There was practically no limit to what he could do; in theory at least.

He stood, his hood drawn up over his face. “Did this girl…” he began as his form began to shift, he shrank by half a foot, his cloak fitting even more loosely than before. Strands of long pick locks spilled out from under his hood, revealed fully as he slid the hood back with one hand and pulled his mask down with the other. “Look something like this?” he added, his voice changing to become distinctly feminine as his body morphed into a perfect resemblance of Chisaki’s form the last time, he saw her. Even if she had reverted to a childlike form, surely the resemblance would be uncanny.

Jutsu TrainedShow

600/400 Words

Perfect Transformation
S-Rank Full Kaerujutsu
Prerequisite: Form 1
This technique allows Shinjiro to completely transform himself into another human. Biologically he will be indistinguishable, altering his scent, sex, vocal cords and any other physical and biological attributes as he sees fit. He can even temporarily remove his own body modifications. Only his chakra signature and the black markings on his hands will remain the same.

Shinjiro looked over his hands, they were still the usual charcoal black. It seemed even transforming into another human he couldn’t mask the signs of Vorashu, not unless he matched the skin tone across the rest of his body, he supposed. Still, despite the subtle difference he was essentially a version of what Chisaki would have been if she was still human. He was familiar enough with her body to get the details right, even down to her scent. However, he knew it was a far cry from the real thing, she was unique, an immortal and a shapeshifter like him. Even he couldn’t match her true viral mass and capabilities. But those in the tavern would not be able to discern such things.

Perhaps it was being in her form, or perhaps he simply saw the world as his training instruments but he decided to experiment with a genjutsu he had been working on. He could replicate his appearance, but he hadn’t attempted to use the genjutsu while physically transformed into another. Green chakra seeped from his body as he began to channel the genjutsu and then started exhaling a plume of poisonous green smoke. Those who saw the cloud of poison would suddenly see every patron as a perfect replica of Shinjiro in his current form, cloaked pink-haired women with eerie yellow eyes. He began to chuckle lowly as the patrons began vomiting and collapsing in heaps as his poison set to work. But given some of their frantic and shocked reactions as they looked around it seemed that his genjutsu had worked as intended. Certainly, there would be much more useful situations for such a technique, allowing himself to confuse his opponents and either retreat or attack while they were trying to discern friend from foe.

Jutsu TrainedShow

300/300 Words

[Genjutsu • One with the Crowd]
A-Ranked Illusion Genjutsu
The user will channel chakra and then exhale a cloud of poisonous gas. Meant to multi-target, anyone who sees the bellowing gas will be caught in the genjutsu. For the next 6 posts, everyone the targets see will appear exactly the same as Shinjiro did when he performed the genjutsu regardless of any changes they attempt to make to their appearance. Everyone’s voice and scent similarly will perfectly match that of Shinjiro, making it quite difficult to determine who the real one is.

Exciting the building, Shinjiro’s body shifted and morphed again as he returned to his true form. ‘Fountain Country’ he considered, recalling that was both the place he first met Chisaki as well as later being where he took her on their first date. He felt foolish for not considering she might have ended up back there. But it was a part of Water country now, he simply hadn’t expected she would be so close. He supposed it did have a smaller shinobi presence there than other newly acquired lands such as the mainland they had claimed from former Tea country. But if there were undead hordes to deal with that meant likely whatever small shinobi force that was stationed there had been overrun. It would be best for him to clean up the mess personally and try to cover Chisaki’s tracks so there wasn’t any fallback on her. Few would question his word if he managed to spin the story the right way.

But for that he would require an efficient means of destroying bodies. ‘What do you think Vorashu? Can we make something that uses acid?’ he considered. He recalled how Katsu had managed to utilize and organic acid, if a knock-off failed host could manage it, then surely so could he. ‘Pitiful human, your understanding is so…limited. Allow me to open your eyes’ Vorashu’s seething voice echoed in his mind. Flashes of ancestral understanding surged through his mind as images of countless snakes and insects imprinted into his mind. He understood what he needed to now. ‘I see. I can work with that’ he considered. His relationship with Vorashu had grown substantially over the years, it seemed like they had reached some level of mutual respect and with it came access to tremendous new possibilities, even if Shinjiro’s execution was still quite lacking. Chakra surged around him and his hair grew into thick braids, his limbs lengthening by about half a foot. Moving his arms about he began to conjure a new instrument of destruction. Something that suited his personal preferences. A create combining the body of a massive serpent, the wings of a bat, and two massive praying mantis arms. Lastly would be the acid glands, a more potent version of the types of acids various insects used. He smiled softly, Maido would have been proud of this creation. But where he had conjured one such monstrous beast for her, this one would be made in honor of himself and what he represented. Perhaps one day he would find inspiration to make a creation dedicated to Chisaki. But first he would have to find her and bring her home. Leaping up onto the nape of the creature’s neck, its wings would flap, shattering the windows of the tavern with the force of winds it generated as it ascended. Soon, the test would come if the acidic spit of this creature could dissolve flesh.

Jutsu TrainedShow

487/400

Overseer’s Scourge
S-Rank Chimera Genesis Kaurujutsu
Prerequisite: Form 3
Drawing upon Vorashu’s power, Shinjiro is able to spawn a 60 meter long, 5-meter-thick green serpent with two 15-meter-long Praying mantis arms and 45 meter wingspan bat wings. This creature contains an acidic venom, capable of spitting it with at a Speed equal to its Strength. The acid will cause 3rd degree burns and eat through metal and other similar materials over the course of 3 posts. Additionally, its scales are as durable as its strength, and it can shed its skin to regenerate up to critical wounds and recover from paralysis at the cost of -5 Endurance per use.
Chakra Pool: 15
Endurance: 30
Control: 1
Strength: 50
Speed: 44
Willpower: 20

[Diatenshi]

Far from the tavern, in a remote village, plagued by a mysterious and deadly infection, a small girl played with a dull grey orb amidst a pile of corpses. One of her friends had suddenly fallen over, the orb rolling away from the collapsed body. It wasnt the first one she'd found. Her friends had a bad habit of falling apart. She hadn't quite figured out how to fix them yet but she did know the orb was important. She looked around to see if there were any others that were still up and moving, only to see no one else within the immediate vicinity. She held the orb in her hands as she paraded through the village, her bright pig tails and white dress an image of purity contrasting greatly to the scenery around her. Once full of life and energy, the village now seemed haunted and abandoned. Red tissue clung to the building barring entry to many of the doors. In some places it appeared as if bodies had fused with the fleshy walls.

It all started some months ago during the invasion of Fountain Country. Arriving with the stranger, a pink haired woman with eerie yellow eyes, a mysterious illness befell the village's former inhabitants. At first it simply caused bleeding, then the fevers came. The infected villagers delirious, began to attack one another. They fought like wild beast clawing and biting at one another till they succumbed to their injuries. After they fell they rose back up completely ignorant of any wound they may have received however, instead of resuming their attack on the other infected, they'd attack those that were still healthy. The illness had transformed them into mindless zombies, their bodies swaying to an eerie symphony.

As the number of infected grew Chisaki herself was influenced by the growing strength of the hivemind. She would run through the desolate streets, a smile of utter joy on her face as she danced along. With each step, she was pulled further into the hivemind that grew stronger around her. Under its influence she regressed, reverting back to the child like state she had when she first changed into the abomination she had become. As her mind rewound so to did her body, changing from that of a full figured young woman in her prime, to that of a small innocent child.

The infected village became her playground, the dilapidated houses her makeshift castles. The moon cast an otherworldly glow, illuminating the grotesque figures that stumbled and groaned around her, their bodies mutilated by the violence that had created them. Chisaki giggled, unaffected by their gruesome appearance. In her twisted and corrupted mind, they were merely her companions, actors in her macabre theater. She would arrange them in mock tea parties, placing weathered porcelain cups in their lifeless hands. They would sit in silence as Chisaki chattered away, pouring imaginary tea into their open, mangled mouths. She played hide-and-seek among the dilapidated structures, her small form belying her strength as she hunted down the survivors with the zombies. Her soft innocent voice ringing out eerily through the quiet streets.

"Ding dong
Here I come to find you.
Hurry up and run.
Let's play a little game and have fun.
Ding dong
Where is it you've gone to?
Do you think you've won?
Our game of hide and seek has just begun."

As the months went by her new friends would slowly decay. At first they staved off the destruction of their bodies by consuming those that dared to wander into the hive. However, as rumors of the cursed village spread fewer and fewer travellers dared near the accursed village. Now, of a village that had 75 or so people, over half the zombies had decayed to the point of being immobile. Chisaki busied herself with childish games and collecting the dull pearl like orbs as if they were a treasure.