The Spirit Crucible

[AFungalNetwork]

The sun had barely breached the misty hills of New Tea Country. A fine vapor clung to the moss-covered stones outside the Battosai headquarters, curling between the wooden slats and drifting into the courtyard like breath from a slumbering giant. Birds chirped gently, their songs muffled by the hush of morning tea being poured and blades being honed in meditation.

She stood alone beneath a weeping willow, her presence barely noticed even by the wind. The damp scent of forest loam followed her as she moved in stillness, practicing slow-drawn cuts — each motion a whisper of grace and decay. Spores shimmered faintly in her wake, trailing from her like thoughts unspoken.

And then — the earth exhaled.

With no warning, the moss beneath her feet darkened, trembling as if alive. A dull thrummm pulsed up through her soles. The spores in the air froze, suspended mid-drift. Even the willow's long tendrils stiffened, as though recoiling.

A thin circle of green light etched itself around her in the dirt, not burning but growing, like a ring of sprouting lichen. From its center, a jagged crack spiraled outward, silent and swift. The portal opened not with a roar, but with a sound like wet wood splitting and soil gasping for breath.

Before she could step away, her feet were rooted.

And the ground gave way.

She fell — not with a scream, but in total quiet, as if the world held its breath. Down through layers of shimmering green and silvery mist, through roots and veins of glowing fungi, through memories of forests that had never grown.

The descent felt endless and brief. Like being cradled in the arms of a dying god.

Then — impact.

She landed in silence on a forest floor that pulsed faintly with life. The earth here wasn’t dead — it was dreaming. Giant mushrooms loomed overhead like cathedral domes, their gills dripping with iridescent dew. Trees were twisted, woven with light and shadow. The air smelled of nectar and rot, sweet and sorrowful. Petals drifted like ash; colors shimmered where they shouldn't exist.

Her mushroom pulsed faintly atop her head, responding to the unfamiliar energy. The glowing veins along her spine shimmered, sensing something old. Something watching.

372 words

[Zao]

A young man slowly walked through the dense wood line that led him towards a certain meeting place with a member of the Battosai unit by the name of Roku. This was a middle-aged man with strange blue skin that reminded the white-haired man of some strange type of fish. Though past his appearance was a fearsome samurai and one who was a great teacher, at least from what the Sky Reach teacher could tell from their previous meetings. Back then he had been tasked to help design a sword and to see if he was able to develop a rune that could store the power of his warrior spirit to be imbued into the said weapon in order to gift it to his apprentice.

This was a warming gesture in the eyes of Ziv who had tried to craft the needed rune, but so far hadn't really been able to create one that was truly compatible with the strange spiritual chakra that the spirit used. It caused the young man to shake his head at times. That being one of the reasons he was seeking out the samurai in order to experience the unique chakra again and see if working directly with Roku would help his progress in the Rune's creation. He wore his traditional green kimono like hunter green robe and pants with its white under shift, tied at the waist with a black knotted sash, the mid back length snow white hair was pulled by into a neat ponytail with a piece of black cloth keeping it secured for the time being. Though what probably stood out the most about the young man would have been without a doubt the brilliant blue eyes that almost seemed to glow as they took up a much large portion of the eye then someone's normal irises would have.

While a rather adept traveler, he hadn't been to this part of Tea country and had found himself a bit off course thinking that he could take a little short cut of his own navigation when he realized that perhaps he wasn't on the right track as he stopped under the cover of a few giant trees that covered the sky from above with their thick canopy of wide leaves. Reaching back into the side pouch of his travel pack he pulled out a map and unfolded it to check for any nearby terrain features or landmarks that he should be able to locate and as he reached back to find his compass on the other side of the pack something happened.

It was like the floor of earth itself gave way and without any prior warning he was sent plummeting downwards into the darkness beneath the earth as he could see through flickers of lightly from the day above ground the different layers of earth and roots as it felt like something was locked onto him. As though the gravity of his body had been increased as he shot downwards rapidly. But this only lasted for a few seconds before the ground disappeared, and he seemed to have entered a different space as now he could see and the new set of ground below was rapidly approaching. 'What the...!' Before he could even mouth the words aloud he braced for impact as he hit the ground with a solid thud and found himself upon the ground staring upwards.

It took a few moments to shake off the strange feeling that his body had just experienced, something that felt strange but also at the same time almost familiar to the teacher as he collected himself mentally and physically before setting up on his backside. Reaching over the white-haired man scooped up his map and put it away as his eyes adjusted to the surroundings revealing a massive fungal mushroom that stretched into the air far above his own height. 'Where am I?' These were the obvious thoughts of the traveler as he dusted himself off and stood up, tucking the map that would obviously be useless here away for the time being. "These colors and these smells, it isn't right." Ziv spoke aloud for the first time, though to what he thought was himself not knowing that a few tens of meters away someone had arrived just before him in this strange landscape.


WC: 721

[AFungalNetwork]

As Tsuki stirred from her quiet landing in the moss-laced cradle of the Fey-touched forest, her breath came soft and measured, in rhythm with the pulsing glow of the bioluminescent mycelium beneath her palms. The mushroom atop her head exhaled a faint trail of spores that drifted upward, green and slow like curling incense smoke. Around her, the pocket dimension hummed in stillness — an unearthly lullaby woven from the creaking of trees that shouldn’t exist, and the distant echoes of unseen creatures singing in tones older than memory.

The forest was alive, not in the way normal woodlands lived, but in a way that made the very air feel like it was listening. Watching.

As she rose to one knee, her fingers brushing a cluster of pearlescent fungi, her head slowly tilted upward. The sky above wasn’t a sky at all — more like a soft dome of twilight stitched with glowing spores instead of stars. And then, it tore open.

With no thunder, no crash, just a snap — like the moment between breaths — a rift cracked open high above the trees.

It looked almost surgical, a slit in the veil of this world, frayed at the edges with strands of radiant chakra and gossamer blue light. From within, a silhouette tumbled, twisting through shafts of otherworldly glow as if gravity itself had summoned him.

He fell hard. Not gracelessly, but with the unmistakable motion of someone pulled by forces beyond comprehension. For a fleeting moment, she saw the flash of his white hair trailing behind him, his limbs angled in surprise, a green robe flaring like a leaf caught in a storm.

Then — thud.

He struck the ground a dozen meters away, the fungal forest absorbing the impact like loam welcoming the fallen. Soft spores puffed into the air in slow, glowing rings, disturbed by his arrival. She didn’t move immediately. She simply watched — not startled, not alarmed, but curiously quiet, the way one watches a tree fall in a forest and wonders what it might become.

The man stirred. His map fluttered slightly beside him, absurdly mundane amid the surreal hues of the realm. As he sat up and looked around, her half-lidded gaze stayed fixed on him. He did not see her — not yet. The ambient light shifted, casting green and gold halos through the fungal canopy.

She slowly made her way towards him, taking in the new environment she had also been violently thrown into. She stopped around 10 paces from him and spoke, Long fall. Bet that hurt. It did when I landed. she looked around at the large mushrooms sprouting all around them, they glowed with dozens of fluorescent colors. This place felt foreign to her but she didn't feel unwelcome. It was like the feeling of visiting a distant cousin's house. You don't happen to know a way out? she asked, already knowing the answer.

488 words

[Zao]

Ziv had barely taken in his immediate surrounding with the soft footed footfalls of something or someone approaching him from his seven o'clock caused for him to turn around, unsure what to expect as the left hand rose up in a slightly cross body guarding pose. Bright blue eyes that took up too much of his eyes shined, almost glowing as they narrowed on the strange mushroom capped feminine figure that called out to him. "Luckily, the ground is rather soft here." Whomever or whatever the woman was in front of him, they at least didn't appear to be posed to attack him, yet, and thus he gave a half smile and changed the left hand into more of a waving gesture.

Though at first glance, taking in the strange figure's appearance and the fungal growth that came from her shoulders, Ziv having spent time in the spirit realm and having seen the many different types of spirits due to his father's influence, the Sky Reach teacher had instinctively assumed that she was a spirit creature and not just a strange human. "A way out?" It caused him to raise an eyebrow slightly, originally his assumption had been that she was a native in this pocket of spiritual chakra he'd fallen into. "I'm not completely sure where we are." Unsure what else to say, he spoke his mind as his hands returned to their side and his gaze studied the unique features of the woman a few meters away still.

"Any chance you might know something about this place?" While a long shot, there wasn't anything better for the young man to say as he could only shrug as he asked his own question back towards Tsuki. Allowing for his bright blue eyes to shift from side-to-side attempting to take in the nearby area and look for any sort of paths or signs of life besides the giant mushrooms that still loomed high over the pair. "Where are you from?" This was a two-pronged question, still uncertain about if he was speaking with a humanoid spirit or a unique human that was one with this fungus that grew upon her shoulders and the mushroom cap atop her head.

Perhaps a bit of insight could be gained from conversing with the woman and if their goals truly coincided with seeking an exit to what ever realm they had been dropped into, then a temporary partnership could be made...


WC: 407

[AFungalNetwork]

If I had to guess, I would say we are in the spirit realm. Though, why we ended up here or even what caused the ground to open up beneath us, is anybody's guess. she said as she looked around, admiring the great mushroom stalks that surrounded them. The gentle pulse of fungal life around them remained steady — almost tranquil. But to Tsuki, something subtle shifted. A brief lapse in the rhythm of her Fungal Network — like a skipped heartbeat. Then came a tremor. Not physical, but internal, rippling down her spine through the tether of spore and root she carried in her blood. The connection flared, hijacked. Foreign tendrils crept into her perception, a slow, parasitic bloom in the dark recesses of her mind. And then it spoke.

Little Kinoko…

A voice, not with tone but with texture — soft and wet like rotting wood, and echoing through every strand of her internal network.

You’ve crossed the veil… just like we did. Come find me beneath the bloom. Deeper than death. Older than hunger. Come see what you were always meant to become…

Images followed, not fully formed — a vision glimpsed between the gaps of dream and memory: A cavern of writhing mycelium, pulsing like a heart. A giant mushroom, black-veined and slick with dew, rooted in a lake of still, ink-colored water. A shape curled within its base, humanoid — barely. Limbs overgrown. A face half-familiar. The voice returned, sweeter now, coaxing.
Your Network is no longer yours alone, Tsuki. You opened the gate. And we answered. Come home.

And just as suddenly, the voice was gone — leaving a cold emptiness where it had been, like breath drawn and never released. The forest resumed its quiet glow. The spores danced again as if nothing had happened. But something had. Tsuki’s mushroom twitched slightly on her head, expelling a nervous trail of spores. She didn’t speak right away. Her eyes were distant — not in awe or wonder, but calculation. Wariness. Some part of her had recognized that voice. Or worse — it had recognized her.

She turned to Ziv, pale faced, like she had just seen a ghost. There's somewhere I need to go. and she quickly briefed him on what she had heard.

380 words

[AFungalNetwork]

Just as Tsuki had finished explaining her experiencing, a sharp ringing welled in Ziv’s ears, dull at first, like a tuning fork pressed to the inside of his skull. Then—sharp. Clear. A frequency that wasn’t sound but meaning. The forest around him stilled. His pupils dilated as the air thickened. And suddenly—he wasn’t in the forest anymore. The ground beneath him turned to polished black glass, endless and smooth, reflecting a dark sky with no stars. In the distance, far too far, a single figure stood. A silhouette, tall and antlered; its face a polished porcelain mask, emotionless and cold. Robes stitched from beetle-wing and shadow trailed behind it like falling ash. Eyes — not where eyes should be — glimmered in the horns. They watched him. Studied him.

You’ve run far from your father’s legacy… yet you chase his shadow with every breath. What a lovely contradiction you are. The voice carried both amusement and understanding, like a tutor marveling at a student’s flaw.

The figure did not step closer, yet Ziv felt it looming nearer.

Come deeper into my grove, little Saint’s son. Let me show you truths even your father feared to see.

A brief flash seared across Ziv’s vision — runes etched into bark that pulsed. Puppets twisted in effigy. Metal trees growing out of flesh. And in the center, a monolith; ancient, alive, and wrapped in vines of black metal.

There is power waiting. Not borrowed from a name. Not mimicked from a legacy. Yours.

Then the voice grew quiet — intimate.

Forge your own myth. Or die forgotten in his.

And then silence. The spores resumed their lazy drift. The mushrooms glowed again. Tsuki was still standing nearby, lost in her own silent calculation — unaware that a very different call had just stirred the blood of her companion.

305 words