Kneel to the Flame [Koza]

[Yōsuru Shin]

Mercy for the Penitent, Glory for the Loyal

The slogan was crudely scratched into the wall of the alleyway. Yōsuru had seen it, or variations of it. Carved and painted into a few different spots in the city of Otafuku Gai. His brow furrowed. Once or twice was graffiti, this many times was someone intentionally trying to send a message. Some kind of group covertly spouting their gospel. But what did it mean?

True enough that this was Fire country business, and Yōsuru had no reason to go sticking his nose into it, but ever since his long ago youth he'd always possessed an insatiable curiosity, and short of sparking an international incident he had always enjoyed pushing his luck. He adjusted the straw hat that sat upon his head and moved on, away from the slogan. To find some shady corner to sit and meditate, without being disturbed.

Not being disturbed would prove trickier than expected. In many spots where he settled and sat he would find himself told to move along or would even be kicked away by an angry local. His attire and demeanour betrayed his origins, and the flames of war would take a while to truly extinguish. He could wish as long as he liked that this nation would be more open to his presence, but it was a childish pipe dream for now at least.

Seeing no other option if he wanted to rest, he hid himself away for a brief moment to perform a simple transformation Jutsu. Within seconds he appeared as nothing more than a simple local of the city. Not a Shinobi, one that could pass for any common tradesman. He possessed a middle-aged physique, with a cleanly bald head and a slightly chubby bearing. Someone who didn't appear to pose much of a threat. His disguise in place, nobody even gave him a second look, which allowed him to find a quiet shady spot and rest until nightfall.

And soon nightfall came, the bright sun fading beyond the horizon, drenching the city in a murky blackness. With only the smattering of lanterns to illuminate the streets. He awoke and slowly got to his feet, making his way back to the alley where he had seen the most recent message. He inspected it again, tracing the tip of his finger over the carving.

"Psst, hey, old man!" A voice pierced the silence, feminine he thought, though perhaps just young. He turned his head to look at them, though he could not perceive their face under the hood they wore. "If you're looking to make some Ryo. The True Children are looking for informants." The figure explained, casting a quick eye to the entrance of the alleyway to make sure there weren't any unwanted listeners. "We pay for any credible reports of subversive activity. You want in?" He opened his mouth to ask a question, but paused for a moment. As he peered down the darkness of the alleyway. He was sure he could make out a second figure...

WC: 509
TWC: 509

[Kozakura Senju]

kneel to the flame Otafuku Gai. A cesspool of corruption, a beating heart, each thump part of a symphony of sin that reverberates through the city. The city breathes, its polluted lungs exhaling a cloud of despair that engulfs every street, every alleyway, every forgotten soul seeking refuge in its tainted embrace. Here power wears a thousand faces. But it's the daimyō, Itsuki Madoka, who reigns supreme. His influence stains the fabric of the land. Like a cancer, his grip tightens, feeding on the misery of the people. And it doesn't stop in Otafuku Gai. His reign stretches far beyond the city limits, poisoning the entire Land of Fire with an insatiable hunger for control. The Madoka family, a dynasty built on bones and broken dreams, their legacy dripping with blood. They've clawed their way through a hundred years of warfare, leaving nothing but a trail of dead shinobi and shattered lives in their wake. They are the puppeteers, manipulating the strings with their calloused hands, their actions ripping this land apart and leaving its people to wither in agony. And Kozakura was their enemy. Once again, she was there, in that poisoned city mascarading as a thriving hub of trade and industry. Everyone acted as though things were fine, living out their lives as if tensions weren't rising. Kozakura thrived in an environment like this. Any shinobi would. The key to a covert takeover of anything was to turn the lowest rungs against the top, but Itsuki had been doing that himself for years. As Kozakura walked the streets, her hood drawn, her ears attuned to the conversations surrounding her, a conversation pricked against them. The true children. The group sickened her, though she could not blame them. They were young, a collection of children of lords and ladies who served as the daimyō's counsel, and who had convinced themselves that the most right they could do for the nation was to turn in their neighbours and friends whenever they voiced dissent. They didn't know the kind of war they were intervening in. "How much would you pay to witness it first hand?" Kozakura asked, her voice low and dripping with sarcasm as she addressed the pack of youths surrounding the stranger, as she placed a hand on the sword on her hip, her face obscured by the shadows of the alley. She hoped to scare them off, and teach them a lesson, but she was prepared to act if she needed to. Yōsuru Shin Items: Shinobi Armor

Ninjutsu: 5 Taijutsu: 2 Genjutsu: 1 Technique: 1 Toughness: 2 Speed: 2 Stamina: 2 CP: 17/17 HP: 560/560

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Yōsuru Shin]

He had to try his best to conceal a smirk as he heard the voice of someone who apparently wasn't quite on board with the message of the True Children. Not that he was either of course, which is why the unfolding scene was sure to be quite. The voice itself was familiar. One he had heard in the darkness at the temple. The young Senju leader, maybe this investigation wouldn't be boring after all.

"I'd certainly pay to see it." He remarked jokingly, his disguise making his voice sound older than it was, with more of a dialect of the Land of Fire evident in his accent. "Though I suppose you're not going to pay for the information that I'm pretty sure she doesn't like you?" He asks the young gang member, jabbing his head towards the newly arrived Shinobi.


"Hsst...screw this! They don't pay me enough to tussle with anyone." The young woman spat. Turning to retreat further back into the alleyway. Tough as she was trying to act. It appeared that the sudden arrival of the Senju had rattled her confidence, and she moved clumsily and quickly in an attempt to escape. More figures deeper down the alley similarly scattered. It seemed if there were a combat capable arm of this organisation. These individuals were not it.

Yōsuru laughed heartily and turned around. Shaking his head gently. "Well as entertaining as that was to witness. I feel like our friends there were merely a symptom rather than the cause. Good to see you again Lady Senju." He bowed, and as he did his disguise would disperse in a puff of smoke, revealing the usual form and attire of one Yōsuru Shin. 

"All this business with your Daimyo piqued my curiosity, I admit. And now it seems the youth are trying to rally support for him. Highly curious indeed." He smiles softly. Before turning and looking down the alleyway. "I'm sure they can't have gone far, and they must have a hideout somewhere. Care to join me?"

WC: 342
TWC: 850

[Kozakura Senju]

kneel to the flame Kozakura lifted her hand from the grip of her blade as the reckless young shinobi scattered like ash in the wind. She took a moment, listening to Yōsuru as he greeted her, and she knelt down to the ground. One of the youths had dropped something, a small pendant with the kanji for fire engraved on it, inlayed with silver and carved from the amber resin Boshu tree. She wondered where they had gotten it, recognizing it as a treasure that some noble families in Otafuku held dear before they were wiped out by one of the twelve guardians of the daimyō. "Hosuki..." she muttered, the sound of her name like venom to the tongue of the Senju heiress. She clutched it tight, placed it in a small pouch beneath the waistband of her lamellar armor, and stood to face the only one remaining in the alley. She did not greet him by name, as he had done for her. She simply moved on the conversation, the time for pleasantries not being the present. "The daimyō is no idle curiosity for you to amuse yourself with. He is a predator, a shark. You cannot live in this land without swimming his waters. These true children are nothing more than barracuda, nipping at his left overs in the hopes he doesn't snack on them instead." She moved over toward him as she spoke, eyeing him from the side as she passed him. "Normally, I would ignore them. But tonight, there is a bigger fish I hope to hook. Let's see what we can catch." she said, and with a practiced sign her body shifted, the visage of an Otafuku guardsman appearing in her place, while she looked down, aiming to pick up their trail. It seemed she did not care Yōsuru followed or not. Yōsuru Shin Items: Shinobi Armor | Koza used [Transformation Technique]

Ninjutsu: 5 Taijutsu: 2 Genjutsu: 1 Technique: 1 Toughness: 2 Speed: 2 Stamina: 2 CP: 17/17 HP: 560/560

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Yōsuru Shin]

"Having a shark for a Daimyo sounds like a very interesting curiosity for me to amuse myself with." He smirks, taking a few steps up the nearby wall but keeping his gaze locked on her, seeing how she handled the situation. "I'm afraid if you're asking me to stop sticking my nose in business that has piqued my curiosity, then you don't know me very well at all. Which I suppose is also true in a way." He takes a moment to look at the pendant, unable to examine it closely due to it being carefully secured to her waistband.

"Sharks and Fish, almost sounds like we're off to the Land of Water." He drops back down onto the solid ground of the alleyway next to her as she starts leaving, almost in the same moment she transforms he does the same. Taking on the guise of another Otafuku guardsman, features generic and forgettable but uniform unmistakeable.

"So where does this Hosuki person rank on the fish to shark scale?" He leans his head in close and whispers, trying to maintain subtlety whilst keeping pace with the Senju leader. Whether she wanted him there or not, it seemed he was tagging along for this little adventure.

[Kozakura Senju]

kneel to the flame If there was one thing, among all habits a shinobi could posses, that Kozakura hated more than anything else, it was snark. She could tolerate apathy, she could tolerate weakness, and of course as a queen of it herself, she could tolerate drama. But she found it particularly grating when people didn't regard her or the work of a shinobi with seriousness. She witheld a sigh as Yōsuru smirked and mused on her metaphor, poking fun at the comparison she'd made. She didn't much find it funny, but she was too busy and too proud to start an arguement and betray that she was affected in any way by his words. She followed the trail, from one sign to another, regarding Yōsuru with focused silence until suddenly she did not. "Hosuki, if we are to continue my metaphor, would be a kind of remora. Big enough to scare away little fish, but desperately reliant on the shark above her, picking at their scraps and working to remove anything that might threaten her protector. She's one of the twelve guardians: our daimyō's loyal protectors." As she made conversation, she stopped and bent down to one knee. A fork. The tracks she'd been following split in two, one downriver along the canal and the other heading upriver toward the palace. "Which way shall we go?" she asked, wanting to test the instincts of her nosey companion. Yōsuru Shin Items: Shinobi Armor

Ninjutsu: 5 Taijutsu: 2 Genjutsu: 1 Technique: 1 Toughness: 2 Speed: 2 Stamina: 2 CP: 17/17 HP: 560/560

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Yōsuru Shin]

Yōsuru wasn't an idiot. Nor was he as oblivious as he sometimes made himself appear. He liked to keep the mood light and breezy, but it was becoming more and more apparent that wasn't to the tastes of Kozakura. He could tell she bore a great deal of burden on her shoulders, and everyone had different ways of coping with that. He liked to laugh, and she liked to get things done, and to an extent he respected that.

He listened to her explanation of this Hosuki. One of the Daimyo's guardians apparently. And seemingly I considerable enough threat. "So these True Children then...one of her hunting methods or a useful byproduct of fanaticism?" He asks her, his tone more serious now. The Senju leader may never like him, but it served him not to intentionally wind her up. 

In the next moment she asked him which way he thought was best to follow. It surprised him slightly. She had been on such a warpath until this point he figured he'd just be following her along for the ride, but when she did ask him he nodded and crouched down low, touching the earth beneath them.

Koza would likely feel a gentle gust of wind through her hair as he focused. Silently speaking to the natural world around him, tracing the vibrations through his fingertips. Footsteps...seperated from the wheels of carts...gentle footsteps...quick but light...someone who didn't want to be followed...It would be easier for him to track if he was for familiar with this person, but alas, the best he had to work with was a solid gut feeling.

"If I'm right, she took a few steps towards the palace...and then...thought better of it, and made her way towards the canal." He replies, standing up again and looking over to Koza. He thought to ask what she intended to do when they found their target, but thought better of it for now.

"Do you know much of the Guardians...any Genjutsu experts among them?" 

[Kozakura Senju]

kneel to the flame Kozakura was not used to being asked so many questions by what amounted to a stranger in passing. Even from a lord of the fair nation of Fire, she would grow tired of the questions. But she observed that Yōsuru was starting to take the situation seriously, and like a treat for a dog that shook hands, she wanted to reward that behaviour. "I think a bit of both," she said calmly. "What started as young fanatics trying to serve a system they thought was serving them... quickly that naive ambition was twisted, turned into a tool for her to hunt her prey." Her words spoken, she felt the wind pick up as she watched her companion survey the scene, using some kind of technique she was not familiar with. Then, with confidence and certainty, he gave a direction. Finally, he was acting like a shinobi, rather than a tourist out to amuse himself. "Then downriver we go." Without a moment's hesitation, Kozakura was back on her warpath, a steady march carrying her down toward the canal, then along it. She turned back as she walked, finding herself for the first time in his company... interested in continuing the conversation Yōsuru was starting. "I know everything of the guardians. Everything you can get your hands on, at least. And a few little secrets beyond that, too." It was clear Kozakura took pride in the meticulous cataloguing and planning she had done since her grudge against the daimyō had began. "Of the twelve guardians, I know at least three of them are capable of genjutsu. All are at least capable of countering it. I suspect a fourth of them is hiding Kurama origins, but I have yet to prove that." Items: Shinobi Armor

Ninjutsu: 5 Taijutsu: 2 Genjutsu: 1 Technique: 1 Toughness: 2 Speed: 2 Stamina: 2 CP: 17/17 HP: 560/560

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS & THQ

[Yōsuru Shin]

He keeps pace with the young Senju as they walk together, nodding along slowly as she answers his questions. It appeared the Daimyo's guardians were to some degree the object of her obsession. Driving her actions and motivations. She seemed proud about how much she knew about them. And though that was unnerving Yōsuru didn't know enough about Koza's past to make any sort of judgement on the matter.

"Narrows it down somewhat I suppose..." He mumbles in response to Koza's explaining that there is at least three Genjutsu experts among the ranks of the guardians. However, that didn't mean that they were necessarily against the illusion at the mines. It could've easily been someone they contracted. 

Such thoughts could wait for the time being. The pair of them were seeking different prey for now. His eyes scanned around, looking at rooftops and alleyways they passed and gently humming to himself. Making sure nobody was watching or following. "So...say we do find this Hosuki. What do you plan to do?" He asks Koza curiously, he didn't exactly want to be stuck holding the bag if the Lady of the Senju was planning to just launch herself at their foe with a vicious assault of rage and tree-bark.