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Roar of the Yellow Dragon; Noburu Nakano's Awakening [Open]
Topic Started: Dec 10 2013, 08:12 PM (557 Views)
The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
The boy's head hurt. It really, really hurt.

That pain was the first thing he became aware of. The second thing he became aware of was where precisely it was hurting: there was a dull pulse of pain centered on the left side of his head, above the ear and behind the temple, under the hair. Reaching up with one shaking hand, the boy--who lay on his right side on smooth, almost ice-cold floor--felt at the hair and found that it was matted, dry with blood.

A quiet growl escaped his throat, and then he rolled over, putting both hands flat against the floor, and pushing up. It was tiles. Bathroom tiles. He opened his eyes, and there he was, in a restroom.

It was a restroom right out of some post-apocalyptic future, though. Five stalls, three urinals, the latter in the back, near where he was. One of the stalls had been caved in on itself, and the boy could see shattered white pieces of broken toilet on the floor near it. There was no water on the floor and none of the smells the boy associated with public restrooms--there was only a general smell of mildew and the appearance of complete desolation.

Slowly, he wobbled to his feet. Unsteadily, he walked to the sinks near the door. With trepidation, he looked into the mirror there.

And his image stared back. Noburu Nakano stared back. He noted two things immediately: his jacket was missing, and the injury on his forehead wasn't his only injury. There were slash marks in his shirt, little ones. Feeling at one of them with his finger, Noburu noted a shallow cut in his abdomen. His mind brought to the forefront of thought a hazy image of a black mass with a blue mask, swiping at him with an arm that reformed into a blade-like shape, which he barely avoided, but it had grazed him, yes...

Noburu looked to the bathroom door, and the sight gave him pause. It was barricaded shut. What Noburu had taken to be a random lump of debris was actually the back tank of a toilet, set against the door. Had he put it there? A memory: yes he had. Dizzy and disoriented, running from those things, Noburu had shut himself in the bathroom, turned the lock, and hauled that thing over for good measure, the better to keep anything from bashing through...

...And then...?

And then he'd sat down, clutching at his head, and--blackness. He'd passed out. Why had he passed out so easily?

He remember slickness and warmth flowing down his back. Alarmed, Noburu turned, frantically looking at his back in the mirror. His eyes slowly widened at the sight. The back of his gray, sleeveless shirt had been ripped open from shoulder to midsection, and it was red with blood. But he couldn't feel any pain, couldn't see--

Awkwardly, Noburu reached back, and felt at the skin beneath the shirt. Nothing. Smooth as ever. He hoped his dragon tattoo hadn't been damaged...

The red-haired boy lowered his hand and stepped back from the mirror, regarding the door warily. Wherever he was, wherever this place was, there were... things out there. Monstrous things. Demons. Thinking the word caused a dull pulse in Noburu's head, and he backed away a step in reflex. The boy fumbled in his pants pocket for his phone--he needed to call for help. But his phone wasn't there... it had been in his jacket, which he'd discarded after--after it had been cut open by a monster. By a demon. He'd ripped it off and thrown it aside and run away...

Noburu took another step back, and then something wonderful happened. Light, soft and warm, comforting. It surrounded him, engulfed him... the pain in his head was no more, and he felt the small cuts under his shirt fade away as well. For a moment there was a kind of... contented high.

Then, he spun around, looking for the source, frantically snapping, "What the hell?!" In that moment of panic, he heard, distinctly, the same sound he'd heard when he'd first laid eyes on the black-slime monster outside: a long, faint, majestic roar.

Heart pounding, he forced himself to calm. Calm. Yes, something about that roar sounded calming. It shouldn't have, but it did--he didn't fear whatever had made the noise, even if logic told him he should have. After a few moments, he realized there was nothing there. Taking another step back--this time toward the door, he idly tilted his head backward...

...And froze, gaping wide-eyed at the thing in the shadows at the corner where the wall met the ceiling, beneath an extinguished ceiling light... a manta ray, stuck to the wall.

Noburu stood, and stared.

Again: "What the hell?!" To this the manta only had nothing to say. It remained completely motionless, and by all appearances, completely at peace.
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Exodin
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Jiro had come to the ruins by himself. He couldn't always rely on others to help him right? So why not get a jump start on his self reliance? Though...it was more than a little boring down here by himself. He'd even worn a shirt for fucks sake! Because apparently, not wearing something that burned when you had a fire weakness was immature and disgusting. Still, the numerous burn marks of varying intensity were semi visible as he'd only worn a tanktop. He'd left the gauntlets at home today, deciding that he needed to work on his mace work, or his knife work. Then again, he always thought of the knife as a back up. To be used as a last resort, like if his mace was knocked out of his hands for instance.

Maybe I should have posted something on bedlam.

No, that was stupid. He wasn't looking to get insulted again. Better to go it alone this time. So as he walked through the hallway, he began a long and low whistle. He had to keep himself entertained until a Shadow showed up right?
Edited by Exodin, Dec 11 2013, 10:55 PM.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
As Jiro walked, he would come upon a pair of sludge-like creatures, one with a blue mask, one with a red mask. The two monsters were slurping down the hallway aimlessly. One of them appeared to half half-absorbed something into itself, however: something that hung out its back, trailing a black-stained jacket sleeve behind the creature as it went.

The Cowardly Maya and Merciless Maya slowed as Jiro neared, and then, simultaneously, the two monsters raised their slime-like arms: the former cast a blast of cold toward Jiro... a second later, the Merciless Maya followed that Bufu spell with a speeding ball of fire, an Agi spell, aimed at Jiro's legs.

---

Inside the barricaded bathroom, Noburu continued to stare at the Sleeping Manta. Slowly, he backed away. That thing had cast some sort of magic on him. Magic that had made him feel... good. Magic that had closed his wounds, even. It took a few minutes for the boy to comprehend his own thoughts, but he understood now that this creature was the only reason he hadn't bled out on the ground.

Slowly, Noburu lifted his shirt, removing it, and stepping in front of the mirror again. Indeed, the cuts were gone. Turning around so that he could see his back, Noburu breathed a sigh of relief. When the skin had mended, it seemed, so had the tattoo. Well of course, it had only been a cut, the ink hadn't been removed, right? Right...

His eyes flitted back toward the Manta several times, but the monster appeared to be inert. Maybe it was a friendly monster, as incredible as that seemed. Noburu wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. When he moved to put his shirt back on, he thought twice... it was ripped in the back, and bloodied. Worthless, in other words. Turning to face the mirror directly, Noburu took a moment to admire the tattoo his girlfriend had applied to his skin.

It had been painstaking, slow work, it had hurt quite a bit, but there it was: a snaking, whitish-yellow Chinese dragon coiled around his torso, its tail ending at his collarbone, where it poked out into visibility from under most of his shirts. Its face, snout, horns, those were the most magnificent part of this piece of body-art, placed between his navel and his lower-left side.

Huang Long, it was called. The yellow dragon. Idly, Noburu ran a finger down the length of its coiled ink body, and as he did, heard that roar again. Somehow, inexplicably, Noburu knew that he wasn't hearing the roar with his ears.

He was hearing it with his mind.
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Exodin
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The Bufu struck him squarely in the chest, causing him to stumble back a few steps. Shit was that cold. After realizing that if he wouldn't dodge now he was going to be set on fire again Jiro propelled himself up with a Bash to avoid the Agi, which luckily soared right under him. He landed back on the ground and stuck his tongue out at the shadow.

"Ha! You missed fuckhead!"

He summoned Kamina and cast a Zan at the Merciless Maya. He needed to kill that one first, and then deal with the other one. After all, there was no way he was going to leave something that could actively use his weakness against him for last.

"Okay i'm gonna need you to die now!"

Edited by Exodin, Dec 13 2013, 08:12 PM.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
"Ha! You missed, fuckhead!"

It was muffled by the doors and walls but it was still clearly audible, enough that it snapped Noburu out of his reverie. Looking toward the door, the redhead froze. There was someone out there--someone human. Someone cocky and confident, even. The voice sounded vaguely familiar, even...

Glancing once at the Sleeping Manta, Noburu hurried to the door and took hold of the broken toilet tank with both hands, hefting it up and away from the door. Instinct said to call out for help; pragmatism said to keep silent, get closer, see who this was, and why they were so confident in the face of unearthly creatures that would cause any normal man or woman to shrink back in fear.

---

The Merciless Maya was blown backwards by a condensed ball of vibrating force, pure energy of motion, and it slurped away with the momentum of it, leaving a trail of ichor in its wake. The Cowardly Maya continued its advance at the same moment, though, swerving along the ground to place itself between Jiro and the Merciless Maya. It swung its ooze-like arms toward Jiro's midsection, one of them reshaping itself into a crude blade-like shape to turn the ungainly swing into a slash.
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Exodin
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"Oh you little shit!"

The blade struck him center in the chest. Of course, all that it managed to do was cause him to stumble back a few steps and put a gash straight down his shirt.

"Wait your fucking turn huh!?"

He ignored the Cowardly Maya for now, and aimed another Zan at the Merciless Maya. Once that died, he'd start curbstomping the remaining one .
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
The Zan spell, which flew right over the Cowardly Maya's head, blasted the Merciless one's mask to shards and splinters. As that monster melted away, though, Jiro might have realized it was a mistake to focus so heavily on just one enemy: because finding physical attacks to be useless, the Cowardly Maya shifted right on over to its only other option: it fired a Bufu spell at almost point-blank range right at Jiro's belly.

---

Noburu opened the door, slowly, carefully. More yells, from down the hall. That voice. He definitely knew that voice. From the street... the boy that had gotten June all riled up. Narrowing his eyes, Noburu slung his bloodied-and-torn shirt over his shoulder and crept in the direction the voice had come from.
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Exodin
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Jiro let out a grunt and fell back as the Bufu hit it's intended target. He clutched his stomach, and let out a gasp. How in the hell anyone dealt with a weakness to ice, he would never understand. He let out a Bash charged kick at the Cowardly Maya's mask.

"Bastard!"

He followed the kick up with a regular Bash. Kamina appearing overhead and swinging downward at the shadow. Jiro then started to push backward, moving away from the shadow. The Bufu still beat getting set on fire, again.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Crack.

The Cowardly Maya's mask split down the middle, but not completely: it held together by a centimeter at the bottom, and the sludge monster slurped forward relentlessly, moving after Jiro, but not quite as quickly as Jiro himself could move.

This was the point at which Noburu Nakano slowed to a halt, just around the bend, and peeked out. He saw Jiro there, and sucked in a breath as his eyes shifted to the monster. Locked on it. Registered the damage to its mask, and the black mess on the floor further back, and the conspicuous absence of the other sludge-thing. Jiro, of course, Jiro wasn't normal. June had wailed on him, kicked him in the groin, and hadn't been able to do a bit of harm to the boy. So...

...These monsters. Could they harm him? There was frost on his shirt, which was ripped in the front, and...

And just then, the Cowardly Maya extended its arms outward, pushing all of its remaining magic into one, final Bufu spell. Noburu froze at the sight, held his breath without realizing it, the blast of cold air blowing through the air at Jiro, and the only word his brain could produce for this phenomenon was magic. Just like that manta-thing's... healing spell.

The rumors weren't complete hogwash after all... but, how accurate were they?
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Exodin
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Oh damnit. Jiro let out a grunt as he shielded his face and midsection with his arm. Shit shit shit was that cold. Rather than shout or scream an obscenity at the Cowardly Maya. He summoned Kamina once more to cast a Zan and hopefully finish the job.

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