Heartless (pt.1) : Blood In Ice

The land of graves, Hakagakure is known throughout the shinobi nations as the breeding ground of legends. Hakagakure also holds the reputation as the most respected and  feared village of ASN due to it's land's history. These are the grounds where the historical conflict between Kokuo and the Glorious Six occurred. This is home to one of the world's most powerful Kage, Summer Osuna. But hidden beneath its glory, and rich history is a bottomless well of pain. The children of this village are oblivious to it but the adults wear it like dead skin. In these series we follow the life of a young shinobi the age of 12, an exceptional shinobi who lives his life in absolute bliss. A Kaironokuma, a Toketsu gifted with a rare condition. Despite the vast fortune that can be made with his "condition"; he lives his life for the simple things like naps and adventures. This series follows, Taigakai Shikotsu and his supernatural encounters with the troubled members of Hakagakure and it's organizations. Come along as we discover how a gift like his becomes a curse.

Tuesday, October 30th started off as a hot day, then quickly became a dry afternoon. The adults were doing their usual runs, working their shifts, and tending to their businesses. While nearby whispers began to fill the air. If anyone would lend an ear to these whispers, they'd learn of the complaint being discussed. Apparently some of the customers and nearby merchants found it completely disgusting how this young Kaironokuma boy was washing himself in the town fountain. "He polluted their water" a few of them proclaimed. "He peeped in it!", the children went on to telling one another. "His parent's are scum", an old woman would accuse but as for the eleven year old boy; none of the rumors bothered him. He sat there by the fountain with the eyes of the locals as his company.  There at the fountain he ate a loaf of bread and meat with a sad expression on his face and tears running down his eyes. Who would you join a kid like that?

Commotion in the village wasn't uncommon, but the amount of attention here was. It seemed to be driving people away with disgust from the area, moving elsewhere to do business. Taigakai raised a brow and shuffled past them, wondering what the fuss was. Something about a boy, something something about a fountain. Part of this sucked for him, not on a big level, but it is a bit bothersome when you put on something gorgeous and people don't even bother to look at how good you look in something.

Taigakai stopped to see a kid, almost his age, with an expression on his face that could rival theatre masks. Did these people stop to think if this kid probably had issues of his own that led into that kind of lifestyle? He shifted the rope on his gourd so that it rested easier and walked broke from the crowd and approached this kid, stopping only a few steps away from him in case he was one of the ones who scared easily. "Hey kiddo."

The kid kept crying for a little even after he heard Taigakai's voice. But before Taigakai could speak another word the boy wiped the tears dripping down his face and chuckled. It took only a few second after for him to clear his throat and speak, " Kiddo?..heh It's soo weird to hear you call me that. We're like the same age ya know that right?" The kid would then flash a big smile at Taigakai as if he was all better. More intuitive eyes would reveal that he was only suppressing his true emotions deep down. It was as if he was told that he couldn't open up to anyone, yet he failed himself today by getting caught crying out here in the open. But he wasn't scared of Taigakai at all, in fact he began to treat him as if he was an old friend. " Man! You're really different then what I imagined you'd be. Which is really good by the way. Oh! my name is Jasaac , but you can call me Jay... It's...It's really nice to meet you, Taigakai." He'd look over at him almost starstruck before snapping right out of it. " Hey please, sit! Sit with me, let's be friends."

Taigakai blinked for a minute. How did this kid know his name? And someone quickly changing expression was a bit weird. He had a sneaking suspicion the guy was trying to hide it but he wouldn't push it that far. Still, it was more offsetting that he didn't introduce himself and the guy knew who he was. "Jay, huh? Neat name.", he said as he took his gourd off to put it on the ground in front of him and sat next to the kid, regardless of comments and looks from others. Hey, if Jay was a hallucination, it just meant Taiga made an imaginary friend. "So what did you imagine me to be like?", he asked, a grin creeping on his face. In all fairness, that was the first time anyone said anything along the lines of that to him.

Jasaac looks at the kind boy as he sits beside him at the fountain. It was almost like a movie when the gasping of the spectators carried throughout the area. "This is appalling!" "Look at these hooligans!""Hey watch your mouth, that other kid is special!" As that last comment filled the air, Jay laughed a bit then look towards Taigakai offering him some of his bread with his dirty hands. " Eh, you see everyone knows you. Well at least everyone from here does." He'd reveal his clan crest tattoo to Taigakai so he'd know that he was also a Kaironokuma. " To be honest, the way they talk about you, I figured you'd be soo full of yourself. Or maybe even a complete weirdo. Or maybe even a...heh, never mind. Anyway I'm sorry for causing you any trouble ,Taigakai it's just  pop pops  yelled at me today, so i ran away from the mine. Ha! But i managed to grab me a little bit of food but didn't get anything to drink. Hence how we're here right now." He would look at Taigakai with a large smile hiding his complete embarrassment. "Yea, Immmmmm not poor if that's what you thought. Just didn't want to work with pop pops yelling at me, and from all the running I got real thirsty and so i put my  head in the fountain! Haha, and I drank as much as i could ,ya know? But..yea.. I forgot I'm dirty and the people here just don't seem to want to forget. I'm only sitting here because I don't know where else to go." He'd scratch his head looking at Taigakai before noticing what he had on. He found the outfit a bit strange, but it just led him to ask, "So..like why are you here?"

Well, that story seemed to explain why the kid was dirty. At least it wasn't worst-case or anything. Taigakai took the piece, nodding at Jay in thanks before really just kind of mindlessly toying it around in his hands. He wasn't hungry, but he'd eat it in a bit.

"Bah, there's a lot of special ninja here. It's just that I stand out for being a Kaironokuma with white hair and blue eyes.", he said. Taigakai lifted a hand as if what he was saying next was more secretive,"My cousin is a bit more stereotypical for a Kairo compared to me. And she's also the one more full of herself." He popped the piece in his mouth, rubbing off the crumbs from the fingertips of his outfit. ""Mm? I'm just hanging out, just wandering around really. I didn't have much to do today, and Seiko is off with her robots and Mei is doing sparkle dragon stuff." He shrugged, not really thinking it was really super important or anything, but it was an answer.

"HA!" Jay's amusement burst outward as Taigakai began describing his cousin and teammate. It didn't take too long for Jay to know exactly who he was talking about when he mentioned, Seiko. Although Jay had always thought that Seiko was more of a nickname given because of her insane feat.  Also she plays with robots, like what are robots really? Taigakai was soo interesting, and even in the few minutes that he spent talking with Jay, he'd really want to know him more. It felt good to have a friend for once. Maybe he was wrong about Taigakai. No he was definitely wrong, he knows it now, they were all wrong. " Hey lets gets go play! i know this really cool place! Wanna come?!"

"Heck yeah, let's go!" Taigakai got up onto his feet immediately, lifting the gourd and holding the rope in his hand instead of slipping it on. "After you of course."

Taigakai would follow Jay to wherever, looking passively at the remaining crowd bickering amongst themselves. He couldn't believe that because a kid had some dirt on their face that they would act like he was less than a stray. What cold people. "So Jay, what do you wanna be when you grow up? Take up the mines after pops or do something else?", he asked as they made their way to wherever Jay was taking him.

The place they were headed was about ten minutes east of where they came from. As they walked together Taigakai asked Jay a question. Now he wasn't sure if it was just his way of making small talk or if he actually cared but he was more than happy to answer. Until he realized, he didn't have much of an answer to give, to this sort of question. He figured Taigakai was cool enough to follow a kid that he just met and just saw crying that the least he could do was give a good and sincere answer. At the risk of probably coming across as a loser and losing his new friend he'd tell the truth. " Our clan is always talking about when we grow up aren't they?! It's like you're not important until you grow up and if you don't look like you'll grow up to be much then you aren't important at all, huh? You ever notice that?" Jay honestly wondered if Taigakai would know what he's talking about. As they kept walking he'd give it another try. "I honestly don't think I'm going to be much when i grow up. It's like you said man, ill probably end up running the mines .haha" He'd laugh to himself trying to turn his back towards Taigakai by walking a bit faster.

Jay really didn't want him to notice any hurt or change so that he didn't think that Jay didn't want him around. " If I'm lucky, I'm pretty bad at everything I do. I am terrible at the mines which is why Pop-pops is always screaming at me." He'd then clench his fist, " It's my fault..its my fault that he.. " He's catch himself going a bit off the edge and then pull himself back just like before. He'd laugh as if it was all better,"Ya know, if i COULD choose though. I think I'd be a shinobi like you, Tai. U.. can i call you Tai?" The two kept pushing forward to Jay's spot.

You know, Jay had a point, his clan did have a habit of asking that huh... "Hey man, running the mines isn't bad though. Someone needs to make sure they're safe down there. But hey! If you try for going as a shinobi, there's a lot of work that needs to be done and there's always room for more ninja!"

Taigakai wasn't exactly smart, but he knew that kid had some personal problems. Maybe after playtime he'd prompt Jay about it. He grinned at Jay's sudden curiosity, knowing that it was forced but had to act like he didn't notice. "Hey man, running the mines isn't bad though. Someone needs to make sure they're safe down there."

It wasn't everyday that he was asked about his dreams so he didn't really know the right way to respond. He wasn't even sure if there was a right or wrong answer to give, but after hearing the response to his forced answer he knew. At that moment he knew that today wasn't a normal day, and that his encounter with Taigakai wasn't purely coincidental. It had to have been planned, something or someone greater was looking out for him. After being asked a questions he figured it was his turn to get some answers as well. "Hey Tai? Yea, what's with your voice? Are you doing that on purpose?Or is it like an accent your family has or something? Do you know what I'm talking about? and why'd you repeat yourself like that just now? Haha are you nervous or something?" Jay wasn't sure if he was coming on too strong and he really hopes he wasn't but he's curious.

:

Taigakai paused and stared at Jay for a moment. "I'm doing something weird with my voice?" He sounded normal to himself, or no one else brought attention to it. Taigakai was confused, his voice sounded consistent enough. Did the Toketsu lineage actually have an accent that he wasn't aware of that differed from Kaironokuma? "Not sure what you're on about, Jay.", he said, scratching the back of his head but with an obvious look of confusion on his face.

Jay paused when Taigakai paused and stared at him. "Nothing's wrong wirth your voice?" He'd sound confused on why he's the only one to ever mention it. Maybe there wasn't a notable difference in Tai's voice, but to Jay it really felt like there was. Since Taigakai didn't notice it he'd drop the subject and continue walking with a big grin on his face. It didn't take much time at all for the two to arrive at his favorite spot. " Welcome to Dreamer's Island! This place is tots cool. They got games and food and little rides and people! Lots of kids our age we can meet. C'mon Tai!" He'd rush in gesturing for Taigakai to follow.

Taigakai looked at the place that Jay had led him to. An amusement park? Surprisingly, he never knew this was here. He knew of one that showed up occasionally, but this was outside of that timeframe. Huh... "Okay, this is pretty cool actually.", he said, jogging in after Jay. It wasn't hard to lose track of him, partially because he was the only guy running in a direction different from the crowd.

OOC:

As customers came in and out of the front door; they would be shoved by the eager young man. He'd attempt to disguise his rudeness with quick apologies to those he'd push. He'd panic while making his way to the front desk where he'd urgently pulled money out of his pocket and  slam it on the desk. " ONE HUNDRED TICKETS PLEASE!"" My.. My .. You've cut it real close this time, Jasaac." The young lady at the desk responded, holding back laughter on how much sweat is dripping down the boys face from his short sprint. " Just two minutes before closing time. I don't know if i should even.." " PLEASE! please not today. I know I'm late...but look, look! I brought a friend. A friend! He's never been here before and, please, please, pleaaaaasssseee." Jay begged putting his hands together and making pouting faces. "ugh! ok, ew stop that.  I was just kidding, the place closes later Monday through Thursdays." She'd then proceed to take his money in exchange for 100 tickets. " Hey, don't make a habit of begging. It's not cute, you wont be attracting any girls when you get older by pouting and begging." He'd receive the tickets and flash her with a smile before running back to Taigakai.

" Hey Tai, I got us tickets! we can play whatever you want.  There's the rolling the ball into one of the slots thing, there's the throwing the ball into a basket thing, there's the hojutsu shooter game in the genjutsu chambers... which do you wanna try first? We only got an hour."

Taigakai looked around and quietly, albeit shyly, approached the desk where Jay was begging a lady for tickets. They seemed to know each other well, which was good and allowed for banter like that. He'd give a little wave to the woman when Jay was mentioning him as his new friend brought over.

After the tickets were purchased and Jay was listing off games, Taigakai looked around to see what was there. Obviously there were more games than what he mentioned, but it was a start. "That last one you mentioned sounds kind of cool actually. Could we try that one first?", he asked. A shooter in a genjutsu chamber? That piqued his interest.

Jay waited eagerly for Taigakai's decision, and to his delight; it was a good one. " Yes!" he'd immediately shout with excitement as he clinched his fist. " That is my favorite game. But in all fairness you should definitely reconsider." He'd pause a bit to let the idea bring confusion to Tai as to why he should reconsider. Without allowing the possibility for a response, he would start again with a huge grin across his face. " Becausssseeee I'm the best at it! You'll never beat my high score,never, ever ,ever! haha! Just kidding; about the never, ever, ever part. Maybe when I'm very old or something. hehehe, I'm not kidding about how good i am though. I hold the highest score in that game. Wanna see it? " He'd run along signalling for Taigakai to follow. The two of them didn't have a whole lot of time to spend these tickets, so he was glad that his new friend had chosen to play his favorite game.

After going towards the other side of the Aracade he'd point up at the score. " See! That's me! 12656, and that was the last time i played. I've been practicing  so now I'm soo much better." He'd place the tickets into a machine for the both of them before pressing play. "Hey look there." If Taigakai followed Jay's direction they would star a a red spinning flower placed at the top of the board. In that same moment the world around them began to disintegrate until nothing but darkness surrounded them. The next moment Tai would feel someone grip his arm." Don't be scared Tai, I got you! Its all part of the ga." He'd get interrupted by the game's narrations while the imaging began to create a battle field .
 
" Welcome Gamer to the end of the war. The devastating battles between our mighty ASN and the scum we know as Pandora has reached its finally. It all ends today, what we do today will determine who tells tale come morning. You must not fail... You must not....AGHHHHHHHH!!!!!! The body of an ASN shinobi comes crashing before them as mutanted people began to tear through their defenses. " GO! GO! GO! GET TO THE GUNS NOW!" " BE PILLAGED AND WITNESS THE RISE OF THE PANDORAN EMPIRE." Randomly some innocent civilian would stop running a shout towards the massive curse marked mutant. The female shouted with fear in her heart, " But what about the children?!"" THEY'RE NOT SAFE!""Oh..Alright" she'd then continue her running away. Chose Your Weapon

Choices:

Once choices were made they would have to face the big mutant, who much like most big bad villains had a bunch of weaker minions charging at the two of them.

Objective:

"That's fine by me. I'm only here for fun.", he said, giving a little smile that probably spelled 'too pure for this'. Competition wasn't really his thing, but it would have to be later in life. He followed Jay, simply listening to the boy and letting out a whistle to his score. 12.5k is pretty high. Taigakai wasn't sure about the scoring system, but it was still impressive. He was sure that Jay's grabbing his arm was part of the excitement for him, shaking his head slightly and looking around.

So it was a recreation of the war that took place a century or two ago? In the back of his head, a question rang about what any traces of the pandoran empire would think about a game like this. In front of him were three projectile weapons. He looked at each one. "Do these have different statistics or is that just choice by aesthetic?", he asked. Though he knew that two looked like rapid fire and one was a single shot at a time. His question was answered when his hand was reaching for a weapon to select, revealing stats that set one weapon different from another. Something about the weapon choices felt like the game was set more on a single weapon, the stats just seemed to get worse with the other choices. Cocking his head to the side, he picked the one on the far left, readying it to shoot just as soon as a spawn appeared. Was this a tutorial enemy or was the game actually starting.

Almost immediately, he saw enemies running at him. Logically speaking, he opted to hit the faster ones first. He pulled the trigger on those, spinning on his heel if another speedy target was practically behind him.

Taigakai had successfully killed the fast minions in the back, but will soon find out that he had chose wrongly. The minions in the back were fast but they were also a good distance away. Meaning that he could have opted to kill those last, meanwhile the slower ones were already in range of Tai's virtual character. Tai would spin and kill any minions behind him, which was a good move; if there were minions coming from that direction. Instead he'd leave himself wide open for full damage from the incoming monsters. That is until gamer tag: JAY_ THE_ALMIGHTY swooped in for the partial save.  Carrying the weakest gun in the game, he'd manage to empty his clip on two of the minions that were moving at C-rank speeds and kill them.  Due to possessing D-rank speeds, Jay was also able to use his remaining two bullets and one reload for his turn to kill the remaining two minions moving at C-rank speeds and gravely wound one big guy moving at D-rank speeds.

"Hey! Don't fall for the tricks, always take out the closest & fastest ones first, then the closest , then the furthest and fastest, then the furthest. If you get what I'm saying." Jay would then take a hit for Tai, making his health drop down to 1A+1B+1C. Taigakai would take two C-ranks of damage from two of the big and slow minions bringing his health down to 1A+1B.  Jay is out of bullets and is now reloading; Tai will have to take care of those three big guys. "Also don't stop shooting until they're all dead. Your gun is a really fast one, I can't ever seem to get the reload right on it, but i guess you must be a pretty fast dude. Quick you still have 21 bullets before you need to reload; get those suckas."

Play by Play:

Jay seemed to be really into this game. Taigakai was a beginner at this thing, but he could already tell how good Jay was at it. He guessed it wasn't too far off to how actual fights happened, at least to some degree. "Right.", was all he replied to Jay's commentary. What he said made sense for the most part, though he'd be lying if he didn't have to register what Jay said and put two and two together a few seconds after he said it.

A dodge to the side to avoid a blow from one of the bigger guys and Taigakai would attempt to whack the enemy with his gun in hopes that melee attacks worked, delivering a sharp blow into their shoulder. He looked around quickly and began to shoot at another of the larger targets, keeping his steps circular so that he could check his surroundings quickly and duck out of the way. A few bullets left in his clip and a roll out of another hit, Taigakai fired the last few shots at some smaller minions that came closer and then began to reload while still looking around.

While working together the two were able to neutralize the immediate threats and avoid taking more damage. But a few things would be noticed when Tai attempted to use his real life combat prowess to evade some of the attacks coming his way. He'd successfully evade but his health would've dropped all the same. He'd then try to buck a few of the targets, but that wouldn't do anything either. " HAHA! Tai, this game is pretty old. Those moves don't register well in this version of the game. The only thing that works is to shoot. Oh and nice shot btw, we've completed the first wave of minions. Now we got to fight the boss. " The game would get silent for a bit and their attention would forcefully be centered around the main boss who had sent those minions earlier.

" GAHHHHH DAMNIT! All you minions are good for nothing!" the boss would say as another minion responded with grief in its voice. " Aw, Boss that is not nice!. Almost instantly the boss would pull our a massive cleaver and slice his minion in half. He'd then make his way towards the two from 25ft away moving at B-rank speeds. " AH! Get ready bro. he's coming!" Jay would start shooting at it, unloading his clip and using his D-rank speeds to reload and unload again. The boss would only get agitated by Jay's shooting and begin to move even faster at B++ speeds. " Shoot Tai, shoot!"

Spoiler:

Well, that was confusing to say the least. But at least Jay had explained it. "Who is this boss supposed to be anyways? If it's referencing something from the war?", he asked as he aimed and took fire towards the boss. The guy was a total bullet sponge if he was eating that much health. It could have been made a dramatization of the head enemy from that war but it was strange nonetheless. Taigakai shot at the boss alongside Jay, getting into a rhythm of reloading right after he ran out of bullets. There was a pattern to the shots but that could get disrupted by the boss and how the game worked.

As the two unloaded on the raging monster it began to speed up drastically going from B++ speeds to S-rank speeds. Practically blinding the two with it raw speed and slashing them both simultaneously causing B-rank damage. The creature took the time to let out a big roar, and at that moment JAY_THE_ALMIGHTY finished him off with 20 shots. The monster would drop and rewards would be added to each player. Just as they were going to move on to the next level the game would save and turn off. "Attention players we are closing in 5 minutes. Please cash out your tickets and enjoy the rest of your day. "

Jay would then look towards Tai and give him a thumbs up. " You did awesome Tai, lets get out of here. " He'd then make his way out

Taigakai followed Jay out. Definitely not his kind of game, but it was still fun. He'd be polite about it though. "I didn't even know such a game like that existed. Really interesting though.", he said with a slightly tired sigh. What would Seiko say, as his obscure voice of 'logic'? 'Games like that are inaccurate and do not do anything to progress to further perfection against an enemy in a fight.' or something. Why did he think so much of what Seiko would say? He might be spending too much time around the robot. Was it anxiety or humour? Kind of both. But it's not exactly anything comforting. Yikes.

"Yeah they're pretty cool huh? You're the first partner I've had who's actually been able to help me beat it," Jay went ahead slightly, hands stuffed in to his pockets with his new bundle of currency, and looking back. "Yo, so, I'm just gotta hit on home. If you wanna give the hard mode boss a shot, you can pretty much find me here any other day." He was about to just trot off, not caring to do any ticket cashing out yet when he was saving them up, but then looked back. "You're real cool, you know," The expression just showed he was making a bad joke. And with that, he left the boy to it.