The World is My Home [Private / Training / Personal RP]

[Saiyuki]

In a world when the shinobi are a thing of the past and tales are written of the valiant deeds of ancient heros, who shall be remembered? One book has survived through the ages and will only be found by those who are worthy to read about the endeavors embellished in its pages. It is only one volume of several and thus does not start at the beginning, only the middle. It follows the life of one man, one of many warriors to reign for supremacy in an age of chaos. Power ran rampant among the lands and the rain of blood formed rivers that coursed through each and every country.

This is the story of Ryuusei Sai, a collection of his heroics. Or perhaps you may call them the acts of a Tyrant, an oppressor who was feared by many. Whether or not he was a Savior or a Devil, decide that for yourself after you see how he took History into his own hands.

[Saiyuki]

Current Affairs
Rank: "E"
Skill: Skill
Effect: This skill helps a character know the goings-on in the world around them.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: This skill helps a character know the goings-on in the world around them. They try to keep informed of all the latest developments in any region. The information obtained is always publicly available knowledge and never secret or classified information. With a successful Current Affairs skill check, the character successfully asks questions and learns information about the local area. On a failed check, people either don’t know or refuse to answer the character’s nosey questions. Unskilled characters have access to local rumors as would be expected. Those with Average mastery should receive twice the ordinary amount of rumors while those of Expert mastery know all local rumors if they seek them out. In addition, those with Advanced mastery or above may check the veracity of any rumors they encounter by having a Game Master roll a [secret] skill check. If successful, the Character identifies a single false rumor. Look in Academia Skills thread found in the Skills and Traits Index for more information. Each time learned user gets 5 die roll to increase the skill.

Able Learner - 7 die rolls

0/5

Sai's eyes wandered from one end of the bar to the other. He was in this shady area for one reason and one reason only. To gain information. And sometimes the best place to do that was through underground criminals. Fortunately, the Chuunin had quite a reputation in the Underworld as a Hunter, specializing in catching targets, dead or alive at the client's request. He had since stopped that bloody work but still retained a few contacts here and there. However he felt that he needed more. And that was exactly why he had arranged a meeting in this secret bar, which was hidden behind the establishment of an every day restaurant.

"Well, if it isn't Orion! Early as always, I see."

Sai looked up. Few people had uttered that name to his face and lived but luckily, this man would be spared that fate. This was Hito, an information broker who made most of his money as a broker with Hunter-nin and the BINGO organization. Sai would nod and the two would start exchanging information. The former hunter knew that one does not often get information for free, needing to exchange something in return. However Hito had given him a few tips on how to get more out of others. There were a plethora of ways. One could threaten them. That was an easy way for Sai given that many knew of his ruthlessness.

"I wouldn't suggest that, bud. You gotta be able to get respect in other ways."

Nodding in agreement, Sai listened as Hito gave his guidance on alternative ways of getting information out from others. Killing them with kindness was one. It was so very useful to have those in debt to you people who would remember what you did for them. Sai could do that, without being too kind. He was a cynic and thankfully most of the people in this line of work were too. They would not expect him to do something for them without expecting something back and if they could easily do it, then they would do it at Sai's command. With this, Sai heard a juicy bit of information. A former Triad leader had secretly retired and was trying to open a bar. But some of the local Mafioso were getting in the way and could possibly identify him. Handing over a folder with the exact location of a man Hito had been trying so hard to get to, Sai left this payment and knew what he had to do next. A former Underworld leader would no doubt have a great deal of information for the rising Chuunin.

[Deleted]

+5; Learned.
+39SP; 39|125.

[Saiyuki]

OOC: Thanks Kaizu! And once more.

Current Affairs: 0/5

When the Hunter arrived at the scene, what seemed to be only a partially constructed bar establishment had been wrecked. It seemed that he had arrived too late. And judging from the embers, it was not too long ago that the act had occurred. Most of the people had left the scene already, not that there were many in the first place. It was not in the best of places either so the crowd here wasn't exactly the nicest people. From the corner of his eye, Sai caught a skulking shadow off past the street to his right, right as he had turned the corner. Revving up his Air Treks, he jumped on the wall and ran on it, following the path the shadowy figure had took. In but a few moments, his hand was tightly wrapped around the man's hair.

"Ow ow ow!!!"

Sai then slammed the man into the ground and stepped on his right shoulder, nearly breaking it from the force of the step.

"Tell me what you know about what just happened. Or I will subject you to such pain that you wish you were dead. You have not known suffering until you can see your bones penetrating through your skin, lying in a pool of your own blood as you watch your very soul leave through your last breaths."

The man gave a scared whelp when he saw the look in Sai's eyes. Faced with a glare that could kill, he stammered his words as he pointed in a direction. The Hunter quickly put together the string of phrases that he uttered. It was a local group called the Saints and their base was north/northwest of where the were. And their sign was a reverse cross with chains. That was enough for him to work with. Dashing and gliding through the rooftops in the direction his "informant" had told him, he found a group of people pushing a bound older man forward.

In a flash, the speed at which Sai used left an afterimage of him in the air. Due to his bloodlimit's unique abilities, he was able to change direction in air. And that direction threw him straight in front of the group, about 5 meters away. One spin stop later and he soared into the air, firing off a deadly Fang over the head of the middle aged prisoner. The chain was cleanly cut apart and so were the first line of gangsters. A line of blood separated the two of them from the others, who were stunned at what just happened. Sai cleared his throat and spoke.

"6 of you remain. And you are all scum that no one would mind killing. I recommend running very far away before you end up like tihs."

Sai gave off a very intense killing aura, fresh from having just slaughtered four men. The other men looked at each other and ran in the opposite direction. The Hunter had made up his mind to go after them later, not wanting to scare off his new "partner" when they all fell dead. 4 other men in black suits would step out from the shadows, hiding whatever weapon they just used. They approached Sai and their leader before kneeling.

"While I had things covered, it seems you sped things up a bit haha. Now, you came to me knowing who I was, I assume? What are you looking for?"

"…I hear you're looking to run a bar. I happen to have come across some information on a good location. Interested?"

[Deleted]

+5; Learned.
+28SP; 67|125.

[Saiyuki]

Memory Absorption
Rank: "B"
Skill: Supplementary
Effect: When performing Consuming they can absorb the memories of whom they consume.
Special: ---
Drawback: Absorbing mass amount of people will make the user go insane.
Description: Consuming is the process by which the absorbs the biomass and DNA or essence of other entities, copying and assimilating it into their own in order to gain the entity's genetic memories and physical presence. This is an extremely violent process against an opponent who is awake. When consuming a living, non-Bloodline (Protean) human, not only does the user absorb biomass and physical attributes, the user can absorb the memories of the people they consume. For event purposes the memories are dictated by the Game Master. For Village Location Purposes the user will gain a general idea of where a village may be, but no specifics (Will know Which Regional Map to own). For every minute the opponent is dead before Consuming, the user loses 1/6th of the memory from the opponent. If an opponent has died longer than 6 minutes the user absorbs no memory. If an opponent has died for 3 minutes, the user absorbs half of its memory. User does not gain skills or techniques, only memories of it.
Limit: Must be a Protean. Must know Body Absorption.

After a few weeks, Sai was the first customer to be served in the new bar, which was thus named "Eden Hall". He had brokered a deal between a real estate agent that he knew and sold the Triad leader a decent sized bar for cheap. Given its location in a prime neighborhood with rich merchants and tourists, it was sold at quite the deal. The Hunter could be very persuading when he needed to. And thus, he was the first to drink at the quiet bar, modeled after the traditional bars of old. Heavy doors, dim lights, a splendid display of spirits. Sai took a second to appreciate the atmosphere before opening up discussion.

0/50

"Mr. Leo. I assume you have what I requested?"

The man quietly smiled as he wiped down a glass carefully.

"Indeed, my network has given me a heads up. It is not my MO to question a client's motives but perhaps you might want to rethink this hunt. These people seem to be a bunch of crazies. Hardly credible enough for me to sell to you."

"This may seem quite far-fetched but I need to know. Anything on those who research the Blood of Origin."

Many rumors surrounded the blood that ran through Sai's veins. Not much was known about it but it had been the creation of a great many forbidden Jutsu in this world. Its power made it quite appealing to those who would experiment on Sai's kind and create demonic weapons and uses from it. Sai had put down so many abominable creations in his time. It seemed this quest would never end.

"I am surprised that a man like you would go after such a thing. But very well. This cult is called Memoir. Apparently, they are researching ways that the Blood of Origin can absorb not just the physical form of creatures but also their mind and soul. It sounds absolutely horrendous….Anyways, this is their last known location."

"…Thank you."

Mr. Leo knew nothing of Sai's Protean blood, only that he hated those who used it for such means. Only when Sai went all out would he ever show his bloodline limit abilities. Very few lived since facing that form. This cult would not be an exception. As he pushed the heavy polished oak door open, he pondered about their research. He knew his blood enabled him the ability to consume others, taking on their physical characteristics perfectly. But their "minds and souls"? This had never occurred to him. The Hunter had long reviled the way the technique was, training it only so the Consuming would be swift and clean. It was useful no doubt. Back home, as he mapped out the possible locations from the description the bartender had given him, he happened upon a possibility.

If I am able to absorb their minds, then perhaps I can gain access to their memories?

The idea was an epiphany for the Hunter. The amount of access he would have to information. He had long mastered the art of conveniently causing a person to leave their lives to do something else. But he also thought about the drawbacks if such a thing were true. Would he have to fight their will? Would the remnants of their consciousness ever affect his own judgment? At this moment, he thought of the saying: "You are the company that you keep." With this, he started going through his own memories of how he consumed others. Usually it was after he had killed his target and his hands would suck them in from lower back. Perhaps it was time to see if the origin of consuming changed anything.

Finalizing the most likely location of the man who had been organizing his own information network that focused on possible Proteans in the area, Sai headed out into the fading twilight. As he soared through the roofs, he contemplated how he would switch up the Consuming. When he was nearing the targeted area, he slowed down and proceeded with caution. Several minutes, he would discover a group of men talking amidst themselves on the outskirts of town. Sai peered down from a nearby rooftop. One man was clearly leading the others.

"Y'all better watch out if they get threatened. Most of them don't know nothing in using their powers. Stick in groups and we'll purge these damned demon spawns. They can eat y'all too. Suck up your bodies right into them. And if you're gonna die, make sure you don't die from your head. The higher-ups tell me that might be a way for them to steal y'all memories too. Here, use these weapons."

And that's when Sai struck. He cared not if these men were hired mercenaries or just impoverished volunteers looking to make a quick buck. A roaring tornado shot up, its power magnified by the fact that it was unleashed on such a small alleyway. It swept through the street, cutting up many of the men apart in the process from the cyclone winds. When it faded away, Sai looked around. Perhaps he had been too hasty. He began his search for the ring leader. Most likely he would be dead or buried under the debris. His Sensor abilities told him none had been left alive.

Given his damage had destroyed the sides of a few abandoned buildings and scattered the men all over the place, he had a decent amount of ground to cover. He wasted no time however, blasting through the debris either pure kicking force or winds generated from his Regalia. Soon enough, he found the ringleader, his corpse thankfully still intact. It had been roughly 5 minutes or so since he unleashed the damage. He put his hand to the ringleader's head and let his blood do the rest. Black biomass would fill his palm, making it seem like a portal to an endless void. And indeed it was a portal of sorts, as Sai sucked in the man. As he did so, he felt nothing different save for one thing that popped into his mind.

He met with the rest of his teammates in a secret hiding room at Shao Square only yesterday.

[Deleted]

+10; 10|50.

[Saiyuki]

10/50

With only the most recent memory acquired, Sai did not have much information to work on. He would have to cross reference the images in his mind to concrete locations. First he headed back to base while carefully going over what he gained. He did this multiple times since he did not know how permanent these memories were. While he was being cautious of intaking too many memories, he was also on guard for the possibility of losing them as well. If they acted anything like normal memories, then it would not take much for the finer details to fuzz out into vague mist. As the Hunter got back to his base, he pulled out a map and several photographs of major locations and some interesting locations. First he found Shao Square, where the memory was based on.

The area was a bit out of the way from where Sai had just been. Did this mean they had already spread their influence out a great deal in this city? The Hunter grimaced. That was not a pleasant thought. Regardless, he would have to hit them at their core. From the looks of it, their building in Shao Square was far too small to be the headquarters of such an organization. No, they would need to be room for laboratories and prisons. The Consumed man's memories held no such place. But this would be the next link in the chain that would lead back to the one who held it. He would have to pick his target carefully. He'd rather not Consume anyone unless he really had to. These people disgusted him and he'd rather they not be a part of him. He headed out into the night with a full moon out.

Several minutes of light footed travel would lead him to one of the rooftops of Shao Square. A brief glance would give him the location of the mysterious building these people were congregating at. Quietly he scaled the wall back down and took on the form of the man he had Consumed earlier. He had not managed to see much of his mannerisms but with his Acting and Disguise skills, hopefully he would pass. In the case there was someone bright enough to see through his disguises, it just meant that person saved him the work of finding a Consuming target. There was no password, it seems they deemed it would be useless if Consuming of memories was possible. But they seemed to have another test. A test of blood. But Sai had already accounted for that. He had taken blood samples from his target earlier.

A swift cut and use of a tiny blood vial would fool the security at the front and he was allowed into the rooms past the lobby. He arrived at a large space with a makeshift stage. Judging from the murmurs that surrounded him, it seemed that a speaker was to take the stand. In a few minutes, the murmurs would die down as an important looking figure took the stage. He had a despicable smug looking face. The man raised his palm in the air to silence the last of the audience's whispers.

"Brothers and sisters, it is my pleasure to be back at this Branch once more. I heard all of you have once again captured another cursed demon spawn and I am happy to tell you she has been sacrificed in creating more holy weapons against those of her kind."

With this, cheers roared through the crowd. It would just sweep over Sai like a wave of cold water. His hands in his pockets were clenched tight enough to draw blood. He could not listen any more and zoned out the ramblings. However, he noted the man next to the speaker. A dark looking figure who carried him a large file and seemed to be checking his watch a lot. He carried with him an air of disinterest in the proceedings. Then his suspicions were confirmed when he was honored as a head researcher. Sai's eyes were fixated upon him. Target acquired. Then Sai, among other "group leaders", were called up to the front before the stage to report on their latest progress. It seem the man Sai had consumed was among one of the more promising leaders of the cult.

"And you, Yan?"

Realizing this was his name, he looked up with a surprised look. A moment later, he would start to laugh.

"All your plans, all your research, all your beliefs. Worthless. You have always prosecuted these people for one reason and one reason only. Do not even try to sugercoat with words of faith and justice. You stand for a single truth. Power. The sole driving force behind your leaders. You think this would give you a power strong enough to stand with the Great Nations? Let me do you the favor of waking up from your dreams. When you look back on this world from Hell, watch as I show you how "power" can truly be used in this day and age. Farewell."

Black halos had already formed around Sai. With one wave of his hand, tendrils would burst out from them, highly solidified and raging all over the place. The room was massacred by the hundreds of tendrils in mere seconds. These people had not been prepared and the few that were could only hold on before they were overwhelmed from being attacked on all sides. Unfortunately, the chaos of the attack had consisted of not just stabbing but also the strikes flung these people off all over the place. It took him a few minutes to find the man who was the head researcher. He took the files from his hands, still tightly clenched. Good thing rigor mortis had not set in yet. Sai's hand would cover his face. Then the black biomass would draw him into the Hunter. The memories would flow into him. A wide smile would emerge on his face. He knew where the base was.

[Saiyuki]

??/50

Sai exited the building through a back door, ending up in an alleyway hidden away from the street lights. Thankfully, his choice of massacre did not alert the outside world to what had happened. He left in the researcher's form, a man with an everyday face wearing everyday clothes. At least these people knew how not to stand out in a crowd. If it weren't for him being specifically identified for his position, Sai would have never guessed that he was that high up. Assured that no one else was in the alleyway, he scaled the walls up to the lonely rooftops. As he did so, he carefully went through his memories. While he preferred not to be in this form, he thought it would not hurt while he was processing the memories. There were several interesting things that he found.

As expected, another branch of the Curse Seal…

While still rare in this world, Sai had encountered his fair share of Curse Seal users during his travels. While he had looked into the history of the Curse Seal and concluded it was started by one man who had then taught it to a select few, that did not mean certain secrets did not leak out from those who had gained them. Indeed several of them were powerhungry and obviously wanted more from its source, the Proteans. This was one such cult given the researcher's understanding of the founder. It was indeed a good thing that Sai had chosen his target well. He also noted that since he found the researcher's corpse quicker than he had with his previous target, he had gained many more memories as a result. This made for valuable information if this was true. There was also the possibility that the researcher was just plain smarter, as well as several other variables. He would have to confirm this to be true.

The next day, he woke up early and went over his plan. With what the researcher had known, he was due to be back at the headquarters at noon today. He would follow that plan. Unfortunately he did not understand the nitty gritty details of the meeting he was supposed to be part of but he decided to remedy that by just getting there early to set up. His end goal in mind was to find out who was at the top of this organization and then destroy it when he knew everything. To that end, he brought in his bag several pounds of an extremely potent solution that would cause rapid destruction should it come into contact with fire. He did not know how it was made but he had procured as repayment for a favor he did a long time ago. Karma does come around for good deeds.

He had mapped out where the researcher remembered the place to be. Apparently even he had only been there a couple of times. He also discovered that this man only took this job because he could find no other work and that he was doing it for his family. While Sai thought it was a pity, he just saw it as misfortune that his line of work put him against the Hunter. But this was valuable information in case anyone at the base knew him personally. He had also employed the use of several contacts to make sure word of what had happened in Shao Square would not get out to anybody until Sai was done with this place. He had been given 36 hours. That was more than enough time.

A couple of hours later, he arrived at the cult base, a castle of sorts. It was not too grand but it still commanded a great size. The Hunter sighed in his mind. That meant more work for him to do. He had been hoping his memory was wrong in seeing how big it was in person. It was indeed actually that big. As he was led inside, he noticed that much of this place was unfamiliar to him. It seemed that the researcher did not know his way around the area. As he was given an hour or so to himself to prepare for the meeting, he had time to move around. If anyone questioned him, he would just say he was looking around or that he had gotten lost while looking for something or someone. Soon he saw someone giving orders to the patrol guards. This one seemed to be in charge of security.

"Hi, sir. My name is Zhao and I am heading the division conference today. I was wondering if my materials that I had ordered were secure."

"Ah Mr. Zhao. Of course, our security is excellent. Not even the best ANBU of the Great Nations could catch a glimpse of what we have locked down."

"That is reassuring to hear. I assume you're the one in charge of security?"

"I am indeed."

"Good, I was hoping to have someone show me the way to the materials so I can inspect them."

"Of course, sir."

As the captain issued his last orders, he turned and led the way down several white hallways. They all seemed the way to Sai. It was a veritable maze up here. But when they finally reached a door, as the man took out a small cardholder, Sai devoured him just as access had been given. He caught the card before it fell to the ground. A swift and quiet Consuming it was. With this, Sai understood. Everything up here was for show. The most important person was below.

[Nekomata Minh]

+20

[Saiyuki]

30/50

Sai took a deep breath as the leader of the Cult guard. This was a little overwhelming to be honest. A flood of memories just came in. So this was what it was like to absorb the memories of someone who had not even died. He had expected more from their security but it seemed that there would be stronger defenses where it really mattered: underground. It seemed this officer did not know much about what laid below their feet, just that it was top level restricted access and a few horror stories about people who stuck their heads in a little further than they should have. Now that Sai had abandoned his image as an outside researcher, he felt more comfortable walking around. Thankfully the Consuming had happened in an dead angle of a camera so all he did was pretend to let the researcher in and then close the door, proceeding back to his rounds. His memory told him that was what he should be doing anyway so this would have caused no suspicion.

As he sifted through the waves of memory that were rolling around in his mind, he picked out a few important points that were relevant to his mission. One was that there was a certain way to identify the ranks of the Cult's members. Each person would have an insignia badge on their chest, sometimes hidden and sometimes now. The guard knew the different ranks and what each badge looked like but he did not know specifically who belonged to the highest rank, which would be Sai's next target. So that just meant Sai would have to look for his target the hard way. But there were some characteristic those high ranked people had, usually some pretty flashy outerwear.

Well then, time to find some of these Helos.

Thus Sai would continue making his rounds. He knew he would have a good chance at finding one once the Conference that his preceding Consuming had come for. A great deal of important people would attend the meeting. However it would be difficult to lure such a target away from a public gathering and he did not want to draw suspicion to the missing researcher. He searched through his memory for places where the higher ranked tended to flock to. He started heading to the upper floors, knowing that he was skipping his usual route that he did. He tried his best to avoid the cameras but he could always invent an excuse for going off the standard. His memory told him the 7th floor had the possibility of having a Helos out and about. They were very rarely seen but the guard just happened to know of one who spent a decent amount of time on that floor. This helped Sai immensely.

After several minutes coursing through the floor, Sai detected life on the next turn and stealthily peered around the corner. There were few cameras on this distinctively more luxurious floor so he did not worry about behaving strangely. He saw a middle aged man just as he bended down to give something to a dog. At that exact moment, the insignia identifying his rank as a Helos peeked out of his robe, almost about to fall out and dangle from its chain. But that was enough. The Hunter did not miss the mark that identified his prey. As he pondered how he would approach this man, he was called back into a room. There were others here. Now it seemed that he had to try a different approach. Forming hand seals, he would summon a Kage Bunshin who would then take on the form of the guard while he switched back to the researcher.

"Mr. Fei? We have a guest researcher that specifically requested your presence and would like to speak you about a confidential matter."

Luckily, this guard had spoken with his Helos on a few occasions. Standard every day talk with a few snippets on life lessons. They seemed friendly enough that this request would not seem too strange. As the researcher, Sai was behind the clone. The Helos looked at his peers and nodded, excusing himself from what seemed to be an informal meeting over coffee. The guard clone then led the two of them into a private room. He closed the door and stood guard over what was about to occur inside. In the room, Sai politely shifted the chair out for the Helos to sit on. Accepting the gesture, the Helos sat down, unsuspectingly. Then he suddenly grabbed the Helos graying hair, with enough force that he would not be able to get away. His face blended back to his real face.

"I thank you. You shall be my final key to the destruction of everything you hold dear."

Before he could even utter a syllable of shock and fear, he vanished from his seat into Sai's Consuming.

[Nekomata Minh]

+10

[Saiyuki]

40/50

With naught a trace of the Helos left, Sai took on the form of the esteemed leader. As he did so, the clone opened the door, still in the form of the guard and the two headed towards their now known destination. Sai could not help but hide his growing sense of excitement. This was the thrill, the feeling of ever closing in on your unknowing target, only moments away from the pounce. But not just yet. No, judging from Sai's newfound memories, there would be quite a ways to go before reaching this so called Great Founder. Judging from his memory, this guy may have the Curse Seal. Sai knew it would not be an easy battle but he would have capture him alive. That way he would obtain all the memories there were and be able to see if there were any branches out there that needed erasing.

Taking the elevator all the way down to the lowest basement level, the two of them would get off. Earlier, he discovered the Helos had every right to see their leader whenever they felt like it, a privilege given to only the highest of ranks. Sai realized that he was indeed fortunate to happen upon such a perfect prey. He realized that the man he had Consumed was kinder to Proteans than the rest of them, sticking to more humane experiments. Nonetheless this man had risen in rank due to hunting them down. Now his memory was being used to bypass all the standard biometric and password security systems, which had already numbered five by the time one read up to this sentence. Whatever was down here, they did not want anyone else coming down here.

Now came the difficult part. To get past the next and final security measure, one had to perform a certain type of summoning ritual. Obviously Sai knew of the ritual but he found out that he himself was not able to perform the ritual. It seemed that absorbing another's memories did not give him their abilities or techniques, though he would know how to gain for himself if he so desired. This made it troublesome and he slowed down his pace to think about how to bypass the next gate. Feeling under the weather was certainly not an excuse. These people took their security seriously and would not half ass it, even for the Helos. Sai had to give them credit for that.

The clone and him switched identities. As they approached the Gate, Sai would disappear into the darkness. On the blueprint there was nothing here. However it appeared the Helos had discovered a backdoor. Sai's fingers traced the cracks of time that appeared along the wall. The final level was in a cavern. However this was a veritable fortress. Using force to break though would take a tremendous amount of effort and even if Sai broke through, he would be spent once he did. He knew that the rocks around here were not normal rocks. Then he found it. Meanwhile the clone had collapsed, faking the symptoms of a seizure. The guards were obviously perplexed and had no idea what to do, as this was a first. As they panicked, Sai crossed through a short door that had been pushed in. Once he had pushed it in enough, he saw steps to his right, which had led quite a ways up. As he began his ascent, the backdoor closed in on itself.

After several minutes, he entered the throne room. A great hall, full of only empty space save for the central area, where a long haired man sat, his head resting on his fist. He smiled.

"You can assume your true form here, my dear Protean."

Sai was shocked. Was the fact that he had taken the backdoor enough proof to tell that he was not the Helos he had consumed. Then he noticed the man's left eye, which was glowing red. Using his bloodpact vision, Sai realized two things. This man did indeed have a Curse Seal. And he also had various Protean body parts implanted into him. Angered by what he had discovered, Sai took on his true and mighty form, immediately transforming into a black knight of dark wrath. The leader rose and in a wave of his arms assumed a devilish form. A great battle was then waged, each firing off high level jutsu one after the other. Sai's Shields were broken through and his Armor was fading away when he finally landed a finishing blow, a Chakra Gavinha stabbing through the man's stomach and the rest of the tendrils bounding the man. It was done, Sai had finally dealt enough damage that the man's regenerative abilities stopped working.

"Haha…you've hunted me, as you've hunted all my brothers. But how much longer can you go on? There is always someone above you…I wish I could be there for the day you meet my master hahahahaha-"

Sai clasp his black hand over the man's mouth. He had enough. The man would be vacuumed into Sai's black biomass. Sai released his Armor. He fell on his knees, breathing hard. He had recovered a decent amount through Consuming the man. It seemed this one did not have any real contact, aside from letters that did not reveal their location, with any of his Curse Seal brethren since they first received their dark powers. As he sat in the darkness, recovering his powers, he saw that there was nothing left to do now except send this cult into the abyss. Finding a backdoor known to the leader, he left the pack that his friend had given him at the foundation of the base, in between the final level and the rest of the castle. Half an hour later, only a sea of flames would be left of the building as Sai oversaw the destruction from a cliff. With dark thoughts in his heart of his final goal, a man named Legion.

[Nekomata Minh]

+10 learned

[Saiyuki]

Clear Thoughts
Rank: "S"
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: User gains immunity to Enchantments.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: Target is Personal. Range is Personal. Duration is 5 hours per Class Level. User's mind is true and rejects the effects of outside influences. User becomes immune to Enchantment, Charm, and Compulsion GenJutsus and Effects. This will end any existing Enchantment effect on the Soulcaster.
Limit: Must be a Soulcaster.

0/110:

YOUR WILL IS OURS.

The shout inside his head woke him up. With blurry eyes, he realized that he was walking. But to where? Glancing around, he was in file with a line of other people, their chains clanking with every step. Then when he looked down that he was bound by chains as well. He saw several people on horseback, barking orders to those who was straggling. He realized he felt utterly weak and not in control of his body. His chakra control had been sealed away so he did not have the ability nor the strength to resist the orders that seemed to be echoing inside his head. Was this genjutsu? Or was it mind control? Sai had no idea but he could only move along. When someone next to him did break free, he realized that he was not the only Protean. When the prisoner broke free, a group of guards were immediately on him, killing him on the spot before the biomass could protect his head.

So everyone else here must be of my kind as well.

He cursed himself. Here it was, a prime opportunity to rid the world of more people who hunted those like him. Yet he was chained away and unable to call upon his shinobi abilities. Weaponless and Jutsu-less, he wondered how he would able to escape. Then he realized he still had his Soulcaster abilities. Just as he realized, a pulse of pain coursed through his head, causing him to stumble along for a few paces. It appeared he would not be able to even gather his concentration. But at least he had a glimmer of hope, small as it would be.

This was quite the tortuous fate. It was as if he were trapped in his own mind, only able to watch what his body was doing without having a say in what it did. It was dark. He could barely see himself within his consciousness. The only bright thing was the window into the outside world. In the separation between body and mind, it was as if he were watching a film on a tiny screen, surrounded by pitch black darkness. He had nothing to turn to. His body moved around, doing punishing labor and getting whipped when it failed to do what its capturers had ordered it to do. His mind banged onto the floor, or what seemed like a floor. Then he realized he was being reapplied an dose of the mind control.

From here, he could tell it was chakra that was doing the work. So it was not some device or anything other trick. Just good old Genjutsu. However it was a powerful technique and without the ability to access chakra, Sai was defenseless. Slowly, the world in his mind began to change. It seemed they wanted to take away control over his consciousness as well. Did they realize? The darkness began to sink; to where Sai could not tell. He was losing his senses, as if he was going underwater. He cursed his powerlessness, nearly exploding with rage. Then something began to change.

It is said that Soulcasters are very attuned to their character, who they are as a person. Whether or not they were good or evil was plain to see for those who knew them. Now what was happening was that Sai was drawing power from that. He hated these people and he hated his powerlessness. He had forged through numerous years of strife and turmoil, continuously hunted. He had fought for so much and for so long. And what he hated most was right in front of him. He also could not stand the idea of being stuck under someone else's thumb. He was a man born to rule and to make a name of himself. To suffer and die in a place for slaves was not an end befitting for himself. Slowly, a light began to form around his mind body, connecting to the window to the outside world.

A bridge was being formed, the first step in overcoming this mind control. Sai began to climb up, swimming his way through the murky darkness. More and more light was beginning to shine from within him, pointing at the surface above him. He climbed with the desperation of a madman, putting forth all his might and effort as he never did before. The latent power within his Soul was responding to his will and giving him the willpower to keep going. Finally when he broke the surface, he regained sensation of his own body. He was no longer trapped in that world inside his mind but he was back in reality. While it seemed he was not in control of his limbs, at the very least, he was in control of his head. A wave of relief came over him as he kept trudging along. This was but the first step.

[// One]

+10; 10|110

[Saiyuki]

10/110

Sai finally fell asleep; if you could call what he was doing as sleep. Each Protean had been continuously reapplied doses of mind controlling Genjutsu, several of them and in layers. They did not particularly care if the effects were being combined effectively and that made many of the hunted slaves lose their minds. Literally. Every single one of them were zombies, with no life or will in their eyes. Even getting whipped did not affect them though there was the occasional groan in the harsher ones. Sai had to be careful not to let his captors know that his Soul was slowly developing a resistance to their techniques. They were probably all used to seeing the same thing from everyone so his blending in with the rest of them was a matter of life or death. He had seen what happened to someone who broke free. He would not make the same mistake.

As he meditated through the night, clearing his thoughts as much as he could, he woke up in the morning actually feeling somewhat refreshed. As he looked at the faces of his blood kin, he noticed that they were not feeling the same way. Heavy dark bags bespoke of their constant nights of sleeplessness, plagued by the nightmares that had been implanted into them. By now he had accepted his raging anger of this treatment and focused himself on two goals with an cold steely concentration: mastery of his Soul's resistance abilities and freedom of his kin. He noticed that his abilities were growing just from one day from the usual application of Genjutsu on him soon after the guards made their wake up calls. As soon as he was done with that, he was taken along with several other prisoners to a lab room. He was not liking where this was going.

It took all he had to not scream out bloody murder but he contained it with an acting level reminiscent of the masters of the art. Acting as a zombie when you could actually feel everything was quite painful. He had regained control of how his head felt, so he was able to think now. Ironically the pain had served as another wake up call from the mind numbing effects of their Genjutsu techniques. As they were released, the Proteans were separated into their own rooms. Then the next thing Sai knew was that he was face to face with another Protean in a large room. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see shadowy figures behind the glass window, their eyes fixated on the two of them.

KILL HER

That was the sole command that had been issued to Sai, its overwhelming force and intent almost swallowing up his conscious completely right from the get go. He had to wrest himself back from the Genjutsu's surging waves of chakra as he concentrated on her. No doubt she had received the same order. He was focusing on her to mimic her so that he could not seem out of the ordinary. His body began moving on its own. It did not seem he would have much control over his movements. His opponent's expressionless face would become a focused one as well but still calm. It seemed that killing intent was not something zombie Proteans could feel. That made his job easier for he had all the reason to defy the control in a way that would get both of them out alive. But it would not be easy.

She was fast but not strong. This would make it a bit easier on Sai given that he was also wrestling with his mental demons while avoiding her attacks and making it seem like he was going to kill her too. About every ten seconds or so, their capturers seemed to turn up the force of their command, as if there was a switch in that observation room of theirs that was directly linked to their brain. Honestly, he would not be surprised if there actually was. He had seen some sickening creations in his time. But now, he had to end this as soon as possible, otherwise he would not be able to control his body.

With the subtle movements of a learned master, which would normally be missed by all but the select few in this world, he started creating a situation where he could lure her into a double strike, with him winning the fight but being unable to kill her. He mustered up the last dredges of his willpower and shrugged off the command enough to have enough body control to do this. This was proving to be extremely taxing on Sai. He was sorely wishing he had two brains to focus on the many things he was doing at the moment. But it paid off, her strike piercing him in the shoulders while his would strike the same spot but a little deeper and with more blood loss. She was a Protean so she would live but he had clearly taken enough damage to fall back, exhausted. A good ten seconds of stronger commands urged them on, which Sai was powerlessness to resist now. But he had accounted for this. Neither of them could barely move so this experiment was judged over and Sai was written down as the winner, though he would not know of what that would bring him later on.

[// One]

+10; 20|110

[Saiyuki]

20/110

As he was healed up, Sai was put into a different room this time. He was by himself and the room was a lot cleaner this time. But it gave him a worse feeling than his previous room. It reeked of death and despair. This was probably another one of them experiments. He was ordered to rest and he did so. In his sleeping position, he attempted to clear his head as much as he could before he allowed himself to fall asleep. He found that his resistance was highest in the morning so he needed to get rid of all the foreign chakra now. When he was satisfied with himself, he floated away to his only escape, the world of dreams.

Thankfully, he woke up having no nightmares the night before. The bad news was that he woke up to several guards and scientists around him. He was hit with a full dose of mind numbing Genjutsu right as his eyes opened, giving him absolutely no time to react. He was literally mind blown away and it took him a little while before he got back in touch with reality. When he did, he found himself doing physical exercises. Careful to not turn his head or make any other signs that he had regained his senses, he saw out of the corner of his eyes that they were taking record. Deciding that this was not worth the strain, he allowed the Genjutsu to take over. He hoarded his strength for what would come later. He did not know what it was, but he had a bad feeling. Plus while this was not the best scenario, it was almost dreamlike to train without having to be there while actually going through the motions.

But he kept his Soul power at hand to make sure he was still somewhat in touch with what was happening, using the minimal amount of power. This proved to be of good use when he was brought over to the same room as he was in yesterday. He heard mumbles of "final test" and "promising candidate" around him. It did not sound very promising to him however. He wondered whether he should lose or win this time. Ultimately he decided to win again and see what was in store for those like him. Clearly they were doing all of this for a reason. It was as if they were preparing him for something. He summoned all the Soul power he could muster. And this was very lucky. For Sai would have been killed this battle if he had not.

His opponent this time was no joke. Even with her mind taken away, she gave off the presence of a well trained veteran killer. Sai knew that he would not be able to muster up any more Soul power for additional techniques while he was still in the midst of perfecting his anti-mind control technique. All he could rely on was his own life and death experiences in battle and pray his Soul power would last up. Focus too much on the battle and he would lose control, with the possibility of never regaining it. Focus too little and the next thing his eyes would see would be his own body as his head went flying. He focused on avoiding critical blows, biding his energy while getting a feeling for her movements. She started testing his movements more instead of being more aggressive. This was particularly scary since it meant her body knew how to deal with tricky opponents like Sai without even needing to think.

A minute later, Sai knew there was no point in observing her movements any longer. The tension was killing him and it was proving to be detrimental to his ability to focus on maintaining control over his mind. He had to wait and keep waiting. But he was not waiting for her to run out of patience. He was waiting for their overseers to. And soon enough, they upped their commands. His Soul blasted at full power, while she, with no resistance, dropped her previously cautious fighting style for an lethal killing one. He waited right for this moment. If this counter failed, then he would no longer have the stamina to keep enduring the mental takeover and he would most likely kill her. Her transformed hand would break apart his shield, which he only used as a distraction while charging at her.

One squarely placed elbow counter to her jaw and she was out. Her jaw had been blown apart but she was alive nonetheless. He had not come out of that unscathed. Her stab had not stopped at his shield, which was unable to completely block the blow. He was left with a gushing wound to his side, near the top of his left ribcage. He collapsed on his knees, hugging the side that was bleeding reflexively. People would flood the room as he blacked out. He wondered how many more of these he would have to go through.

[// One]

+10; 30|110