[CE Fall 2015] The Forest

[Chuunin Examiner]

Home awaits.

SPOILER: Click to show

Okay Aimi Kaguya, Image In the Falls, with the eye on the coming CE’s we are going to cut this short, might be a bit anti-climactic, but on the other hand I am pretty sure you guys would eventually kill this last boss anyway. It’s been a bumpy road perhaps (considering the posting now and then) but it has been an honour to GM your CE’s for you and while on the one hand I am sorry that you guys had to stick with me for this long I am on the other hand also grateful for it that you managed to hold out until the end. You were exceptional candidates and go back to your Kage with your head held high to receive a well-deserved Chuunin title. Thank you and good luck on future RP and I hope to RP with you guys sometimes in the future. (You will of course not be aware of it if it happens because you totally completely absolutely have no idea who I am (you knew from the start, didn’t ya?))

Rather quicker than you expected the ghost fell to your combined assault, not able to harm you for any reason in the process because plot armour. It kinda went down faster than you expected. Under a loud shouting of an overdramatic “Noooooooohoooooooohooooo!” The creature raised his hands to the sky, sinking back into the sea as it diminished. Beyond it lay now a road of ice over the water to the wall where there was a set of openings in the wall, each closed with a single sliding door. It was clear what would happen from here. With the key the sliding door would open, allowing one person to move through the opening as the sliding door would close immediately behind the user so only one person could move through at once. On the other side there was the flying ship again, ready to take you home to your respective countries. It was over.

As it rose you could see the circular arena down below, clearly divided into four sections. It seems that someone went to great lengths in order to provide you with an engaging experience. That, or a sick mind with enough resources to build a giant arena and fill it up with monsters and killer robots. No matter. It was over, you were going home...

[Aimi Kaguya]

At long last...


Aimi stood panting above the water, his shoulders heaving up and down with every breath he had. He watched as the green spectre was subdued to everything that he had thrown at it, a last gasp of an attack that had left him as tired as he had been when they first escaped from the troll what felt like hours ago. That was it though. It was over, and the end was in sight.

Raising his head high, Aimi turned to the end of the horizon where ocean met wall. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the key and looked down at it. Was this really it? At long last? He looked back up towards the wall and clutched his key. He walked across the ice, not touching it as he hovered mere inches away from it. He walked, head held up high and his hands clutched into fists. He'd done it. Finally, after years spent in the academy at the Kusagakure learning to become a shinobi, after five years of trial and error at four separate exams where each time he had succumb to his own weaknesses - this time, this time he had succeeded. Without being eliminated, without having to rely on his Kaguya heritage - not even once! - he had done it.

Stepping in front of the sliding door with his key in hand, Aimi reached forward with shaking digits and slid the key into place and turned it. His heart was pounding. Beyond this door was the promise of victory, of moving up in the world, of becoming a chunin. He could barely contain himself as he slid the door open, completely forgetting about Shigure as he made his way through the door and stepped through on the other side, finding himself on the air ship that had taken them there to start with.

Somewhat confused yet all but reassured that what he'd gone through was a genjutsu, a smile crept across his face that quickly turned into a smirk, then into a wide grin, and then into a toothy one as he started to laugh inspite of himself. That was it! It was over! HE'D DONE IT! He clenched his hands into fists and threw them up into the air, crying out, "YES! I did it! At last, I completed an exam! HAHA! I... I can't believe it!"

Utter elation filled his every pour as he spun around the cabin of the ship. One of the hostesses from earlier informed him, quite formally, that he had passed the exams but he barely heard it. He was far too lost in himself and his joy to even register the fact that he had just been sent up into the air some how from the arena he'd been in down below them. He could see through the windows the four part stadium that he'd been a part in and had though it a genjutsu all along. Apparently not! It didn't matter though, he was literally jumping for joy, his exhaustion forgotten and his adrenaline rushing. Turning to the hostess, he smiled from ear to ear and said, "Set this bird down! As soon as possible! I have to get outside and run and jump and do SOMETHING! I want to walk back to the Kusa with my head held high! C'mon, land the blimp!"

He would continue to insist that they let him off prematurely until they did just that, lowering the blimp just low enough that the ladder was hanging not far from the ground. Aimi practically leaped from the blimp and took a hold of the ladder, scaling it down easily and dropping the last few rungs onto the ground! He was off! To the Kusagakure, to tell the Kusakage of his triumph at the exam and to be formally recognized as a chunin! Now, which way was home again?

[exit]

[Image In the Falls]

Yet again did Aimi show his battle prowess, and skills undoubtedly possessed by a capable shinobi. The ghost seemed to dissipate, unknown to either of them if it was genjutsu or and static figure in the world.

They moved onward from the rather easy encounter, towards the wall that presented both the opportunity to leave, granted a way through via the keys which they both possessed. So the boy from takigakure had done it, finally. After all the mishaps and struggles through the previous exams, He had become one of the two victors. Out of 8 people, nonetheless. Shigure smiled genuinely for the first time in what seemed to be ages.

As they moved through the doorways, Shigure couldn't help but notice the same airship they had ventured upon. It seemed like a day or so had past, but time was usually irrelevant in these sort of things. Looking back now on the start, He remembered the large crowd at the festival held in their honor, and how they could bear witness to the entirety of the exams.

Would anyone of them been cheering him on? Or would he seem like he just piggy-backed off of Aimi's abilities. Maybe someone could have seen past his passive behaviors, it was all an act anyways, to preserve his powers just in case they were ultimately needed. I't didn't matter though, Shigure was finally heading home, back to the place that had always greeted him with warm hearts, even though he was an asshole.

As the blimp began to move, the slight shuffle of the engines in momentum made the Takigakure headband draped loosely around his neck shift, a faint gleam off of the mettalic plate shown on the window infront of him. He was finally getting a promotion, and this long chapter in his Story finally coming to a close.

And as one closes, so does another, begin.

[Exit]