Premature Development[SCRAP]
Apr 22, 2010 18:03:18 GMT -7
Post by Corvus on Apr 22, 2010 18:03:18 GMT -7
Today was a great day. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and all was right with the world. On the outskirts of the village, Rui noticed an old man with a heavy pack full of who knows what. So, being the kind girl she was, Rui ran over and offered him help. The old man accepted her help and allowed her to carry his pack to the village square. In return the man recounted a tale to her to help pass the time.
Though they had been walking all the while, they were still outside the main part of the village. His story finished, the old man turned to Rui and spoke to her, "If it wouldn't be too much trouble, lets stop here for the moment," he said, motioning to a fallen log sitting by the side of the road. Rui nodded and the two of them went over and sat down upon their impromptu rest stop. facing away from the road. Smiling slightly, Ojii-san(means grandfather, and is a very respectful term) took a package from his pack and opened it, uncovering a number of Onigiri.
"Here, have one," Ojii-san said, offering Rui one of the Onigiri. She thanked him for the Onigiri and took one. Just before biting into it, she said "Ittadakimasu". The Onigiri was fairly large, and had a good sized pickled plum in the center. The two of them sat there, eating in silence for a while, simply enjoying the emerald scenery. After she had finished her Onigiri, Ojii-san offered her another, but Rui mearly shook her head and said "gochisosama deshita," a way of saying that she was full. It roughly meant, 'I have had enough.
When both of them had finished their meal, Rui commented that the should get going. But instead Ojii-san insisted that they should rest a little longer, and instead they talked about all sorts of things, about the current global economic climate, about all the many things that were happening outside the borders of this land, and the such. After about half an hour of discussing things, Rui said, 'Come now, we should be getting on our way." To this the old man nodded and Rui pushed off the log, landing squarely on her feet. As she turned about to get the pack, she moved her left foot a step farther away from the log than it had been. And as it was lowered down to the ground, it slipped through as though the ground were but a thin layer of mist. As Rui tumbled backwards, she saw a smile appear on Ojii-san's face.
She tried to scream, but couldn't find her voice. The solid stone of a building rushed by only feet away, but all Rui could do was naught. Her fall was brought to a sudden end by the hard earth beneath her as a loud, sickening crunch resounded though out the square. Rui couldn't do anything but watch as people who were going about their business only moments before now spun about to look at such a young girl lying flat on her back, blood mixing with the dirt. The whole world faded into a silent gray as she saw the same old man walk through the ground, his shape always changing until it settled on the form of a figure wearing a long black cloak that concealed all of it's wearer's features. Rui's pulse quickened when she saw him. She felt as if she could, then she would stand up right where she lay and run over and pummel him into the dust where now her spilt blood lay.
But alas, her body was frozen. One could not even imagine the feelings of helplessness that she felt at that moment. Everything in her blood told her to kill him, to kill the man that had caused her demise but she couldn't. She couldn't kill her murderer. She could all but hear what the people were saying, but couldn't do a thing about it. Right before here eyes, she saw the figure smile before the world faded to black.
Again, Rui was back in the city; the city where she had fought her counterpart. But this time was different. The streets were dry, and only extended for about 20 meters before ending at the abyss. The buildings were all broken, none having more than three floors completely intact. And every single piece of glass in the city was broken in some form. The place looked like it was in the middle of some sort of crisis. Still paralyzed, the edges of this world slowly closing in on her, Rui saw her counterpart fighting the man in the cloak. No, it was a different man perhaps, but the other Rui was still stuck on the loosing end. And she had clobbered Rui time and again. And yet, that same person who was leagues ahead of Rui was being slaughtered by someone related to her murder. What was going on?
A cloaked figure morphed out of a building not far from the dueling two. Within a moment, the cloaked figure who was dueling Alt-Rui knocked her unconscious and picked her up by her hair. Now that they had virtually stopped moving, Rui could see that Alt-Rui's clothes were torn near to shreds, while the cloaked person's were immaculate. The battle had clearly been unmatched. The first cloaked man, still holding Alt-Rui like some sort of spoils of battle, spoke to his recently arrived comrade. "Took you long enough Seurios, I take it that your part of the job is finished?" The other man, this Seurios, took a while to answer but finally said, "Yes Senyios, my part of the job's done. And what about yours?"
"Just finished," Senyios said, "though it's too bad she developed too fast. She showed some real promise." Senyios looked down and his apparent 'prize', "But at least I could salvage this one. I'm sure I can find a use for her." Even without his face being visible, Seurios looked surprised at what his partner had said, quickly voicing his apparent concerns, "You sure? It seems that that one is the reason for the subject's premature development. It may cause the same results in whoever it's implanted in. Or do you have other plans for it?" Senyios turned to face Seurios, "nope, you hit the nail on the head. I plan on using it on the next subject. And you needn't worry about the next one turning out the same. I just have to make sure this thing's learned its lesson and doesn't repeat the same mistakes."
Seurios shrugged and turned away, dissolving into a black mist at the edge of the world, followed close behind by Senyios and his prize. The world began to close in even faster, leaving Rui to despair in her helplessness, devoid of the strength to lift even a single finger. So, as her consciousness faded into the void, Rui could only despair and wonder just why had this happened to her. What had she done to deserve to die at such a young age? Just why had this happened. The edges of the void reached the tips of her toes; a cold sensation grew over the area on the edge of the void, just before her feet, shoes and all, cracked as if they were made of glass, before breaking completely into tiny shards, like flakes of snow, and spreading out into the endless void. This continued up thorough her entire body.
About the time that the void closed in on her fingers, Rui began to think to herself. What happened? Why did I deserve to die like this? . . . Maybe I didn't deserve this, but then it happened anyway. Why? . . . They say when you die, your consciousness spreads out over the entire world. Will that happen to me? Will I be able to see all the things that lie so far beyond my village's borders? Or is that all just a sweet lie designed to curb people's fear of death? Well, I suppose I'm about to find out, aren't... But she never got to finish that thought, for the rest of her consciousness dissolved and spread out far and wide beyond the borders of her body and the confines of the village.
Once upon a time there was an old man and his old wife living in the country in Japan. The old man was a woodcutter. He and his wife were very sad and lonely because they had no children.
One day the old man went into the mountains to cut firewood and the old woman went to the river to wash some clothes.
No sooner had the old woman begun her washing than she was very surprised to see a big peach come floating down the river. It was the biggest peach she'd ever seen in all her life. She pulled the peach out of the river and decided to take it home and give it to the old man for his supper that night.
Late in the afternoon the old man came home, and the old woman said to him: "Look what a wonderful peach I found for your supper." The old man said it was truly a beautiful peach. He was so hungry that he said: "Let's divide it and eat it right away."
So the old woman brought a big knife from the kitchen and was getting ready to cut the peach in half. But just then there was the sound of a human voice from inside the peach. "Wait! Don't cut me!" said the voice. Suddenly the peach split open, and a beautiful baby boy jumped out of the peach.
The old man and woman were astounded. But the baby said: "Don't be afraid. The God of Heaven saw how lonely you were without any children, so he sent me to be your son."
The old man and woman were very happy, and they took the baby to be their son. Since he was born from a peach, they named him Momotaro, which means Peach Boy. They loved Momotaro very much and raised him to be a fine boy.
When Momotaro was about fifteen years old, he went to his father and said: "Father, you have always been very kind to me. Now I am a big boy and I must do something to help my country. In a distant part of the sea there is an island named Ogre Island. Many wicked ogres live there, and they often come to our land and do bad things like carrying people away and stealing their things. So I'm going to go to Ogre Island and fight them and bring back the treasure which they have there. Please let me do this."
The old man was surprised to hear this, but he was also very proud of Momotaro for wanting to help other people. So he and the old woman helped Momotaro get ready for his journey to Ogre Island. The old man gave him a sword and armor, and the old woman fixed him a good lunch of millet dumplings. Then Momotaro began his journey, promising his parents that he would come back soon.
Momotaro went walking toward the sea. It was a long way. As he went along he met a spotted dog. The dog growled at Momotaro and was about to bite him, but then Momotaro gave him one of the dumplings. He told the spotted dog that he was going to fight the ogres on Ogre Island. So the dog said he'd go along too and help Momotaro.
Momotaro and the spotted dog kept on walking and soon they met a monkey. The spotted dog and the monkey started to have a fight. But Momotaro explained to the monkey that he and the spotted dog were going to fight the ogres on Ogre Island. Then the monkey asked if he couldn't go with them. So Momotaro gave the monkey a dumpling and let the monkey come with them.
Momotaro and the spotted dog and the monkey kept on walking. Suddenly they met a pheasant. The spotted dog and the monkey and the pheasant were about to start fighting. But when the pheasant heard that Momotaro was going to fight the ogres on Ogre Island, he asked if he could go too. So Momotaro gave the pheasant a dumpling and told him to come along.
So, with Momotaro as their general, the spotted dog and the monkey and the pheasant, who usually hated each other, all became good friends and followed Momotaro faithfully. They walked a long, long way, and finally reached the sea. At the edge of the sea Momotaro built a boat. They and all got in the boat and started across the sea toward Ogre Island.
When they came within sight of the island, they could see that the ogres had a very strong fort there. And there were many, many ogres. Some of them were red, some blue, and some black.
First the pheasant flew over the walls of the fort and began to peck at the ogres' heads. They all tried to hit the pheasant with their clubs, but he was very quick and dodged all their blows. And while the ogres weren't looking, the monkey slipped up and opened the gate of the fort. Then Momotaro and the spotted dog rushed into the fort and started fighting the ogres too.
It was a terrible battle! The pheasant pecked at the heads and eyes of the wicked ogres. And the monkey clawed at them. And the spotted dog bit them. And Momotaro cut them with his sword. At last the ogres were completely defeated. They all bowed down low before Momotaro and promised never to do wicked things again. Then they brought Momotaro all the treasure they had stored in the fort.
It was the most wonderful treasure you can imagine. There was much gold and silver and many precious jewels. There was an invisible coat and hat, arid a hammer that made a piece of gold every time you hit it on the ground, and many other wonderful things. Momotaro and his three helpers carried all this in their boat back to the land. Then they made a cart and put all the treasure in the cart and pulled it back to Momotaro's house.
How happy the old man and woman were when they saw their son return safely from Ogre IsIand! They were very rich now with all the treasure that Momotaro had brought, and they all lived together very, very, happily.
One day the old man went into the mountains to cut firewood and the old woman went to the river to wash some clothes.
No sooner had the old woman begun her washing than she was very surprised to see a big peach come floating down the river. It was the biggest peach she'd ever seen in all her life. She pulled the peach out of the river and decided to take it home and give it to the old man for his supper that night.
Late in the afternoon the old man came home, and the old woman said to him: "Look what a wonderful peach I found for your supper." The old man said it was truly a beautiful peach. He was so hungry that he said: "Let's divide it and eat it right away."
So the old woman brought a big knife from the kitchen and was getting ready to cut the peach in half. But just then there was the sound of a human voice from inside the peach. "Wait! Don't cut me!" said the voice. Suddenly the peach split open, and a beautiful baby boy jumped out of the peach.
The old man and woman were astounded. But the baby said: "Don't be afraid. The God of Heaven saw how lonely you were without any children, so he sent me to be your son."
The old man and woman were very happy, and they took the baby to be their son. Since he was born from a peach, they named him Momotaro, which means Peach Boy. They loved Momotaro very much and raised him to be a fine boy.
When Momotaro was about fifteen years old, he went to his father and said: "Father, you have always been very kind to me. Now I am a big boy and I must do something to help my country. In a distant part of the sea there is an island named Ogre Island. Many wicked ogres live there, and they often come to our land and do bad things like carrying people away and stealing their things. So I'm going to go to Ogre Island and fight them and bring back the treasure which they have there. Please let me do this."
The old man was surprised to hear this, but he was also very proud of Momotaro for wanting to help other people. So he and the old woman helped Momotaro get ready for his journey to Ogre Island. The old man gave him a sword and armor, and the old woman fixed him a good lunch of millet dumplings. Then Momotaro began his journey, promising his parents that he would come back soon.
Momotaro went walking toward the sea. It was a long way. As he went along he met a spotted dog. The dog growled at Momotaro and was about to bite him, but then Momotaro gave him one of the dumplings. He told the spotted dog that he was going to fight the ogres on Ogre Island. So the dog said he'd go along too and help Momotaro.
Momotaro and the spotted dog kept on walking and soon they met a monkey. The spotted dog and the monkey started to have a fight. But Momotaro explained to the monkey that he and the spotted dog were going to fight the ogres on Ogre Island. Then the monkey asked if he couldn't go with them. So Momotaro gave the monkey a dumpling and let the monkey come with them.
Momotaro and the spotted dog and the monkey kept on walking. Suddenly they met a pheasant. The spotted dog and the monkey and the pheasant were about to start fighting. But when the pheasant heard that Momotaro was going to fight the ogres on Ogre Island, he asked if he could go too. So Momotaro gave the pheasant a dumpling and told him to come along.
So, with Momotaro as their general, the spotted dog and the monkey and the pheasant, who usually hated each other, all became good friends and followed Momotaro faithfully. They walked a long, long way, and finally reached the sea. At the edge of the sea Momotaro built a boat. They and all got in the boat and started across the sea toward Ogre Island.
When they came within sight of the island, they could see that the ogres had a very strong fort there. And there were many, many ogres. Some of them were red, some blue, and some black.
First the pheasant flew over the walls of the fort and began to peck at the ogres' heads. They all tried to hit the pheasant with their clubs, but he was very quick and dodged all their blows. And while the ogres weren't looking, the monkey slipped up and opened the gate of the fort. Then Momotaro and the spotted dog rushed into the fort and started fighting the ogres too.
It was a terrible battle! The pheasant pecked at the heads and eyes of the wicked ogres. And the monkey clawed at them. And the spotted dog bit them. And Momotaro cut them with his sword. At last the ogres were completely defeated. They all bowed down low before Momotaro and promised never to do wicked things again. Then they brought Momotaro all the treasure they had stored in the fort.
It was the most wonderful treasure you can imagine. There was much gold and silver and many precious jewels. There was an invisible coat and hat, arid a hammer that made a piece of gold every time you hit it on the ground, and many other wonderful things. Momotaro and his three helpers carried all this in their boat back to the land. Then they made a cart and put all the treasure in the cart and pulled it back to Momotaro's house.
How happy the old man and woman were when they saw their son return safely from Ogre IsIand! They were very rich now with all the treasure that Momotaro had brought, and they all lived together very, very, happily.
Though they had been walking all the while, they were still outside the main part of the village. His story finished, the old man turned to Rui and spoke to her, "If it wouldn't be too much trouble, lets stop here for the moment," he said, motioning to a fallen log sitting by the side of the road. Rui nodded and the two of them went over and sat down upon their impromptu rest stop. facing away from the road. Smiling slightly, Ojii-san(means grandfather, and is a very respectful term) took a package from his pack and opened it, uncovering a number of Onigiri.
"Here, have one," Ojii-san said, offering Rui one of the Onigiri. She thanked him for the Onigiri and took one. Just before biting into it, she said "Ittadakimasu". The Onigiri was fairly large, and had a good sized pickled plum in the center. The two of them sat there, eating in silence for a while, simply enjoying the emerald scenery. After she had finished her Onigiri, Ojii-san offered her another, but Rui mearly shook her head and said "gochisosama deshita," a way of saying that she was full. It roughly meant, 'I have had enough.
When both of them had finished their meal, Rui commented that the should get going. But instead Ojii-san insisted that they should rest a little longer, and instead they talked about all sorts of things, about the current global economic climate, about all the many things that were happening outside the borders of this land, and the such. After about half an hour of discussing things, Rui said, 'Come now, we should be getting on our way." To this the old man nodded and Rui pushed off the log, landing squarely on her feet. As she turned about to get the pack, she moved her left foot a step farther away from the log than it had been. And as it was lowered down to the ground, it slipped through as though the ground were but a thin layer of mist. As Rui tumbled backwards, she saw a smile appear on Ojii-san's face.
She tried to scream, but couldn't find her voice. The solid stone of a building rushed by only feet away, but all Rui could do was naught. Her fall was brought to a sudden end by the hard earth beneath her as a loud, sickening crunch resounded though out the square. Rui couldn't do anything but watch as people who were going about their business only moments before now spun about to look at such a young girl lying flat on her back, blood mixing with the dirt. The whole world faded into a silent gray as she saw the same old man walk through the ground, his shape always changing until it settled on the form of a figure wearing a long black cloak that concealed all of it's wearer's features. Rui's pulse quickened when she saw him. She felt as if she could, then she would stand up right where she lay and run over and pummel him into the dust where now her spilt blood lay.
But alas, her body was frozen. One could not even imagine the feelings of helplessness that she felt at that moment. Everything in her blood told her to kill him, to kill the man that had caused her demise but she couldn't. She couldn't kill her murderer. She could all but hear what the people were saying, but couldn't do a thing about it. Right before here eyes, she saw the figure smile before the world faded to black.
Again, Rui was back in the city; the city where she had fought her counterpart. But this time was different. The streets were dry, and only extended for about 20 meters before ending at the abyss. The buildings were all broken, none having more than three floors completely intact. And every single piece of glass in the city was broken in some form. The place looked like it was in the middle of some sort of crisis. Still paralyzed, the edges of this world slowly closing in on her, Rui saw her counterpart fighting the man in the cloak. No, it was a different man perhaps, but the other Rui was still stuck on the loosing end. And she had clobbered Rui time and again. And yet, that same person who was leagues ahead of Rui was being slaughtered by someone related to her murder. What was going on?
A cloaked figure morphed out of a building not far from the dueling two. Within a moment, the cloaked figure who was dueling Alt-Rui knocked her unconscious and picked her up by her hair. Now that they had virtually stopped moving, Rui could see that Alt-Rui's clothes were torn near to shreds, while the cloaked person's were immaculate. The battle had clearly been unmatched. The first cloaked man, still holding Alt-Rui like some sort of spoils of battle, spoke to his recently arrived comrade. "Took you long enough Seurios, I take it that your part of the job is finished?" The other man, this Seurios, took a while to answer but finally said, "Yes Senyios, my part of the job's done. And what about yours?"
"Just finished," Senyios said, "though it's too bad she developed too fast. She showed some real promise." Senyios looked down and his apparent 'prize', "But at least I could salvage this one. I'm sure I can find a use for her." Even without his face being visible, Seurios looked surprised at what his partner had said, quickly voicing his apparent concerns, "You sure? It seems that that one is the reason for the subject's premature development. It may cause the same results in whoever it's implanted in. Or do you have other plans for it?" Senyios turned to face Seurios, "nope, you hit the nail on the head. I plan on using it on the next subject. And you needn't worry about the next one turning out the same. I just have to make sure this thing's learned its lesson and doesn't repeat the same mistakes."
Seurios shrugged and turned away, dissolving into a black mist at the edge of the world, followed close behind by Senyios and his prize. The world began to close in even faster, leaving Rui to despair in her helplessness, devoid of the strength to lift even a single finger. So, as her consciousness faded into the void, Rui could only despair and wonder just why had this happened to her. What had she done to deserve to die at such a young age? Just why had this happened. The edges of the void reached the tips of her toes; a cold sensation grew over the area on the edge of the void, just before her feet, shoes and all, cracked as if they were made of glass, before breaking completely into tiny shards, like flakes of snow, and spreading out into the endless void. This continued up thorough her entire body.
About the time that the void closed in on her fingers, Rui began to think to herself. What happened? Why did I deserve to die like this? . . . Maybe I didn't deserve this, but then it happened anyway. Why? . . . They say when you die, your consciousness spreads out over the entire world. Will that happen to me? Will I be able to see all the things that lie so far beyond my village's borders? Or is that all just a sweet lie designed to curb people's fear of death? Well, I suppose I'm about to find out, aren't... But she never got to finish that thought, for the rest of her consciousness dissolved and spread out far and wide beyond the borders of her body and the confines of the village.
Ninja no Monogatari
Yamakiri Sadoko Chapter
CLOSED
Yamakiri Sadoko Chapter
CLOSED
