Moonlight Darkness [T][P][NDE]

[Selene Tsukiyami]

Forgive me if this post is more setup than anything else.

Ranged Pin
Rank: "C"
Skill: TaiJutsu/Supplementary
Effect: A technique that allows the user to pin the opponent onto a surface from behind.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: A useful technique that allows the user to pin an opponent within 2 feet away from a tree, wall or other surface that the arrow would stick on. The user is able to pin the opponent’s clothing into what they are shooting. The opponent must rip off his clothing, or break the arrow to become free. Of the user knows Knockback Shot then the user is able to pin an opponent himself onto the wall depending on how well they are able to perform Knockback Shot.
Limit: Must be an Archer, Must know Precise Shot

0|20

There always was something Selene liked about the night. Maybe it was the quiet. Maybe it was the moon. Maybe it was her namesake. In any case, it made for the perfect time to wander the village, in her opinion. She was old enough that any curfew that existed - assuming there was one - wouldn't affect her.

As she walked the mostly-abandoned streets, she scanned the place for signs of anything abnormal. While the night was peaceful, it was also known for hiding numerous dangers, none of which were particularly pleasant. Granted, trying to outdo a night-combat specialist like her would be difficult, but it didn't hurt to stay alert.

Didn't hurt indeed. No more than a few minutes after starting her wanderings, she heard a sound that didn't exactly sound like it fit in with the normal sounds of midnight. Something like yelling, with a hint of crying mixed in. Something that begged further investigation.

Dashing off in the direction of the sound, her suspicions were soon confirmed. Peeking around a corner, she saw a young girl, perhaps eight or nine years old, being cornered by a much larger man. It seemed the poor thing had experienced firsthand the problems of younger children being out at this hour.

Hearing a 'thwack' sort of sound, she could stand it no longer. Whirling the bow off her back - for there were few times she wandered without it - she fired a warning shot that flew within an inch of the man's ear before thudding into a wall nearby. As he turned to look, he noticed a silver-haired girl, weapon drawn, standing directly in front of him.

"What do you want?" He growled. This girl was sticking her nose in other people's business. Selene didn't exactly look intimidating, but she could at least try to act the part. "What'd the girl do to you?" Maybe he had a reason, but if he did, it had better be a damn good one.

"None of your business." He couldn't resist a bit of sarcasm. "Isn't it a bit late for an old granny like you—" He was promptly interrupted by another arrow, this time narrowly grazing his shoulder. "I'm nineteen. Now back off or I'll actually aim." She hadn't been ignoring the little girl; indeed, she figured she had probably scared her quite a bit. She'd make it up to the girl later.

"So that's how it is..." She could have sworn the man pulled a knife on her. Several knives. "Well then, bring it on, moon-bitch!"

[Selene Tsukiyami]

??|20

As soon as he made his statement, the man rushed at Selene, knives in hand. His assault was absolutely relentless, and she was forced back, constantly on the defensive just to avoid getting stabbed. As she felt the cold stone of a building at her back, a flicker of insight from her earlier years returned to her mind.

================

"Captain, is there anything I can do to help with this mission?" The mercenaries she was living with had recieved an order to capture a certain person without killing them, and Selene had been wondering about ways to do that with a bow and arrow.

"Well, there is always one of my favorite things you can do with a weapon..." The group captain's face had an almost maniacal grin to it. "Listen, you're a good shot, right? There's a few places you can aim if you want to capture rather than kill..."

================

That's right. As the man rushed forth to what seemed to be the finisher, Selene suddenly flickered out of view, reappearing about twenty feet behind him, back near the girl. His blades met cold, hard stone, but as soon as he turned around to see what happened, Selene had knocked an arrow in her bow and fired it.

The shot caught the edge of his shirt before slamming into the wall. He seemed to have been caught somewhat by that, as he was struggling to break free. As he was struggling, she loosed a few more arrows, each one catching onto his shirt and pants in different places.

Once he seemed sufficiently restrained, Selene turned to the girl, who was definitely freaked out by now. She could read it in the child's expression. Trying to pat her head most likely wouldn't work; the girl would probably flinch or shy away from that after such a display of force. So she decided to try the next way she knew. Kneeling down next to the girl, she spoke in a calm tone. "It's alright... You're safe now."

As she stood back up, something surprising happened. The little girl, close to tears, grabbed onto her leg. Not a tough kind of grabbing, though; more of a "don't leave me" kind of grabbing. Selene's expression stiffened in surprise for a split second before softening, then she turned to look at the man again.

He had broken free of his pointed bonds - and could probably be charged with indecency - but that sort of force didn't seem to deter her. Simply pointing the bow and a knocked arrow at him, she uttered her final threat. "Leave now, or your arm is next."

He had seen by now that she wasn't just bluffing about her aim, so he decided to retreat to live another day. "I'll get you for this, moon-bitch!" That said, he ran off.

Selene now had the time to ask the young girl some questions, but first, she gently broke the girl's grip, indicating she'd be right back, before going around and pulling out all the arrows she had shot during the incident and returning them to the quiver. Once she had completed that task, she knelt back down next to the girl again. This part had been delayed for far too long.

[Solus]

+15

Most of your writing wasn't about the technique

[Selene Tsukiyami]

15|20

The little girl broke down crying at the same time that Selene embraced her in a hug. "I w-was s-so scared... That man... He s-said he and his b-buddies would do unspeakable things to me... I-I d-don't even know what I did..." Selene had to try her best to comfort this girl, even though she was boiling with rage inside. "It's alright, you're safe with me now. Where are your parents?"

The girl shook her head, still crying. She was probably a homeless child, then, or that man was one of her parents. There was no way to be completely sure, and asking right now would just cause the little girl to deteriorate further emotionally, but it was a good place to start. Selene let out a sigh, not pleased with the circumstances. "Will you come with me, then? You have my word that I'm nothing like him."

The girl nodded, wiping tears from her eyes as they stood up. "...Maria." Selene paused, a bit confused. "Hm?" "That's my name... Maria." Selene gently patted Maria on the head. "Well then, it's a pleasure to meet you, Maria. Stay close to me so you don't get lost, okay?" There were other reasons for that request, but she didn't need to know them.

Her suspicions were right. On the way back to Selene's house, three more men were there waiting for her. They were probably the 'buddies' Maria had mentioned earlier. "Oi, you're gonna pay for what you did to our friend, moon-bitch." Each of them drew knives from somewhere, as predicted.

With a sigh, the silver-haired archer knocked another arrow in her bow, waiting for the right time to fire. A second later, she spotted the positioning she was looking for. The leftmost of the three was a bit too close to the nearby building's wall, so she let the arrow fly, catching him (rather uncomfortably, I might add) by the pants and leaving him stuck to the wall for a bit.

The other two charged forth, but Selene had planned for this. Swerving off to the right suddenly while keeping Maria behind her, she convinced them to 'corner' her against a wall before pulling the same trick the last one had fallen for. Moving with zephyrous grace and efficiency, she let loose two or three arrows at each, pinning them to the wall when their attention shifted to Maria, who had been left there when Selene flickered.

"Sorry, Maria. I had to..." The first had gotten free from his pin, throwing his knife at the little girl. His throw was cut short, however, by an arrow clanging against the knife. Now disarmed, he stood gaping with an 'oh crap' look on his face for a fraction of a second too long. She had let loose another barrage of arrows, pinning the last of the duo's assailants to the walls. Letting loose a few more, she tried to ensure the pins would be nigh unbreakable.

With a grin, she figured it was time to intimidate and interrogate. "Now, boys, I'll give you a choice. Either you can run home to daddy with your tails tucked between your legs, or you can try to attack us again and get an arrow right through your eye and out the back of your head for your troubles. Pick one!" The fact that she didn't look intimidating only made things worse, as did the sweet smile and tone of voice she used when she gave the choice.

They didn't have to be told twice. Having Maria release them one by one with her bow at the ready in case they tried anything funny, all three ran when given the chance. After taking the arrows from Maria's arms and putting them back in the quiver, then tying the bow to her back once more, she picked up the little girl in a princess carry, a kind smile on her face.

"I told you you'd be safe with me, didn't I?"

[Beltran]

Learned

[Selene Tsukiyami]

(Not a training post.)

Maria awoke under soft sheets, her body aching. The latter wasn't particularly unusual, but the former definitely was. As she made an attempt to seat herself upright, the events of the previous night started coming back to her.

She couldn't remember her parents. She had been a homeless wanderer of the streets for as long as she could remember. The events of last night up to a point had been a fairly regular occurrence, something that had happened more than once in the past. That man and his buddies, they didn't seem to care whether her body was that of an eight year old girl or an eighteen year old; it wouldn't deter them either way.

Then a 'heroine' had come to save her, and in her overwhelmed state of mind, she had gone with the older girl, given herself up to fate. Allowed herself to be carried off by a complete stranger, broken the cardinal rule that is drilled into the head of everyone since early childhood.

Desperately.

Stupidly.

Taking a moment to look around the room she found herself in, more memories returned. She could remember the older girl's worried expression as she treated and bandaged the younger one's injuries, attempting to suppress her embarrassment when she recalled having to strip down to the waist for that.

As she continued searching, she noticed her 'savior' on the floor with little more than a spare bedsheet over her. This person had practically insisted on sleeping on the cold, hard wooden floor just so someone she hardly knew could have the bed. Looking down at herself, she noticed that she wasn't wearing her old ragged dress, but one of her host's that was several sizes too large for her. So people like this really do exist...

Slowly getting out of the bed, Maria made her way out of the room and down the stairs. The more she saw of this house, the more she got the impression that the older girl was actually pretty well-off, and the more it felt like she was taking advantage of her generosity. She'd be leaving soon enough, anyway.

As she browsed the kitchen for something simple she could eat, trying not to impose too much, a sound from the couch in the room to her left startled her. A rising sense of fear worked its way up her body as a figure rose sleepily from the couch, that feeling redoubled as the figure seemed to take notice of her and awake suddenly.

Right before the figure tried to grab her, though, a sharp outburst came from the stairs. "Wyl!" It was a familiar voice, albeit somewhat angrier. "Hands off the girl. She's frightened enough as is." The figure, going by Wyl, was evidently a young man with silver hair much like the older girl's. His initial anger subsided, and he decided to apologize.

"Sorry about that. Reflex." Maria had to wonder what kind of events must have transpired to give this Wyl guy a reflex like that. Still frightened, even more so by the suddenness of all this, she bowed politely and stated her intentions. "I'm sorry to have imposed like this, I'll just leave when my clothes are clean, you don't have to worry, I can wash them myself if you'll show me where I can—"

"Leave and go where, exactly? It's getting colder out, and it's supposed to rain for the next few days. If I let you back out there in that flimsy dress of yours, you'll catch hypothermia and die. Besides, you learned yourself that some sick-minded people will go for the scared-kitten look whether you intend to sell your body or not." Selene shuddered inside. She had gone through that herself, and she didn't want Maria to have to suffer it as well.

As Maria began to shrink back in response to the picture Selene painted in her mind, the older girl put her hand on the younger one's head, smiling cheerfully. "How about this? I'll cook you some scrambled eggs or something—that should do for a while—and after that, we'll see about a warm shower and perhaps some hot milk to help you sleep. I'm going to have to argue with the other person who lives here about letting you stay, and that's probably going to go on for a while, so it'd probably be better if you slept through it. How does that sound?"

"...okay."

-----------------------------

Due to a great deal of protesting when Selene tried to let Maria sleep in her room again, the little girl was curled up on the couch where Wyl had been instead, a warm blanket placed over her. She was nearly asleep, but she could hear fragments of the argument taking place a few rooms over.

"Sera, she's been beaten half to death, she's jumping at shadows... She's been living the kind of life I had been. The kind of life we all had. Nobody with a working sense of justice could kick her out now. Hell, she half-expected me to kill her or rape her when we got here! She's not even ten years old! And she wasn't even afraid—she told me to get it over with. God. Whatever she's been through, I'm not sending her back out on the streets after that."

"She's not a stray animal, Selene, she's a person. You can't just pick people up off the streets—"

"I can and I will. I know you're worried, and I understand. I'll be alright, though. Or do I have to remind you of your own past?"

Whoever this Sera woman was backed down. "Alright, alright. You've got a point. We've all been in the same mess before, so we all need to stick together. Very well, then..."

"—I'm going to take care of her."

[Selene Tsukiyami]

Rapid Shot
Rank: "C"
Skill: TaiJutsu/Supplementary
Effect: User is able to shoot an arrow once more within a movement for only one movement.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: With this technique the user is able to shoot an extra arrow for 1 of their movements per round giving 3 arrows to be shot for 1 movement.
Limit: Must be an Archer, Must know Precise Shot

0|20

Selene stood in an open field not too far from the house, the young girl Maria not far behind her. Maria had been given a stopwatch, as the older girl wanted to test just how fast her archery could be. "When you see the first arrow fly, start the timer, and stop it again when the quiver's empty, alright?"; those were her instructions. A target had been set up in the distance so that she could ensure both a test of speed and accuracy—a vital combination to an archery-using shinobi.

Meditating for a brief moment before raising her bow, she began the barrage. Whipping out an arrow from the quiver at her waist, she nocked it into the bow, taking a split second to aim at the target before letting the arrow loose on its course. No sooner had she done that than her right hand immediately returned to the quiver, drawing out the next arrow in preparation for firing. There were one hundred fifty arrows to be fired continuously; it was merely a matter of how quickly she could empty the quiver.

As she kept on firing, she made slight variations in trajectory so as to not destroy her own arrows by piercing them through the shaft. She didn't want to have to get more just to keep a consistent count, since doing so would interrupt her training. Her hands were a veritable blur of motion, never stopping. Only a shinobi could achieve this sort of speed.

Around the hundredth arrow, her arms began to get a bit tired, but she forced herself to ignore it and kept on firing at her rapid pace, focusing only on emptying her ammunition in as little time as possible. As more and more arrows struck the target, it was beginning to look less like something for archery practice and more like a hedgehog or a pincushion. Those things were meant to have maybe a dozen arrows in them, not a dozen dozen.

Finally reaching back and finding no arrow, she heard a small 'beep' as Maria stopped the timer. Showing it to the older girl, there wasn't much display of emotion from Selene, though Maria was duly impressed despite what she had seen of this speed last night.

"Fifty-seven seconds..." Selene paused for a few seconds, thinking about what to do next. "...not fast enough. Let's try for fifty-three and go from there, shall we?"

[Deleted]

+8
It must be horridly tedious to do, but try to get a full 25 lines of the actual technique next time, in this case just firing lots of arrows.

[Selene Tsukiyami]

8|20

"It's no good to be able to unload that many arrows in such a short period of time if you can't hit a moving target with any of them." Seraphine's sudden appearance on the training field caught both Selene and Maria by surprise. "Spar with me, Selene. I'll show you what I mean." "Wait, Sera--" "No waiting! C'mon!"

That said, Seraphine unsheathed the sword she carried and swung upwards in a harsh slicing blow, which Selene narrowly avoided by leaping backwards and upwards. In the midst of a backflip within that leap, Selene let loose an arrow at Seraphine, landing and taking off at a running pace to try and gain herself some distance. When Seraphine wanted to fight, she wanted to fight.

Seraphine, on the other hand, just laughed as she interposed the blade between the arrow and herself, knocking it harmlessly off to her side before pursuing Selene. Mustering what speed she could, Selene fired a flurry of over a dozen arrows, but none of them managed to pierce her opponent's overly-capable blade-guarding technique. "No way..." "Come on! I know you can do better than this!"

Centering herself, Selene decided to try a different tactic. Her firing became faster and more erratic, arrows heading off in far less precise vectors, but it seemed to be working... somewhat. Seraphine had begun incorporating significantly more weaving about into her avoidance maneuvers. It still wasn't enough to slow her down, though.

The instant Seraphine managed to reach Selene, a wild dance of flashsteps began, each trying to gain an edge on the other. The exchange came out largely neutral, but it provided her with just enough distance to try again. Turning all her focus inward, she stood her ground... and let fly a barrage at the maximum extent of her abilities. To hell with aiming; at this range, it didn't matter.

And, to the surprise of both of them, it worked. Seraphine was frantically weaving through and blocking the barrage, but one managed to slip through and strike her in her right leg. Caught unprepared for such a thing and swept up in its low-striking force, Seraphine stumbled for a bit before falling over onto the ground with a very lacking amount of grace.

Selene approached shortly after, worried for her housemate/friend's sake. Seraphine raised her sword to point it at Selene momentarily -- "I'm still armed and dangerous, you know." -- but quickly sheathed it afterward. With a little help from Selene in removing the arrow, the two began to slowly head back toward the house, bringing a frightened little Maria along with them and having to explain to her why they did that.

We're going to have to go see Wyl about getting this fixed up quickly... Seraphine would go insane if something forced her not to move too much for a long time.

[Logi Shimizu]

+10

[Selene Tsukiyami]

18|20

Once more, Selene stood in the field with the target set up, but her recent spar with Seraphine had changed her perspective on things. Reaching back to grab the first arrow from her quiver, she settled into a trance-like state, meditating on the moment where she had overloaded her partner's defensive capabilities, how she had done it, and how to replicate it.

The barrage streamed out a little faster this time, bolstered by her experiences beforehand and the ability to handle doing this again -- once she had done it twice before, one of which in a combat situation, replicating it a third time took much less energy. She even stopped feeling the fatigue in her arms that happened around the hundredth arrow the first time she tried emptying every last shot as fast as possible, so deeply had her trance gone.

And as before, the lack of an arrow left and the tiny beeping sound of a stopwatch dropped her out of this trance.

"Fifty-three seconds... well, it's progress, at least."

[Beltran]

Learned

[Selene Tsukiyami]

Note: Not a training post, again.


Journal Entry, New Years' Day

It's been a while since I last wrote. Training to live up to the expectations of being a shinobi has gone well, and even though I'm the new girl, the foreigner, to most of the village, I've made great strides in my talent with archery. I've been sparring with Seraphine more and more lately, and we're about even these days. She's a bit concerned about me shooting holes in concrete walls or something, though, after seeing the amount of power I've managed to get behind some of my arrows. Ah well. Such is life, yes? Perfectly normal stuff for a ninja.

Little Maria's gotten more comfortable living with us, the eccentrics that we are. Wyl's taken to teaching her medical ninjutsu, and she's been eager to learn. She still feels like she has to do something around here or else she'll feel guilty of freeloading or taking advantage of us. Poor girl...

Running out of time to write -- Seraphine and I are going to go give our talents a try on something a bit more substantial and a bit less friendly than each other. Best of luck to us both, I guess.

--Selene Tsukiyami

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