2015-04-10

(no subject)

Who: Kirigi Yamata, Kirigi Kouran, Itezora Clan Summon Rabbits and Rabbit Boss
Where: Odoriyama, Land of Ice
When: March 2nd

The climate of Ice never failed to impress upon Yamata the fact that, more than any other he had experienced throughout his travels, he adapted to her in a blink and was best suited to her, the cold a welcome respite from heat dry, humid, and scorching. It was a small comfort in the face of a sea of tidings delivered to the Kirigi siblings on various notes at their last rendezvous with one of their agents on the nineteenth of February, the most alarming of which had been news of the decimation of one of Ice's prominent shinobi clans, the Itezora. That had seen him call for an impromptu trip to their homeland, in which he and Kouran had arrived without ceremony on the twenty-eighth of February after a small series of necessary protocol to protect themselves, their identities, and their points of contact within their country.

A short period of rest had been permitted, after which the matter of a private debriefing had been breached alongside a more personal checking of his country. Rumors of the Itezora's fate had seemed to lend itself to fact, however, and it was for that reason that he had set out for Odoriyama with Kouran to ascertain the truth for themselves. A "bye" scrawled in a child's handwriting at the contact station at the mountain's base had greeted them well before the scattered gravemarkers at the sight of the village near its peak, where the ruins of residences had been left with flowers now old and near frozen. A sight gruesome in its own way that felt eerily familiar and worse still that it stood as a confirmation to a great loss for the country.

Perhaps not entirely, though.

Leading the way down the mountain, Yamata was mostly silent in thought. There was a survivor. All signs pointed to it. By way of information gained through their network, he was certain no civilian had taken to the peak, which meant the country had yielded yet another not wholly unlike himself, their honorable mother, and Kouran.

"Tch. You know what this means," he said, the snow and ice beneath his feet bowing beneath his every step as he led the way to the mountain's base. He didn't look back, confident Kouran followed him with equal ease.

(no subject)

Who: Kirigi Yamata, Kuzuryu Ashiko, Kirigi Kouran, and Closed
Where: A small village, Land of Grass
When: Shortly after midnight, February 13th

It was late by the sensibilities of any human that lived and worked on any sort of diurnal schedule, but not so late that Yamata thought it unforgivable to wake Kouran given the circumstances. She had known of his intentions when he had left early the fortnight for the village's information sweatshop to seek out information regarding the Kuzuzyu she had come by in the market earlier that day. While he had given his sister no specific time to expect him back, before the wee hours of the morning would have been a reasonable guess, making him well within the unspoken time limit when he crossed the threshold of the inn where they were staying, and with company they had spent the better part of five years searching for.

It couldn't wait. While neither party had had any intention of taking their leave of the village immediately, he had insisted that it simply could not wait until morning. It was partially due his own excitement that the two should finally meet after all these years, to reveal to Ashiko with certainty and immediacy that he had not been the only survivor of the royal family, and partially due to a conscious desire to impress upon Ashiko that, as a Kuzuryu, she had lost far from everything near twenty years ago when the die had been cast and the snakes had converged on the royal palace. That was an especially important point if he was to see her return to her rightful place at his side, a matter he had given more than a little thought to since Kouran's revelation that Ashiko had come into a "danna-sama".

It was a specific series of careful raps presented the door that would see Kouran's blade ease if she was any degree wary of the presence on the other side of the door. Turning his eyes to Ashiko, he paused.

"Are you ready?"

The hint of a rare smile playing on his lips that suggested that he did indeed know something she didn't know.