<<<<<<<<Audio Journal entry #??>>>>>>
It has been a while since I’ve been able to log. I had already written this a while ago, but never got to upload it. I’m finally on a kind of break if you will, training my ass off. I’ll give you some back story to the log itself.
I had a family emergency arise forcing me to leave my shadow runner group and attend to my family’s needs. I come from a family of assassins after all, I’m bound to traditions few remember and customs few exercise, but many enforce. I had heard during a mission with my group that our clan leader had passed away. I had to leave as tradition and go to the Den of demons, a name they gave the clan leaders stronghold. It is located on the inside of a waterfall in neo Tokyo. I had to leave my group to get to the Den of demons. I met Jyugumo (ten spider) there, he walked up to me, and informed me of what had happened to the head commander.
He was betrayed by 17 members of the clan, and killed, these members were led by a well known assassin of our order who in the professional world is known as Nine. The professional world gave him this name since he always left 9 slashes on a body in a “weird” lettering, in truth this is simply a by product of his sword style. He uses two blades and with his fighting style every slash creates 3 gashes that connect and form what look like a nine. His assassin name among us is Nii-suga, meaning “the two fangs”, this name was given to him by our late clan leader Minamoto, also known as Ogumo or the “Giant Spider”. Yes, Jyugumo’s father was the clan leader, and now he was dead.
When I was brought into the Kageyama branch clan, which is known as the gumo clan, as a kid I was raised with Jyugumo, or Hitoshi as he was called then in the gumo household. My father and the Ogumo went way back, even going so far as to call my father his sworn brother. My brother who was alive back then was raised in the Inui household; we were split apart so we wouldn’t rely on one another but this was only for a little while, after all family is all that’s important in the kageyama clan, no matter what branch you are in. To me, ultimately, Ogumo was like my second father, and Jyugumo was considered blood to me. However, Nii-suga was my teacher, along with Elder Orion, this made me a suspect once I arrived to our stronghold, the den of demons, the akuma no sokutsu.
@the Akuma no sokutsu
As I arrived I could feel a lingering gaze, it’s been a while since I was last here. Modern defenses are now more evident. Turrets, drones, magic wards, traps are literally everywhere, yet hidden like a grown man’s porn stash. It’s not a matter of enmity that frustrates me, but the suspicion that I am a traitor to the clan like Nii-suga and the other 16 members. People I once thought I could trust with my life judge me prematurely. People whose respect I once required, suspect me without any cause. It puts more into perspective. Elder Orion even handed me off to a friend of his…I didn’t even know spirits could have other spirit friends. The more you know huh? Still its grating, it feels like everyone I once knew no longer carries a fire of remembrance for me, but instead a vengeful violet hue of a flame.
Their so far is only one person I know who wouldn’t question my honor, or dedication to our clan. The son of the recently murdered leader of our clan, Hitoshi Nara…or otherwise known as Jyugumo. I was actually the one who gave him the name Jyugumo as a joke from when we were kids, but leave it to Hitoshi to make it mean strength instead of weakness. When we were kids he had terrible control of his body, he would trip a lot…like... a…lot. So I told him it’s like he has ten legs, impossible to control all of them. Well he finally found something he was great at, wire. He mastered monofilament whips, wires, and all forms of using rope or string as a weapon. He was awakened since birth, born with a gift of magic like me, its why we were grouped as kids. His skill is unparalleled, when it comes to the blade few can defeat me within the clan, but Hitoshi, will win 9 times out of 10 if uses his whip and wire. He uses the magic fingers spell, to control multiple at a time, summoning air spirits to coil the sharp filament around you, as he slices you into pieces. It literally feels like a giant spider is wrapping you up to your death, his precision is overwhelming. I once watched him catch a fly with his whip, sew its wings together, all while it was in midair and 5 meters away from him. We grew up together mastering our craft, I haven’t seen him, but it was he who called me and told me the news.
I felt a murderous intent behind me as I began walking down the “path of sorrow”, a strip of pavement where we bury the dead underneath the road. It is extremely narrow, meant to provide training in the area of balance. I spin around with my blade drawn, ready to counter the enemy with a well-timed slash at the legs, enough to maim but not enough to kill. Fast as lightning a blade is being swung at my face, but not at a speed I can’t negate. In fact, the blade isn’t what took my attention, it was the water. Flying little orbs of water moving towards me like a projectile after every swing. My reflexes catch up, and suddenly I can clearly see, oh I get it now. Its Sakura Nara, Hitoshi’s sister, and daughter of the recently slain Minamoto Nara, aka the Ogumo. Her attacks are focused yet sloppy, emotions are getting the better of her, I’ve been in her position before, but I was colder…more closed. I parry her blade, rotating her, and I grab her, hug her…she drops her blade and weeps in my arms. I hear footsteps approaching, silent but intentionally announcing their presence. It is Hitoshi, aka the Jyugumo, who walks with such skill.
“Shiro, my brother, I see you have arrived.” –Jyugumo
“Hitoshi, I was not part of this, as you know, I wasn’t even in the country. If I were here Ryuga wouldn’t have left.” –Wyt
I push Sakura away from my arms, and walk towards Hitoshi. Ever since we were kids we had a secret a handshake, one we do with our fists, and our techniques. He attempts to punch me but I parry, he jumps off my chest attempting to do a backflip with the intention of kicking me in the chin. I let it hit me, but jumping to reduce the impact to nothing. I contort my body to flip in the air, then throw my body towards his face, attempting to flying kick him. He easily avoids, we stand up, bow, and our arms lock like warriors saluting each other.
“My brother, I have not seen you in a while, I assume you are caught up to speed.”-jyugumo
“yes, your message, gave me much to look up”-wyt
Jyugumo looked at me with a hint of trouble in his eyes, I could tell it required every fiber of his being to look objectively and observe the facts instead of succumbing to rage. He walked towards his sister, and told her, that it wasn’t me who had anything to do with Ogumo’s death. Sakura was still crying but stood up and bowed towards me as an apology.
Some time passed as we went through our death rites, eventually moving the body to the guardian room. A room where every leader has been buried and a monument built and placed over the area of them or their personification. In this case the Ogumo, is represented by a giant spider. Soil is put at the tips of the monument, as the soil and plants absorb the bodies nutrients and blooms flowers, so do we know the state of our late leaders. It represents rebirth and shows if they are happy or not. I said my peace at the funeral and began to head to my room. I ran into Sakura on the way, she wasn’t crying and had a good aura around her. She followed me and said nothing all the way into my room. I was worried about her as a friend, she may be hot as fuck but she is still Hitoshi’s sister, so I never tried anything. I sat down in my room, as barren as it was it still had a few aesthetics that spoke about my personality. A few books from Henry David Thoreau, H.P. Lovecraft, a few mangas, Sun Tzu’s the art of war, the Odyssey by Homer, and a worn out incredulously old copy of Plato’s symposium. I had my magical lodge here in my room. A empty space of black, that only ignites when I choose it to. A place where I can leave my body and learn. I meditated for hours reflecting on information pertaining to my job, when an odd question occurred to me. Who the fuck was that nartaki who tried to speak to me, when jai showed up all awakened and shit. I never realized how weird that was, is it possible she was working with nine?! Was she trying to get me to join nines betrayal?! There have been such a series of crazy shit to happen to me recently. I mean fuck! I went to Caracas, a fucking jungle, although that part was awesome I hadn’t gotten a chance to go camping and just enjoy nature. Hey now that I think about it, that nartaki chick was there too. I almost forgot about her due to how quick she died, I mean, she wanted my undivided attention…and well…she got it. But what was she doing there, who sent her, more importantly, oh yeah! I came really close to death that time. I dodged like 30 bullets, out of 31, got pegged once. That was probably the fastest I’ve ever moved in my life. I wonder if I’m getting close to my brothers speed. But what made me move that fast, was it the rain? No that’s too mundane if anything it must have been the alcheria we were in. I felt faster, smarter, things just slowed down, every time I went to dodge a bullet I thought, I’m not going to make it, and then, bam, just enough time, vision slowed, what the fuck. Don’t even get me started on elder orion just passing my training off to some random guy. I hate the feeling like have very little control in my life right now. At times like this I normally train with the elder, but since this new guy started talking to me, I haven’t been able to speak to him. I can’t reach this new mentor either, ugh, so annoying.
She literally is sitting behind me with her head down, like she wants to say something. I can feel her presence, Sakura is still in my room, and is totally distracting. I mean just look at those fucking tits…I mean… what does she want from me.
“Sakura, there is no need to apologize, you can go, I know you didn’t know what to assume, hell most of the clan is still looking at me like a piece of shit, just for being trained by nii-suga, and that’s after Hitoshi cleared my name at the funeral. I guess people just want something to take their anger out on.” –Wyt
“No, shiro, I just attacked you, im sorry, but more importantly, the reason im here…well…”-Sakura
She wouldn’t spit out what she was doing, so I probed for information a little.
“just tell me, I need to train, review, and go seek information on ryuga.”-Wyt
“I WANT TO KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE TO BE A SHADOW RUNNER!”-Sakura
she blurted it out so loud, it startled me. I began to recall her being placed into the Suiton branch clan, to train her healing abilities and the ability given to all in the Suiton branch at birth, Resonance. She was born a technomancer, but was also extremely gifted in understanding the body of metavariants and humans. She can identify what’s wrong and fix it with surgery even at the age of 14 she had this skill. Since she is 24 now she has had 10 years to perfect her talents. However, since she was the leader’s daughter he kept her out of danger, and close. Her secret obsession is trodes, she loves all forms of entertainment, especially games. And I mean allllll forms of entertainment, from porn to btl’s. She has a kind of obsessive personality thanks to being sheltered most of her life. Don’t ask me how I know this, but I will say it’s a funny story.
Regardless I smiled a bit, and told her how my runs were as of late, and she listened like I was a bard and this were medieval times. Eventually I wound up going to sleep, I guess she passed out in my room as well, since I woke up with her next to me. HEY! Nothing happened. Anyways I learned what I could from the scene of the assassination, and I noticed something interesting in the roof of the room the leader was killed in. a piece of metal, that looks like it belonged to a blade. Its position indicates that someone tried to fight nine to stop him from leaving, held him for a while, until he was attacked by the other members. The interesting part is, there is no trace blood, so this person must have gotten away. Huh there were three party’s there that day, ogumo, nine’s crew, and the mysterious person who came to ogumo’s aid a bit too late. All I know is the broken piece of the blade this person used, has a yellow dragon design on the side of the blade. Well at least I have a clue.
I called my contacts had them keep a look out for me, and as tradition Jyugumo is next in line for succession as long as no one pops up and challenges him for the seat. The Kame order as their called will make decisions for the clan temporarily until 6 months have passed, in which “the test” will ensue. The mirror test, as its otherwise known, is a test where the people who wish to lead can fight for leadership, and eventually they must look into a mirror and be subject to an ancient magic that makes your true self reveal itself. You must answer the kame’s questions in this form, the more you lie the stronger your alternate self becomes, you must physically destroy this form to become the leader, if you fail you die, by your alter form. So for now Jyugumo will be busy preparing to lead, by training.
As I began to leave, I was assaulted by a voice in my mind.
“come to the mountains in the okinawa prefecture, it’s time to start your training, my agent will be waiting for you.” –adversary mentor
well this is exactly what I asked for, I can’t do anything at the moment, but wait until one of my contacts gets in touch with me with information. I said goodbye to the two people in my entire clan who trust me, so I guess it’s time to go get stronger.
-Audio log executed
Important npc’s to Wyt
Sakura Nara-healer/technomancer/skilled with blades, and bows
Hitoshi Nara-aka the Jyugumo/mystic adept/skilled with wires, whips, and grapple guns
Ryuga Shina-aka nine, aka nii-suga, two sword wielder/augmented with cybernetics and gene stuff/extremely logical, and well rounded, (basically dude has an 8 in every attribute and blade skill)
Jeff notes-I left the motivation for ryuga killing the leader unspecified, as well as the name for his little group, for gm rites lol. Also the den of demons is heavily fortified, with only a single entrance, and a shit ton of recent defense upgrades. The upgrades were before ogumo was assassinated so it shows that someone knows something about the clan being under attack, that wyt doesn’t know about. Also left that unspecified for gm rites. I left the mysterious stranger who was there at the night of the murder, unspecified for gm rites, but I was thinking he is an assassin who knew ogumo, who could maybe later become a rival, or a friend on some high profile mission we do at some point. It’s just I have the assassin knowledge skill, and I don’t see it ever being handy, so would like some way to use it, to showcase my knowledge of the assassin world.