Stolen Irezumi Property

Clash Info:

There were plenty of stalls in this Night Market. Kannagi wasn't usually out so late as this, the time close to midnight and a bright moon shining in the sky had caught her eyes. She stared at it and yawned, admiring its beauty before moving on. The reason the shinobi had come to this Night Market was because she had heard they sold nearly anything. Kannagi was impressed by the luxurious amounts of goods each shop held. There were many shops with kimono and yukata of every kind of fabric, shade and design. She wasn't usually interested in purchasing items for frivolity, but in leaving her family so briskly, there were many things she had left without. She had a tiny wardrobe and not a single piece of traditional or elegant garb for festivals or events. It was a natural place to seek something out that would be unlike anything she had ever seen before. When her blue eyes were cast upon a shop with  cotton yukata, perfect for the summer, which made them perfect for the Sun village, the Irezumi woman had to explore and examine all of the options. In her due diligence, Kannagi unveiled a well made yukata of gold fabric. To her surprise the edges of the yukata and the sleeves had a bit of sparkle to them, selling an elegance without losing the comfort of a casual kimono style. The pattern was handpainted, flying white cranes with green and pink ribbons in the wake of their silent flight. She stroked the fabric with her left hand admiring it until the shop keeper addressed her in a friendly manner. The old woman urged for her to try it on so with care and switching her skirt around to wear the yukata properly, Kannagi had decided. Even before the teal obi was tied about her torso and twisted into a traditional bow upon her back, she knew it was the one she would purchase.

Dressed in this new and beautiful garment, Kannagi  continued to wander the other shops. She found shining brooches with red jewels, strangely similar and foreboding to see, reminding her of the mission in the mire. Kannagi had stopped to try a cup of warm sake and a bowl of spicy ramen. She felt warm from the inside out. This place was one of the most magnificent markets that she had ever seen. Like an exhale, the wind moved around the people in the market and pink petals tornadoed past her and towards a shop with thick velvet curtains. With a shrug, she took it as a sign to see this shop which no doubt held wonders like all the rest. Her eyes counted rows of small animal skulls painted with gold, thick baubles to be worn in the ears like crowns for the ear lobes of the rich and vain, and finally small boxes carved from wood and lined with soft woven velvet. Her curiosity peaked and she drifted towards the boxes, opening them with a nervous excitement. Boxes this beautiful had to contain something truly special. What she saw when she opened the first box took her breath away. Her jaw dropped and the shopkeeper, a fat man with a tin beard smirked at her. "Never seen anything like that before have you miss?"

Kannagi almost dropped the box, recovering quickly and returning it to his table. She opened the next box, and the next, seeing about six boxes of varying design before her. Each held something that grew the pit more and more inside of her stomach until it became a lump all the way up to her throat. The blue haired woman swallowed hard and asked slowly, "Where did you get these?" Her voice was laced with an undetectable poison, only those who knew her would have been able to catch on. The man had intuition enough to smile even broader, sensing something was up, hoping for a very large purchase. "Normally they are 100 ryo a piece, but I'll give you all 6 trinkets without the boxes for just 500. They come all the way from the desert and the plains. Long distance creates larger fees for this sort of finery."

Kannagi bit her tongue so hard it almost bled as she tried to control her anger. In each box was an Irezumi family relic. Gifted down from mothers to daughters, an animal spirit token, a totem of a guardian to ensure their safety. As real as any religion's beliefs, this tradition was most sacred to the Irezumi women. Each woman attained one at marriage from her mother, a promise to remember where she came from and draw the power from the animal to guide her own new family; A crane for grace, an elephant for wisdom, a dog for loyalty, a snake for intelligence, and a horse for love. Each made hand carved from stone or shell, hardened by clay or shining with layers of crystal, these relics were imbued with spiritual power and presence, gifted with everything a mother could gift. Kannagi had never gotten one but she knew that losing a relic, losing your spiritual guardian, it was like losing a member of your family. The pain of these unknown women was palpable to the blue haired female.

Not a single Irezumi woman would have given these items up. She collected all six in her hand, cradling them carefully as she fought the tears in her eyes. "So what do you say?" The shop keeper asked, suspiciously watching her. Kannagi felt rather than saw the eyes of two other men nearby watching her, perhaps guards concerned she might start trouble. Kannagi hadn't been left a choice in the matter, regardless of what happened to her now. She closed her hand tight and then looked up at the shopkeeper, "I don't carry much money as that. I live simply, like those of the Irezumi family." The shopkeeper tensed and came around the stall to face her, "And I don't want any trouble. If you ain't buying, you need to place those back on the table. They're mine." Kannagi shook her closed hand at him, blue fire in her blue eyes, "They belong to the Irezumi women. These were stolen. I'm going to return them to their rightful owners." Be grateful I haven't arrested you myself, she thought Kannagi dipped her hand into her top and placed the six items securely beside her breast.

The shopkeeper looked livid, and he hadn't even needed to respond or snap his fingers; the two guards from before drew out katanas and headed for her with stern tones of voice and dark eyes. "You'll have one more chance to return those. Give them back and you may leave unharmed. Try to fight and you will be imprisoned. Don't make this worse for yourself, little girl." Kannagi's lips twinged to the side, her anger growing. "Excuse me?" She said, placing her hands into a single handseal. The kunoichi didn't do anything, no jutsu or powers sprang out, but the guards paused staring at her. "I am Kannagi. This man is a thief. This woman is not a little girl. I am a shinobi of Nikkousato and I assure you, I have righteous claim. Lower your weapons or indeed, there will be hell to pay." At the sight of her stance and the guards weapons, people started to clear out and away from them. Chatter increased in the market and crowds began to form, pointing and staring at the development in their usually uneventful eveninings.

The man before carried with him a daunting presence, aided by the bowing of all the others around the shop inside of the tent. Still, he was just a man and Kannagi was not to be intimidated. "A despot without a name are you? You must have forgotten your manners to not bother introducing yourself, especially given your arrogance, I must assume you do have some sort of authority here." She gave him a bow, understanding culture and requirements still ought to have met. You wouldn't go into another person's house and boss them around, but Kannagi was also taught that a host was due to respect his guests. "I apologize if you perceive this as disrespect, but you must concede it is a worse offense to tolerate theft in your market. Or aren't you an honest man? What do you stand for if not righteousness in your care of your estate? Would you allow this buffoon to make a profit on your land by right of fraud and piracy and bring dishonor to your good name?" Her anger gave her power in her words, but her confidence and her passion to stand up for what was right gave her the heart behind the words. She held her hand seals still, unmoving in case she needed to defend herself.

Kannagi did not yet know this man saw himself as king and saw her as an insect meant to worship the ground upon which he allowed her to live. A true king placed value upon his image and name and would never allow such blatant larceny to tarnish it. If anything, the shop keep ought to be imprisoned, but Kannagi relinquished the idea that it was her law to uphold. All she wanted was to return the objects wrongfully robbed of the Irezumi. She might not have liked the air this red eyed man portrayed, the command and austerity of this night market gave him the likeness of a historical tyrant. Kannagi wouldn't let personal affronts prevent her from doing the right thing and she was taught well to be a good and respectful guest. Though she had explained herself as he had asked, she had mostly pointed out how it might have sullied him and his business for others to discover. It had been more of a warning and a piece of helpful advice, but considering that the silenced shop keep had not even spoken up in his own defense, her face expressed a reluctant uncertainty in how the unnamed male would handle her words.

Kannagi beamed her blue eyes directly at Alvah's red ones. She didn't look away when he took up a spear and hurled it through the bandit-like shop owner. It stuck him to the wall and the loud huff suggested a head collision had assisted in the spear's goal of killing him. Kannagi didn't dare to look away in the presence of such preposterous violence. His elongated way of speaking was clearly meant to intimidate along with the action of murdering an unarmed man in such close range. If he was in charge of the entire place, Kannagi supposed that none of the guards would involve themselves with it and after a second passed that was revealed to be true enough. The man before her was a killer, not just because of his actions here, but because of his heart. She didn't trust him.

Ketsueki, the medical term for blood; the clan must have been as merciless as its name depicted. The thing that caught her attention was how he knew her name. She had shared only her first name, even with most of her aquaintances. Other than her pale skin, she didn't have many characteristics to remark upon that showed what she was. Maybe it was her sincerity of the way she spoke to the shop clerk about the stolen Irezumi relics. Whatever it was, the speed of him getting that information was uncanny. The seal upon her left forearm was activated when she pulled her hands away from each other. She kept her forearm hidden and pointed downward as she reached towards her top. It looked like the kunoichi was giving up the Irezumi totems by undoing her seal and drawing her right hand upwards towards her chest.

"As the head of your clan, I observe that you are owed respect, Alvah." Kannagi spoke solemnly, her eyes not leaving his face. She felt like prey, as if the moment she blinked or glanced away from his face, he would lunge for her. She had no way to trust him and as a murderer, she felt obligated to an extent to even arrest him. The blue haired woman admitted arresting might be overestimating her abilities on his turf with all his guards. Her best case scenario was getting out of this market with the Irezumi totems considering the amount of people on his side here. Her hand clasped around a single one of the totems, the crane, and withdrew it. The blue eyed woman blinked, still keeping her eyes on his face, watching for any twinges or hints of aggression. She wondered if he would match the totem she held to the garment she wore, to the title she claimed as a shinobi of the sun village. Kannagi showed it to him, "Each is a symbol of a guardian to a woman in the Irezumi. The crane is for grace." She extended her arm to plop it into his open hand, but the moment his hand closed around the crane itself, Kannagi would snatch his wrist and swing her body in an effort to throw him over her shoulder and onto his stomach. She hoped she could lock this same arm, if she was able to continue holding on, behind his back in an arrest style pin. "I'm a guardian too, since I am no longer Irezumi: The Paper Crane of Nikkousato."



Jutsu: Armor Technique
CP: 115 /130
SP: 100 /100

[Chiton: Phoenix Mode - C-rank, Chiton: Piercing Storm B-rank.]
CP: 60/100
SP: 95/130

Kannagi was caught in a lurching motion as she had swung her body into the motion in order to flip the head of the Ketsueki clan over her and instead found that he had made jutsu wings of something red. Blood was what she had assumed given his name and his dark ambiance. The kunoichi held tightly, even as he raised his other hand up for an attack. She had been both fortuitous and astute to have applied the protective armor jutsu before. The shimmering purple field around her blocked the chakra from his attack, causing the blood senbon to spiral and splash after hitting her, dribbling onto the ground. After the waves had finished, her purple armor field winked out and she took a deep breath.

She single-handedly drew out an explosive tag while the blood senbon rained over her and her right hand clung to the man's forearm. Next, she pulled hard on the man's arm and kicked upwards, using the man's body as a horizontal surface for the chakra in her feet to push off of. Her intention was to move swiftly up and over him. As she did so, waving the tag and grinning, Kannagi slapped her right hand upon Alvah's lower torso. When she made it above him and started to fall back down, she reached to grab his shoulder and place the real explosive tag upon the back of his left shoulder, using her right hand's slap in the quick move to distract him. It worked before in her experience that seeing the tag and feeling the slap should lead a person to assume the tag was now clinging onto them. It would give her just enough distraction to flip over him and actually place it on the back of his shoulder.

She breathed hard, the wings on either side of her and looking dangerous enough for her to worry about. Once behind him and out of his direct sight, Kannagi performed her second action. She used a set of hand signs and touched her own chest, placing a swirling designed seal upon her own self over the elegant yukata she wore. Most fights were full of conversation, but Kannagi had no plans to speak and let words divert her focus. By the end of her motion, had he not interfered, she would be falling to the ground between his crimson wings on his back. He might think the tag placed on his shoulder was the most immediate and dangerous action to deal with, but the blue eyed shinobi had made a secret plan. Out of his view, the seal upon her chest looked almost protective, fuinjutsu used commonly as a barrier or to seal something away. It could have even been assumed that she had sealed the other totems to prevent him from getting them back. But that was not what her fuinjutsu was for; instead it would absorb chakra instantly from her enemy and seal that away and as long as he was within range it would do it again and again.



Jutsu: Leech Tag Clarification, it would steal 15cp from Alvah on his next post, but it would not do so again until the post after that. For writing style, I warned it would continue to draw on his chakra, but that is something that poor Alvah would need to figure out to prevent.  
Items: Exploding Note
CP: 90 /130
SP: 100 /100

[Chiton: Piercing Storm - B-rank, Chiton: Abyssal Emergence B-rank. And leech tag drain]

Abyssal emergence 3 posts
Chiton Phoenix Mode 2 posts

CP: 5/100
SP: 65/130

The minute crane figurine fell from Alvah's grasp when he opened his hand, claws outstretching and scratching her right arm. Kannagi didn't look at the damage, knowing by the way it felt that it would be a non lethal blow. The crane bounced once off the ground below before resting in place, thankfully unbroken. Kannagi wasn't looking at the crane either. She had made her leap over the male's head, jumping over him with her legs folded up beneath her. Her knees near her chest, her lower legs bent beneath her thighs, trying to clear over Alvah's body without ruining her speed. As Kannagi moved over his head the head of the Ketsueki clan made his attack.

The strike he made against her was anguish and torture. Two waves of senbon forged from blood and chakra rammed into her legs, obviously meant for her torso. She felt them shredding her lower legs apart, even double the intensity of normal senbon attacks. Kannagi rarely made sounds of pain, but the shock and gripping agony of the blood senbon stabbing first through her lower legs and then piercing into her thighs was nearly unbearable. She screamed in the wake of pain, just once, but she couldn't stop. A second howling tore itself from her throat, driven by the crippling of her legs. By the time his jutsu was over, her legs were a torn and ragged mess, raining her own blood below her. Kannagi had no way to tell if any of her serious arteries or veins had been damaged considering the sheer impact of her destroyed muscles. She wouldn't have much time to find a healer or tourniquet them before passing out or even worse, perhaps dying from the loss of her blood. All she could do was pray that the senbon had spared her vital arteries. Her adrenaline pumped hard through her veins and she managed to perform one more jutsu, trying to save herself from falling and rendering herself completely open and vulnerable to Alvah's attack.

Without needing hand seals, large paper wings burst from her shoulder blades. For just one action, it was an effective one, preventing her fall and ensuring she would not land helplessly below her opponent. He was ruthless but she wasn't going to give up at this point. She had already gone this far, after all. Her legs hung limply below her, like the legs of a rag doll. The guards in the area backed up, and she even heard the sound of someone retching. The fight was close to over and she just hoped as she floated there beside him, held steady by the large shikigami wings, that her leech tag would put him out. The blue haired kunoichi's new yukata was stained and shredded, the teal obi falling down in a slow dramatic fashion. Her shoulders were level with his head, only she was behind him. If he had used enough chakra, then she would stand a chance of survival against him. If not, who knew what what would happen next. Kannagi's future felt dizzyingly uncertain and she let out a scream again, a combination of pain and fearsome anger in her voice.



Jutsu: Leech Tag still active, Shikigami Flying Technique
Items: Exploding Note, still active
CP: 75 /130
SP: 90 /100