Kaori: Sparring with Chickaroo: C Rank: Solo: Private

Kaori woke up to the sight of sunlight blasting through her bedroom window, filtering through the stain glass to cast a myriad of colors on the floor. Due to the way light bent, rather than remaining the same all the way through, the image on the floor only slightly resembled the glass window; but it was still pretty looking. Kaori's snow white bangs had drooped down, sliding over her eyes and obstructing her view of the world around her as she looked on it through sleep drunken eyes. She brushed the white locks aside and moved the rest of her hair behind her shoulders. It would help with keeping it out of her face, but not as much as pinning it up like she normally did. Kaori rubbed her eyes, brushing the sleep from them and lifted her arm, using the other one to pull on it while leaning to the side to stretch as she grunted to greet the morning. A yawn forced its' way past her lips along with a slightly exaggerated sound, all tied together with Kaori placing one of her hands over her mouth until the yawn had run its' course. She rested her hands on the bed below her and used them to keep herself up right while trying to remember how she'd gotten there. "Every time..." she said under her breath after a few seconds of sleep hazed thought. She hated how it was almost the same thing every morning. Either that dream, or insomnia coming for her...

This time it was a memory she detested that came back to her and greeted Kaori every morning. She had enemies closing in on her, and taunted the female one to trick her into attacking. Afterwards, Kaori ran and jumped off the left side of the bridge connecting the city on the eastern sea and the magic clans' castle. A shadow clone was used as a distraction while Kaori appeared behind their male friend. The female enemy and their leader were both fooled pretty good. The woman leaned over the edge, fully convinced Kaori killed herself while holding an ice sword with a scowl on her face, the leader looked as well to see if there was a corpse under the cloud of snow. The third subordinate, the male however was clutching his chest as his own sword protruded from it, dripping with blood. That was Kaori's need for the distraction, to make sure she took at least the subordinates to hell with her. The man fell to his knees, alerting the other two to turn to see Kaori with her bow out, drawing an arrow behind him. His body hit the floor and the girl subordinate, knowing who the arrow was coming for began moving to avoid it, but was too late when she caught it with her skull.

It was a memory she detested that came back to her and greeted Kaori every morning even after so much time had passed. She had enemies closing in on her, and taunted the female one to trick her into attacking. Afterwards, Kaori ran and jumped off the left side of the bridge connecting the city on the eastern sea and the magic clans' castle. A shadow clone was used as a distraction while Kaori appeared behind their male friend. The female enemy and their leader were both fooled pretty good. The woman leaned over the edge, fully convinced Kaori killed herself while holding an ice sword with a scowl on her face, the leader looked as well to see if there was a corpse under the cloud of snow. The third subordinate, the male however was clutching his chest as his own sword protruded from it, dripping with blood. That was Kaori's need for the distraction, to make sure she took at least the subordinates to hell with her. The man fell to his knees, alerting the other two to turn to see Kaori with her bow out, drawing an arrow behind him. His body hit the floor and the girl subordinate, knowing who the arrow was coming for began moving to avoid it, but was too late when she caught it with her skull.

Standing on a broken leg and gritting her teeth, her cat mask had been damaged so badly that the metal under the porcelain was showing. Saia held an orb of pure magic in his right hand and pointed it at Kaori. Kaori grabbed her shuriken and began throwing it up, the magic inside being released just as Saia fired a blast of magic at her. A brilliant light was released as the two collided, but Kaori's magic hadn't progressed far enough to resist Saia's and the barrier she'd made broke after several seconds of her focusing her hardest to maintain it. A loud cry of pain was released as Kaori was hit with the attack and send back, slamming into the castles' door where she took the rest of the attack. Her body giving off a type of magical smoke, Kaori fell to her knees before falling face-first in the snow with blood leaking from her broken leg, the bone protruding through the flesh. She tried to get up, but could barely move. After that... everything went dark. Kaori's last memory after that was waking up in a room with someone at her bedside explaining that she was lucky to be alive.

A pair of birds flew in from the window she'd left open, landing on her bed. She saw them look at her curiously, tilting their heads and hopping slightly closer as though they wished to know more. Not being one who could be cruel to animals, Kaori's eyes softened and she took her fist from the bed to extend a finger to the bird. It was small, easily the size of her hand and red for the most part. Its' wings were black, and it had a crest atop its' head with brown that transitioned to black. The bird leapt back a couple times, looking at Kaori's finger with a puzzled head tilt. "It's okay, you're curious. Don't get this close to other people though, they're not all as nice as I am." she said in a soft, warm, and caring tone. As though the bird understood, it leapt forward, closer to her finger before leaping onto the digit. Kaori pulled it closer to her face, taking her other hand and using her index finger to gently rub the red bird's stomach. This had happened to her before. For whatever reason, animals liked Kaori. She wouldn't complain about it since she liked them, but she did find it strange.

The other bird took flight and landed on Kaori's head, leaping while turning and looking around the room. With her free hand, Kaori pulled the sheets from over her legs and got out of bed to walk to the open window. "I can't play right now, but if you come back later I'll have something for you two okay?" she said, holding her finger out the window with the one bird on it. The bird on her head was the first to take off, followed shortly after by the one on her finger. A gently wind came through the window, causing Kaori's hair to flicker behind her as she watched the birds fly off into the distance. Kaori grabbed the two panels and closed the window, letting out a sigh and turning around to lean on the edge of the window sill. "I need to get stronger... Strong enough to change the world." she said under her breath like she did every day like a ritual of sorts before walking towards the bathroom.

After taking a long shower, and shaking off the ghost of past events; Kaori moved to her beauty stand and looked in the mirror. Her eyes shifted from being awake and alive, to being somewhat dead inside. She picked up her mask and turned it, placing it in front her face without actually mounting it on her head and looked at it. "I am a lie... nothing more, nothing less." she said in a solemn, but saddened tone. It was the creed she took up when she joined the other warriors in her clan's army. Everyone wore a mask, and everyone was trained to be deceptive. Everyone there had lived their lives learning to fight face to face, as well as assassinate targets. No one had a true personality since they changed personalities so often. Kaori was no different... Over the past decade, Kaori had worn many costumes, many masks, many personalities to accomplish her missions. She had been a high ranking officer for the government, an insane and blood thirsty fiend, a prostitute, a thief, and even a vagrant a few times. Kaori had no concept of who she truly was; as was the life of a Lareci warrior... an assassin. Her mask however, was different from the other clan members. The normal members all wore black clothes with black masks, each with accents that were a slightly lighter shade of black. Hers was white, a color that was extremely high profile and easy to spot in almost any situation. It was like this so Kaori could be spotted in combat, and thus, made an easy target. The reason she wanted that is because it meant she needed to have better skills to compensate for being obvious. She needed to be better at sneaking around, not making noise and drawing attention. She needed to be fast so her opponents couldn't be able to track her movements. She needed to be able to hit harder than anyone in her clan so she wouldn't need to worry about being hit. Because of those high profile clothes, Kaori had to be the best; and she was the best. Kaori put the mask down and grabbed her hair ties, pinning her hair in twin tails to keep it from covering her eyes up or flowing about too much. After that she mounted her mask, tying off the white ribbon to keep it held in place. The ribbon had a pattern that worked like camouflage, helping to make it blend into her hair so as to not stand out too much.

Kaori got up, moving to her wardrobe and taking out one of her sets of clothes. Kaori took a pink top out with a crimson border and floral pattern on it, wearing that as her base layer. This was tucked inside a dark pink, pleated skirt that hung down just a bit under mid-thigh; maybe an inch or two. On top the pink kimono top, Kaori wore a thick black sash that wrapped around her bust and kept her breasts from bouncing around during combat. While it made her look flatter than normal, Kaori didn't care what men though of her chest or anyone else for that matter. She wanted combat efficiency, not sexiness. Over her skirt, Kaori wrapped a pink sash with red flowers loosely. The sash matched her kimono and added a bit of cuteness to her attire. Over all of that, Kaori wore a white shirt with a light blue trim. The shirt was longer than normal ones, hanging down to just below Kaori's rear end and while it did have buttons on it, Kaori left it open so she didn't get too hot with it on. She pulled out a pair of white slippers and put them on, adjusting the heel to be comfortably in place. Once dressed, Kaori left her room and made sure the door was locked behind her.

Kaori made her way down to the armory in the castle where they kept an assortment of useful explosives and tactical items. It was also the place that Kaori kept her sword from time to time, normally after maintaining the blade. She took the sword and looked at it and sighed. The blade was virtually useless against skilled opponents. It was normal, and made of low quality steel. Kaori could snap it if she tried, and would break it if she wasn't careful of where she hit. It was something some guy was selling at a prop shop that Kaori confused for a weapon shop, and didn't feel like replacing since she had the sword skill to make it work. She grabbed the sheathe for it and slid the sword inside before mounting it on her waist, figuring that she'd eventually come across a better one; or even better, she'd find materials to make a better one. She then grabbed her tool belt and went to the different areas and began filling it. Six lacrima explosives were first, and then a set of smoke balls that were followed by a set of flash lacrima. A pair of bombs that released a wave of compressed air upon detonation were stuffed in the belt, which completed the set. Kaori closed the clasps on each compartment before grabbing a holster from a rack and sliding off her shirt. She mounted the holster over her kimono and grabbed a pair of explosive charges, slipping them in the back portion of the holster. There were to clips on the back end that Kaori used to store her fusion cores from her motorcycle, an extra set of bombs she used frequently when she needed to do some massive damage.

Kaori was heading to a place called Serene Cliff. She received word that a creature was causing havoc there and disturbing the peace, but Kaori was less inclined to believe it to be the bird's fault and more inclined to think that humans were encroaching on its habitat. On her way, Kaori thought of how she could capture it safely. The creature was a large bird, similar to an ostrich except bigger... and not an ostrich. It also had horns growing on it, green and yellow feathers, and a beak like a toucan. So in all honesty, it didn't look anything like an ostrich. It looked more like a dinosaur, toucan, thing with horns... and green feathers. What that meant was that it was predatory. Likely it hunted alone, and used the claws on its feet to rip open its prey. The horns on its body likely served to keep it on the ground with extra weight, and it had massive legs for running fast. Kaori didn't think it would have much jumping power, but if it had strong enough legs then it very well might. On top of that, it had a massive beak that would more than likely bust her skull open in one hit.

Upon arriving to a town, Kaori slowed the speed of her motorcycle so she could get a good look at the place. The houses were made of wood mostly, but some were brick. It looked like your average hunting town. The houses were modest, not ridiculously or unnecessarily massive but not so small a cabinet was larger. They were spaced apart comfortably, and everyone served a purpose, even the kids. There was a blacksmith in town who maid hunting tools and weapons, and his wife made armour. They had a couple young girls in the shop making clothes, and a boy helping with the forge. He looked nothing like the man and woman so Kaori could only assume they weren't related. The boy was keeping the forge lit, and another one was moving ores from a cart to a storage area.

Kaori spotted a place where animal meat was processed. She was able to identify the tools; a hanging rack, skinning knives, filleting knives, some meat scrappers, and some twine for tying things off. From the layout, Kaori could see that they didn't do any of the tanning or taxidermy work; only the skinning and quartering. The tanning seemed to be done at a different house, one with a man who seemed to be in his mid twenties at it. Kaori spotted on the far side of the small village some plants growing. It was enough to sustain the village if the hunt for the day was particularly bad; a smart move on the village leader's part that earned him or her points in Kaori's book.

Kaori went to meet with the leader herself to ask more information. She was right about most things, the only exception being that the bird was actually a fruit eater; but it could still split her skull open in one shot. Kaori had decided that trapping it would be useless, and that in the end it would only hurt the bird. Instead, Kaori would talk the creature down and get it to relocate if she couldn't get it to join the hunting village and become part of their lives. From what she knew, fruit eating creatures manure could be beneficial to crops. That and having a massive dinosaur bird thing patrolling the small hunting village could provide some added security.

Kaori had left her bike at the village, taking the fusion cores with her to prevent the villagers or their children from messing with them. She went out to the last spot the over grown chicken of doom was sighted and began looking around. She noticed massive foot prints on the ground near a bloodied up patch of grass. Kaori had used her historical clairvoyance to look into the history of the patch to watch the creature attacking the hunters. There were three of them, and from the looks of it, they were no different from Kaori; hunting down the evil toucan of hunter smiting. These ones however had gotten themselves ambushed, doing the exact same thing Kaori was doing. Just then, Kaori had realized that the chickaroo was using hunting tactics to lure, ambush, and kill its targets. The massive bird was already behind Kaori and the masked ninja's eyes grew wide as it raised its beak and brought it down on her heart, piercing it and running her all the way through. The organ was destroyed and blood flew everywhere. Suddenly Kaori erupted into smoke and the chickaroo's eyes grew wide. It had killed many hunters and huntresses, but none of them turned to smoke.

Kaori appeared next to the bird and rested her hand on its side, causing it to shudder. "Don't worry." she said in a soothing tone, the chickaroo stopping out of bewilderment. It understood her perfectly, but it had no idea why since it couldn't understand any of the humans that came before. Kaori took a step closer, crossing the gap that the chickaroo had created and gently touched her hand to its side. "You're a lot bigger than I expected." she said while running her hand up and down along the bird's flank. The bird turned to face her. It was intrigued at the concept of conversing with a human that managed to out play it. "Why are you attacking those people and killing them?" she asked, genuinely curious of the creature's reason. Kaori didn't know animals to just up and hunt humans, they always had a reason for it; one that Kaori always understood. This case, like every case before, was no different in that the chickaroo had a reason. It let out a cooing sound and turned to show Kaori its leg. Inside the leg was a wooden arrow that broke, and it couldn't remove it. Kaori moved to the arrow and the massive bird got ready to kick her to the ground, but it didn't when she spoke up saying "I'll get it out." in a warm tone. "This is gonna hurt, but it'll feel better when it heals up; I promise." she added before using her telekinesis to take hold of the arrow. She made the hole a bit wider and the bird let out a horrid screech of pain, but Kaori knew that it was the only way to prevent splintering. She pulled the arrow out quick and let the wound close itself, the bird fell to the floor and curled its leg in while quivering from the pain.

Kaori moved to the birds front and showed it the arrow before putting the useless item on the ground. She sat next to the bird on her knees and began stroking its neck while humming lightly, causing the bird to relax much sooner. "Come with me. I'll make the people who hurt you make things right." she said and got up. The bird had no reason to be skeptical of her anymore and got up with her, and the bird limped back to the village with Kaori. When they arrived, Kaori had spoke to the village's leader and told him what happened. Understanding the importance of keeping a balance in nature, the leader agreed to keep the chickaroo at the village and tend to its wounds. Kaori reported this back to the bird and told it not to attack anyone unless they attack it first, to which the chickaroo was fine with. The village leader gave Kaori one of their weapons as a show of gratitude and sent her off.

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