Village of the Damned

In the previous installment, Shirokaze and Doriyaku have traveled to the far north after the threat of execution has caused them to flee from their homeland. In the early morning they come across a village after they climb a large mountain and are considering their next move.

When in Kowasu...
"I can't believe we missed this..." Shiro remarks staring down at the village. "I would rather avoid contact with others, but..."

"Well it is going to be hard since we need supplies." Doaku explains.

"You just woke up so you might as well head back and get ready..." says Shiro. "I'll go scout the village while you pack, if you find that acceptable."

"Ya, see what you can find out and meet me back here in 30 mikes." Doaku explains then hops down to the icy room.

Shiro straps his sword onto his back and wraps his scarf a bit tighter around his neck before flickering away toward the village. When Doaku arrives back at the room he sees that something left a large hole in the ice wall. Upon further examination it would appear that the camp had been raided with many items destroyed and thrown about.

"Son of a b****" Doaku walks into the room, Looks around seeing that who or what did this has passed on. He begins looking through the thrown about stuff and locates his dagger. He begins the clean up to see what all is missing.

Back in the village Shiro is sneaking around the tops of the building surveying the village for potential hazards. "Hmm...looks harmless, but where are all the people...perhaps it's too early." Shiro thinks to himself when something catches his eye leading him to pull a kunai out of his jacket. "Now what?"

Flipping back to the mountain side, Doaku finds that nothing is missing just thrown all over the place. He gets it all packed up and throws his pack on. Just then a rock about 5 feet around crashes through the top of the ice wall. Doaku flips side ways rolling on side to dodge the rock, drawing his dagger. "Whose there!?" Doriyaku yells as he hears multiple foot steps outside. He burst outside looking around frantically and sees nothing. slinging the bag on his back he takes off to the city. "I hope Shiro is having better luck then me."

Shiro walks down a shadowy alleyway following an odd sound around the edge of a building to discover it was just a broken sign swinging in the wind. "Just the wind...hmm...Kowasu...odd name for a town," Shiro ponders. From there he decides to wander into what appears to be a storehouse. Suddenly a shadow from the window adjacent to him bounds out towards him. Startled by the movement in his peripheral vision Shiro steps back, tripping on a pipe slashing toward the shadow with a kunai. After pulling himself back up he looks around and observes that nothing is around him. "What was that...was it anything?" A drip of something can be heard near Shiro's feet.

Doriyaku is racing across the roof tops, looking for Shiro. He feels something behind him. He rotates in mid step kick out ward at nothing. "What the hell, I know something was there...Where are all the people in this town" Doaku turns and takes off again, reaching the end of a line of building his jumps down to the street. He notices a large pool of blood in the street, near that a broken city sign. ''"This can't mean anything good, and who names a town Kowasu?" ''Doaku takes a closer look at the blood and sees something strange about it.

"What is this," Shiro wonders as he looks down at the ground and notices that blood is dripping from his kunai. Suddenly Doaku hears the sound of combat inside the building next to him and looks through the window to see flashes of light that illuminate what appears to be Shiro and something else. A window on the side of the building shatters as something jumps through it and climbs up a wall followed by several kunai charged with lightning, and one attached with a wire. Shiro pulls himself from the building, through the window with the wire, only to discover that he lost whatever it was he was fighting. "Did you get a good look at it?" Shiro asks turning toward Doaku.

"Ya..It was a shadow, a really fast shadow. I don't know who or what the hell they are, but they are gone by the time you know they are there." Doaku explains as he scans the area. "Its prolly not safe to stay in the open street."

"Probably not...by the way there wasn't any supplies in that building, just some awkward looking blood...but I didn't get a chance to check it out," Shiro replies before wrapping up the wire and returning it to a pouch on his leg.

"Well I would like to get out of here fast as possible this town seems f***** up. Did you seen the name of this place? I mean what the heck?" Doaku walks towards another building checking windows has he gets closer.

"Indeed..." says Shiro as he stares at where the thing he fought fled before following behind Doaku.

"This appears to be a grocery shop, but this sign is so dusty is hard to read." Doaku says looking up at the sign. "Hey use some your wire and open this door. When you do I'll shuriken it."

"Damn, I just put the wire up," Shiro states reluctantly as he pulls a moderate length of wire out of the pouch on his leg and attaches it to the door handle before backing behind the edge of the building waiting to pull it open on Doaku's signal.

"Ok maybe this is too hostile? Ok on your go open and I'll throw a few flash tags, then we breach and clear." Doaku says as he moves to the opposite side of the door between the door and a window.

The door is yanked open and immediately Doaku throws four flash tag equipped kunai into the building before diving through a nearby window gaining access to the apparent grocery store and begins to look for targets. Shiro takes this time to gain access to the roof and to jump down through a skylight on the opposite side of the building. The two are separated by most of the store but can see each other down a lengthy aisle. They are unable to identify any hostile targets upon entry.

Doaku begins walking down the end of the aisles, dragging his dagger across the metal shelves, whistling a demonic tone. "Come out, come out where ever you are." Doaku says in between whistles. "Shiro do you see anything?"

"No, but--" Shiro is cut off by the sound of the front door slamming that is accompanied by the light strangely dimming in the store. He pulls his ninjato off his back and crouches down listening for anything out of the ordinary.

"Oh, I have a play toy now" Doaku says loudly as he drags his dagger around bottles of water and sodas, having them poor onto the ground. He begins to whistles again.

Shiro uses the distraction that Daoku provides as a chance to scope out the competition. He carefully sneaks around the store until he spies a pair of feet moving in the direction of Doaku on the opposite side of the aisle. From what he is able to see the feet are bare, grey, and have long blackened nails, but appear to be overall human. The apparent person moves slowly and only seems to react when Doaku makes noise.

Doaku walks around the end of the aisle and starts up the next. "Come on you hard a** where you at." Doriyaku spins backward slamming the bottom of his foot into a shelf sending it toppling over. ''"Rabbit!" ''Doaku summons four rabbits the shoot down the aisle a short way and explode knocking down three more shelves. "That's better now you can see me!"

Doaku looks upon a what anyone would think to be a corpse with pale grey skin and long white hair covering its eyes, except it is was standing and breathing heavily. "More zombies?" Shiro thinks to himself as the abomination rushes at Doaku only to be pulled by his foot upside down by one of Shiro's traps. "Heh...well that always--" Shiro's thought is interrupted as the creature pulls itself up and cutting the wire with his jagged nails and flipping back around onto the ground. The beast lets out a horrific cry as it dives at Doaku revealing broken and bloody mouth of teeth.

"Smarter than the last" Doaku thinks as he side steps dodging the zombie like monster, just as he is nearly cut on the face by the beast reaching his long black nails at him."This one may be a problem" Doaku says as he flips back landing on top of one of the still standing shelves.

The creature jumps up on to the shelf and begins moving towards Doaku just as Shiro hears something moving behind him. Up in the rafters of the building another zombie thing is moving around and jumps down at him. Shiro leaps back to avoid the attack and lands back to back with Doaku. "Well, this should be interesting," Shiro states with a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

"That it shall" Doaku smirks ''"Monkey! Ox!" ''he summons his staff and a Terracotta warrior made of ice. "Lets kick some a**" The warrior lefts its spear and takes a fighting stance. releasing a battle cry.

"You're way to flashy for a shinobi," Shiro remarks as he tightens his grip on his sword after he wrapping some excess wire around the opposite hand. He activates his doujutsu before saying, "Remember that they may be able to infect us."

The Terracotta shoots forward at the beast slamming the back end of the spear into sending it flipping over itself. the zombie recovers by flipping itself and grabbing a rafter spinning around and kicking the warrior shattering its head and sending it plummeting to the store floor. "Ok, maybe a little soon for that technique...any ideas Shiro?"

Doaku looks back only to see Shiro engaged in a fast paced fight with the zombie that was facing him. Both of the combatants are flipping and twisting to avoid each others attacks. Shiro performs a powerful downward swing at the beast only for it to be avoided as Shiro is stabbed in the stomach by the zombies claws. For a second the zombie leans into toward Shiro attempting to bite him only to realize that what he had stabbed was a large bag of rice. Without a moments notice Shiro jumps from the rafters at an angle behind the beast and cuts cleanly through the zombies back before landing on one of Doaku's downed shelves.

Shiro looks up at Doaku, just has his zombie takes another charge at Doaku. Doaku ducks as the zombie passes over head he drives his staff up with great force into the chest of the zombie. He notices that the zombie has grabbed onto the other end of the staff and that the charge from the staff is having little effect on the magnificent horror that is before him. "The power of this beast is so pure" He thinks to himself as he reverts the staff back into the dagger and shoves it into the beast neck. Doaku looks into the eyes of the fading away beast. The evil inside the monster seems to have a bind over the young Fuyutama. As the blood form its neck runs down the blade onto Doaku's hands. He rips the dagger out the side of the beast neck slams his foot into the zombie launching it across the store. He turns to Shiro "They are blind...You ask how? That I am not sure of, but I could see into its soul, Or what was left of it"

"I had a feeling they were after observing them for a while," states Shiro as he swings his ninjato to get the blood off before resheathing the blade on his back. "The blood is all gelatin like...kinda of awkward," Shiro explains as a silver serpent partially slides out of the sleeve of his coat and looks down at the beast twitching after having its spinal cord severed by Shiro. "She's telling me that these things are definitely evil...as if we needed to be told," Shiro says referring to his summon, "but luckily she can purify it." The serpent breathes out the mystical flames of Reien on the corpse of the beast turning it to dust. "That's interesting...I've never seen Reien destroy something's physical form as well...what are these things?"

"Who said they are physical, the things we have seen since we left it's not out of the park." Doaku state as he walks over to the other corpse. "Please lets not dust this one, deal?" He reaches into pocket on his ankle and pulls out three scrolls. After putting two back, opens one and lays it next the body. He grabs a non damaged rubbing alcohol bottle, pours it on his dagger and shakes it dry. Doriyaku cuts his finger on the blade and begins writing on the scroll laying on the ground.

"Well, from what I could examine it wasn't completely composed of chakra and other energies...just mostly," Shiro retorts, "Some of the energy didn't appear like anything I've ever seen before...and it was just clinging to the corpse. It was incredibly odd.

Doriyaku seems to ignore all presents of Shirokaze, as he finishes the blood seal on the scroll. He raises his hand up and slams it on the scroll. A bright golden chakra forms between the scroll and Doaku hand. after a couple of seconds Shiro takes a few steps towards Doaku, Just as golden serpent chakra stream slithers from under Doaku's hand wrapping around the zombie body, once the chakra grabbed the arms, neck and legs of the body. They begin to pull the body into the scroll. "Sorry my friend, I wasn't ignoring you only focusing." Doaku states as he rolls scroll with the zombie body sealed inside it and returns it to the pocket in which it came.

"Drop that scroll!" Says an angry female voices as a curved blade appears from behind Doaku back and extends around his neck. At the same time the room is filled with half a dozen shinobi in dark garb surrounding the two Fuyutama. "Who are you two...and drop the scroll!" barks the chick behind Doaku, who appeared to be the leader of the group.

"Do you really think that information is something you need to know?" Says Shiro in a serious tone.

"Are you joking!? Do you know who we are?" the kunoichi replies angrily.

Shiro just stares at her for a bit before saying, "...Just too loud to be decent ninja."

"So Shiro I guess his is what passes as a shinobi outside our village, kinda funny you think?" Doaku says smirking "Let me get that scroll for you my ugly friend...If you just remove the blade so I can bend down please." The kunoichi slowly eases up on the blade as Doaku reaches into his pocket pulling out a scroll and hands the scroll off behind him. "Good..." says the kunoichi, "Now kill them!"

"Well that just doesn't seem fair you hippo of a ninja" Doaku says has he throws his torso forward landing on his hands upcut kicking the kunoichi in the jaw causing her to fall on her back. As he continues his motion and lands on his feet next to Shiro facing behind him. "Hmm...It would seem that once again we find ourselves back to back, Alone, force to defend the family name that got you banished. Surrounded by enemies with weapons drawn....What do you say Shiro?' Doaku says in a deep narrator voices with a hint of sarcasm.

Shiro lets out half a grin when suddenly multiple skylights above the two groups of shatter as more of the zombie creatures from before fall from above, along with a very large beast around eight feet tall and unnaturally ripped. "Ah s***, the Abandoned...and they have a Saiko, we have to get out of here!"

"Saiko...seriously?" Shiro remarks as the ninja that accompanied the kunoichi move from surrounding the Fuyutama to help up their leader. "It is pretty big though..." Shiro thinks as he observes the giant. More of the smaller zombies, now seemingly called the Abandoned reveal themselves around the shinobi.

"We will protect you captain!" One of the fodder shinobi says referring to their leader.

"This S*** I swear just gets better as it goes...So if the Abandoned don't work for this pathetic group of kids."Doaku looks back at the group of shinobi who seem to be filled with fear. "Then I guess we what we should ask is who do they work for?" He say as he slowly moves his head back to the creatures with fire in his eyes. "Shiro this is going to be one hell of a fight!" Doriyaku say with angry forming in his voice as he spins and flips his dagger around his hand taking a battle stance ready to fight.

"Indeed..." Shiro says. "But something seems off about this...if this 'Saiko' is so powerful, why it coming after such weaklings...plus why are these things appearing more and more organized each time they come at us...unless!" Shiro thinks to himself before shouting, "Doaku...something is wrong with this situation, I think it would be bad if that captain dies...got it?" Shiro once again draws the sword from his back and stares down the enemies that have oddly not attacked or advance any farther than the Saiko.

Doaku and Shiro stand in the ready to attack for a few minutes. "Why don't they make a move?" Doaku thinks to himself confused. "Hey Shiro, Do you think they are being controlled by someone or something?"

"They are controlled. By the darkest man the world has ever seen." The captain explains from behind her shinobi.

"Thats what I was gathering, So Shiro we need to locate the one who is controlling the beast." Doaku lowers his weapon looking at Shiro. "You stay here and fight but use them wimps as meat shields and don't get hit. I'll find this evil man.' Doaku reaches in his pocket and pulls out the one of the remaining scroll and shadow steps on top of the building beside the building with his comrade in it. Has he looks around he thinks, "Now he would have to have a good view of the zombies and the city" Just as he turns to his right he sees a large clock tower in the shadow the sunset.

"You six!" Shiro shouts at the shinobi guards, "Follow my lead and you may not die." Shiro throws a kunai at the feet of one of the smaller zombies leading it to jump into the air where it snaps a wire that detonates an explosive destroying it. "Anyone else...?" The Saiko grunts and the smaller zombies charge from all directions toward the shinobi. Shiro lowers his head and grins, "Without Doaku here...maybe I can cut loose."