Juuni Taisen: Bloody Maze.
Chapter One.
~}i{~
Footsteps echoed throughout the metal coated corridor.
A towering man resting an oversized ax onto his shoulder. His rusty brown hair dangled from his left side while the right was shaven off. He appeared to be wearing regular clothing of a basic shirt, long slacks, and a pair of boots.
Inokatana: Warrior of the Boar, Killing Carelessly.
Inokatana smirked as he continued on his way. 'About time the Juuni Taisen came around,' he thought as he remembered the day he was selected to participate in the Juuni Taisen. It was after Inokatana, or Naraku Kuro, killed everyone on the battlefield he was on. He actually nearly killed the person who gave him that red envelope. Then again, Naraku Kuro was known as the Merciless Slaughterer.
'They might as well just give me the wish right now, it'll save them the trouble,' Inokatana thought tapping his oversized sword on this shoulder before walking into a giant hall. "Sorry, everyone, but as the Boar I have to arrive late," Inokatana said out loud so that the other warriors could hear.
Inokatana's eyes scanned the hall. 'Oh?' He thought as his eyes landed on a pair of familiar faces. Both had ruby red eyes, but they had different features. One was a tall lanky man with cream coloured ram horns, short brown hair, wore long black slacks paired with black wool boots, a gray wool poncho covering his upper body, and a sword within a sheath poked from underneath the poncho. The other wasn't as tall and had more muscles, black hair that reached his elbows, black pointed ears on top of his head, light blue sleeveless shirt, cargo pants that had daggers attached to the belt, a pure black dog tail that was long enough to reach his knees, and tall black boots. Both were glaring at the Warrior of the Boar.
With a smirk, Inokatana thought, 'I'm not surprised that those two are here. After all, they got a bone to pick with me.' He looks over the two again before thinking, 'I assume that they're the Sheep and Dog Warriors in this. But it's not really going to matter, I'll be killing them soon.' The Boar Warrior looked around the room, more to find out who of the remaining warriors he knew. 'Lot of familiar faces in this Juuni Taisen,' Inokatana thought before his eyes landed on an unfamiliar tall man with long forest green hair that reached his waist that was tied back with a red ribbon, wore an article of silvery-gray armor-like clothing, and metal boots that gleamed under the light. When this man noticed that the Boar Warrior was staring at him, he stared back. 'A foreigner?' Inokatana thought as one of his brows raised as he looked at the man's face. He had coco brown eyes, wide nose, square jaw, and sideburns that matched his hair colour.
Inokatana looked around the hall again. He knew the others were apart of the Nobel Families. When he looked back at the foreign man and wondered, 'Since when does the Juuni Taisen allow someone outside the Nobel Families to participate?' Well, it didn't really matter much anyway, Inokatana was going to kill everyone here anyway.
"Ah, now that all of the Warriors have arrived, we may now begin the Juuni Taisen," an unknown voice, that came out of nowhere, said out loud. it didn't take long for the Warriors to figure out that it was one of the officials for the Juuni Taisen. The official surveyed the Warriors and then said, "I will be your referee for this. You may call me Duodecuple. *Takes a bow*. Now, before I go over the rules of this Juuni Taisen, I must ask that you all introduce yourselves first."
So they introduced themselves in a clockwise pattern.
A young woman with long strawberry pink hair, green eyes, wearing a light armor that was coloured hot pink was the first to speak, "Hanachuu: Warrior of the Rat, Killing Cutely. Chu~."
A man with an eyepatch over his right eye with a red left eye, short mellow green hair, wore a dark green shirt and a sniper holster on his back, and black slacks were next to state, "Kurodangan: Warrior of the Rabbit, Killing in Hits."
A young man with short spiky vivacious yellow hair, burning red eyes, wearing an olive green survivalist garb, was the next to say, "Ryuuraiu: Warrior of the Dragon, Killing by Electrocution." He then cased a glare at the foreign man.
Inokatana smirked when he said. "Inokatana: Warrior of the Boar, Killing Carelessly."
A towering woman with brown hair tied in a bun, had somewhat bulky muscles that shown easily because of the sleeveless gray shirt paired with tight black slacks and brown boots said, "Gunba: Warrior of the Horse, Killing Hammer." She then rested a sledgehammer onto her shoulder.
Next was a woman with short aqua blue hair, light blue eyes, she wore a semi-transparent purple shirt (she appeared to be wearing a bathing suit underneath) with a blue zig-zag pattern wrapped tied around her waist, and had strappy sandals on her feet was the next to say, "Mizuneko: Warrior of the Tiger, Killing by Drowning."
A rather flamboyantly dressed adult was next to speak, "Niji-ha: Warrior of the Rooster, Killing with Style." The bright red cloak swayed with every little movement, the very reflective silver skin-tight bell-bottom jeans glittered consistently, and the purple boots that just seem to glow without any illumination. (And on this note, No he was not wearing a shirt).
"Yōkina: Warrior of the Monkey, Killing Happily!" Cheered a peppy looking woman in her twenties with short dark brown hair, bright brown eyes, wore a blood red shirt, black shorts, and black knee-high boots.
Next was an adult with long oily brown hair that looked like it hasn't been brushed this morning, red eyes that gave off the feeling that they wanted to be somewhere else, wore an old grey shirt that was fraying at the helms, old jeans that were completely frayed from the cuffs all the way to the knees, and a pair of worn shoes. That one said with a sigh, "Jukai: Warrior of the Ox, Killing to Die..."
The foreigner was next. However, he didn't speak until he realized all eyes were on him, "Oh, my turn now, yes? Advance apologizing, not speaking za native tongue. Umm, giving me za minute, yes. *Pulls out a cell phone and scrolls down a list*. Ah, ok. Baba Yaga: Warrior of ze Snake, Killing Unknowingly."
The dog-like warrior was next to say, "Ōkami: Warrior of the Dog, Killing with Honor."
The warrior wearing the wool gray Pancho took out pen and pad, wrote on a clean sheet of paper, then showed what he wrote, Mukō: Warrior of the Sheep, Killing Silently.
The other warriors had a look on their faces that said, "Really?" The only exceptions were Ōkami and the foreign man. The Dog Warrior already knew about the Sheep's muteness, but the Snake Warrior didn't seem to understand what was written.
Baba Yaga used his phone to snap a picture of the words and used a translator app to figure out what was written. Once he got the translation, he read it, smiled, and said, "Oh, I am getting za haha funny. Very clever, yes."
Mukō raised a brow before looking at Ōkami, who in turn shrugged at the Sheep.
The other Warriors had to wonder why someone who didn't seem to be from any of the Nobel Families was participating in the Juuni Taisen.
Duodecuple was the one to say "Yes, I know he is not from the Nobel Families, but he did accept the invitation after the previous representative of the Snake was killed."
Ryuuraiu glared at the ref before snapping, "How the hell did you invite him of all people to the Juuni Taisen?!"
"Ah, yes, that's an interesting story," Duodecuple said with an eerie smile before a hand with black nails wrapped around his throat from behind. "Oh?" was all the ref got out when he realized this.
Standing behind the Juuni Taisen Official was Baba Yaga.
All of the Warriors turned to where the Snake Warrior was standing previously, which was a considerable distance from where the ref was standing.
With a pissed-off look on his face, Baba Yaga said, "No going and breaking za deal now, Juuni Taisen not even has started."
Despite the position he was in, Duodecuple said, "Now, now, You know what'll happen if you kill me."
"Da, no ne dumayte, chto ya ne ub'yu nikogo, svyazannogo s Juuni Taisen, prezhde chem oni smogut chto-libo sdelat'," Baba Yaga stated curling his fingers tighter around the ref's throat. (It's Russian, btw).
"I never actually said anything, I merely stated that it was an interesting story," Duodecuple said as if he weren't in any danger.
Baba Yaga narrowed his eyes before releasing the ref and then added, "A deal is a deal, and I shall be heeding it only if you doing so too. But for the heaven sakes, you are not getting the fact correctly, zat Snake vas no killed."
Duodecuple tapped his hat and said, "Fair enough. However, by our standards, he was."
To the other Warriors, the whole thing was... Weird to say the least... Mukō placed a hand to his chin as he watched the foreign man walk away from the ref growling something in Rusian. The only thing Inokatana noted that this new Warrior of the Snake did have some level of skill.
As if nothing had happened, Duodecuple said, "Now, let us begin. If you may, please turn your attention towards the table." He pointed toward a nearby table.
Everyone turned to the table to see twelve cups with an oddly cut pitch black gem in each of them.
"I ask that you each swallow one before we begin with the rules of the Juuni Taisen," Duodecuple stated.
Each of the Warriors took a gem. Jukai was the first to swallow the gem, and with no hesitation. One by one, the others swallowed their gems. Baba Yaga brought the gem to his nose and sniffed it, he then glared at Duodecuple before swallowing the gem.
Duodecuple then said as soon as the last gem was gone, "Now the gems that you all have swallowed are called Juseki Gems, a powerful poison that has been solidified. Once a Juseki Gem is completely dissolved in twelve, it will kill whoever swallowed it with no trace remaining. It only reacts to fresh stomach acid and cannot be destroyed by any other means."
Big surprise (not really). Inokatana figured something like this would happen, but it makes sense none the less, with all things considered.
Duodecuple continued, "The winner of the Juuni Taisen will be the one who collects all twelve of the Juseki Gems and successfully escapes the environment that we have constructed." This statement earned some confused looks. The ref then opened the hall for any questions.
Hanachuu raised her hand and asked, "If these Juseki Gems are in our guts, how do we get them out, chu~."
Inokatana couldn't help but think that that was a stupid question. Just cut open the stomachs of the warriors. Which was Doudecuple's answer (in a more polite and mannered term, mind you).
Jukai was the one to ask, "So does that me we all die even if we collect all the gems?"
"Ah, that's a fair question, so I will give you a fair answer," Duodecuple stated with a small smile before adding, "Along with the wish of their choosing, the winner will be given the antidote for the Juseki Gem as a bonus prize."
Baba Yaga rolled his eyes and said sarcastically, "Oh, how nicely nice of you."
Duodecuple surveyed the hall for more questions, when none were raised he said, "Well then, I wish you all good luck after you are placed into the environment." He bowed as he started vanishing into thin air.
The next thing all twelve of the warriors knew the floor seemed to disappear from under them as they fell down a slide.
}{ A Minute Later }{
Inokatana slid off to find himself in a rather wide corridor.
"Ah, yes, that ref did say something about escaping our environment," The Warrior of the Boar said to no one in particular, but sighed when he said, "But a labyrinth? How uncreative, but at least there's room to fight." With that, he started walking.
After what felt like a good couple of minutes, Inokatana went over what he should do when he collects all the Juseki Gems. 'So it's not enough to just collect the gems but also get out of the labyrinth within the twelve-hour time limit,' he thought as he turned a corner. 'What a pain in the ass,' Inokatana thought as he tapped his ax on his shoulder.
Not even a minute later, Inokatana spotted the green-haired foreign turning a corner towards him.
Baba Yaga sighed and said, "Of course, I get za porky. Hm, guessing it is za fine long as I no eat porky."
Inokatana could care less about whatever the other was saying, he just wanted to kill him and get the Juseki Gem. The ax-wielding man then said, in order to start the battle, "Inokatana: Warrior of the Boar, Killing Carelessly."
The green-haired man replied with, "Oh, we fighting, yes? Ah okay. Baba Yaga: Warrior of ze Snake, Killing Unknowingly."
While Inokatana admitted the other's intro was odd, he just brushed it off as him not understanding the language. So he just leaped into the air, swinging his ax on the way down. 'It doesn't matter how fast you are,' Inokatana thought as he slammed his ax into the ground, missing his target, who somehow managed to slip away from the weapon before the ax hit. 'I'll be killing you as soon as you get close,' the Warrior of the Boar thought as he pulled his ax out of the ground, he then thought with a smirk, 'Besides, you're not going to be able to injure me anyway, not when my Ironhide is in effect.'
While Inokatana way known for his willingness to kill anyone on the battlefield, he was also known for his skin that seemed to be as hard as steel, aptly named Ironhide. Nothing was able to penetrate his skin, which in turn, made it so he was an impenetrable moving mass. It made Inokatana an unstoppable force.
The ax then got embedded into a wall.
"How about you stop moving around and just let me kill you," Inokatana shouted at the foreign man, not really caring if he understood or not. He then said, "I mean, your fate was sealed the moment you ran into me as your opponent."
Baba Yaga tilted his head to the side and said in a rather cheery tone, "How haha funny you are saying zat, because you are za one who is as good as being za dead, yes."
Inokatana scoffed at that, thinking it was nothing more than a pathetic bluff to catch him off guard.
Suddenly, pain ripped through the Warrior of the Boar's gut as if he was struck by a cannonball at close range. Inokatana then started coughing up a rather large amount of blood, and it wasn't stopping. Now blood was oozing out of his eyes, nose, and ears as he continued coughing more blood out.
'What the hell! How did this happen?!' Inokatana thought as he started going into a coughing fit, blood pooling underneath him.
"I no like people like you," Baba Yaga said, not at all surprised at what was happening to the other. The foreign man then added, "Idiots who are most very dependant on zeir ability zat zey no zink about the strategies zey can be using. Besides, zey are za easiest to kill."
Only caught about half what was said, Inokatana thought in a bit of a panic, 'But, how... How...di..d...he...whe..n...di..d..h..e...'
The Warrior of the Boar tumbled to the ground as his eyes rolled to the back of his head. The circle of blood grew and grew around Inokatana.
Baba Yaga picked up the fallen ax and said without much care, "Bye-bye porky, I shall be taking your Juseki and head. You have very nice bounty on your head, yes." With that, the Russian used the ax to decapitate Inokatana. He then used the shirt the Boar was wearing as a makeshift satchel before gutting the Juseki Gem out of the corpse.
Baba Yaga looked up at the glass ceiling to see the glittering night sky. "Oooo, very nice night. Shame it must be tainted wiz za blood of warriors," The Russian said as he casually hung the makeshift satchel on his shoulder.
}i{
15 Minutes since the start of the Juuni Taisen; Carnage Report, one warrior has been killed.
Inokatana: Eliminated.
~}i{ To be Continued }i{~