Story: Half Dead Walking
Summary: When three people play god with their own children, the results can differ. Especially when one of the threeis not ahuman or demon, but is actually like a living corpse...
Rating: M (Language, Violence,a little sexual theme)
"text" - Talking
'text' - Thought
"text" - Demon speak / Shinigami speak
text - Pre-chapter sayings / written text
Flashback text End Flashback - flashbacks
Chapter 1: Maisouchi no Kiki/Escape
Years passed from that incident, yet three adolescents didn't know of what bet was placed on them. One denied love, one denied acceptance, and another denied freedom. When denied freedom, denial, and rejection rule, rebellion become a common characteristic for the kid nicknamed Yuurei Kishi no Amekagure no Sato.
Fifteen years later; Amekagure no Sato
"Ha Ha, I'm home," a girl about 16 years of age said while phasing through the locked door. She said it while trying not to shrug. Home wasn't her favorite place in the world.
She has blue-gray hair and her blue eyes were coated with a slight silver glaze, much like that of a corpse's. Her hair was shoulder-length and in pigtails. She was wearing a white sleeve-less shirt, black crop pants, a sleeveless coat in a earthy blue tone covering up her equipment pouch, black fingerless gloves that went up to around her elbows, and the traditional blue zori. Her shuriken holster was on her right leg, and she had the traditional Amekagure kasa holder on her back as well. Her hitai-ate was around her forehead.
"Well, good afternoon Kiki-chan," he mom said semi-happily. Her mom was never happy when she came home. The woman is the main reason why her life was so miserable. "Afternoon mom," Kiki said without no happiness and plenty of sarcasm.
Amekagure no Sato was a very hard place for women to live. It was also hard to live in Amekagure no Sato because you were related to nuke-nin. The combination of those two factors makes it extremely hard for women to become ninja. Getting early training from her younger siblings really helped. It also helped because it seemed that someone was always sending assassins to kill her. Instead of able to defend and to dodge wasn't really good and she actually developed techniques that really made her unique.
In the kitchen Hokai was drinking sake. He had bright green hair, which still made him look more like a kid instead of an adult, and his eyes were a pine green. He was a 20-year-old Jounin and his main specialty was psychological interrogation and genjutsu.
He loved reading hentai (Icha Icha Paradisu - 'How in the hell can he read something so gross,' Kiki thinks), and psychology books. His main idol seemed to be the interrogator in Konoha by the name of Morino Ibiki. He always wore a skirt on his pants because of him having a poster boy face. "IfI looked gay, then the girls would leave me alone to do my job," he always says, but he like wearing the skirt because he explained that he was a boy living in a female dominate house. Because of that, he wore a skirt so he can feel more comfortable.
Ire, who was also there, was making a chain of white paper cranes for Kiki's room. Her burnt orange hair didn't match her over-excited personality, but her orange eyes did. The 18-year-old Chuunin was pretty good at doing ninjutsus dealing with medicine. Her favorite thing in the world (Other than making you her personal pin cushion for the day) to make was a paper crane. She had already made over 2000 cranes just for Kiki. She was told that if she made 1000 paper cranes for her that she could be normal like everyone else.
Ire always sent men to bug her because she wanted her sister to live a normal life. The mother had Ire's burnt hair and Hokai's pine green eyes. She didn't even look like her mother, but the pictures in the hallways make her think she got her dad's hair and eyes. The only thing she seemed to get was her mother's figure and stubbornness.
"You had a C-Class mission today," Hokai said, "and it was successful wasn't it?" He sipped some sake from the glass. 'Yes, I did and Ran-kun is getting better,' she said in her head with happiness, 'I want to enter the Chuunin exams, but I know Ha Ha's response.'
'This is it…' "Ha Ha, may I enter the Chuunin exams?" Kiki said in a monochrome manner, "it's been several years since I became a Genin and I w" The cold reply came out half-emotionless, "No."
Kiki was already used to the response from her mom; it was the same response every time. 'Ran, Kagami-sensei, and Yamikumo aren't going to be happy,' she thought sadly. Hokai felt that he should put his own mother into a fear-driven Genjutsu and he was in need of practice.
Kiki quietly left the room, phasing through the wall. She went to the attic of her house. There was always someone to talk to because you see thing that ordinary people can't. The attic was huge and full of old scrolls, books, and some weapons. She usually kept her ghost write paper in a pile of old papers. She started to write on to it.
Why won't my mom let me succeed in life and she's expecting me to be the best?
Kiki left the paper on the desk along with the pen. She picked up the book named Vampire Hunter D and started to read for several minutes. She stopped when she heard several tapping sounds made on the desk. The paper had more writing instead of less. Maybe she doesn't like you because you remind her of something bad like a dead corpse. I would say you should leave and forge her handwriting on the forms. I could come on the physical plane and use henge no jutsu so I can look like you.
Arigato Kika-chan! Kiki wrote on the paper and phased through the floor landing on the second-to-bottom floor.
Kiki started to make some onigiri from scratch. She was making it for her usual weekly offering for the dead. She always respected the dead; even know that most people didn't even see them. After an hour, she was finished with them and packed them into a lacquer bento box. "Kiki-chan, may I have an onigiri please?" Hokai asked. "After six years of doing this every week, the damn answer is no," she said agitated.
Kiki walked phasing through the walls and door. Outside she opened a kasa from her holder. In a couple of minutes it started to rain. The only reason she wore the stupid holder was to hold her midnight black kasa just in case it was going to rain. 'Someday I will go somewhere else and leave this place to see the moon as stars,' she thought with determination.
Ten minutes later, she was at the cemetery for Amekagure no Sato. The sudden downpour turned into a drizzle. She opened the lacquer bento box and started to place the onigiri on the graves. Each time she placed an onigiri on a grave, she bowed and left a white daisy.
The area became cold during that day of the week. Ghost appeared where she placed the onigiri and started to eat. Most have no family in Amekagure no Sato, while others had no family that mourned for them. The Elders and most of the adults went with the "ninja are tools" saying, but she thought the saying was pure, 100 percent, over-diluted bullshit.
If you would meet Kiki at the graveyard several years earlier: three genin by the names of Shigure, Midare, and Baiu would always chase her; but three years ago a kid she met in the graveyard killed them. It was Ire that confirmed this rumor, bringing back the bodies, crushed and buried as heroes. It was the people who were loyal to Amekagure no Sato that were buried in the actual graveyard, the betrayers, nuke-nin, and first generation of nuke-nin that were buried in the graveyard in front by the gates…
The man who came from Sunakagure no Sato came every two months until three years ago. Turns out he was killed by an S-Class nuke-nin. For some reason, he likes sending assassins after the sickly-looking girl, but every time they failed. It was even weird that her own mom always sends assassins after her every month. The kid she met in the graveyard several years back seemed to have assassins after him too. When she found out about why, the first thing she wanted to do to the sniveling bastard was scare him to death, Kazekage or not. The really funny thing was that his wife was a friend of her teacher, Ginka Kagami, the youngest user of the Kagami-Kagami.
Now that she remembers he wasn't a very big fan of people either... His name was... When she though of his name, she would be blushing that was bright as a tomato.
"Yuurei Kishi-chan!" the spirit of a man in his mid-thirties, "You made onigiri again, and no matter what, it still taste good."
"You always go with you dad's cooking as always," a kuchisake-onna said taking off her mask showing her silted mouth to eat said.
She walked to the end of the cemetery, and place two onigiri on the grave of her father. He came up and started to eat one. "Kishi-chan, you officially surpassed my cooking," he said proudly. He suddenly noticed the sad face his daughter was supporting.
"Mom denied me to take the Chuunin exams again," Kiki said sadly, "and I'm already 16 years old. I wish you were still alive so I can go. I wonder what's her main cause of doing this because it seems like she's trying to make me…"
"Hurt people," he finished.
The girl nodded with acceptance. "Kika-chan says that I should 'disappear' from the house and forge her writing. Kika is even coming out of the astro plane and taking my place too," Kiki said with humor.
"Well then just 'disappear,'" he said.
Kiki's face lighten up a little with a smirk, "You're allowing me to run away?" Kiki said in surprise.
"Of course, besides your mother make the worst bullshit excuses," he said.
"And why is that? I mean you know it isn't because she cares for me anyways." She replied.
"I found out about a bet that your mother made with Yondaime Hokage and Yondaime Kazekage…" he started.
"Nani?" she said.
"The bet was which child would be the strongest," he said sadly.
Kiki was shocked. Her own mother, why would her own mother go into a bet like this? All the years of torture from people for being what the villagers called "ikerushikabane", all the years that she wasn't protected by her for a bet. Now she knew why she was in a halfway state. She tried to hold back the tears of sorrow and deceit, but she let out a small whimper.
"I will tell you about the terms of the bet, is that alright?" he said, "The terms of the bet were to deprive the three of something important, some emotion, and something that would make them normal."
"Yondaime Kazekage's youngest son would be the host for Shukaku. He would be deprived of love, his mother, and his ability to sleep. You met him several years back andyou teacher seemed to hate him really much because of the fact that her best friend was killed and her son's life ruined. Now that I remember it now his name was..."
"Chi Chi!" Kiki was blushing an unsual shade of red that made look like she had a first-degree burn instead of blushing.
"Young lady, you really shout too loud. I knew that you would do something like that and that's good because you need to express emotions to feel noraml O-kay," he said, "Now can we get back to the explination for this." Kiki nodded her head in agreement and sat down on the slightly wet ground.
"Yondaime Hokage was planning something else, but in the end he accidentally sealed Kyuubi no Youko in his only son on accident. He would be deprived of acceptance of the Elders, both of his parents, and of help from being attacked by angry villagers. I wouldn't be suprised that he would have problems with only his own country and not others."
"So where am I stuck in this cursed bet called my life?" Kiki responded.
"I'm getting to your explaination now," he said annoyingly, "Nakia enteredyou,her youngest daughter, which you reminder her of her first daughter, which was stillborn. You know it's you Kiki. You would be deprived of freedom to get out ofyour fears,losing me which you can't no matter if it's the afterlife, and of the only thing that would stopyou from getting possessed by spirits."
"It really surprised me that you already met one of them. To be more precise, you met him in this very same graveyard were assassins fell to you kaunta jutsu and Sou Kakuzen Ito.
"Your like me. High spiritual sensitivity: You see ghost, you hear ghost, and you touch them. My parents were smart enough to figure out it early in life, they placed talismans around the house, and gave me a very powerful one to wear at all times. Only S-class psychics usually become halfway dead because parts of their souls are taken by spirits and replaced by a piece of the spirit that possessed them. Also S-Class psychics are usually the ones that become helpers of the shinigami himself."
Kiki was amazed by what he said. She remembered the first time when she was five and was attacked by a bully and his fist went through her chest, but there was no blood. The first time she was scared and turned invisible. The first time she ran into the graveyard to be met by ghost who became more of a family than her mother would ever would. Under her shirt, she wears her dad's old ofuda talisman that was folded in a diamond style. She always kept it on her no matter what for eleven years.
Kiki got up and kissed her dead dad on the cheek. "Thanks, chi-chi," she said calmly, "and are you going to eat the second one?" "No, you can have it," he said.
"I have a question though Mr. Yamaka, the test are going to be in Sunakagure no Sato," a voice said behind them.
"Kagami-sensei, what are you doing here?" Kiki surprising said.
"Hokai told me you would be here. It was Yamikumo who proven the fact you were gone." Kagami was holding four carryout boxes in both hands. She recognized them to be Ke no Kantan Itsuraku's. Behind Kagami was a boy with light brown hair and hazel eyes. The boy's name was Dansou Ran. He had truly bad luck, but since Kiki started to learn about charms because of her ghostly problems, she found a lucky charm that helps him.
The other kid that was behind the teacher had midnight black hair and midnight black eyes. That would be Tsubasa Yamikumo, the oldest person on the team other than the teacher. He was about the same age as Ire, and always wore sunglasses, even at night. Her sister told her that it was photophobia, a fear of light, but also a medical term that dealt with people with light sensitivity.
"Kiki, we were waiting for you and we don't care if you lie if you want to follow you own path," Yamikumo responded.
"But how did you know that I wasn't allowed," Kiki replied.
"You forgot you paper like you did for the last three years," Ran added, "besides we can't be a team without our Yuurei Kishi."
The girl started to cry and whispered out a word, "Arigato!"
"Well is anyone hungry for some ramen, it's getting cold you know," Kagami said to break the short silence. The three genin nodded and took their boxes: Kiki got vegetable with pickled radishes on the side, Yamikumo gotten his spicy, and Ran's box was given carefully to him and it had the simple ingredients.
"Now Kiki were going to have to leave around the shift changes at the Western Gate. That would give us a very short time to get to the gates and on our merry way to Sunakagure alright." Kagami was speaking to the team especially Kiki because of her mom. "You three need to pack essentials: your equipment, rations, and some spare clothes. Yamikumo I suggest that you get a good pair of sunglasses because it pretty bright in Sunakagure. There might be some crowds of girls because the are probably going to be guys that have poster boy faces, so that means Ran and you are going to have to be careful alright." The boys already knew because they seemed to be stalked by girls when they aren't looking, but it always has been Yamikumo with his "mysterious, yet cute" look that got him chased.
"Kiki, I want you to look in the attic and find the four small scrolls on the shelf," her fatheradded, "Maybe they can be of help to you with you abilities, although I think you found the scroll for spirit summoning contracts, and you found out how to use some of the summoned weapons too."
"Well if were going, then we have to get ready now, it's 9:45, that would leave about four hours to get ready, and meet here," Yamikumo said in a calm manner to everyone. The other two nodded and the team walked in different directions. "Kiki, Ran, Yamikumo; I'll think you might need this just in case!" Kagami shouted throwing them a thin, black book.
"Kagami-sensei, why are you giving us this," Ran said confused at what she thrown at them.
"Ran, if you are ever going to be on an ANBU team with us, then you have to at least read the Bingo Book," Yamikumo said to Ran, "You'll be surprised what you can learn from a little black book." He disappeared in the shadows of the graveyard. 'Showoff...' Ran thought. He walked out of the graveyardwith Kiki and they went in separate directions.
She left the graveyard at 10 at night. 'Oh shit!' Kiki thought, 'Ha ha is literally going to have my ass now if I don't get home soon!'
Kiki stealthily went into the house quietly without her Ha ha noticing. Hokai noticed her because of her trail of thought. "You leaving aren't you," he said. She replied with a simple yes. "I knew something like this would happen," he said and reminder her of the comment he said a few years back, "now if you find me in the Bingo book in a couple of years, it would be because I killed a bunch of Jounin, put Ha Ha under a fear-driven Genjutsu, and almost killed the head elder of the village." 'Then can I call you a cross-dressing, double-crossing, nitwit prick then?' she said in thought. He nodded his head yes. "Ire is in the attic talking to Kika and is waiting for you."
Kiki went up into the attic to get the scrolls, summon Kiki onto the physical plain, and meet Ire. She brought out the Ghost write paper and started to write.
Ready to come to the physical plane, Kika-chan?
She left the paper for a couple of minutes and three letter of blue ink bled through: Hai.
Kiki bit her thumb until it started to bleed. The signs she made were quick, and she pressed her hand onto the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu - Zashiki-warashi," the ghost-like girlsaid as quietly as possible. A symbol appeared with the sign of the afterlife in the center surrounded by two thin circles separated by an inch. The lines that connected the circle and symbol were in a jagged path-like way. A popping sound and smoke followed.
"Hey, Kishi-chan!" a small girl's voice replied in the smoke.
"Kika-chan!" Ire whispered quietly and surprised. The kid had white hair and gray eyes. She was wearing a traditional kimono.
"It's nice to see you too Ishi-chan and Kishi-chan," Kika replied.
"Now remember don't try to kill mom then she'll hate me forever," Kiki said shyly. "I won't because remember I have Ishi-chan and Hoshi-kun to take care of me," the girl said in hope. "Now, Hoshi-kun says that you have something for me…" the corpse-like girl said.
"Oh yeah, now I remember," Ire replied in the same tone, "here you go, if you have them on your senbon, it would surly leave a surprise." Ire handed Kiki three vials of a light blue substance and another three full of a dark blue one. "The light blue is a strong paralysis medicine that paralyzes your opponent without killing them, and the dark blue is an antidote for it if you or your teammates get some into you bloodstream." Kiki put them in her equipment pouch along with the four scrolls and left the attic by sinking through the floor to get to her room.
Kiki packed her diary with a picture of her family when she was a baby, two pairs of spare clothing, a canteen for water in her knapsack. Her equipment, the stuff that Ire gave her was in her equipment pouch. The shuriken holster was on her left leg and her kasa holder on her back with her favorite one. The scrolls were kept inside her jacket and were hold by the pouches that were made into it. The scrolls were originally for Hokai, but his love for psychology and Ire's love for medicine, she was the only one can use them. Her Chi chi knows that she is more accepted for it because of her 'spiritual qualities.' She kissed her brother on the cheek. 'I leave Ishi-chan to take you to the AA meetings,' she thought, 'and tell her thank you for the paralysis substance.'
She snuck out of the house like she always does, and met her teammates in the graveyard.
"Ready for a midnight trip out of here?" Kagami said calmly, "Shift changes should happen in a thirty minutes. Yamikumo this is where you come in handy." His specialty was Genjutsu along with his mastery of a chain, but mainly things that are dealing with shadows is usually his favorite…
"Kiki have you talked to a Kuchisake-onna earlier weren't you?" she continued. Kiki nodded yes. "Otoke-san," she said in a normal voice. The woman that appeared in front of them look like a normal ninja with the exception that her face was covered.
"Yes, you called me Kishi," the specter spoken.
"Want to scare some men," Kiki whispered to the specter, "just to make them scared that's all. Just don't hurt them."
"That's sucks, but it would do," the specter replied.
"Now we got that situated, and Kiki has her spare money, it's about time to go," Kagami said to break a short silence.
They got to the gates when the shift was starting to change. The only had a couple of minutes without getting caught by the guards.
"Seigyo: Genya no Shakou Kage!" Yamikumo said with a whisper. Although the area seemed normal, it started to look very dark. All three dispelled the genjutsu and they were the only ones to see through it. Quickly, the teacher and the students went through the gate. Kiki made sure that summoning a nurikabe to block the gate didn't follow them. She noticed that Otoke was in the background looking around for anyone. The squad of Ginka Kagami, Tsubasa Yamikumo, Dansou Ran, and Yamaka Kiki disappeared like the ghost she talks to…
Alright, time for translations...
Maisouchi no Kiki - Kiki of the Graveyard
Yamaka Kiki - Yama (Mountain) / Ka (beauty) Kiki (Ghastly, crisis) / Kishi - knight
Ire - Container / Ishi - doctor
Hokai - Baseball term - extra innings / Hoshi - star
Ginka Kagami - Ginka (silver) / Kagami (Mirror)
Dansou Ran - Dansou (fault) / Ran (column of text from a newspaper)
Tsubasa Yamikumo - Tsubasa (wing) Yami (dark) / Kumo (cloud)
Ke no Kantan Itsuraku - House of Simple Pleasures (the ramen shop in Amekagure no Sato)
ikerushikabane - living corpse
Yuurei Kishi - Ghost knight
Techniques:
Kaunta noJutsu - counter skill
Sou Kakuzen Ito no Jutsu- PhasedClear-cut String skill(a techique where Kiki phases the strings through her opponet not cutting the skin but cutting their arteries or bones in the prosess instead)
Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Zashiki-warashi - Summoning skill: Zashiki-warashi (Summons a Zashiki-warashi)
Seigyo: Genya no Shakou Kage - Control Field: Wasteland of Darken Shadows (a Genjutsu techinque developed by the Tsubasa family to stop bloodline limits dealing with doujutsu. When this techinque, it make the area where the user's targets dark and barren of life)
Please review...