Kurotenshi
Kurotenshi glanced back every so often to see how the fight was going. Takara was riding a gargantuan bird of prey, her body completely blackened, her hair flowing and a violet glow radiating from her, her Destruction Chakra Mode.
The sky lit flashed over and over as corrupt bijuudama after bijuudama went off or flashed brightly as it was erased from existence.
Before long, the canopy blocked his vision, but he could still hear the sounds of battle. Takara-sensei had said that she would draw in all the corruption monsters, and he was certain that any monsters anywhere remotely nearby would notice the battle going on.
Kurotenshi saw a light up ahead, through the sickly leaves. They were almost out of the corruption.
Okimi stopped in front of him as she reached the edge of the forest. He was about to ask about this when he looked out at where they were. He was certain they'd gone straight through the forest both times, but this was not the way they'd came.
As Kurotenshi looked out from the twisted, corrupted forest, he found. Stretched before him, a vast, corrupted desert.
The sand was blackened, the sky an ominous crimson that cast an eerie glow over everything. The wind howled like the anguished screams of the damned, and the air was thick with the stench of decay.
Kurotenshi couldn't help but feel a sense of unease wash over him. He had never seen anything like this before, and the corrupted desert seemed to be alive in a way that he couldn't quite comprehend. The sand shifted and writhed like a living thing, and the distant, low growls and snarls suggested that something was lurking out there.
"We must have gone the wrong way," Miu said with tangible uncertainty.
"No," Okimi said. "But let's try again."
Back through the forest, and out in another direction.
What they saw before them this time made no sense. It was a field of blackened tundra. Dark snow fell from a colorless sky onto the plane that was so eerily still and quiet. Kurotenshi shivered, and not just from fear. It had suddenly grown much colder here.
They tried going through the forest several more times, but even when they traversed a familiar path, they ended up in a completely new place.
"It's as Takara-sensei said," Okimi said. "The corruption is constantly changing. I guess we know why no one has returned now."
"Besides, you know, being killed," Kurotenshi said.
"Are we going to die here?" Miu asked.
"No way," Okimi said. "I survived out on my own in an unfamiliar wilderness once, and I'll do it again."
"But how? We aren't strong enough. If we run into a really strong monster…" Miu grew quiet.
Okimi cackled. "Actually, I know a lot of powerful forbidden techniques. I'll do what it takes and the three of us will not only survive, but we will thrive here, k?"
"I don't know, Okimi," Kurotenshi said. "Why are the techniques forbidden?"
"Well, there's one that requires a human sacrifice, though it's beyond me."
She wouldn't actually use a human sacrifice anyway, would she? "Well which one can you use?"
"I'll show you, Kurotenshi." She placed a hand on his shoulder, then sank her teeth into his neck.
Kurotenshi screamed. "Agh! What was that for, Okimi!?"
He felt weaker all of a sudden. Looking at the bite mark, a strange pattern had appeared there.
"It's just a curse mark," Okimi said. "It'll make you stronger."
"Oh, that's all?" Everything began spinning and Kurotenshi lost consciousness.
"There was a huge sound, an explosion bigger than all the others, a rush of wind that toppled trees, and then silence," Kurotenshi heard Okimi say.
"So, why don't we go check on her?" Miu said.
"Don't be stupid," Okimi said.
Kurotenshi opened his eyes. He was lying face down and felt something heavy on his back. He turned his head to see Okimi resting on a log. The Kusanagi was lying across her lap. She had her legs crossed and one foot resting on Kurotenshi's back.
"I'm not a footstool." He brushed her foot off and stood up. Miu was sitting on another log and all around them were chopped tree branches.
Okimi yawned. "I've been fighting trees on and off all night while you got your beauty sleep. Not to mention dragging your ass around to avoid the monsters Takara attracted. You're welcome."
Kurotenshi felt a sharp pain in his neck. "What is a curse mark, Okimi?" He didn't like the idea of using a forbidden jutsu he hardly knew anything about… but he wanted to trust Okimi.
"To begin with, it can give you chakra. Also…" Okimi lifted her eyepatch. In her left eye were three swirls of fire. They began glowing bright blue. Suddenly her eyes grew wide and she stood up turning and looking all around her. Then she stopped and stared out at the corrupt forest. "When I activate my cursed seal, I'm able to more easily predict someone's movements. More importantly, and I don't know if it was even intended to do this, I'm able to see the souls of others. I haven't used it much because of the strain it puts on me, however… I've never seen anything like this. It's like all the plants around us have the same dark soul."
She pulled the eyepatch back down and took in a deep breath.
Kurotenshi glanced around nervously. He'd never stopped being nervous since he'd entered this place. "I don't get it, but I can believe it."
Miu asked, "Okimi, where do we go? This place doesn't make any sense…"
"Takara said places here changed, but I don't know if that is true," Okimi said. "But what definitely does change is the place you end up if you go through them. So, let's make a map."
Miu nodded and pulled out an empty scroll, unrolling it on the ground.
The three shinobi pulled out pens.
Okimi drew some gnarled trees in the center. "This is where we are. Now we'll draw arrows from it to the places it connects to."
The three of them drew the places on the map: the Plains of Hell where they had left Takara, the Black Desert, the Tundra of Silence, the Valley of the Damned, and the Unknowable Mists.
Okimi then drew the leaf symbol and an arrow from it to the forest. "All the arrows are one way, as we don't know if say, it's possible to travel back from the black desert to this Forest of Confusion." Okimi then drew a second arrow head on the arrow connecting the Forest of Confusion to the Plains of Hell. Well, that one they did know went both ways.
"For now, I think we should only take the two way paths," Okimi said.
"But how can we know," Kurotenshi asked.
"You can summon, can't you?"
Right! He knew what she meant. He bit his finger and performed the summoning technique.
But nothing happened.
"Huh? I don't get it? Is this a corruption thing?"
"Space isn't normal here. It might be a corruption thing, or it might just be a Forest of Confusion thing. We'll have to experiment in other areas to find out," Okimi said.
"I guess if summoning worked, the people who went into the corruption could just be summoned back…" Miu said. "But let's try this instead."
She created four wood clones, which then spread out through the forest. After a bit, only one of them returned.
"The Valley of the Damned goes both ways," the clone said.
They made it through quite a few zones without much trouble. It seemed Takara-sensei had attracted all the monsters to her. Kurotenshi hoped she was alright. She was invincible. That's what everyone said. So, why hadn't she come back? That was the question that had to be on all of their minds, but none of them were saying it out loud.
Kurotenshi followed closely behind Okimi and Miu as they entered the corrupted junkyard they'd named the Wasteland of Shadow and Rust. The air was thick with a putrid smell of rusted metal and decaying organic matter. The ground was covered in piles of twisted metal, broken machinery, and scraps of what appeared to be once useful tools.
The sky was a sickly shade of yellow, giving everything an eerie glow. The sound of metal clanging and shifting could be heard throughout the area, as if the junkyard was alive and moving on its own.
Kurotenshi looked around, taking in the sight of rusted factory equipment, abandoned trains, and broken-down tractors. Everywhere he looked, there was something that had been discarded, left to decay in the corruption.
The ground was unstable and slippery underfoot. The "shadow," they'd named this place after turned out to be a layer of grease and oil covering everything. Kurotenshi had to tread carefully to avoid losing his footing and falling into one of the many pits filled with toxic waste and chunks of machine.
As Kurotenshi, Okimi, and Miu ventured deeper into the corrupted junkyard, they were struck by the eerie silence. The usual sounds of clanging metal and rumbling machinery were absent, replaced instead by an unsettling stillness. Suddenly, a deep rumbling noise echoed through the junkyard, causing the ground to shake. As they looked around, they spotted a massive pile of scrap metal and junk beginning to move and take shape. The piles of debris began to twist and form, creating a towering figure made entirely out of twisted metal, with piercing red eyes that glowed with an eerie light.
The junk golem towered above Kurotenshi, its massive frame constructed from a chaotic mess of twisted metal and rusted machinery. The golem's chest was made of thick metal plates, bolted and welded together. It was emblazoned with a strange symbol, pulsing with a dark energy that seemed to emanate from the very heart of the corruption.
On each of the golem's massive arms were a thick, heavy-duty crane, complete with grappling claws and chains that glint unnaturally in the flickering light of the junkyard. Its legs were a mass of thick, gnarled pipes, and its feet were jagged metal plates, that dug into the rusted earth with each thunderous step.
The most dangerous part of the golem appeared to be its head, which was adorned with a pair of whirring, rotating logger blades that spin wildly. The Golem let out a piercing mechanical roar before charging at the trio.