ooc: This training references a bonafied bun comic where dayo is stunned by Shukaku as she's trying to talk to Masato.
After quelling Shukaku and collapsing, Sadayo was ultimately exhumed from the scene. Whoever was responsible for doing so, well, she had hoped it was Masato. After all, he seemed the type to case aside convention for convenience if it meant helping her.
Pine and its verdant, dull smokey sting to the senses persisted with the thought of him. Not foxes. Foxes reeked of earth from digging their dens. And to her limited knowledge, clawing into sloping mounds of soil for several yards might be something he failed to inherit. Hopefully. As often as he fled for the wild, however, the thought could not completely be shook.
Tunneling burrows was a better thought than reflecting on how hot her cheek burned when she came to a second time. Not to mention, how not only one but two additional, separate entities violated her psyche. Simultaneously. Baring teeth and crinkling noses at one another.
“Huh! Some brassy halfwit ain’t enough to frighten my esteemed self!” The beast’s pride resounding its ire. Lowly humans are simply fodder for his lethal thirst.[
“That pest had a certain stink, though, with those nasty little sharingan eyes.” Shukaku snorted and twisted against the pull of his golden bindings. His inward musing were trying to subtract her attention from the outside world. Sadayo, all the while, pressing her fingers against her forehead. Cupping her face. Loathing the creeping dread and dawdling question that ebbed in and out of thought: how much of her mind stood open to Shukaku?▰ [1 of 5]
Her back rest along a moss laden tree. More moss under boots as she propped herself against a bulbous row of roots. Chittering birds came and went. The faintest whiff of wind under the shadow of pine kept her head cool. When she withdrew her hands, Sadayo placed her head against the mossy tree behind her. Her sights cast to the horizon with a passing thought of the moss she must be scraping off with her pillowy ponytails.
She could hardly recall being pulled from the spring. The ache from her rescuer yanking her ponytail was reduced to dull memory. If it was actually a real memory. Sadayo was more likely to recall how a spell of lightheadedness dropped her into darkness before waking up to cold, wet clothes, and irregular water droplets dripping onto her nose. The blunt red burn on her cheek being second only to the steady stare of her hero hovering over. What filled her memory in between felt eternal like a callous illusion where the afterglow of auric strings wrapping about a giant that bore down on her with complaints. ▰ [2 of 5]
It was the beast’s formal introduction and it gave him the thrill of watching his host choke up in fear. What better than to force her to stare back at the consequence of her meddling?
A sigh slips from her sinking chest.”Does everything stink to you?” Sadayo’s dryly posed question roused a disgruntled growl from the sand spirit.Shukaku had only complained and she immediately tally the days that had passed since they reluctantly came together. Her follow-up question assumed a snarky undertone she spoke out to the trees: “can you smell through my skin or something?”▰ [3 of 5]
Shukaku’s attitude snapped amidst his retort!
“SHUT UP, RUNT! Who asked you anything anyway!? Your meager human senses are nothing compared to mine!”
Outwardly, to the placidity of the trees, Sadayo sneered. Mentally attempting to, hopefully, barricade the next slew of thoughts regarding whether or not Kurama complained this much to Masato. “You know? My esteemed self did not take you for a pissy brat! Using that tone with me! Shock me twice, tie me down, and downright rude to boot! I oughta make you regret it!” It wasn’t her preference to rub the otherworldly- or worldly- creatures the “wrong way” but this one was practically asking for a generous heap of Sadayo’s mouthy, callous self. Was she supposed to just sit there and take it? ▰ [4 of 5]
“And I….” a sense of dread and anxiety rising behind a moment’s spur of confidence.
“Did not anticipate that you would be so vocal with your grievances. I don’t recall Kurama’s previous host sharing this much of his companion’s protest.” For all the bitter sand spirit knew the human’s gutsy spout could have been the truth. Perfect fuel to make Shukaku cackle..
b]“GAHAHA! THAT’S BECAUSE THAT PRETENTIOUS MUTT IS STUPID. CAN’T SEE A BAD SITUATION WHEN SOMEBODY’S GOT EM’ ON A LEASH.” ▰ [5 of 5]
What was worse, Sadayo couldn’t help but wonder if she could see herself favoring one aspect of Shukaku over another.When he heaved his last laugh, Sadayo inwardly replied with her practiced dullened tone. “I see this as a bad situation. Should I complain?” Her subtle jab of the matter was not taken well. The beast’s ears bent and eyes narrowed for the short length as he thumped the end of his immense tail in the interior chamber.
“Hmph!” He huffed. As if a human could outsmart him. “If you wanna’ make an enemy of me. More of an enemy...” He grumbled again. “Why'd you go and create this bad situation then, eh?” He stated ‘matter of factly’ to the mortal pest. ”You just screwed yourself over big time.” ▰ [1 of 5]
Not that she needed a reminder, Sadayo neither wanted to hear one more reason to regret what she felt was right. Already she had a worry ahead that the alternative, better answer instead of condemning herself to being a host would someday become blindly obvious. She forced a lengthy breath of air through her nose. “I was doing my job. And I don't trust you…” Who did trust a tailed beast at face value? “Or anyone else to do right by you.” ▰ [2 of 5]
“Do right by me?” The beast sounded exasperated before blatantly dismissing her, "Please. You can't be serious. Every other sap before you stuck my esteemed self in some other pint sized scrawny human… I bet you probably knew the names of at least THREE of them!”
“I watched you kill one of them.”
"YEAH! THEN YOU SHOCKED ME! THE FIRST TIME! Little runt teamed up with the other scrawny runts until that thorn of a woman imprisoned me in that walking sob story! You think any of them did ‘right by me’ hmm? ▰ [3 of 5]
It's the same damn story for the umpteenth time!” It very much was the same story for Shukaku, at least, it hosted a similar to many others where he was sucked into the core of a human fleshbag. Sadayo managed a calm tone as she continued, specified, “doing right by you would be to release you…” Her comment struck the demon in such a way where he loudly, dumbfoundedly replied: “You're kidding.” “You don't belong here.” Her tone and words were sincere. You don’t belong here? In this place?
“....” ”But I don't trust any other human to feel the same way.” ▰ [4 of 5]
A low grumble from Shukaku’s closing maw ensues. Again, he tugs at his celestial bindings about his front limbs. His reply eventually came then, slow and careful.“Can't say my esteemed self trusts humans either. You humans haven't left me alone in a long time. Rather kill all of you and certainly so if it meant some well earned alone time!" ▰ [5 of 5]
"Of course, if you let me go. Might be a different story, you know?” A different story, sure. The radical zealots would hunt and snatch him up again. Other, honestly, any other radical regular unknown hiding in the dark with ill-intentions. Sadayo hesitated before scrunching her brow at the unfolding thoughts of unsavory players. “Would it, though?” “BAAH!” Shukaku bellowed.
“DAMN TEASE! SPIT OUT IDEAS OF LETTING ME GO AND YOU’RE JUST TALKING TO TALK! D’you TEASE that bare skinned dimwitt too? Already got 'em’ bending over backwards to face powerful beings as my esteemed self. Where do they make idiots like him?” ▰ [1 of 5]
She didn’t answer.
"Listen runt, my esteemed self ain’t gonna’ waste energy on whether or not you trust me. I am the powerful spirit of the sands! Humans will bleed and your hand’s gonna’ share in the bloodbath until I am FREE.” ▰ [2 of 5]
”I wish we could be free. If the dark cultists have their way we’ll never be free. We’ll just die together.” The rumble of Shukaku’s discontent rolled into a hush and the beast remained quiet for sometime thereafter. When he spoke again, his tone was just as nasty as it had been with his blatant discontent. “What do they call you, runt? For when I get tired of calling you what you are?”SA-DA-YO” “Why'd you say it like that?” She withheld the offer of a reasonable response and opted to quickly reiterate: “Sadayo.” ▰ [3 of 5]
“SO THEN, SADAYO Let’s get one thing straight: I am a THOUSAND TIMES BETTER THAN THAT SMUG FACE, COCKSURE, NINE-TAILED FILTH. I DON’T CARE ABOUT WHATEVER HISTORY YOU’VE GOT BEING AROUND HIM. HIS POWER IS JUST AS GREAT AS MINE The faster you understand that the better it’ll be!”
“I think I do understand that.” ▰ [4 of 5]
Shukaku did not hide his doubt.“Really?” Sadayo’s reply was slow and deliberate: ”Where the fox has seven disguises, the tanuki has eight.”
“Huh. Well look at that!” The beast mused a lighthearted cackle. “
You might not be so stupid after all.”These were just sayings she knew and picked up from occasional study of myth and storytelling. Then she, despite it all, held no bias concerning beasts. Just pheasants. ▰ [5 of 5]
▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅❖ ᴄʜᴋ :: 5000 / 5000 || ꜱᴛᴍ :: 4190 / 4190 || 心臓 ɢʟᴅ ᴅʀɢ :: 000 / 000 || ɴɪᴅᴀɪᴍᴇ ʜᴏᴋᴀɢᴇ || ʀᴀɪᴛᴏɴ / ꜱᴜɪᴛᴏɴ / ᴅᴏᴛᴏɴ || ᴘᴜᴘᴘᴇᴛ ᴍᴀꜱᴛᴇʀ ᴏꜰ ᴋᴏɴᴏʜᴀ ❖
