Post by Reikiko on Jul 3, 2015 23:20:31 GMT
-Kaula will be training at x20 gravity, Rei will be spending both gravity chamber allowances to train at x60 tolerance while Kaula is training at x20-
-Kaula will be taught the Crane school moves during this thread-
Sometimes dreams are a pure blissful experience, and yet at other times they are the embodiment of darkness, pure nightmares. This was something Reikiko had been forced to accept the hard way: life isn’t a dream, it isn’t a pure blissful experience with only happy and cheerful moments, far from it actually. The Homunculus had retreated into the solitude of her ship, seemingly attempting to avoid being noticed. It was a rather peculiar thing for her to do, especially when she had been such a prideful woman only a few days ago. Still, she had been forced to come to realize that there was no such thing as a god, and that chasing godhood was a naïve ambition that also threatened to consume her, destroying the connections she had to the things she truly cared for. Yet amidst all those revelations, what did this do to Reikiko? She had always been someone who considered her divinity an ambition to pursue. It was even more than that, for her the striving to become a goddess had been a purpose, it was the very reason she was made for, and the sole reason she still had something to live for.
“…”
And yet now that she had lost that ambition, what was left? She had no goals nor ambitions. The only worthwhile thing left to her was her power, and even that was starting to slowly grow into a pale shadow of its former might when you had people like the android Vipoi surpass her, and Saiyajin ascending into their legendary form. To make matters worse she was feeling insecure whether she truly had any meaning or value left. In the end everyone had things they considered important, priorities so to speak. For her those priorities were as clear as they could possibly get. She wanted to protect those she loved, make them happy and help them fulfill their wishes and reach their own ambitions. But what were the priorities of those she loved? It was a question she was afraid to discover the answer to. Hikari had been lingering around the streets of the capitol city, and Kaula had her own ambitions to pursue. As much as she wanted to remain in her presence, the events at the palace- no even merely the events that had led to the trip of Vegeta had made her realize she was being too dependent on Kaula.
In a way her attempt to get Kaula to bring her along might had been considered a form of manipulation, even if that wasn’t her intention, and now her mere presence on Vegeta was causing tension and complications for the hybrid. A deep sigh followed at the thought, and slowly the Homunculus could feel the earlier dread come back when the realization hit her: She was almost akin to an empty shell.
It was a painful realization, but the only thing she possessed was the legacy she took from her deceased master. In the end she didn’t even knew for sure whether Tamako wanted her to inherit the Crane School teachings. Perhaps it was even a theft, for Reikiko had decided to carry on Tamako’s legacy in an attempt to redeem herself for the failure of being unable to kill her sister Yuriko. It was downright selfish…
Her pursue for power, her dreams and ambitions were all borrowed from other people, and in a way she felt even inferior to a man-made creation like Vipoi. The android at least had ambitions, sure they were programmed into him, but they were still ambitions he could call his own. She merely depended on borrowed ideals and desires. She couldn’t help but wonder, was this the right thing to do? She had ascended and uncovered the fact she was a Homunculus, but what came after that? Her stay at Vegeta had distracted her from pursuing her past and yet…
“Geez, you really are lacking your usual sunshine aren’t you Rei?”
A sudden voice resounded through the air, causing the Homunculus to blink in surprise. It wasn’t Alice, and nobody else was currently on this ship. Yet the voice was one that was familiar to her. It lingered in the deepest reaches of her mind, within the memories of the child that had been her human self. It was at that moment she felt her consciousness slip into an abyss of darkness, and moments later the Homunculus found her mind resurfacing within a large white-tinted room. It was there, upon a pedestal that the source of the voice was located. A large leather-bound grimoire.
“You are…”
The grimoire started to float upwards from the pedestal, steadily hovering toward Reikiko until it stopped a few steps away from her. A shadowy substance started to pour out of the book, forming into the outline of a humanoid shape, and after a few seconds it manifested as an exact replica of how Reikiko looked like when she tapped into her power.
“You already forgotten about me? How unexpected. I imagined it would be impossible to forget your own past. Then let me enlighten you Reikiko. I am the ‘Book of Darkness’, or if you prefer to go by my name: Reinforce.”
She remembered now, the grimoire had first manifested within that child’s mind. It had called itself a benefactor, willing to help her regain her memories, but at what cost? The fact that she reappeared now of all times must had not been a mere coincidence. Sensing her thoughts Reinforce smiled kindly at her while she continued, her tone gentle and calm as she spoke.
“I came here to offer my help. You seem a little bit lost, and that’s understandable. Nevertheless, should you desire it I can show you our history. By knowing the past of the Homunculi you might be able to figure out what is truly important for you.”
It was often said that in order to know what path to walk into the future, one had to look back into the past to learn about what had happened. She knew little to nothing about the history of the Homunculi, aside from their purpose. Perhaps this was a bargain she shouldn’t end up refusing? After a few moments of consideration the Homunculus finally nodded her head lightly in response to the suggestion.
“Of course you would accept my proposal. In the end our conversation right now is almost akin to talking to a mirror.”
The woman called Reinforce chuckled playfully before she made a light wave with her hand. It took Reikiko only a moment before she noticed that something odd was starting to happen, then again that might had been an understatement after all she had experienced so far. Her vision started to grow darker, almost as if sleepiness was starting to settle in, but it wasn’t exhaustion that was starting to pull her into a world of dreams, rather… it was some distant force that was slowly pulling her along into a realm that everyone had ventured at least once before, but rarely were accompanied by someone else… Obviously this realm was the thing people called: memories.
Slowly the darkness started to make way for the dimmed light that came from several torches that were hanging against the wall. Still, what made the Homunculus even more curious was the fact those flames weren’t red… but an obsidian color, quite akin to the ‘magic’ she herself was able to cast. Yet oddly enough the scenery that unfolded before her was one unfamiliar to her, and somehow she found herself floating in the air, looking at it as if she had been observing the event from a third-person perspective.
It was after a momentary glance around the room that Reikiko recalled something curious, the fact that she had seen this room recently. Rather, it was the human child within her soul that had visited this memory once. The black raven-winged representation of herself was seated on an altar, surrounded at each side by a small impish creature while further down the altar, that was resting on an elevated platform were what could be only called an army. Countless female beings, somewhat resembling a human in appearance, but clad in some sort of dark and grim-looking armor were looking forward with a soulless gaze in their eyes. Honestly, the mere look of them made her feel uneasy… because it remembered her of the two bio-android sisters she had absorbed in the past.
However, the thing that truly drawn her attention was the dark-skinned woman that approached the altar. While at first sight it appeared to be a human, for she lacked the alien-like features that would have identified her as anything else, it was undeniable that she was something much… darker.
“Are we still on schedule?”
One of the imps near the altar released an excited cry, bouncing over to the woman before kneeling on the ground before her in reverence, almost as if he was dealing with a goddess. It was finally after a moment of silence that the imp rose onto his feet and approached the altar again.
“It is all going according to plan mistress Lillim. The army is nearing completion and soon will be ready to be deployed. I’m pretty confident this specific one will be more that potent enough to deal even with the Grand Kai himself.”
The imp was about to reach for the winged woman’s arm when suddenly an obsidian flame spawned at her hand, causing the creature to shriek out in agony, the flame burning into his red skin and after several moments it only disappeared, leaving his skin burnt rather badly.
“Do not touch her with your filthy claws. To touch her is to touch my own flesh and blood. Unlike those simple toys down below this girl is unique. She is the perfect weapon, the daughter that inherited a fragment of my power. If I see you touching her one more time I shall ensure that next time it will be more than merely your arm that will be burnt.”
Wait… did she just call the winged representation of her… her daughter? As if the question had stirred something, she could feel the book of darkness’ her presence resurfacing within her thoughts. It was a rather sweet and gentle tone, one far more friendly than she had imagined from a being who harbored such a dark name.
“You might want to wake up Reikiko, our little trip into the past will have to wait, for there is some unrest on the ship.”
Slowly her vision became clouded in darkness once more, as the sound of a television screen reached her ears. A voice was preaching about his recent achievement of destroying a planet, and not just any planet. It was the planet known as Namek, the world that her adopted father had once called home. Still, what troubled her even further was that the person speaking in the broadcast was a certain ‘Realigner Red’ a remarkable mirror image to Vipoi, aside from a different coloration and minor facial features. He spoke about having ‘killed and replaced’ him, and now she understood what Reinforce had been talking about. The pale look on Hikari’s face as she stared at the screen was enough to tell her that the hybrid’s worst fear had become a reality: one of their closest friends had become one of earth’s greatest threats.
“It’s a nightmare…”
Hikari’s voice was a soft terrified whisper, yet when she heard Reikiko approach she turned to face her, a hint of fear in her eyes at the determined look in the Homunculus her eyes. That was the look of a woman who had something in mind, an ambition or a goal where she wouldn’t rest until she had completed it.
“Hikari, call Kaula to the gravity chamber, and have her take a bag of senzu beans along with her. While I’m training her I want you to prepare to establish a connection to the Blue Banner Army on earth.”
Hikari’s eyebrows furrowed in a frown as she watched Reikiko walk out of the door, and while she was afraid to ask the question, she couldn’t help but voice her concern.
“What are you planning?”
In the end Reikiko’s lips curved into a grin while she declared in a hint of amusement.
“The usual. Some quality time with my to-be wife, and then prepare to remind a certain tin can that there are bigger forces at play in this universe compared to him.”
And with those words she left the scene, whispering under her breath as she approached the gravity chamber.
“Those memories were enough to tell me that neither you or me are meant to fill that empty throne as a ruler of the universe. We might have the power to guide civilizations, but to rule them is a responsibility neither of us should have…”
-Kaula will be taught the Crane school moves during this thread-
Sometimes dreams are a pure blissful experience, and yet at other times they are the embodiment of darkness, pure nightmares. This was something Reikiko had been forced to accept the hard way: life isn’t a dream, it isn’t a pure blissful experience with only happy and cheerful moments, far from it actually. The Homunculus had retreated into the solitude of her ship, seemingly attempting to avoid being noticed. It was a rather peculiar thing for her to do, especially when she had been such a prideful woman only a few days ago. Still, she had been forced to come to realize that there was no such thing as a god, and that chasing godhood was a naïve ambition that also threatened to consume her, destroying the connections she had to the things she truly cared for. Yet amidst all those revelations, what did this do to Reikiko? She had always been someone who considered her divinity an ambition to pursue. It was even more than that, for her the striving to become a goddess had been a purpose, it was the very reason she was made for, and the sole reason she still had something to live for.
“…”
And yet now that she had lost that ambition, what was left? She had no goals nor ambitions. The only worthwhile thing left to her was her power, and even that was starting to slowly grow into a pale shadow of its former might when you had people like the android Vipoi surpass her, and Saiyajin ascending into their legendary form. To make matters worse she was feeling insecure whether she truly had any meaning or value left. In the end everyone had things they considered important, priorities so to speak. For her those priorities were as clear as they could possibly get. She wanted to protect those she loved, make them happy and help them fulfill their wishes and reach their own ambitions. But what were the priorities of those she loved? It was a question she was afraid to discover the answer to. Hikari had been lingering around the streets of the capitol city, and Kaula had her own ambitions to pursue. As much as she wanted to remain in her presence, the events at the palace- no even merely the events that had led to the trip of Vegeta had made her realize she was being too dependent on Kaula.
In a way her attempt to get Kaula to bring her along might had been considered a form of manipulation, even if that wasn’t her intention, and now her mere presence on Vegeta was causing tension and complications for the hybrid. A deep sigh followed at the thought, and slowly the Homunculus could feel the earlier dread come back when the realization hit her: She was almost akin to an empty shell.
It was a painful realization, but the only thing she possessed was the legacy she took from her deceased master. In the end she didn’t even knew for sure whether Tamako wanted her to inherit the Crane School teachings. Perhaps it was even a theft, for Reikiko had decided to carry on Tamako’s legacy in an attempt to redeem herself for the failure of being unable to kill her sister Yuriko. It was downright selfish…
Her pursue for power, her dreams and ambitions were all borrowed from other people, and in a way she felt even inferior to a man-made creation like Vipoi. The android at least had ambitions, sure they were programmed into him, but they were still ambitions he could call his own. She merely depended on borrowed ideals and desires. She couldn’t help but wonder, was this the right thing to do? She had ascended and uncovered the fact she was a Homunculus, but what came after that? Her stay at Vegeta had distracted her from pursuing her past and yet…
“Geez, you really are lacking your usual sunshine aren’t you Rei?”
A sudden voice resounded through the air, causing the Homunculus to blink in surprise. It wasn’t Alice, and nobody else was currently on this ship. Yet the voice was one that was familiar to her. It lingered in the deepest reaches of her mind, within the memories of the child that had been her human self. It was at that moment she felt her consciousness slip into an abyss of darkness, and moments later the Homunculus found her mind resurfacing within a large white-tinted room. It was there, upon a pedestal that the source of the voice was located. A large leather-bound grimoire.
“You are…”
The grimoire started to float upwards from the pedestal, steadily hovering toward Reikiko until it stopped a few steps away from her. A shadowy substance started to pour out of the book, forming into the outline of a humanoid shape, and after a few seconds it manifested as an exact replica of how Reikiko looked like when she tapped into her power.
“You already forgotten about me? How unexpected. I imagined it would be impossible to forget your own past. Then let me enlighten you Reikiko. I am the ‘Book of Darkness’, or if you prefer to go by my name: Reinforce.”
She remembered now, the grimoire had first manifested within that child’s mind. It had called itself a benefactor, willing to help her regain her memories, but at what cost? The fact that she reappeared now of all times must had not been a mere coincidence. Sensing her thoughts Reinforce smiled kindly at her while she continued, her tone gentle and calm as she spoke.
“I came here to offer my help. You seem a little bit lost, and that’s understandable. Nevertheless, should you desire it I can show you our history. By knowing the past of the Homunculi you might be able to figure out what is truly important for you.”
It was often said that in order to know what path to walk into the future, one had to look back into the past to learn about what had happened. She knew little to nothing about the history of the Homunculi, aside from their purpose. Perhaps this was a bargain she shouldn’t end up refusing? After a few moments of consideration the Homunculus finally nodded her head lightly in response to the suggestion.
“Of course you would accept my proposal. In the end our conversation right now is almost akin to talking to a mirror.”
The woman called Reinforce chuckled playfully before she made a light wave with her hand. It took Reikiko only a moment before she noticed that something odd was starting to happen, then again that might had been an understatement after all she had experienced so far. Her vision started to grow darker, almost as if sleepiness was starting to settle in, but it wasn’t exhaustion that was starting to pull her into a world of dreams, rather… it was some distant force that was slowly pulling her along into a realm that everyone had ventured at least once before, but rarely were accompanied by someone else… Obviously this realm was the thing people called: memories.
Slowly the darkness started to make way for the dimmed light that came from several torches that were hanging against the wall. Still, what made the Homunculus even more curious was the fact those flames weren’t red… but an obsidian color, quite akin to the ‘magic’ she herself was able to cast. Yet oddly enough the scenery that unfolded before her was one unfamiliar to her, and somehow she found herself floating in the air, looking at it as if she had been observing the event from a third-person perspective.
It was after a momentary glance around the room that Reikiko recalled something curious, the fact that she had seen this room recently. Rather, it was the human child within her soul that had visited this memory once. The black raven-winged representation of herself was seated on an altar, surrounded at each side by a small impish creature while further down the altar, that was resting on an elevated platform were what could be only called an army. Countless female beings, somewhat resembling a human in appearance, but clad in some sort of dark and grim-looking armor were looking forward with a soulless gaze in their eyes. Honestly, the mere look of them made her feel uneasy… because it remembered her of the two bio-android sisters she had absorbed in the past.
However, the thing that truly drawn her attention was the dark-skinned woman that approached the altar. While at first sight it appeared to be a human, for she lacked the alien-like features that would have identified her as anything else, it was undeniable that she was something much… darker.
“Are we still on schedule?”
One of the imps near the altar released an excited cry, bouncing over to the woman before kneeling on the ground before her in reverence, almost as if he was dealing with a goddess. It was finally after a moment of silence that the imp rose onto his feet and approached the altar again.
“It is all going according to plan mistress Lillim. The army is nearing completion and soon will be ready to be deployed. I’m pretty confident this specific one will be more that potent enough to deal even with the Grand Kai himself.”
The imp was about to reach for the winged woman’s arm when suddenly an obsidian flame spawned at her hand, causing the creature to shriek out in agony, the flame burning into his red skin and after several moments it only disappeared, leaving his skin burnt rather badly.
“Do not touch her with your filthy claws. To touch her is to touch my own flesh and blood. Unlike those simple toys down below this girl is unique. She is the perfect weapon, the daughter that inherited a fragment of my power. If I see you touching her one more time I shall ensure that next time it will be more than merely your arm that will be burnt.”
Wait… did she just call the winged representation of her… her daughter? As if the question had stirred something, she could feel the book of darkness’ her presence resurfacing within her thoughts. It was a rather sweet and gentle tone, one far more friendly than she had imagined from a being who harbored such a dark name.
“You might want to wake up Reikiko, our little trip into the past will have to wait, for there is some unrest on the ship.”
Slowly her vision became clouded in darkness once more, as the sound of a television screen reached her ears. A voice was preaching about his recent achievement of destroying a planet, and not just any planet. It was the planet known as Namek, the world that her adopted father had once called home. Still, what troubled her even further was that the person speaking in the broadcast was a certain ‘Realigner Red’ a remarkable mirror image to Vipoi, aside from a different coloration and minor facial features. He spoke about having ‘killed and replaced’ him, and now she understood what Reinforce had been talking about. The pale look on Hikari’s face as she stared at the screen was enough to tell her that the hybrid’s worst fear had become a reality: one of their closest friends had become one of earth’s greatest threats.
“It’s a nightmare…”
Hikari’s voice was a soft terrified whisper, yet when she heard Reikiko approach she turned to face her, a hint of fear in her eyes at the determined look in the Homunculus her eyes. That was the look of a woman who had something in mind, an ambition or a goal where she wouldn’t rest until she had completed it.
“Hikari, call Kaula to the gravity chamber, and have her take a bag of senzu beans along with her. While I’m training her I want you to prepare to establish a connection to the Blue Banner Army on earth.”
Hikari’s eyebrows furrowed in a frown as she watched Reikiko walk out of the door, and while she was afraid to ask the question, she couldn’t help but voice her concern.
“What are you planning?”
In the end Reikiko’s lips curved into a grin while she declared in a hint of amusement.
“The usual. Some quality time with my to-be wife, and then prepare to remind a certain tin can that there are bigger forces at play in this universe compared to him.”
And with those words she left the scene, whispering under her breath as she approached the gravity chamber.
“Those memories were enough to tell me that neither you or me are meant to fill that empty throne as a ruler of the universe. We might have the power to guide civilizations, but to rule them is a responsibility neither of us should have…”