Summon
Name: Lesser Kirema [Ka]
Age: Somewhere between two and six years old.
Gender: Mixed
Height: They’re about a half-inch long.
Weight: Less than an ounce
Appearance: - Spoiler:
Smaller than a palm, these color-shifting creatures are soundless when travelling at low speed. If they’re moving at their maximum pace, they make a steady popping noise. Their bodies are covered in tiny bristles, including their wings. While they seem designed for stealth, their lower bodies can emit light in several colors.
Personality: Kirema are not sentient, just gates. The Ka that comes through this one follows specific directions from the Kanmon contract and tries to stay alive, in that order.
Background: Ikusa Mari, for all his pretensions, knows he is not some kind of omnipresent deity. He perfected a type of creature to serve as his senses across long distances and dispatched them to the borders of his territory. The small beasts proved most effective. The first time Akihiko summoned one of them, it became clear the creature could serve as
his senses as well.
How it's summoned: A shinobi who is attached to the Kanmon contract and makes a definite mental commitment to battle (as opposed to negotiation or intimidation) can perform Kuchiyose no Jutsu.
Chakra cost to summonSummon Rank: E-rank
Jutsus: Name: Sukitooru - Transparency
Rank: D
Type: Ninjutsu
Element: Wind
Requirements: N/A
Description: This technique is a combination of precise control of a multitude of fine bristles, camouflage, incredible instincts, and a small body. This creature is small enough and fast enough to dodge large objects, and its characteristics allow it to become effectively transparent to light, sound, etc. It can even manipulate its energy(“fire” from Mari) to become invisible to techniques that perceive chakra or heat.
Chakra Cost: Name: Chokketsu – Direct Connection
Rank: C
Type: Genjutsu
Element: N/A
Requirements: Proximity to the shinobi target
Description: This is the true function of the Ka. Its summoner can synchronize with it, allowing it to function as a second set of senses—the data from the creature’s entire body is converted to provide information on sights, sounds, and scents in the general vicinity. It can also technically provide information similar to touch through the same means as it detects sounds. The range over which this technique is effective is limited by the strength of the summoner—Ikusa Mari can use a Ka at the far edge of his territory, but even a skilled human probably can’t reach further than a mile.
Chakra Cost: Summon
Name: Lesser Kirema [Mure]
Age: Kirema live by cycling their existences. From the time they enter the world to the time they leave it (maximum one half hour later) roughly one hundred and twenty percent of the initial swarm will have died.
Gender: Asexual reproduction all the way, baby!
Height: About a centimeter
Weight: Less than an ounce
Appearance: - Spoiler:
A horde of tiny black flying creatures. So far, there are no reports from close-range study, so further details are unavailable. They sound like armies marching through the air.
Personality: As has been mentioned, Kirema are gates; they are not sentient. In this case, what comes through them isn’t much better.
Mure are simply too small to be controlled directly. They have a rudimentary hive-mind through a kind of distributed processing, but that’s about it. They’d attack Ikusa Mari himself if he appeared in one of their hives. Thanks to his experience with the intricate structures of Kaze Katai no Jutsu and the Kanmon contract, Aki can choose the place their rampage begins, and achieve a limited degree of containment, but that’s the outer limit.
Background: Mure are one in a long line of nearly-fatal errors resulting from the use of the Kanmon contract. When a low-level Kirema opened inside a Mure swarm, the horde that came boiling out nearly ate their summoner alive. Fortunately, the summoner in question was able to…redirect their hunger. What did he do when they left? Called them again. And again. It took intense training just to work out a way to make them leave, but things accelerated after that.
How it's summoned: A shinobi who is attached to the Kanmon contract and makes a definite mental commitment to battle (as opposed to negotiation or intimidation) can perform Kuchiyose no Jutsu.
Chakra cost to summon Summon Rank: D-rank
Jutsus:Name: Katto - Cut
Rank: D
Type: Kenjutsu
Element: N/A
Requirements: N/A
Description: The Mure are not so gentle as the Hiru. When a Hiru is satisfied, it drops off and doesn’t drink any more. Mure cut until they die, and their implements of incision are sharpened on Mari’s power—they can slice diamonds.
Chakra Cost: Name: Housenka no Jutsu - Fireball Technique
Rank: D
Type: Ninjutsu
Element: Fire
Requirements: Space to move and time for bodies to accumulate
Description: Mure live and die extremely rapidly. If the swarm wishes, it can move around the bodies of its recently-deceased members at high speed, producing enough friction to set them on fire. The resulting “fireballs” are extremely effective, leading some to theorize that the bugs are fairly oily.
Chakra Cost: Name: Ikusa no Kaze – Ikusa Mari’s Winds
Rank: C
Type: Ninjutsu
Element: Wind
Requirements: The slightest provocation
Description: This is really just Shunshin no Jutsu—each member of the swarm moves in one direction really, really fast. Let me repeat that. The entire swarm, each member of which can cut diamonds, moves as a body in a single direction
really, really fast. There’s a reason they call it “Ikusa Mari’s Winds.”
Chakra Cost: Summon
Name: Kageboushi – Shadow Figure
Age: One minute? One hour? One year? One century?
Gender: Gender?
Height: Varies almost at will
Weight: The sum of their parts
Appearance: - Spoiler:
Creatures formed out of shadows that can move even in bright light, though their forms slowly dissolve. They can take on almost any shape.
Personality: Kageboushi are indecipherable. Each is unique; each could, theoretically, be born the moment it’s summoned. Aki believes they show the full range of human emotion, though even Mari disagrees.
Background: Kageboushi are a completely accidental life form. No one knows exactly when they emerged, but at some point it became clear that some of the attacks from the shadows near Ikusa Mari’s throne were coming… from the shadows.
These shadows hold the unusual distinction of being one of the few fully sentient creatures that did not attack Akihiko the first time he summoned it. They get along well, or at least Aki believes they do. They’re certainly protective when they share a battlefield with him.
How it's summoned: A shinobi who is attached to the Kanmon contract and makes a definite mental commitment to battle (as opposed to negotiation or intimidation) can perform Kuchiyose no Jutsu.
Chakra cost to summon Summon Rank: D-rank
Jutsus:Name:Kage no Jutsu – Shadow Technique
Rank: E [ranked for difficulty of mastery]
Type: Ninjutsu
Element: N/A
Requirements: An area where light is absent
Description: Kageboushi are comprised of shadows. All of their attacks originate from existing shadows, sometimes several at once. It appears they can move freely between them, move them with the same freedom as a Nara clan member, and provide them with some kind of physical manifestation (usually a cutting edge).
Chakra Cost: Name: Kage no Yoroi – Armor of Shadow
Rank: D
Type: Ninjutsu
Element: N/A
Requirements: Clothing
Description: There’s one place where shinobi always have shadows—underneath their clothing. Kagebosuhi are more than willing to work using the shadows underneath their summoners’ clothing, forming a defense against attacks and even manipulating them like puppets if they’re willing to relax.
Chakra Cost: Name: Oikomi – Final Stage
Rank: C
Type: Ninjutsu
Element: Fire
Requirements: N/A
Description: It’s not certain that the Kageboushi have physical form; it’s impossible to tell if they have minds; no one living knows if they have souls. But they most certainly do have energy, and if they want to, they can let it go. This releases a tremendous blast of flames, and the Kageboushi ceases to exist.
Chakra Cost: Summon
Name: Shinigami – God of Death
Age: The composite form can only hold for about ten minutes, but that’s more than enough time for Death.
Gender: All of them, heheheheh.
Height: Between five and seven feet
Weight: About twenty pounds. It’s all in the scythe
Appearance: - Spoiler:
An extremely Western concept of Death, as interpreted by Ikusa Mari. It’s not a stealthy fighter—its very form wails as it moves. It always seems to be beckoning, even when both hands grip its sickle.
Personality: It’s Death, fueled by Mari’s desire for battle. It moves eagerly to attempt to claim as many souls as possible, living or dead, summoner or no. For reasons related to their first meeting that are unclear, the Shinigami obeys Akihiko when he calls it.
Background: This, children, is why you need to keep your books of fairytales locked up at night. Ikusa Mari heard a somewhat distorted version of the story of the Grim Reaper. He thought it was a wonderful idea—a creature to recycle used spirits in the same way the Hiru recycle used matter and energy. It took some time to get the core creature just right, but it was worth it. The new construction captured fallen spirits and forced them to continue to fight until they ceased to exist entirely.
The first time this creature was summoned, it attacked Akihiko with a single blow of its scythe. The blow passed right through the defenses raised against it, and right through the summoner. Evidently it was an attempt to add Aki’s soul to its tormented collection. The blow failed, and the specter dropped to one knee. It hasn’t attacked or disobeyed him since.
How it's summoned: A shinobi who is attached to the Kanmon contract and makes a definite mental commitment to battle (as opposed to negotiation or intimidation) can perform Kuchiyose no Jutsu.
Chakra cost to summon: Summon Rank: B-rank
Jutsus:Name: Shuukai - Assembly
Rank: D
Type: Tensei Jutsu
Element: N/A
Requirements: Death in the area at some time in the past
Description: When the Shinigami manifests, it immediately begins absorbing the souls of the dead… everything… that surround it. This process continues for as long as it exists, producing a kind of regeneration.
Name: Banshi – Certain Death
Rank: D
Type: Genjutsu
Element: N/A
Requirements: The subject must possess some means of observing the shinigami—sight, hearing, etc.
Description: The screaming, the wailing, the sight of faces in torment. These are the signs that Mari caused to herald the Shinigami’s presence. They produce an undeniable effect on the minds of those around. The effect is proportional to the individual’s awareness of their own mortality—an odd effect that often affects older, more mature and intelligent humans more effectively than small children.
Name: Setsudanki - Cutter
Rank: C
Type: Ninjutsu
Element: N/A
Requirements: N/A
Description: This is the sickle of death. It can be resisted, but it’s like catching a sword in your hand—even if you have the sheer force to do it, it’ll draw blood. Of course, in this case the sword is immune to physical defenses and when it hits it cuts something far more fundamental. When you resist, it slices away a portion of the energy you use to do so. When you fail, you join the Reaper’s Chorus.
Name: Kaisei – Resurrection of Harmonious Voices
Rank: B
Type: Ninjutsu
Element: Wind
Requirements: N/A
Description: This is the true function of the Shinigami—the return of dead souls to Ikusa Mari’s ideal state of combat. It compels all of the souls forming its composite body to enter the battle. They seek out the nearest chakra and absorb it, creating a cutting physical manifestation. This two-layered attack often drains its victims of life, then reduces their bodies to cubes a centimeter to a side. The rest of the victim, of course, becomes a part of the Shinigami.