So-Sul Kwon Fang

[Guest]

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CASE FILE: Alkahestrist

I hate violence
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FULL NAME:
→ True Name: Shiho Xiao Zen
→ Given Name: So-Sul Kwon Fang
→ Street Name: Valkyrie

AGE:
→ 21

SEX:
→ Female

BIRTH PLACE:
→ Xing, Guangxi
→ Xing, Xi'an
RACE:
→ Xingese

DATE OF BIRTH:
→ February 21, 1991.

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HEIGHT:
→ 5'6”

WEIGHT:
→ 128 lbs

PICTURE:
→

Spoiler:

DESCRIPTION:
→ So-sul is a young, beautiful, and sexy adult woman with long black hair tied into a bun,unnatural blue eyes that appear almost violet under the light, pink lipstick, and rather large breasts. On top of her hair is her pet panda, Lao Jiu. She wears a stylish Xingese doctor uniform with long white sleeves, a yin and yang brooch ribbon, a red vest, and a skirt dress that exposes her thighs. At times she may chose to change it up, but she still wears a slitghtly similar outfit: her hair is tied into a ponytail with Lao Jiu sitting on top with a yin-yang hair accessory at the end of the ponytail. She also wears an unbuttoned red vest that shows her black bra and breasts with seperate black sleeves, a long red skirt, and red shoes which are in a Xingese sort of style.

Her body is rather firm, and flexible. She doesn't have a overly muscular frame, but its toned to the degree you would find on a gymnastic woman. Her legs are slightly more muscular, due to the level of running she endures. Her legs are her pride, and she places utmost confidence in them.

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PERSONALITY:
→ So-sul usually conducts herself in a calm and stoic nature and posture, most often able to keep her cool even when situations get dire, and further able to stay focused during a fight and settle an argument easily without once losing her cool. She often seems somewhat cold and intimidating because of her stoic nature, in which she displays a strict emotion most of the time. However, this is only the case when dealing with things outside of her group. For all her strength, one wouldn't know the extent of it at the first glance. She has taken a laid-back and non-adversarial approach when dealing with matters concerning her duties as the Leader and is very much personable. Although fully capable of enforcing her authority through force (or perhaps because of such a capability), she would prefer to, and is often able to, use voice of reason to resolve problems to the point of appearing goofy and cowardly at times. She can also be sadistic and cold-hearted at times like when a member of her group of runners almost failed to meet her deadline, which would have humiliated her. She snapped and broke the girls legs and arms before she was forced to stop by more than five of her own subordinates.

But she isn't all bad. She loves to lay on her bed and play her PSP while eating chips. She has a soft spot for stray cats, and at times does nice things for people. She may appear one way, one moment, and a different the next. The easiest way to describe her is as...complex. She feels what she feels when she wants to feel it, and if you don't like it she may feel like ending your life...or at least making you want to end your own.


LOVE:
→ Handhelds
→ Chips..whether potato, corn, wood whatever so long as it's chipped she digs it.
→ Ingredients...just make sure you're not part of hers.
→ Dissection
→ Women
→ Meditation
→ Parkour
→ Heights

HATE:
→ Alchemy
→ Friends
→ Men
→ Apples
→ The World
→ "Evil"
→ Ideology
→ Useless Ingredients

DEEPEST SECRET:
→ Wouldn't be a secret if I told you now, would it? Ok ok fine...the reason why she chose to go into Intelligence Gathering was to find out what happened to her years ago.

IDOL:
→ Her Grandmother.

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HISTORY:
The sound of rain filled the village.

The steep cliffs that surrounded the area magnified sound, causing even the slightest drizzle to rattle like a thunderstorm.
Thin wisps of smoke streamed from huts as the villagers huddled in their homes and waited out the storm.
A single child, however, had braved the downpour, and was now wandering slowly toward the wooden, hawk-shaped weather vane at the center of the town.
The wandered reached the vane, which had existed for as long as any could remember, and stared. The child's face was simultaneously delicate and fierce- like a teacup that had survived a shipwreck. Those traits combined with pale white skin to give the face an almost sexless quality.

If the beak turns east, I go home. If it stays west, then I...I...

The child blinked. Rain slowly dripped down the young one's short hair and began its long descent to the ground.

Come on. Come on!

The child felt a slight breeze and watched as the vane slowly creaked to life. Spinning this way and that for a moment, before it finally settled with the beak pointing firmly toward the east.

East? ...Really?

Before the vane could move again, a jagged rock came spinning and tumbling through the air, finally striking home against the child's head. The force of the blow dropped the child to the ground as a hail of stones began to fall all around.

Oh no. They found me...

A heartbreaking smile crept across the child's face as the stones continued their assault. Through the rain, the sound of multiple footsteps grew louder before a voice rang out.

"Yoo-hoo! Shiho!" The voice belong to Dimo, worst of all the bullies in her village.

As Shiho struggled to stand, a final stone came skittering through the mud and bounced against her foot. Blood oozed from a cut above her eye and blurred her vision, but she could make out the shapes of Dimo and his usual gang of idiots. The boy seemed taken aback for a moment by Shiho's seeming indifference to the blood dripping from her face, but quickly regained his bravado.

"What's up, freak? You like the rain? You like gettin' all wet? Or did you finally decide to run away from home?"

Though she knew it was futile, Shiho turned to leave. Before she could get more than a few steps, the other children scrambled to surround her, cruelty burning in their eyes.
Shiho knew those were not the only eyes on her; the tormentors' parents watched from the safety of their homes. She was attuned to this sensation- it was one she had experienced many times before.
While some villagers simply turned a blind eye to the actions of their children, many encouraged it openly.
In a society ruled by superstition and fear, Shiho was something to be hated, and if possible, destroyed.

"I didn't say you could leave, freak."

Dimo's words chewed at her like a worm through an apple.

He can't hurt me,she lied to herself,Be strong. Be brave. He can't hurt me. He can't hurt me. He can't hurt-

"Oh look! The little freak's gonna cry! What's wrong? Are you sad that everyone hates you and wants you dead?"
Shiho prayed for the rain to flood down and carry her away from a world that seemed to have no place for her.
But if there were gods, they chose to ignore her. As Dimo crept ever closer, the clouds began to thin and the rain slowed.

Even the weather hates me. I'm useless. A failure.
...I wish Dimo's rock had taken my head off.

Shiho couldn't meet Dimo's leering gaze; she lowered her eyes are stared at the muddy ground below. The bully moved forward until he was inches away. She could smell the scent of old meat on his breath.
The boy grabbed Shiho's face with thick fingers and yanked it upward. She tried to turn away, but he forced her gaze back and jammed his thumb against her eyelid to pry it open.
"You're a freak."
"N-no. I'm not."
"Did you just say no?" Dimo grinned evilly. "You don't say no to me.No one says no to me." Not even taking his attention from Shiho, he called to his cohorts, "Come on, guys! Let's give the freak what she deserves!"
As soon as Dimo finished, kicks and blows began to rain down upon Shiho.
Dimo paused, still grinning, as Shiho curled into a ball and tried to make the pain stop.
"I don't get you, freak. Whatcha acting like a girl for, huh? Everyone knows what you really are!"
Shiho ignored the question, choosing instead to stare at the weather vane. It continued to point east, as if supremely confident about the future it had chosen for her.
Go home? Yeah, that's a funny joke for someone with dead parents and no home to go to.

"Freak!" chanted the children. "Freak, freak, freak!"
All of this because she was born differently. A True Hermaphrodite. Shiho closed her eyes and listened to the rain, waiting for the pain to start again. As the clutching hands of the village children closed around her, she bent her mind to the sound of the rain, letting it become her world entire.
The rain fell...
But the pain never came.
Only when the laughter of her tormentors turned to terrified cries did she dare open a single blood-caked eye.
Shiho was shocked to see Dimo sprawled on the ground, holding his head and screaming in pain. She could see blood welling from spaces between his fat, twisted fingers.

Oh my god. He's crying. He's actually crying!

Deprived of their leader, the other children glanced back and forth between themselves, as if waiting for someone to step forward and take charge. When no savior emerged, they began an uneasy shuffle away from Shiho.
But the young girl was the least of their concerns. Instead, their attention was rapt on the ancient woman standing a few feet away. After struggling for breath for a moment, she finally spoke in a voice thick with rage.
"Hurts like a bitch, don't it!? Now I suggest you scatter before I throw another one. And if any of you little bastards ever touch my Shiho again, I'll do far worse than throw a rock! You can count on it."
The old woman crouched down and gently touched the hand Dimo was using to cover the wound. Before he could think to protest, she ground her palm into the wound and twisted back and forth.
"Ow!" he screamed, leaping to his feet. "Stop it! What are you doing?"
"Quit whinin'! Ain't no one ever died from a scratch."
"You hit me with a rock, you stupid bitch! A big one! That thing coulda killed me!"
The old woman shrugged.
"Death is the best cure for stupid."
Dimo's face twisted with rage at her words. Locking his eyes on Shiho, he took a step backward and spat on the ground.
"Get out! Leave this village! No one wants you here, either of you!"
Seeing the old woman grab another stone, Dimo and his companions turned tail and ran. As they fled, the old woman grabbed her side and barked out a single laugh.
"Hah! Look at that fat boy go! Guess he's healthy enough to run from a fight."
The woman's smile faded as she turned to Shiho. Kneeling down, she removed her shawl and placed it around the young girl's shoulders, then produced a cloth from the folds of her dress and began blotting at the blood on her forehead.
"Oh, Shiho," she said. "Why didn't you fight back? You're stronger than that lot."
The words of her grandmother stung Shiho, and she turned away.
"Don't be nice to me," she said. "I don't deserve it. Nothing...nothing matters anymore."
Her tears, held in check for so long, finally began to fall on the muddy ground below.
"Everyone h-hates me. They think I cause bad things to happen. They think I'm a freak. I wish I was dead."
As Shiho's tears turned to sobs, she felt her grandmother's hands on her shoulders. Despite her advanced age and diminutive size, she was a woman of surprising strength, and Shiho found herself unable to turn away.
"Don't talk like that, Shiho! It's a river wide and deep that flows between the realms of this world and the next, and it grants no mercy to any that attempt the crossin'. You got a duty to fight until your last breath. Understand?"
The old woman tightened her grip and tried to still the tremor in her voice.
"You know the pain of losin' someone close to you, Shiho. You know because you survived it."
As the words hit home, Shiho was struck by the force of her love for the old woman. As a young child, she didn't even know of her grandmother, but when her parents died, the woman quickly accepted her as her own. Grandma, as Shiho called her, was cunning, vulgar, and quick to violence- and their first few years together had not been easy. But with each year that passed, Shiho and her grandmother had grown closer.
However, it was only now, sitting in the mud with tears and blood caking her face, that Shiho truly understood the depths of her affection. Here was a woman who had seen hard times; who had seen death; who had fought through all these things and somehow emerged on the other side. If anyone could understand Shiho's pain and loneliness, it was her.
"Do...do I make you sick, Grandma?"
"Course not! Don't be an ass!"
Shiho drew her grandmother's moth-eaten shawl around her body and shuddered.
"But...my body. It's...it's not normal. If I was normal, then Mom and Dad wouldn't-"
"Hush," interrupted Grandma. "I'll not hear another word of this nonsense. You're my granddaughter, and I love you, and if folks have a problem with that, they can just go to hell."
With that, the old woman reached out and placed a wreath of dried flowers in Shiho's hair. The skill it took to bend the flowers without breaking the stems or losing a single petal was remarkable, and the beauty of it made Shiho want to cry all over again.
"Oh my gosh! These are Lunar Tears! Grandma, you made this for me?"
Lunar Tears were legendary flowers; most people could live their entire lives without ever seeing one. And yet her grandmother had somehow collected a dozen or more.
Shiho reached up and touched the wreath as if she couldn't believe it was real.
"Wh-where did you find these?"
"Oh, you know... Just stumbled on 'em one day while I was out doing the shoppin'." The old woman turned away as she was explaining, leading Shiho to suspect that the search had been much more difficult than she was letting on.
The pains she took to construct the ornament- let alone track down the flowers used in its construction- made Shiho's heart hurt.
She reached up and gently adjusted the wreath, admiring the way it felt between her fingers.
"Didn't quite turn out right," said her grandmother as she squinted at it. "These old hands have trouble with delicate work. But it sure looks good on a pretty girl like you."
Shiho blushed and turned away.
"You...you think I'm pretty?"
"Course you are! What a fool thing to say."
"Th-thank you, Grandma."
Her grandmother smiled.
"We're gonna be fine, you and me," she said. "Long as we got each other, we'll be just fine."
Shiho took her grandmother's hand in hers, and the two of them struggled to their feet. As they began the long walk home, Shiho gripped the hand with all her might, as if trying to stop smoke from drifting away on the wind.
The rain had stopped. Shiho stood beneath the weather vane, watching it spin in lazy circles, no longer caring about the direction it faced when it stopped.
I don't need to escape. I have a home now. Grandma loves me, and that's enough. Even if it's us against the world.
Shiho let her gaze drift up past the vane and into the cloudy sky.
The last faint hints of a rainbow were slowly fading.
As she turned and headed for home, the light scattered into a million particles and vanished, seemingly taken away on the breeze.


Daily Life
In the distance, Shiho heard the steady sounds of an axe striking wood. The noise had a purposeful quality to it, as if she was hearing a master woodsman go about his work. The firewood being produced, however, was as far from a work of art as could be; pieces of every shape and size were being flung about a barren yard with wild abandon. Anyone trying to stack such wood would probably die of frustration before the job was through.
“…stupid piece of shit axe!”
Shiho’s grandmother flailed away with the axe, filling the air with both splinters of wood and words that would make the most hardened sailor blush.
“Grandma!” called Shiho.
“What?!” yelled the old woman, taking her eyes off the wood for a moment. “Oh, it’s you, Shiho? Don’t get too close, or I might take your goddamn foot off by mistake.”
She brought the axe down on a piece of wood, sending chips flying in every direction. One spun past Shiho close enough for her to hear the whistle, at which point she decided to step back.
Once she’d scuttled off to a safe distance, she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted.
“Grandma! Do you need help? I can get water or lunch or…uh…a new axe or something!”
The axe, poised to strike another wobbly blow, paused in midair. The woman considered her granddaughters offer for a moment, then smiled.
“Hmmm…Tell you what. Since I’m doing such a piss-poor job of choppin’, why don’t you come here and take over so I can go get the water. Militants have been restless lately, you know, and I don’t want you runnin’ into one of them bastards.”
Relinquishing the axe, her grandmother picked up a long pole with wooden buckets on either end. Gathering water was by far the more difficult of the two jobs, but Shiho knew better than to complain, Once Grandma’s mind was set, there was no changing it.
Shiho did her best to help with the chores, but Grandma took every task that required travel to the village. Though she had a long list of plausible excuses, Shiho knew the real reason: she didn’t want her granddaughter to be taunted and harassed by the villagers.
Once Shiho moved in, Grandma decided to take up residence a good distance from Aerie. Out of sight, out of mind seemed to be the best policy when it came to the villagers and her granddaughter, and rare were the days when any but the two of them could be found on the rocky acre of land they called home.
Shiho enjoyed the solitude, but harbored a secret resentment that her grandmother was forced to spend her golden years in such a place.
After watching her grandmother leave, Shiho turned her attention to the task at hand. She had never chopped wood before in her life, and soon discovered why the old woman hated the chore. Swing after swing of the axe produced only a tiny crack in the wood, and when she finally managed to connect a solid stroke, the tool embedded itself in the log and refused to budge. Frustrated, Shiho swung the axe around her head and threw it, long and all, across the yard.
“Dammit! Dammit! Uh…crap!”
She suddenly understood the joy her grandmother felt in a good curse. Happier now, she picked up the axe, forced it from the wood, and resumed chopping. She had a natural skill with a blade, but the task was challenging, and blisters soon began to form on her small, pink hands.
‘This is tough. And all my logs are weird sizes.’
Spitting on her palms and ignoring the pain, Shiho redoubled her efforts.
Just as she was developing a rhythm, Grandma returned from the village. Setting down her buckets with a small sigh, she took one look at the logs and coughed out a wheezy laugh.
“Pretty clumsy, girl! You better practice if…if you…”
Her grandmother suddenly collapsed to her knees, causing one of the buckets to wobble precariously. Eyes wide, Shiho dropped the axe and ran to her grandmother’s side.
“Grandma!”
The old woman shook her head and pointed a trembling finger at the bucket.
“Get…get the bucket…C-can’t let it spill…”
Shiho steadied the bucket with a foot as she knelt by her grandmother. A small bit of water sploshed over the side and made a new home in the hem of her dress, but Shiho didn’t notice.
“Grandma! Grandma, what’s happening!?”
Crazed with panic, she grabbed her grandmother by the shoulders and shook. After a moment, the woman lifted her arms and batted Shiho away.
“S-stop that! Just stop now!” she cried, breathing heavily. “It ain’t like I'm dying! Just tired from the trip is all.”
Shiho desperately wanted to believe her, but one look at the old woman’s shaking hands and worn face told her more than words ever could. Her grandmother had lived a long, hard life, and it seemed the bill was coming due.
The time when her grandmother watched over Shiho was ending. Sooner than either of them had feared, the positions would be reversed.
The next morning, Shiho came to the side of her grandmother’s bed and took her wrinkled hand.
“Grandma, you’re sick, and you need medicine. I’m going to the village.”
The old woman shook her head and tried to rise, but Shiho gently pushed her down.
“It’s all right,” she said. “I’ll be fine.”
Her grandmother fixed her with a gaze that could melt steel. After what seemed an eternity. She finally lowered her eyes, and sighed.
“Well, I don’t like it, goddammit. But I guess I should quit bein’ so stubborn and let you grow up.”
The old woman watched as Shiho strapped on her boots and made her way down the road to the village. Hours later, as an unseen sun made its way across a dark and rainy sky, she was still watching.
Shiho moved at a brisk pace, checking her pockets every few minutes to make sure the money her grandmother gave her was still there. Every noise caused her to spin on her heels, making sure she wasn’t being stalked by a Militant – or worse, Dimo and his gang.
But she encountered neither tormentors nor Militants, and Shiho finally found herself at the entrance to the village. The few adults she could see glanced sideways at her, then muttered to each other behind raised hands before slinking away into the shadows.
Her heart racing, Shiho took a series of rapid, shallow breathes and tried to calm herself.
‘I have to prove myself. I have to help Grandma.’
‘I…I have to be strong.’
She chanted those words to herself over and over as she slowly made her way. Finally, her eyes settled on a rotund older woman who was angrily waving her arms in the air and telling anyone who would listen exactly what she thought of Shiho’s presence.
“Hey, lady,” said Shiho with a bravado she did not feel. “Where’s the apothecary?”
The woman’s flabby cheeks shook in bewildered anger. ‘How dare this…this thing speak it me!’ they seemed to say. But Shiho saw that her eyes held a different emotion: fear.
‘Yeah, we’re both scared, lady. Trust me on this one.’
“Which way?” Shiho repeated.The woman pointed at a small building to her right before hitching up her dress and stumbling off in the other direction. Shiho cringed, expecting a stone to come flying from the assembled crowd, but none came. Her mind was filled with a strange sense of pride as she made her way to the apothecary. But the new emotion had little time to take root, for as soon as she opened the door, she noticed a familiar customer at the counter.
It was Dimo. He’d clearly been sent here on some kind of family errand, because his gang of followers was nowhere to be found.
“Oh my go…” he sputtered. “I mean, uh…what are you doing here, freak!?”
The insult was delivered without force, and Shiho happily ignored it. Stretching on tiptoes to see over the counter, she asked the shopkeeper for the medication.
“Ha!” barked Dimo. “That old bitch finally keel over!?”
“Go to hell, Dimo!”
The boy’s eyes grew so wide they seemed ready to fall out of his head. But before he could let fly a comeback – or worse, a punch – the apothecary told them to knock it off before he kicked them out of the store. Dimo slunk out of the shop, cursing Shiho under his breath. Once he was gone, she allowed herself to breath once more, taking a brief tour of the shop while the owner prepared her medication.
Countless tiny bottles filled the cramped store, each with a label written in some indecipherable language. An ocean of aromas assaulted her nose, creating a scent that was exotic, but not altogether unpleasant. Seeing such a variety of supplies gave Shiho a sense of peace. Surely, in a world so vast, there would be a place that she could call home.
On the far wall, behind the counter, rested a portrait of a stunning young girl. The picture had once contained bright, vibrant colors, but time had worked its magic, and they were beginning to fade. The beauty of the work, however, remained undiminished.
“You like that picture?”
Shiho turned to find the apothecary with a small vial of medicine in his hand. His eyes were gentle but sad, and they seemed to stare through her and into nothing as he spoke.
“That’s my daughter. I sketched it when she was just a little girl. …she’s been dead a long time now.”
Shiho didn’t know how to respond: she just stared at the portrait and tried to come up with the right words.
“Pictures are wonderful things,” continued the shopkeeper. “They let the ones closest to you live on forever.”
He shook his head slightly, then looked down at Shiho and smiled. Handing her the medicine, he reached into his sizeable green apron and produced a handful of old wax crayons.
“You should have these. There’s no one left that I wish to draw.”
Shiho took an instinctive step back, causing the shopkeeper’s face to darken.
“Yes, I’ve heard the rumors about you,” he said. “It’s a small village, and word travels quickly. Between you and me, I’m not sure which of them to believe…but I also don’t think they matter much. I knew your grandmother Yunhua, and I think the way she was driven out of this town is just deplorable.”
‘Grandma’s name is Yunhua?’ thought Shiho suddenly. She was still mulling this new fact over in her mind as she reached out and gently took the crayons from the apothecary’s hands.
“Your grandmother is an old friend of mine,” he said as Shiho scooted away yet again, “and I owe her much. I’m willing to wager that she would like it if you drew a picture of her. Yes, I think she would like that very much.”
Shiho murmured a quiet agreement, but inside her heart was bursting. Never before had a villager treated her with anything but complete contempt. It was a tiny, almost imperceptible step, but it was a step nonetheless – and with enough tiny steps, she might one day discover the rest of the world.
When Shiho returned home, she found her grandmother asleep in her bed. Her feet were blackened and raw - even bleeding a bit in places – leading Shiho to think that she had been pacing around the room until exhaustion caught up with her.
She placed the medicine by her grandmother’s pillow and turned to leave, but found the old woman’s hand clasped around her arm.
“Back already, are you?” asked her grandmother with a yawn. “Come here, let me have a look at you.”
Grandma sat up and examined Shiho from head to toe. Finally satisfied that nothing terrible had befallen her grandchild, she leaned back and allowed herself to relax.
“Well, how was it? Did those bastards give you any trouble?”
“It was kinda fun,” said Shiho with a small smile. “No, seriously, it was.”
“It was fun, was it?” asked her grandmother in a voice which implied she believed anything but.
“Uh-huh. So anytime you need me to run an errand, just let me know!”
As she spoke, Shiho removed the crayons from her pocket. After a brief explanation of their source, she informed her grandmother that she was going to sketch her portrait.
“A portrait of me? Ridiculous. No one wants to stare at a wrinkled old crone.”
“But Grandma! It’ll make you live forever!”
“Horse manure!” said her grandmother, throwing back the sheet from her bed. “Livin’ forever would just piss me off. Now put those crayons away and help with dinner!”
But Shiho would not relent, and in the end, Grandma found herself leaning against the wall of their house as if posing for a master artist.
Shiho took up the crayons and eyed her subject carefully…
Just as her grandmother was about to nod off, Shiho finished the work. After staring at it for a bit, she released it from her grip and let it slowly drift to the floor.
“It’s…terrible! It doesn’t look like you at all. I’m sorry, Grandma. I thought these crayons would…you know? Make drawing easier or something.”
The old woman’s eyes narrowed at her granddaughter’s disappointment.
“Let me be the judge of that,” she said, ignoring the pain in her back and reaching for the paper. The sketch could have been a person’s face. It also could have been a boulder, a lump of clay, or an incredibly misshapen loaf of bread – all rendered in a chaotic array of colors.
The old woman stared at the picture for a long time, then slowly wheezed out a laugh.
“Oh, Shiho!,” she said between laughter. “You truly are my blood! You’re as clumsy as me, and I love it!”
“But-“
“Hush. I won’t hear any more bull about how ugly you think it is. It came from the heart, and I’ll treasure it always.”
True to her word, the old woman gave the picture a place of honor above the kitchen table. In the days that followed, Shiho would often catch her staring at the portrait with a strange smile on her face – an action she interpreted as silent, mocking laughter. A week later, Shiho could stand it no more, and asked her grandmother to take the artwork down.
“Posh!” said the old woman. “I’ll take this down when they roll me in my shroud!”
She pondered this for a bit, then turned to Shiho and dropped to one knee.
“Listen to me, girl. Seein’ this picture makes me happy in a way I’ve never felt before. And it makes me want to go on, so that someday you can feel the same happiness.”
It was a moment that burned itself in Shiho’s memory: a perfect blend of pride and love and joy that came together to form a lifelong remembrance. She swore to never forget this moment: to never forget the old woman who had made her place in the world possible.
Time moves on. People and memories come in and out of a life like ghosts passing through a hall.
‘But this moment will be different,’ Shiho swore, ‘because I will remember it forever.’
‘…Forever.’

Seperation
Shiho listened to the sound of crackling firewood and stared at the black object on her plate. She’d been pushing it around the wooden disc for a good ten minutes, ignoring the bemused stare of her grandmother. Finally, she summoned her courage and gave the object a brief sniff. A sharp, bitter scent flew up her nostrils and made its home there, causing her face to twist with disgust.
“Grandma, I can’t believe you want me to eat a bug.”
The old woman threw some more wood under the cooking pot and snorted.
“It’s no bug, you fool girl! It’s a berry. Why in the hell would I be feedin’ you bugs?”
“Yeah, well, it sure looks like a bug!” said Shiho. “And I think it’s burnt or something, because it smells terrible.”
With that, Shiho held her nose and threw the berry in her mouth, chewing as little as possible.
“Oh, yeah. That’s terrible, all right.”
“Why, you little brat!” laughed the old woman. “Look at the sass on you! You’ve been spendin’ too much time with me, and that’s a fact.”
Five years had passed since the moment when Shiho's grandmother had saved her from the bullies. As is often the way with two stubborn people, their relationship had grown in fits and starts, but moved forward all the same. Meals that used to be somber affairs were now filled with laughter and hurled abuse in equal measure. Shiho could not remember a time when she had been happier.
As the years went by, Shiho started to shoulder more and more of the daily responsibilities. Her grandmothers legs grew weaker by the day, and she could no longer do many of the chores she used to take for granted. And so this morning found Shiho lacing up her work boots with a breakfast of burned berry rolling through her belly.
“Where are you going today?” asked Grandma suddenly. Shiho looked up, surprised. The old woman rarely asked her for specifics anymore.
“Well, I was gonna check out the kelma trees and see if they were ripe. I thought we could make jam or something. Oh, and I’m going to pick up some flagstones, so I need to take the wheelbarrow.”
“…Flagstones? What in the hell for?”
Shiho stared at her grandmother, then held out an arm and swept it around their home. Constructed mostly of cloth, rope and rubble, the old place sagged like a boxer in the final round.
“Grandma, a dying cat could chew through this house. I’m going to build a stone wall so we have some protection.”
The old woman laughed, exposing her toothless grin to the world.
“Goddamn girl, if a buncha thieves want to ransack this old place, let ‘em come! We got nothin’ worth stealin’ anyway.”
“I’m not worried about thieves! I’m worried about Militants. People saw some west of the village yesterday.”
The old woman tilted her head and stared at her granddaughter.
“Well, shoot. I don’t know why you have to do it today. We can worry about it some other –“
“Grandma, no. If I don’t go to the kelma trees, we won’t eat tonight. You know that!”
A confused expression passed across the old woman’s face, and for a moment she was a small child lost at a carnival.
“Y-yes,” she said after a bit. “Yes, of course you’re right. I’m sorry, Shiho. Lately it seems my mind is…”
She didn’t finish the thought, instead walking over to her nightstand and gently taking the wreath of Lunar Tears from the drawer. The flowers’ petals had aged to a brilliant whiteness, and Shiho thought it was more beautiful now than the day she first received it.
“You’re going to be a true woman soon,” Grandma said as she placed the flowers in the girl’s hair. “So that means less chatter about Militants and buildin’ defensive walls and more talk about how beautiful you’ve become!”
Annoyed, Shiho reached up to remove the garland, but the look on her grandmother’s face stopped her hand.
“You’re a beautiful thing,” said the old woman, “and there ain’t another like you in all the world. I’m very proud of you.”
“Okay, Grandma, that’s enough goddamn compliments for one day.”
“Such a mouth on you! Where did that come from?”
“Gee, I wonder.”
“I’ll teach you to sass me, girl!” yelled Grandma. Suddenly, she lurched forward and grabbed Shiho by the ears, pulling her around the room with a crazed grin on her face.
“Grandma!” yelled Shiho in a quaking voice. “Grandma, stop it! What the hell!?”
The old woman stared at her and blinked, then slowly held her wrinkled hands out as if it was the first time she had ever seen them.
“Oh! Oh, I…I don’t know what happened there. I’m sorry, girl. Sometimes my mind just…”
Shiho though the look on her grandmother’s face was the most heartbreaking thing she had ever seen.
“Listen,” she began, “maybe I should stay home after all.”
“No! I won’t have you stay here to keep an eye on an old codger like me. You go get your fruit and your wall and whatnot. I’ll be fine. And when you get back, I’ll have a nice grasshopper dinner waitin’ for you.”
Shiho rolled her eyes, then kissed her grandmother on the forehead and made ready to depart, trying desperately to ignore the worry that was gnawing at the walls of her heart. Shiho could feel the old woman’s eyes watching her as she moved down the path.
‘Don’t turn around,’ she told herself, but in the end the temptation was too great. She spun on her heel for one final look and saw a small, bent woman standing in front of a ramshackle hut with a sad expression on her face.
‘God, she looks so old now. It’s like the wind could reach down and just carry her away.’
Shiho worried about her grandmother all day, causing her work to suffer. What little fruit she could collect was tossed carelessly into the wheelbarrow, and she only found a couple of stones before losing interest in the project. Finally, as dusk approached, she decided to call it a day. Cursing herself for the lack of focus, Shiho pushed the nearly-empty wheelbarrow back down the path.
As she crested the final hill, she suddenly froze in place. The wheelbarrow fell from her fingers and collapsed on its side, sending a few pieces of wrinkled brown fruit rolling back down the hill.
Her gaze was transfixed by a thick black cloud that hovered just ahead. Tracing it’s path with her finger, Shiho suddenly felt her stomach knot in on itself.
‘No. Oh, gods, no!’
Her grandmothers house was ablaze; the flames licking up as if trying to touch the sky itself.
“Grandma? GRANDMA!”
Shiho ran then, faster than she had ever moved in her life. Once she tripped on a stone and went sprawling into the rocky ground, but she leapt to her feet and continued running, unmindful of the blood that spilled from her wounded hands and knees. As she got closer and closer, Shiho’s mind began to race in time with her footfalls.
‘It’s too dark. It’s too dark. Not just fire. Can’t be fire. Too much smoke. Gotta save her. Gotta save her.’
She burst into the front yard and came to a sudden halt, her worst suspicions confirmed. The smoke from the fire was mingling with the thick inky blackness of an enormous chimera.
The massive creature supported itself on three twisted feet, and achieved balance through a means of a large armored tail. Scales, horns, and claws sprouted from its body in a random, chaotic pattern, giving it the appearance of a lizard designed by some insane god. Seeing Shiho, it let out a roar and flicked its tail. Sending small whirlwinds spinning around the yard.
For a moment the creature retreated into a shimmering inky blackness, as if her mind was unable to comprehend that such a thing could actually exist. But then the smell hit her – a blend of rotted meat and excrement – and the horror became real once more.
The creature bellowed again, and this time Shiho responded with a scream of her own.
‘All right, you bastard,’ she thought as her scream echoed off the high cliffs around them. ‘It’s you or me. Let’s go.’
The chimera eyed Shiho with bemused interest. Then it began looking from her to the house and back again, as if urging her to look at the destruction it had so gleefully wrought. With dread building in her heart, Shiho glanced toward the house. Through the smoke and flames, she spotted a small figure struggling to escape the ruins.
“Grandma!”
At the sound of her voice, the old woman began waving frantically.
‘She’s alive!’ thought Shiho. ‘She’s alive!’
Shiho’s legs sprang to life as she raced across the yard toward the flaming wreckage of the house.
Before she could advance more than a few steps, the Chimera opened its mouth and let out a roar powerful enough to uproot trees and send them flying.
The blast sent Shiho tumbling through the air before smashing her against the rocky earth. Stars danced in front of her eyes as she tried to remember how her legs worked.

‘Get up. Get up! Get up get up get up get up get up NOW!’

As Shiho struggled to her feet, the Chimera stomped toward the house and pinned her grandmother to the ground with the tip of a claw. The old woman struggled to move the claw from her stomach, but she might well have been pushing a mountain. She coughed briefly, sending a small spray of blood into the air, then collapsed to the ground, her energy spent.
Shiho lurched to her feet only to fall back to earth with a gasp. Her ankles were on fire; one or both of them were surely broken.
Ignoring the pain that screamed through her body, she began dragging herself across the ground, leaving a drunken trail of dust and blood in her wake.
‘G-Grandma…hold on…just a…little longer…’
Her grandmother’s face was turning blue, her eyes rolling back until only the whited were exposed. Shiho pulled herself across the ground with maddening slowness, the distance seeming to increase with every second that passed. The Chimera glanced between the two women and flicked out its tongue, its giant mouth turning up at the corners. Short, panting breaths belched from somewhere deep inside its core.
‘Bastard…laughing at us…’
She had no idea how such a mindless creature could experience emotion, but there could be no doubt that the Chimera was taking joy in their suffering.
‘Yeah…I see your plan…’
The Chimera moved its claw slightly, allowing Grandma to breathe again. It was clearly keeping her alive only to snuff out her life when Shiho was close enough to touch her.
‘I’m gonna kill this bastard…’
Summoning all her strength, Shiho rose to her feet. There was a sickening snap from her right ankle as the foot twisted backward, but she forced it from her mind and began to hobble toward the monster. Pulling a small knife from the pouch at her waist, she leapt on the foot that pinned her grandmother and plunged the weapon deep.
“Give her back!” she screamed. “Give her back to me!”
It was like stabbing a rock. After a few swipes, the knife broke at the hilt with a dull snap.
The Chimera panted laughter again, then raised its tail and sent it rushing through the air toward the young girl that was latched to its foot.
Shiho never had a chance; the tail stuck her square in the chest and sent her crashing into the burning wreckage of the home. As she lay on the ground with blood pouring from multiple wounds, a small, weak voice spoke up.
“S-Shiho…?”
Shiho’s vision blurred, but she forced herself to focus on the sound. Finally, her eyes cleared enough for her to make out her grandmother’s hands reaching out to her through the smoke.
“G-Grandma…?”
“S-Shiho…you’ve gotta…run…you can’t…defeat him…”
Shiho grabbed the hands and held on with all her strength.
“Grandma…come on…we have to go…”
The old woman coughed loudly. One of her hands, slick with blood, slipped from Shiho’s grasp and thumped to the ground below.
“Grandma, no…No!”
“I said run, goddammit. You have to…have to live…you have to get through - …”
The thought would stay forever unfinished. Before she could say another word, the Chimera's clawed foot descended, smashing through the remains of the roof and down upon the shattered figure of the old woman.
Blood oozed thickly from gaps in the creature’s toes as the terrible, putrid smell assaulted Shiho’s nose once again.
She stared at the foot, dumbfounded, convinced that what she was seeing could not possibly be real. When the creature finally lifted its appendage, all that remained underneath was a twisted unrecognizable mass of rubble and red.
…her grandmother was gone.
Shiho blinked, trying to feel the hands which had been in hers just a moment before. For a fleeting instant, she could remember the warmth of that embrace, the trembling of the fingers, but then the sensation drifted away on the breeze and was gone.
Memories flashed through Shiho’s mind, one after the other, faster and faster, until they became a meaningless jangle of noise.
Shiho screamed then, a thunderous sound that echoed off the cliffs and seemed to roll away forever.
The Chimera eased forward, black ichor pouring from its mouth and dissolving into smoke on the ground below. The earth shook with every step as it crept toward its prey.
Shiho’s body slowly rose as if controlled by a mad puppetmaster. Her arms and legs were bent at impossible angles; her head lolled dangerously to the side. Yet somehow, she managed to stand.
Staring at the Chimera, her eyes began to glow with a light blue fire that wisped from her eyes. The creature, so confident just moments before, took a slow, hesitant step backward, trying to discern if this broken human could possibly pose a threat.
Shiho seized the moment. Laughing like a madwoman, she leapt into the air and plunged the shattered hilt of her knife deep into the leg of the Chimera.
The Chimera shook Shiho off like a fly, sending her crashing to the earth once again. Her chest rose and fell slowly, as if a great weight were resting on it. Moist sounds of pain echoed through her mind. Something warm and thick oozed from her ears.
‘Is that blood?’
‘…think it is. Think I’m bleeding to death.’
‘…no. Can’t…can’t die. Grandma told me to live…’
Deep inside Shiho’s mind, something finally broke.
The sound, the pain, the smoke and flames…all of it faded away until all that remained was a single incantation repeated over and over again.
‘Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it now!’
As the spark that was Shiho slowly began to flicker and die, she felt her desire to kill and her desire to live blend into one. The distance between heartbeats grew longer.
And longer.
And longer.

Encounter

Gently…weakly…softly…

The Chimera, sure that it’s tormentor was dead, turned and stomped off toward the horizon, stopping along the way to bellow one final roar.



‘…couldn’t…kill it…’



‘S-so sorry, Grandma…couldn’t…couldn’t avenge you…’



Shamed beyond imagining, Shiho turned her head to the side, but only succeeded in coughing up a huge gout of blood. It was getting difficult to see, and only after a moment of fierce concentration did she realize that her left eye was gone. Laughing to herself, she turned her remaining eye to the ruins of her home and noticed a ragged stump of an arm resting a few feet away.



‘Yeah, that’s mine,’ she thought with a mad giggle. ‘This is gonna make clapping a real bitch.’



“Ha!” cried a sudden voice from the depths of her mind. “Finally gonna die, are ya? Well, you had it coming!”



‘Go to hell, Dimo,’ she thought at the unseen assailant. ‘Go to hell before I pluck out your eyes and feed them to a dog.’



The voice of her childhood terror evaporated into smoke, only to be replaced by another, more recent voice.



“Hold still,” said the apothecary, materializing from the ruins like a ghost. “I want to draw you. That way you can live forever.”



‘No. Stop. Don’t want to live forever. Want to die right here.’



“I see,” he said quietly, “Well, if that’s how you want it…”



The spectral shopkeeper fluttered in and out of existence for a moment, then produced a piece of paper and sketched quickly. After a few seconds, he turned the page to Shiho and smiled.



“Since you rejected my offer, I decided to draw someone else.”



It was a picture of her grandmother, real as life. Shiho opened her mouth to thank the man, but stopped as the picture began to blacken in the middle. Before she could say anything, thousands of multi-legged insects began to swarm across the image, tearing at it with sharpened pincers.



‘No! Stop!’ Don’t hurt that picture!’



Shiho reached out with her remaining hand and waved futilely at the air. To her surprise, the insects fell off the picture and to the ground below, where they vanished into tiny black tendrils of smoke.

Relieved, Shiho turned her good eye back to the picture, only to open her mouth in a silent scream. The sketch now showed her grandmother as she truly was: a smashed, unrecognizable lump of nothing.

The apothecary smiled, then broke into a jolly dance.



“See that!?” he cried as he danced his jig. “It’s perfect now! She looks just like you! Ha cha cha cha!”



‘I look like that? Oh god. Oh god. I’m gonna die.’



‘I’m gonna die.’



Drowning in despair, Shiho laid her head back in the mud and smoke of her ruined house and waited for the end to come. But just before she let everything go, an unfamiliar voice began whispering in her ear.



“Ain’t you got a wish, Sunshine?”

The blackened silhouette of a man stood over her. She couldn't see any distinguishing features, but a sense of dread began to overtake her. But the second voice sent her into a panic.

“Do it.”

Suddenly everything was pure white. Her vision shook and came back for a moment. She looked down upon a body, battered, and nearing death. She had made her way to her Grandmother, despite her own disability. She slid down into the hole and touched her grandmother's face. She was beginning to feel cold.

"You gave me Life, and for that I'll give it back to you."

She touched her bloody limb and drew a pentagram upon her stomach, and then a second one upon her Grandmother's forehead. She watched as her Grandmother stirred, but did not wake. Alive, but just barely. She had to hurry, she looked around and found a twisted pipe used to hold the house together. She grabbed it and looked at it firmly. Only in death, does new life begin. She closed her eyes, and plunged the pipe through her heart. Everything grew darker, rather quickly.

But just as the Darkness took her, she felt a blinding light pierce her eyelids. As she opened her eyes, she witnessed a paradise unlike anything she had ever laid eyes upon. Grass so luscious and green, appeared to never have been stepped on, and Tree's so vibrant and strong as if no man had inhabited these lands in millennia. The sun overhead shone bright and merrily, as if it shone solely for this place. She sat up and looked about, not one person was present. She quickly looked down at her body.

"I'm...I'm...but...wait..."

She was completely healed, or at least appeared to be. Where was she? A large tree sat in the middle of this Paradise, but she needed to get back to her Grandmother. She got up, and walked into the forested area of the Paradise. She walked for what seemed like hours, before she emerged into a clearing once again. She had appeared where she had entered into the forest. She turned and ran this time, no turning, just straight forward. Moving only to avoid a tree in her path, only to meet the same clearing again. This couldn't be coincidence...could it? She decided to climb a tree and find out what was going on. As she scaled the branches and reached the top of the tree, she could only see a sea of tree's stretching on forever into the horizon. She got down quickly, and kept trying to run as far as she could, but to the same outcome every time.

Tired. Thirsty. Hungry. Shiho sat under the center tree, as she let her hand fall to the ground, it splashed into a puddle. She looked and nearly drowned herself as she dunked her head into the water, drinking deeply. She pulled herself out, and gasped for air. Flinging her head back, she saw large apples hanging overhead. She climbed into the tree, and looked at all the Apples. There nearly a thousand, just hanging firm and supple. She saw the one she wanted, it was nearly perfect, but as she neared it it's beauty faded. How could she liked this freak show apple. It appeared to be two apples halfway fused together, well it did remind her of herself. Why not eat it? Even ugly things can taste beautifully. She plucked it and bit into it deeply. Sweet. Crisp. Refreshing.

"I hope it's to your liking"

Shiho dropped the apple and nearly fell out of the tree. She looked around, but saw no one. A small laugh came from the wood in which she clung to fiercely. She looked puzzled and swallowed the apple she had been chewing.

"Congratulations. You are the first to have partaken my fruit and not meet oblivion. This place is known as the Garden. Bearing the fruits of knowledge. You are to be my Disciple, and through you I will show the world my power"

Shiho merely listened. Talking to a tree would be stupid anyway. It was bad enough she was hearing voices, but if she actually engaged in conversation with a tree...yeah she'd be a fucking nutcase.

"Now, to live within you, I must strip you of access to that infernal Gate of Truth. Now, I have taken my toll. I leave the rest to you."

She felt hot and suddenly she fell from the tree. Dark. Cold. Darkness. It took her once again. Fucking hallucinations. Who would have thought Death would be so anti-climactic. She saw a light in the distance...

[Guest]

Awakening

She was reborn. Literally. Her body, already absorbed through the Gate, was no longer available to be inhabited. She was presented a new vessel, a child born into the Xingese Fang Clan. Specializing in Qi Manipulation, but that was only half of it. This newborn had a family. A mother, father, and many cousins. A chance to start anew, but how could she forget Grandma. No matter what, she could never let go of that past. But as the years rolled on, her memories of such events began to dull. Her mind filled with teachings of the Clan over and over again. But at the age of seven, everything for her changed.

“Now, Come in.”

So-Sul stood waiting as a boy shuffled into the room, dressed in a rather formal attire. His demeanor was shy and drawn back. Her father ushered the boy in and toured him around the estate. They never had visitors before so this was a bit of a treat for So-Sul.

“From today on, this will be where you'll live.”
“Huh? Daddy, who is this boy?”
Her father crossed the room and placed a hand on her head. Kneeling down he smiled gently into So-Sul's eyes. She looked surprised as this was not the norm from her father. Rarely did she receive such warmth, even as a small child he treated her like a prodigy child. Tough training, emotional detachment, and strict rules.
“This boy is..your brother So-Ho Yang.”
So-Sul looked at him and smiled cried out as she had always wanted a sibling, now she got one. IT would be something for her to try out. An older brother to look up to and try to be like. She grabbed him and led him off to play.

As the years passed they grew fond of one another, but trained separately. Rumor had it So-Ho would become the next in line should the Clan head fall. Who knew how true the rumor was. But he trained ferociously, and he had natural talent in Qi Manipulation. Probably the reason he was brought into the clan itself. But during the end of one day, everything changed. He had just finished his training, and So-Sul managed to finish early enough to just catch him. She witnessed the final moments of his training and clapped happily cheering her brother on. He turned sharply and noticed she had made an appearance. She had not grown much in the three years, unlike him, and much of her mannerisms were still childish. But it was that innocence that he sought to protect, a reason which drove him to train harder. Day in, and day out.

“So cool! Brother, you're really strong!”

He smiled and rustled her hair fondly. Smiling and laughing with her. The moment was incredibly cute, but he didn't want her to get too ahead of herself.

“I'm still not strong enough. If I want to become Fang's successor, I can't be satisfied with these skills. I'll be the Greatest in Fang School..., No, the Greatest in Xing!”

She stared at him in awe. He was beyond cool, he was like a super hero or a God. He was so strong, stronger than anyone she had ever seen. She couldn't contain her excitement, she welled up and screamed in excitement which threw him off.

“Brother! Do you want to spar with me?”

He looked shocked, how could she be asking that? He couldn't fight her, he couldn't harm her.

“I...want to have a match with brother”

He smiled and tried to play it off, acting as if she were making a joke. After all she was younger, weaker, and less experienced than he was. She couldn't truly be serious, and beating her up might put him in a bad position.

“Don't be stupid. How would you face me? You...if you make fun of me, I won't be your friend anymore”

He noticed the smirk on her face. It wasn't one of childish glee, but of nigh-malevolent intent. It was as if she were completely serious and the omnious Qi she put out backed it up. The Qi was small, but dark and twisted.

“It's not a joke...I'm telling the truth, brother!”
“...”
“I really really want to have a match with you.”

The match didn't last too long, but...

“Why...”

Shiho stood amidst the dojo. The floor cracked in places, blood splattered in certain places, and there she stood a small bruise on her left cheek. She peered over her shoulder and looked at her brother, unconscious, and blood leaking from every orifice his head possessed. His body twisted and broken, and he looked as if he had witnessed a ghost. Blood dripped from her tiny balled up fist, as she watched her father come in, and witness the scene. All she could do was stand there as he tended to her brother.

“Why is he so weak?”

Avenger

Fear. The main ingredient in the most irrational decisions ever made by human kind. A devilish plan was concocted to sell So-sul to a bridal house. So in the dead of night, after spiking her tea with a potent sedative, she was handed off and exchanged for coin. When So-sul awoke she was in another world completely, she heard the strange language and before she could begin to wonder what they were saying her ears adjusted and the words became clear as day.

 Brought up in their lifestyle, she was a prodigy in their arts. Music, dance, calligraphy, everything she learned came as easy to her as breathing does to you or I. Long before her training in loveplay she was taught how to properly entertain men, and in a classroom setting observed a number of rituals used in the games of seduction. A precocious student, having been born in this environment, the subtle tricks to perceive and manipulate a person's emotions came naturally as part of her own language. Right from a young age people could see that she would be among the most beautiful of women, and the High Priestess considered her as a gift not only to the Geisha House, but to the world. Many wondered why she never tried to flee, but the answer rang out clear...How could she? Where would she run when she didn't know where she was in the first place? But I digress from the story...

Stories of her preternatural aptitude to this lifestyle escaped the hallowed walls of the House, and such tales piqued the curiosity of many. A number of men couldn't wait until she completed her training, and looked forward to being entertained by a legend such as this. But the Geisha House wasn't a simple little brothel, those in charge were a little too ambitious for such provincial and inconsequential pursuits. No, they saw the leader of the village as weak, and felt that their great country should be held in equal regard as the other Great Countries.

And so there was the plan to overthrow the ruler in a shocking act of betrayal that would transform the politics of the country. So-Sul, among a dozen others, were being trained not only as Geisha's, but specialized assassins. It was meant that on the eve of their graduation, they would be presented to the most influential men of the village, whom they would seduce and kill in their slumber. The other Geisha's-in-Training had no idea, only the most promising were selected and given specialized classes. It was here that like-minded shinobi trained them in the Ninja Arts. Any other would only rouse suspicion.
So-Sul, as she was in everything else, was a natural. She caught on to concepts quickly, and by the age of fifteen, was Master Worthy. On her own. She was already head and shoulders above the other girls, and graduation was still a year away. Unable to move forward without the others, her instructor gave her the highest honor of telling her that there was no more that he could teach, and the rest she'd have to develop on her own. He gave her an assortment of scrolls to assist her on her studies, and turned his assistance to the other girls. So-Sul continued her independent studies, beating the skills of Alkahestry exclusively into herself exclusively. For this reason, her fighting skills were lacking, so moved on to refine her power not through her eyes, but the rest of her body. She wanted to be able to defend herself physically if she had to.

It did not come easy. Training ones self in martial arts (especially in secret) doesn't really go so well. When Graduation arrived, she was ready. And she was assigned to assassinate the leader of the village. Six years they had beaten skills into her, and one year she had spent refining it on her own. A natural genius, there was no one better to assign to kill the leader. She was so happy. She could finally make everyone proud and prove to herself that she was a capable woman. 

The mission was a success. She seduced him, and gave him an unforgettable night. And while he slept, she plunged one of the needles to hold her hair right through his heart. But she was too successful. During the year left to herself, there were whispers of worry, that perhaps she was too good to control. She wasn't raised to be loyal, she was raised to be a murderer even before she was brought to village, and now she had the capacity to manipulate a person's heart and mind. Left unchecked, she could assume command of the village, and everything they worked so hard for would fall to ruin. So those sent to collect her upon successful completion of the mission were also given the assignment of killing her. Something that she did not foresee. She loved the people at the Geisha House. How could she see it coming? Such political games were beyond her understanding, but they had been driven mad by their own diplomatic treachery and saw a loyal, warm young girl as a threat.

The attack was emotionally scarring, and she had to kill the one who had taught her everything she knew. All this taught her was to never trust again, to never feel anything for another because treachery was inevitable and no one was immune. Things like bonds are just lies between people, and she vowed to never fall for it ever again, and walled herself off, emotionally. That night, she butchered the other girls that were trained, one after the other. So much blood was spilled that no one knew what could have happened. By the time it was all over, everyone who knew of her role was dead and gone.

It was known as the Night of the Blood Moon, the day the moon turned red. With no one to turn to and nowhere to go, she left the village, unknown. [/spoiler]

[spoiler=Lifestyle] Looking back, it had started as a run each day, a simple method of exercise.
She ran, spun, and flipped around any people who stood in her way. She never stopped her movement, and one day, because of an unexpected obstacle that suddenly appeared, she found herself running up a wall. She felt the momentum stop, and she pushed off, flipping through the air.
She had tried again for months to perform the trick, and finally did. After, she worked on trying to grab the edge of the roof and pull herself up. Her hands and body became bruised, but she grew stronger, faster, and found herself standing on the roofs.
She found herself launching off of rooftops next, landing on the roofs perpendicular, and improved her landings with a roll, keeping the momentum when she rose and ran. One day she misjudged her location, and leapt off a building with a greater distance between roofs, and the next building, luckily, had a lower roof. She had slammed into the side, and barely managed to grasp the edge, and pull herself up.

It was a way of life.

But more than that, it became her method of living. She began to gather a group together who could run as well, but the objective wasn't fun, but trafficking. Money, drugs, and information. So-sul had her hand in it all. She wasn't the most known trafficker, but she was the best. Those that knew of her, only knew her by a given name. No matter what language they spoke, her name in their language was Jade. The splendid thing about her group was that they are an illegal underground courier group who operate independently from the city’s legal security and surveillance measures. Perfect if you wanted something moved, or disposed of before the cops could sniff around. Her team was good enough to move a half ton of product from one site to another in under two hours, given the distance and pathing.

The other side was information, Alchemists usually flocked to her when it came to this. Her knowledge in the field was peerless. However, she was also gifted in hacking. Stealing corporation secrets to exchange for money was far more profitable than siphoning funds that get traced in minutes. She learned the name of the game in this concrete jungle and strove to dominate it with a closed hand. And drugs, she didn't sell a thing, but she did move it from supplier to dealer consistently. And not one of her couriers were ever caught, well if they were they wouldn't receive any aid from her, Jade did not like failure. It made her look bad, and in a business where image was everything she needed her image. She lived alone in a decent apartment, with a nagging girlfriend, and modest flows of money. She was in no way wealthy, no one could be wealthy doing what she did. Money was always spent on updating, upgrading, or simply maintaining her hold on her subordinates. Smoking, drinking, running, and martial arts were her only consistent. Seldom did she need to meet anyone in person, and these days few even knew what she looked like anymore. She began the business four years ago, and it was almost a self-sustaining monster. But only she knew that.

...........................................................................

TRIVIA:
→ She's Ambidextrious
→ She knows Taekwondo, Baguazhang, Wing Tsun, and Parkour
→ Languages: Xingese and Aerugese
→ Due to her mangled body, she was reborn through Garden as a Seedling.
→ As a Seedling, she had her soul placed into a new body.
→ She can never utilize Alchemy herself due to the sacrifice of her own Gate of Truth to access the Garden.
→ She is Bi-sexual, but has a strong preference for women.
→ Her Manipulation of her own Qi is so advanced now she is capable of creating things the likes have not been seen in generations.
→ Her Medical Knowledge is quite advanced,and still learning.
→ She can see the Dragon's Pulse flow, especially when her eyes are shut.

...........................................................................

ALIAS:
→ Mai, Yuki, Asiah, Ville...Whichever.

OTHER CHARACTERS:
→ Villetta Nelliel Guinevere

CREATOR'S COMMENTS:
→ This...was the single hardest Application to construct for me. Also, this one is on Aki's tab. Thanks my lovely!

FACE CLAIM:

Code:

[b]BlazBlue[/b]/[i]Lichi Faye-ling[/i]

CUSTOM RANK:
→ Valkyrie

OFFICIAL TITLE:
→ The Dragon's Blood Alkahestrist

...........................................................................

[Reila Tsukino]

REVISE

1. Full name: Tell me what these other names are. Make them clear as what is an alias and what is her actual name.
2. Birthplace: Where in Xing?
3. Deepest Secret: This is worded strangely. You have to be an alchemist.
4. History: Not a fan of the spoilers or the spacing of the paragraphs. The spacing is a small thing, but the spoilers were driving me crazy when I was reading since the font is so light on the white. I would suggest taking out the spoilers...
5. History: I'm reading every word, but I'm kind of tired so I might have missed it, but you never really specified why the villagers don't like Shiho/her Grandmother...
6. History: You cannot go to The Gate without doing Human transmutation yourself.
7. History: I don't believe that it's possible to be reborn through The Gate without dying first. And there needs to be someone that is performing human transmutation on Shiho for that to be possible. I'm really confused as to what exactly transpired. Who opened The Gate?

If you want this to work, I'd say have Shiho grandmother before she dies use Human transmutation on Shiho just as she dies in order to bring her back by sacrificing her life and the chimera's or something as payment. Then Shiho gets reborn since maybe her body is dissolved by the chimera's acid saliva (this is like the only way I see it being possible). So she doesn't have a body to return to, therefore she has to be reborn in order for the human transmutation to work. With decent sacrifices, the World makes this possible. And in doing so, Shiho would still see the Truth, but the Truth revolves purely around ALCHEMY nothing more nothing less.
8. History: Avenger- What. Just what. I'm so lost now. She suddenly poofed to Aerugo? That's not possible. I'm SUPER confused... XD Did they send her there because they were afraid of what she did to her brother?? Also, make sure you mention her learning Aerugese somewhere?
9. Trivia: Languages - First of all I need the color she speaks them in. Second of all, the Truth doesn't give you knowledge of languages; it only gives you knowledge of alchemy.
10. Trivia: Okay that's the first I heard of her sacrificing her Gate of Truth to live. It wasn't clear in the history exactly what was transpiring. That's not equivalent exchange. I can't see HER Gate being something tradeable for HER life. Also, in doing so, it would erase the Truth. I'm also lost about the whole rest of the story. She was reborn, but then suddenly went to Aerugo and then suddenly got into drug trafficking...where? I'm trying to figure this out so I can suggest what we can do to make this more plausible/clearer.

She seems really cool 8D

[Guest]

1. Full name: Fixed
2. Birthplace: Fixed
3. Deepest Secret: Fixed.
4. History: Changed the color to black. Spoilers break up the story.
5. History: It is in there, Shiho was born a Hermaphrodite. Creating animosity and prejudice against her and her Grandmother.
6. History: Changed as per our conversation.
7. History: Changed as per our original concept of this. Also, it should be noted that she CAN NOT use Alchemy EVER.
8. History: Avenger- Yes, they sent her Away because they feared what she could do.
9. Trivia: Languages - Fixed
10. Trivia: Fixed; Explained.

Thank you Aki!

[Guest]

AKI!

[Reila Tsukino]

REVISE

Can you change all the bullets into the arrows please. And take out the spoilers from the history. If you want to title them, just bold the titles.

[Reila Tsukino]

APPROVED

<3

[Guest]

Is this done?

[Guest]

It's been done. I believe Aki, didn't remember to close it after I finished.

[Guest]

Oh, so, the revamps and all are entirely finished?

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