บท 40: Ice Release Tag, Complete!
Shou look at the calender in the room he's staying for a while.
"It's been 2 days. Is Shion okay?".
Just as he thinks of that, an attendant knocked at the door.
"Come in".
The door slides open.
"Honoured guest, I am informing that Shion-sama will see you in the courtyard in half an hour".
"I see. Thank you".
After half an hour Shou is escorted to the courtyard.
Shion is at the side, sitting on a large table with bunch of paper tags and scrolls around her. She is still reading one of the scroll it seems.
"Shion-san. You seems to be working hard". Shou went and peeked at whats on her table.
'Ah. I have too much in mind and wanted to clear them. It helps to get busy'.
'Can you input your chakra into this sealing scroll? Just pure chakra. And then this other three red scrolls, you input your chakra with wind, water, and ice nature change respectively. I need to compare them'.
Shou received the scrolls from Shion; without wasting time he unscroll them and do as told for each of the labelled scrolls.
He gave it back to her shortly. She opens a huge scroll with various symbols on it. She placed and opens up all the 4 smaller scrolls in different sections of the huge scrolls
After making few hand seals, she placed her palm on the middle of the huge scrolls; causing the symbols to glow with pinkish light. The chakra stored inside the 4 small scrolls seeps out. The symbols on the hug scroll changed here and there.
Shion pick it up and read it thoroughly, nodding a few times.
'I roughly figured out the composition of your ice nature chakra... It's 78% Water and the rest of it is Wind natured chakra'.
'And based on these...'.
Shion take the scroll Shou gave her on the Ryu Clan sealing tags. She copied some symbols after looking at different sections onto a fresh scroll. She also look at other scrolls on Fuinjutsu passed down on her family for reference.
After ten minutes, she finished making the first prototype of ice release sealing tag. She re-copied it onto an empty tag with the sealing fluid.
'Shou-san, try to use this. It's only a rough one just to test'.
Shou noded and pick the tag. He felt a little excited and went ahead and input his chakra.
The symbols on the tag light up in white-blue light! It works!
Small burst of ice formation is produced after its activation, the ice formation grows forward half a meter before it stops and it just fell to the ground.
Shou is quite confused at what this tag is supposed to do. Making a block of ice?
'It's feasible. It's just a rough work that one. I based it on fireball sealing tag but well, it becomes a block of ice so it falls to the ground like that... I need to adjust its density of it... And if it's ice spike...'. Shion explained to Shou but slowly her voice gets lower as she rambles to herself instead.
Shou understand what she's saying. So he suppose Shion will need to make adjustments for specific techniques. Thinking about it, Shou took out a small scroll and unseals it, revealing the scrolls containing techniques of the Yuki clan. The hand signs have corresponding sealing symbols used in fuinjutsu, sort of, and therefore it can make it easier for Shion to make up the right nature and shape transformation using fuin symbols to make specific Ice Release tags.
"Shion-san, these are the techniques of my clan. The ones with few highlights or writings are the ones I studied and used more. Oh and this Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystal technique is the main technique I use. You can skip on others and focus on this one first".
'This will help me a lot! I forgot to ask...'. She almost planned to making techniques from scratch. Thankfully Shou reminded her.
"Sure".
'Alright. That's all for today I feel. Come back tomorrow at the same time. I will need to translate the hand signs to relevant fuin first... And then...' Shion starts to ramble.
Hmm, it seems that it's more difficult than it seems if you have no idea what you are doing. Thankfully Shion is a queen of priestess who had studied fuinjutsu since she's a child. You could say she has PhD in this area given how many years she studied solely on it.
"Shion-san, there's no rush. Take your time"
Shion just nods, but continued her work and went to refer to another scroll on the messy table.
***
'I am surprised that this one has spatial nature in it'.
"Yeah, I can travel between mirrors through space, if I put more chakra into them to connect them".
'Here, try it out'.
Shou excitedly activates the tag. A sheet of ice mirror forms, but it shatters before it can fully form the demonic mirror.
'Hmm. It's unstable. I rarely use spatial fuin... I need to revise it a little maybe there's something not right'.
***
1 week passed by, and the Ice Release tag for Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystal Technique is finally completed after multiple tests and adjustments.
Placing the paper tag already containing his chakra on the tree 10 meters away, he used a hand seal to activates it.
The paper tags light up with white blue light, activating successfully. A sheet of ice mirror is formed right on the surface of the tree while also freezing it.
Shou can feel the connection to it. Seeing his image reflected on it, he channel his chakra to move at lighting speed into the mirror.
Shou comes out of mirror and waved at Shion in excitement.
"Shion-san! It's a success!".
Shion just smile and nods. That's the most difficult one to make and so for the other ones it will be easier now that she sort of sees the pattern to it.
It's time for Shou to pretend to be Minato! He sticked a filled mirror tag onto a kunai handle, ready to act.
Ice clone, transformation jutsu!
Fake Obito Uchiha stand there silently, waiting to be obliterated.
Shion wonders what that person did for Shou to use as a target. The real Obito felt the same chill on his back again, feeling sweaty, wondering why it felt like someone is trying to kill him again.
Shou stood a little farther away and stretched a little to ready himself. With his imagination, he can hear the fake Obito speaks in Madara's voice.
'Its you again. But it's useless to fight me. I have figured out your ability. There's no-'.
With one hand, Shou gather and spins chakra to make a Rasengan!
'That jutsu! Minato?!'. Obito had thought the jutsu that hit him before was something similar to Rasengan but not because of how it has ice nature. But seeing it's basic form makes him realise it is in fact the Rasengan!
'Y-you! Who are you!'.
"I learned it from watching". Shou replied shortly before speeding up to attack him.
'Tch'.
Obito already had seen through Shou's weakness. His taijutsu or kenjutsu is the weakest. He only ever rely on pure speed from his jutsu, or now with the light dragon power, pure speed and pure power.
But he has no skills!
'This time, I will teach you defeat!'.
Obito also dashed towards Shou. Obito use weaved few hand signs; at the same time
Shou throws a Kunai to stop him!
'Useless'. It simply passed through his head. Shou weaved a hand sign with his free hand, activating the seal right as it passed by him, while Obito completed his hand seals!
Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!
Hyoton: Makyo Hyosho!
Before the fireball can even be blown out, a single ice mirror had already formed right behind Obito.
Right as Obito blows out the fireball, Shou figure dissapears from Obito views.
From the mirror, he rushed out and slapped the Rasengan to Obito's back!
'Nani!? When did-?!'. The activation of the ice mirror is simply too fast unlike previous times it caught him off guard!
'KUHH!!!'. He felt his back shredded by Rasengan, sent flying while being grinded by the rotating chakra. The fake Obito exploded into pieces, ending the battle.
'That's really fast and powerful Shou-san!'. Shion clapped in excitement. It's also rare for her to see a Shinobi use such techniques so it's very entertaining.
Shou went to see Shion and wanted to further modify the tag by adding extra features.
"Hihi. Thanks to you Shion-san. My jutsu is faster with the tags".
'But I don't think it helps you that much...?'. Shion give her honest opinion.
"Actually... I wanted to use it as a backup of sort. Leave a way for me to escape if I am trapped in different dimension. I can move between mirrors without actually seeing them, creating a wormhole between two point in space you could say".
'You could?!'.
"Yea. But it takes a lot more chakra to connect between spaces and takes time as well".
'What kind of enemy can trap you in another dimension...?'.
"That dude I made before is one. The other ones are... Well, aliens? Ahaha".
Shion laughed a little, thought it's a joke but Shou is actually serious.
'Shou-san. You are preparing a little too much'.
"No no no. You won't understand unless you have seen it". Shou said seriously.
"Shion-san, I want to make the tags can be used for anyone other than me. Is it possible?".
'Well... It is... If you store your chakra in them already, they would only need their chakra to trigger the tag. But'.
'Most people can't use Ice nature. But it's possible if they can use Wind and Water nature, and I can make the fuin to mix them in the fixed ratio, and then this can trigger it...'.
'Right! There's also special fuin liquids that can convert pure chakra into specific nature attribute... For water nature was it made from moon grass, or this pearls(?)... And for wind...'.
Shion is explaining to Shou but rambles to herself again.
"Shion-san?".
'Ah? Sorry I was a little lost in my head for awhile. But I think I figured it out. I need to revise a little first though'.
"I see. You are really smart Shion-san! I am right that you are the best fuinjutsu master in this world now".
'Haha. Shou-san, you are flattering me too much. I am just so-so'.
"Once it's done, you should keep one of the tags with you".
'Eh? What for?'.
Shion is a little unsure what it's for.
"Mm... If you are in any danger, you can use it. I should be able to feel the connection to it. I will come to your rescue if anything happens".
'Shou-san...'.
"Well, you helped me a lot so...". Shou scratched his cheeks, a little embarassed.
'Alright. Thank you Shou-san. I will complete the tag sooner then'. Shion give a little smile.
"Take you time Shion-san. No need to rush really. I mean, if it takes too long you can just mail it to me later or something".
'Alright'.
Now that Shion need to study a little the day is over for them.
***
In few more days, the tag is finally truly completed. There are few variations; the ones Shou had stored his chakra inside so anyone can trigger the jutsu, ones that only replace hand seals but still requires the usual chakra amount from user, and the ones that has Shou's stored chakra already but only he or Haku can use it. It might seems redundant but the tags are slightly different.
The ones that can be used by anyone requires more expensive materials and the paper tag is also more expensive since it has to be able to store chakra.
Naturally the cheapest and easiest one to make is the ones that only Yuki clan members can use and only act as a hand signs replacement. The advantages and niche uses can be imagined.
But it has a clear disadvantage - the ice tag need to be triggered by a person, and Shou can't trigger it if it's too far away from him. Only after it's triggered can he feel the mirror connection.
Minato Flying Raijin for example can be triggered by Minato himself from endless distances. It's a little different since Shou make portals between space while Flying Raijin is like a summoning technique or something closer to it.
Shou looks at the calendar. It's been 11 days... There's 19 days left for my holiday, he thought.
Today there's some ceremony stuffs so Shion will lead the ceremony at the shrine. Of course Shou wants to see what it's all about.
There's more people and visitors here, Shou observed as he walked around.
'Oh! It's you. Is the evil...'. Shou happens to meet that priestess he tricked. The priestess has a worried and scared look on her face. It's her first time seeing a demonic possession that scary after all, to a point of their appearance changing into monster.
"Oh. Ahaha... Yes, Shion-san has managed to suppress it. But it's still there so I am staying for a while".
'I am glad. Shion-sama is the best here so it will definitely be fine'.
"Ahaha... Yea...".
Shou scrurries away from her and stood with the crowd nearby and wait for the ceremony to begin.
There's a shinboku wrapped in shimenawa up front. (A big tree tied with a rope) And a square space in front of it. Some priestess are already on stand by, with different instruments. He felt like he's seen something like this in a movie in previous life.
Shion finally comes out in her Miko attire wearing pure white robe with a red long skirt beneath. She had a blade on one hand, and a tree branch with a rope tied at the end of it. The bell she always carried is tied there too.
The ceremony started as she turns and dances. Thankfully she wasn't screaming or licking the blade or anything otherwise Shou world view would have changed. She gracefully dances, the swings of the blade are more of a form of art presented to the Kami accompanied by instruments and the ringing of the bell.
Pretty...
Shou feels a little impressed and quite taken in seeing the performance, just like most of the audiences.
Minutes passed as the ceremony ended.
Shou returned to his room shortly after. But thinking about how Shion seems tired, not to mention the weather is quite hot outside, maybe she needs some cold dessert. He troubled the attendant outside to go to the kitchen. After much insistent they let him in and he made the slushies he always made. Its his speciality, all his friends must taste it naturally.
'Shou-san, you don't have to trouble yourself. I have chefs working for me you know...'.
Shion sat on the table with Shou. And a pile of slushies is on the table already served.
"I doubt they can make cold dessert as good as me".
Shion just give a wry smile.
'Shion-sama, let me taste them first'. One of the guard accompanying her went ahead.
'Sorry Shou-san, they are quite strict. Hope you aren't offended'.
It's obvious they are tasting for poison and the like.
"No no. It's expected. You are the... priestess queen after all".
'There's nothing wrong. Shion-sama'. The guard hide his blush a little. It's sweetness, the smooth ice texture almost gets him smiling and have his brain freezing.
'Alright'.
Shion have a taste of it and is delighted.
'Shou-san. It's really good!'.
"Right? It takes a lot of chakra control to make it smooth you know". Shou felt like a bragging a little. After all, it does take a lot of focus and training to get it so smooth and soft.
'I see'. Shion smiles a little, it's really delicious and sweet.
Shion also called her attendants to bring more dessert and make tea, so it turns into a fuller course of tea time.
***
"Shion-san. By the way... I did mention I have another purpose of meeting you".
'Oh. Yes, you did. What is it?'.
Shion take a bite on dried persimmon politely, chewing on it.
"Uhh... So Watatsumi-san don't have his real body right, and he use mine...".
'Uhuh...'.
"So I am thinking...".
'...'. She keeps chewing the dried fruit.
"Can we see Moryo's body?".
'W-Whay did you say? *Cough*'. She almost choked on it.
"Ehem. Moryo's body. If, you know, if Watatsumi like it's body and so he can use it...".
Shion has her brain melts trying to make sense such a request.
'Wait...'.
Shion is seen dazing for a minute. She tapped her arm with her finger, thinking about it seriously.
'I have to refuse. It's a little... too much'. Shion give a wry smile. That request is too unreasonable for her.
"Wait. Shion-san, think about it. If Watatsumi-san take his body, Moryo cannot be resurrected can't he, since his body is taken away?".
'...'.
Shion can't argue because that actually makes sense.
'But... What if something went wrong?'.
"Well... I don't think anything can go wrong. Moryo's soul is sealed right. And his body is empty so there shouldn't be anything that can go wrong...".
'...'.
Shion is in deep thoughts. In theory it's true. If his body is with Shou and Watatsumi, Moryo soul can't get to it even if it's unsealed. And the continent Shou is from is farther than just from this Land of Demons to Land of Swamp so the distance is more secure. But even if it's sensible, it's too radical.
'But if Watatsumi gets that body won't he...'.
HMPH! This wretched woman must have think badly of me!
"Shion-san, Watatsumi is nice. He won't do anything bad! He promised me he won't innocent people. And he will stay with me until the threats are eliminated so you don't have to worry on that part".
'What if anything happens to you or Watatsumi. Won't Moryo's body fell into the wrong hands?'.
"Well... I doubt that could happen? We are strong you know. Anyways, if anything happens to me, Watatsumi will consume me completely and he should be able to escape with the body... Or, he could be separated from me and escape. Either way, it should be fine".
'What...?'. The way Shou says it casually makes her think there's something wrong with his head. She knows he lets Watatsumi reside in his body. But the way he says it's it seems that Watatsumi indeed have higher authority and he don't seem to mind being consumed... It worries her a little. He should prioritise his life first...
"Well... If that happens, I hope it won't trouble you to take care of him after...".
Hmph! Why would I need to be cared for?! Watatsumi is flabbergasted. His cheeks are as red as chilli, feeling embarassed.
'Ahaha... I guess, it's fine...'.
I see...
So... Shou-san sees him as a friend.
Shion finally figured out their dynamics. Although Shou says they are partners, he already considered Watatsumi his friend and cares for him aswell. Although he didn't say it.
"Watatsumi-san, people would try to seal you so if you are exposed. They are greedy, you know it... If anything happens you should stay with Shion here".
Hmph! Nothing can happen! I am the Dragon King! And I can live by myself!
Shou just scratch his cheek. Being inside Shou is actually the safest place there is currently with Pain or Orochimaru and Shinobis in general around. Heck even the major Shinobi villages would try to catch him if they know he exist because it means tipping the power balance by having +1 bijuu.
With how greedy people are, it would be difficult Watatsumi-san, Shou said in his heart.
...
'... I need, some time to think about it'. Shion take a deep breather. She's afraid of misuse of Moryo's power most and had been tasked with maintaining the seals like previous Miko. So giving it away is something that never has been done. But Shou is someone that can be trusted. As for that Watatsumi, he shouldn't be evil, she guess. Maybe he hates humans but even some humans have hatred in them. Moryo on the other hand is completely evil.
She turned to look at Shou. Using her dojutsu, her eyes glowed with purple kaleidoscopic patterns that constantly moving.
She sees the vision again. It still scares her seeing it another time. But she needs to see it to make a conclusion. Perhaps this decision is the key to changing the future...
***
A day passed by...
'I agree to let you guys see it'.
"Shion-san! Thank you!".
'But, see it first... Maybe Watatsumi can't use it so...'.
"We understand! Shion-san, it's in the land of swamp right? How about I carry you to fly there?".
'F-fly...?'.
Shou is short of vacation after all and he wants to do things ASAP
***
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