BD (GM):Before Ishika was the Emissary of Himiko, before her journey across Netaru, she was just Ishika the traveling sellsword. She was a woman of minor regional renown but no one that anyone beyond a certain area of Netaru would know by name. She cleared out bandits and escorted merchants and was a solid middle of the road warrior. Her small amount of fame was enough to get some attention. So it was that the greatest mages in all of a certain kingdom used all of their power to send Ishika a message while she slept in an inn one night. The world their kingdom occupied was crumbling around them and they needed someone to help. So they sent this warrior a message. To Ishika it was simply a scrap of paper that appeared on the table next to her bed. "Please, Great Red Warrior, our land requires your help! Our Esteemed Lady Ryo wishes to meet with you and ask for your aid in our hour of need. You will be well compensated." It was about the size of those little slips of paper that came out of cookies with your fortunes on them. On the back it had directions to an old temple along the road, long abandoned.
Ishika Tsumori:Back in these days, Ishika lived without much of a care in the world. A woman who couldn't even be bothered to get the name of the Empress right and who lived to the beat of her own drum. A skilled enough swordswoman who suffered most from being self taught and not being a giant. Upon receiving the message Ishika was intrigued and excited. Finally. Someone was giving her some much deserved recognition around here. Usually these important jobs went to Samurai or Noble Giants or...Well a lot of people before Ishika.
Funny to think back then she traveled alone too. After following the instructions she ended up at the base of a long flight of stairs. At the top she spied a temple, but even from afar it was quite clearly abandoned. "Weird place for a meetup. Guess they wanna be alone." The redhead shrugged carelessly and began to ascend the steps, clad in her bizarre mismatched attire and a straw hat over her head. Her every step was soon audible to those who awaited her. Soft steps at first, but increasingly loud. Until they started to boom and roar like thunder. She came to a stop right before a decrepit sliding door. "Sorry for the intrusion." Ishika droned as she slid the door open and light filtered into a room that quite clearly hadn't seen it in ages.
BD (GM):The Kingdom of Junoko was a rather old one, dating back well over two hundred years. Their people had been forced into exodus and rumor had it that a kindly goddess took them in during their hour of need. She gave them their home before one day simply vanishing. The temple had become their whole world, with settlements sprouting up all around it both inside and outside the place. In the years since their first arrival their world had slowly fallen into ruin. They had been isolated from human contact for ages. As Ishika ascended the stairs of the temple the town right outside the door, Risei, could feel her long before seeing her vast form rise up in the distance. The people of the town marveled and looked up in awe at the redhead, wonder in their eyes as this woman stood higher than any living being. Individual, every member of the kingdom were more or less flecks of dust compared to Ishika. Perhaps to Netaru at large she was no giant but to these people she was an unfathomable force of size. "Lets get the signs up!" The elder ordered as Ishika ascended the steps. Indeed the villagers raised up a large banner with stylized and old kanji upon it saying "Welcome, Red Warrior!" The people below shouted up their welcome's and greetings as well as she got placed her first step on the top of the stairs. The signs were large... to them but to Ishika it was impossible to see even if she was looking down. Which, why would she. Her steps rumbled closer and closer and the people realized something chilling. Ishika didn't see them. Their screams became much more desperate and people even climbed to the tops of their minuscule homes and waved their tiny arms. Others tried to run. By that point however, it was far too late. Ishika's vast sandal sole filled the sky above the town and the people screamed out before it came down in a step upon them, wiping the patch of dirt from the face of the world. The door slid open as Ishika continued on her way and looked around. There was no one inside. The place looked quite old really. Dusty in places. Upon the floor were a number of villages and the shrine itself housed the capital of the whole civilization, overseeing it all in a heavenly city. A city that maybe would have covered Ishika's palm were it standing upon it. The other villages and towns inside had no idea what had happened outside and could only look in awe from the floor at the redheaded titan.
Ishika Tsumori:"Hellooooo?" Ishika called out and poked her head into the door. With her incredible size and the light radiating around it almost like foreshadowing for what her place in Netaru would eventually become. "Hello?" Ishika called out once again and shifted her head. While everyone could see and hear her, she couldn't see them. "Weird. If it was an ambush they'd usually have done it by now." Spoken like a woman who had stumbled into a few too many ambushes. Ishika stepped into the entry way and stared at the floor, debating for a moment before slipping her sandals off. "I mean, it's a fucking shrine. Don't wanna be rude." She mused as she slid off the worn footwear and slid them aside with a single foot - In the process her sandal sole was like a bulldozer and plowed right through a city that had been around for dozens of years. Gone in a couple seconds.
"Uhh...Anyone here?" Ishika tried a third time as she removed her hat and set it near her sandals, taking her first steps onto the tatami floors. "Weird." The redhead boomed with a perplexed frown. She scratched at her unruly hair and looked around. Everything was old and falling apart; but bits of it looked...She supposed less dusty than she would've expected. The floors and shrine especially. Lots of dirt though. "Place looks abandoned. Has been for a while." She thought aloud before shrugging and walking along the floor, caring not for wherever her black tabi soles landed and whatever dirt they snuffed out. Priests and such usually lived in the back of temples yeah? So Ishi decided to try looking back there. "Place kinda giving me the creeps." She mused while each step ravaged everything under her in ways she would never fathom.
BD (GM):It was rare to find a large mass of dust sized smols of this magnitude. Due to their nature they were very easy to snuff out after all. This place had only lasted so long because of its sheer isolation. Isolation which was now ended. People on the floor had their wonder turn to absolute horror in an instant as Ishika's first step inside hovered over a village. Her black tabi clad foot was a new sky for them for a brief moment before it came crashing down and crushed them like the destruction caused by an almighty deity. Panic rose upon the floor as people started trying to figure out ways to get Ishika's attention. Warriors rode out from their towns, small forces were deployed to try and get her attention somehow and civilians fled their homes in droves. Their speed however was basically non-existent to Ishika. She didn't even need to step on homes to cause mass destruction. Her steps were quakes unlike any they had ever experienced. One foot slammed down close by a village and the wind caused by it was beyond any hurricane, blowing people and buildings away in the shockwave caused by a single step. When her foot rose the next second the survivors were left in the middle of a ruin, looking at her departing form in horror as she walked. The back of the temple was through a pair of sliding doors and heading down a long hallway. There was an old storage room back there and what looked to have once been a sleeping quarters for someone. There were faded scrolls here or there and a few icons of worship for Himiko but there was no sign of anyone. At least. No one Ishika could see. There were a few villages here devoted to the worship of their old Goddess, large temples inside of them and when Ishika walked inside many blinked. She had red hair like the God their deity had worshiped. Many stared up at her unfathomable form, as though trying to figure out what she was. Evidently they hadn't been party to their Lord's ideas.
Lady Ryo:Back in the main room where the shrine was located, the capital was in a panic. Word had reached the ears of their lady what devastation Ishika was causing from their mages. The city itself laid within the collection bowl upon the alter and the noble district was located upon a rather nice looking gold coin. The lady was in council with her advisors. "Tell out men to try to use fire or some kind of light to get her attention. It is regrettable what is happening below but we must accept this sacrifice otherwise we will all perish. We need her help to either repair this place or to help is in our exodus to a new home." Lady Ryo stated. Her people seemed uneasy however they nodded and scattered to follow her orders. She moved to the window of her castle and looked out beyond it. "This is the right way. I know it is." She said to herself. "We need the help of another large being. One saved us before, this one can save us again." The woman sounded like she was convincing herself.
Ishika Tsumori:Ishika slowly walked her way through the back of the temple in search of signs of anything or anyone. All she found were the relics of whoever lived here many years ago. Just from the context clues she could tell it was someone who lived alone. A celibate lifestyle perhaps. "Ugh." After opening the final door and still seeing nothing, annoyance was writ on the redhead's visage. There hadn't been any towns or villages in these old abandoned walkways, but the quakes reverberated through the entirety of the old temple. Where Ishika went everyone felt it. She found the woman's sleeping quarters and stepped inside, finding it quite empty of belongings save for a pittance of clothes, a bed roll, icons of worship, and the scrolls. "Hmm..." Curiosity took the redhead as she stepped over to the wall and surveyed one. Down on the table under her was one of the religious cities, level with her abdomen and caught in Ishika's wake. "Fuck, it's written in some old ass kanji." The rather uneducated woman cursed before trying to decipher it. Something much easier said than done when it was faded in places and in an outdated dialect.
"Can't fucking see..." She groused and looked aside at a cracked and aged window with light filtering in. Without thinking twice Ishika took the scroll and set it down on the table - Right over the city. An endless ceiling of aged parchment fell over everything. Light as a feather and yet enough to crush their greatest buildings. With the whole of their infrastructure, however, they managed to life the paper and avoid crushing citizens. The same could not be said of Ishika herself, who crouched onto her knees and leaned closer to try and decipher it. Her bosom, the one thing that was unquestionably large about her back in those days, pressed against the edge of the table and by proxy the edges of the city. Miles of tanned flesh and jiggling cloth crushed dozens of buildings and many, many people as Ishika read.
"Let's see here....'To those who enter this temple. Please be aware...' Uhh......" She squinted her eyes and leaned dangerously close to the parchment. The text was especially faded here. "'You are not alone. The guardians of temple are my friends who will stay here long after I am gone from this world. They will...Attack with open arms?'" She frowned. "That can't be right. 'Welcome with open arms!' There we go. 'However, be forewarned. They are kind but....Dust?' The fuck?" The redhead blinked and leaned even further in. Her chest continued to creep further along the table and the tip of her nose was almost touching parchment. "There is no fucking way that's right. Dust...Uh...Fuck that symbol means..." She drew in a sharp breath, far too sharp as bits of the city she had ruined along with actual dust slipped into her nostrils. Ishika's nose wrinkled and her eyes twitched. "Ah...Ahhh.....ACHOO!!!"
BD (GM):The city was crushed under the canopy of aged parchment. While it didn't crush any people, Ishika's massive mountains certainly did. She crushed them beneath vast expanses of jiggling flesh and cloth. They could hear Ishika's booming voice as she spoke but really they couldn't make it out. Ishika's voice was basically thunder to them as she wasn't bothering to speak in a quiet manner. It was nothing any of then could hope to fathom or understand. People were already trying to flee the judgment of this clearly angered deity when Ishika inhaled. Countless people and buildings were sucked up into her nostrils, landing in thin layers of mucus or sticking onto the fine red hairs lining the inside of her nose. It was just enough to irritate Ishika. In a single instant the sneeze wiped out everyone that had survived being sucked up and then an explosion of air pressure smashed into the city. They were obliterated in a single sneeze, people ripped apart by the sheer force behind it. The scroll ended up coated in slight mucus and spittle, which eroded the symbols even more and left the scroll of warning completely ruined. Below however, people had taken the initiative while Ishika was not moving and some bold warriors walked up to the vast and endless expanse of her black tabi. They needed to get her attention and so they decided to try and climb. Not exactly the most well thought out move but it was all they had. Below, where Ishika couldn't see, the tiny dust sized people started climbing the massive black threads of her tabi. They were massive highways of crisscrossing ropes to them but they climbed all the same, dozens of brave warriors trying to literally ascend into the heavens to hopefully get Ishika's attention. Of course their progress was quite slow and a few ended up actually tangled up in the fabric, unable to move or continue the climb. Their struggles only made it worse. As was the case one one samurai woman that had been climbing and managed to reach the top of Ishika's big toe... only to be tangled in the fabric of the tabi.
Meya Isei:"Help!" She screamed as she fought against the black threads thicker than any rope she had ever encountered. Maya was the greatest samurai of her village and had climbed faster than any man could. She was stronger than five normal samurai. And even then, here she was, tangled like a fleck of dirt upon the top of Ishika's tabi. Right above her big toe by her judgement. There was naturally no one that could help her. Her comrades were too far below. Still the purple haired samurai called out. "Please! I need help!" She called out. She tried to draw her blades but it was no use, her arms were bound and it was impossible for her to move. In fact the more she struggled, the tighter she was wound up. She looked up at Ishika. "Come on... please... notice us! We are down here!"
Ishika Tsumori:"Ughhhhh..." Ishika groaned an ever so slightly nasally voice and scratched under her nose, looking at the ruined parchment in irritation. Now she definitely wasn't getting anything out of this. "Wasn't getting anywhere anyway." The redhead shrugged and began to move, which caused a bit of a problem for the warriors on her socks. For those tangled like Meya, the threads all stretched and tightened their holds like bindings, conforming the tabi and in turn all those trapped within it around Ishika's foot. Those who were not trapped were...Less fortunate. A few dozen screams rang out onto giant deaf ears as they fell between the crisscrossing highways of threads for hundreds of feet to Ishika's feet. If any somehow lived it would be with broken, maimed bodies and as lint in their precious remaining moments. Others simply fell off to the floor below and had their bodies break upon impact. Ironically the slowest of them survived that fall but were promptly crushed by Ishika's heels as she spun around and began to walk. Meya in particular was trapped and forced to stare upwards as the tabi's threads threatened to quarter her. Ishika was both unaware and apathetic as she stepped across the room to another scroll - And Meya's homeland.
"What the hell was that symbol though...? Dust makes no sense..." Ishika wondered aloud in an annoyed manner as she inspected this second scroll. Her foot hadn't landed upon the town yet but it was square between them, structures falling apart to the violent quakes of Ishika tapping a foot. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. The ceaseless rhythm was the greatest natural disaster the people had ever known and Meya was a witness to all of it. "Ugh, this one's nonsense too." Ishika dismissed after a few minutes of trying to decipher it. Just more gibberish about the temple housing protectors. Well joke was on them, Ishika didn't believe in ghosts.
"Looks like nothing...Was it just some dumb prank?" The redhead wondered as she tilted her foot vertically and spun on a heel. In doing so, the tips of her toes were now poised directly over the city and Meya had a front row seat from atop one of them as Ishika's tapping doomed it all in seconds. There was no time to grieve before the redhead walked outside. After giving the rooms all a once over she returned to the main room, her tabi stained in blood and debris she'd never notice.
Meya Isei:Meya felt all the breath sucked out from her as Ishika lifted her foot up. This was literally like being on a moving mountain, a thing so vast that it was basically on another plane of existence from her. She could hear the screams and the shrieks of those that had fallen away ever so slightly over the screaming winds around her. Ishika moved faster than anything her size had the right to. Meya could see where they were heading toward through it all and she struggled harder. "N-no! Please, have mercy on them! They haven't done anything to you! Stop! STOP!" Meya screamed as she fought to try and draw her sword. She managed to pull it out through some miracle... but as soon as Ishika's foot came down in its next step it fell from her fingers and into the abyss below. "NO!" She screamed as her hope of cutting herself free was lost. Oh gods this was... this had to be a dream right? She was having a nightmare. She'd wake up and everything would be normal. She closed her eyes as Ishika stopped to read and wept, sobbing as she felt so... weak. She was utterly powerless. Literally, as far as Ishika was concerned, she was just a fleck of dust she'd never see or notice. All of her training and strength and power amounted to basically just being a slightly stronger bit of dust. Which wasn't even a noticeable measurement to Ishika. It enraged her. "Hey! HEY! You big bitch! Look down here! Don't you dare! Don't you dare touch them! I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you!" She screamed, her throat raw from the screaming. Screaming that did nothing as Meya watched as Ishika lifted her toes up over the town. The row of fabric clad digits came down with the force of anything she had ever seen and just like that... thousands died in a single instant. Meya stared, her eyes disbelieving as Ishika started walking again. She was drawn into herself in shock from the ease in which Ishika had just ended everything she had ever known. Gone. Forever.
Lady Ryo:Ryo, like everyone, could feel the tremors from where Ishika had gone and had taken the time to organize a force to try and get her attention. A few villages set fire to some buildings. Not that it was really something Ishika could notice. The smoke from it went away long before it would have even reached the top of her toes. She had armies deployed to try and attack her to get her attention. Ryo had mages try to use magic to do anything to her. All of their efforts however amounted to literally nothing Ishika could feel or notice. It was indeed like they were beings on another plane of existence. "Please... please... notice us. I'm pleading with you..." Ryo stood on a balcony and got on her knees in an undignified display. "Whatever you desire, we'll give it to you! We'll serve you as your subjects! We'll name you our new God! Please! Just stop killing my people and see us!"
Ishika Tsumori:Much like before, Ishika simply walked without much care. "Maybe they're running late?" She theorized as she neared the Shrine offerings bowl. A pair of twin cities along the dais attacked her, mages casting great balls of fire and lightning while a horde of arrows blotted out the skies. Almost all of which never reached Ishika. At best they reached her hakama and had perhaps a one percent change of sliding between the threads to hit her skin. Even then it did nothing and broke upon contact. "Guess I wait." Ishi shrugged and made for the door. While she was waiting she may as well make her time well spent. What she hadn't realized was there was a grand army right in front of her. A stretch of tens of thousands gathered in record time and ready to make their stand. The horde all raised their swords and spears as Ishika took a single step towards them. Upon her foot landing a shockwave blasted out and sent them all scattering and all of their weapons flying in every conceivable direction. Many fell right onto their own wielders and injured or killed them. It didn't matter; for the next moment Ishika's tabi blotted out the sky. All ten thousand looked up at once and saw it in the split second they had before...
BOOOOOOM
Just like that they were all wiped out. Ishika didn't linger a second on her way out, sliding her sandals back on and exiting the Temple. Although she didn't go far. Near the shrine gates she broke off to the side and found a nice clearing, conveniently and a pittance of cities and the like here or there. They were, of course, not Ishika's focus. Instead, the redhead went about gathering sticks and kindling to start a fire, soon sitting down in the dirt and crushing yet another city. She set aside a bag and began to pull out various ingredients and the like, setting them down along the ground. "Hmm...What should I do...Soba?" She mused with a lazy glance at her ingredients.
Lady Ryo:Ryo watched Ishika came closer to the capital and for a moment, she believed her prayers had been heard. It was a foolish thing to believe but she believed it even as the ground shook beneath the city inside the offerings bowl. "T-thank you... oh gods... thank you..." She whispered as she looked upon Ishika's full and massive form with clarity she had never gotten before. Ryo fell into a full kowtow on the balcony in Ishika's direction. "I'll ensure all of my subjects worship you to their fullest, I'll praise you every night personally." Ryo promised the redhead who, to her, must have seemed like the only being a God could be. Of course her hopes were dashed as Ishika stepped on her armies and started walking away, her eyes widening. "W-wait! Stop! You're crushing them! They- what have we done to anger you so? You are supposed to help us!" Ryo cried out before collapsing forward, sobbing for her people as Ishika stepped on them, unaware of their existence. She had an idea in her sorrow, something that could only have come from the mind of a broken woman. "S-she must be testing us... she wants our worship like any new God would." Ryo said, trying to wrap her head around this in the only logical way. She turned to a servant. "You! Send word. All in the city are to pray to Her, to beg for her forgiveness for whatever sins we have committed! If she wishes her payment in worship then we will grant it with all of our hearts!" Ryo said, her voice cracking slightly as she looked unhinged. The servant hesitated. "GO!" She shrieked, sending them scrambling to carry out her will.
BD (GM):Meanwhile outside Ishika had settled down in a clearing near the temple. It was a nice little place and had given birth to some farming cities. Cities that Ishika didn't see. Her booming steps reached even these distant places. Word had reached them through magic about Ishika's rampage and they needed to try and get her attention. With her massive rear crushing one city and her sitting down she was closer to the ground. This was clearly their chance. warriors and even common folk spilled out to try and reach Ishika. The problem for them was they needed to cross the place where Ishika had set out her ingredients to reach her. She was also looking at the ingredients so clearly this was a chance to be noticed. Many waved their arms as they ran and shouted through the noise would never have a prayer of reaching Ishika's ears.
Ishika Tsumori:"Hmm..." Ishika was looking at them alright. She was looking at her green onions, daikon radishes, herbs, carrots, and raw noodles near a container of water and a pot. "Yeah, I can totally make this work." She nodded before turning back. It didn't take but a few minutes for her to get a fire going and she set up a pot with some water in little time too. With that done all it left was the preparation. Ishika set a small cloth nearby and grabbed the onions to start with, not noticing the microbial figures now on them. She reached behind her and unsheathed one of her blades and in a move that would've made any sensible samurai wince - Ishika brought the blade to her onions and began to cut them. Carefully since, you know, samurai sword. Though to any on her vegetables it was like balancing on a vast green and white road as a metal wall sliced the planet itself. Shink. Shink Shink. Ishika was quite good at chopping up food. Each cut, however, sent a city-sized chunk down and onto the cloth, either crushing more people or at the very least stunning them. The process repeated with another few onions, a radish, and by that point the water was boiling.
"Alright!" With a grin Ishika grabbed the cloth by the edges and lifted it all up over the pot. The heat was scorching; and Ishi upended it all over the water. Everything, smols included, fell into her meal and the redhead let it be, occasionally stirring without a care in the world.
Some time later, once it was finally done and cooked, Ishika prepared herself a bowl and went for her chopsticks. Chopsticks also covered in dust, not to mention those on her own body - And she began to eat. As simple as that. Just a girl eating some steaming noodles. Well, as far as she was concerned.
BD (GM):Ishika was a walking apocalypse. That was an apt way to describe her to the denizens of this country. She was destroying literally everything this place had and without ever knowing it. The smols upon her ingredients found their worlds being rocked as she cut away at them, the blades not slicing anyone as they were far too small to accurately hit. However they did either fall away, get crushed, or get stunned as the slices fell onto the sides. People screamed and scrambled around, trying to find anywhere that Ishika could see them. But she could see them. She was looking right at them and she couldn't notice them. That was how insignificant they were. The survivors in her ingredient prep were exhausted and all horrified, the scent of onions overwhelming a few people but they at least figured it was over. Not even close. Gravity shifted as the cloth was lifted up and then fell away as Ishika dumped it all into her pot. All with a special seasoning she hadn't tried before. Thousands of smols. They fell away toward the boiling pot below, screaming as they fell through the air toward the boiling waters below. As soon as many made contact they started melting immediately like sugar added to hot water. A few managed to land on massive ingredients that had resurfaced, assaulted by the blazing heat that was enough to blister their skin. Ishika however knew no mercy, stirring the pot and knocking even those lucky survivors into the boiling hell of the soup. People had managed to escape the cloth onto her hands, a few dozen really. Others had climbed onto her chopsticks are were waving their arms still trying to be noticed. It was of course still futile. She poured herself out a bowl and then she ate. People clung to the chopsticks and to her fingers but her sudden motions knocked many into her bowl. They screamed and cried out for Ishika. "Please, stop!" "Have Mercy!" Don't eat us! Please, God don't eat us!" "No, no, no you can't do this!" A chorus of screams came from her noodles as she slurped them up, hundreds vanishing into her mouth and swallowed down with them. Ishika noticed something, an ever so slight seasoning that added some complexity to the meal. It was hard for her to place.
Ishika Tsumori:"Mmm~" Ishika hummed joyfully as she savored her meal. Just...Something about it tasted delightful. It was so subtle she couldn't figure out what it was, but it added to her meal alright. Whatever it was, the redhead was quite enjoying it. Her chopsticks pinched at a soggy, steaming radish and lifted it before her pursed lips. The vegetable was perhaps the one last bastion for any smols in her bowl, but they were nothing before Ishika's breath as the woman blew on them all. The air sent them flying without mercy; off and away to die somewhere insignificant. The last sounds they would hear were more delighted hums as Ishika enjoyed her meal. She slurped up noodles filled with human remains, devoured vegetables, and even went back for seconds before starting to feel satiated. All that remained was a fair bit of broth; which Ishika was more than happy to drink. As she voraciously guzzled it all down a stream trickled down her chin and down onto her exposed bosom. A lukewarm seasoned river that engulfed more that were on the future Emissary's body. "Mm? Ah shit." She lazily cursed as her thumb swiped at the spillage. All of it gathered onto her thumb as she sucked at it and set her empty bowl onto the ground with a content smile. "Thank you for the meal~" She said to nobody in particular; and also at the wrong point in the meal but this was just not the woman to care about things like that.
"Haaa...." The redhead laid back on her palms with more dust smushed under her. "Still not here...Beginning to think this is a hoax." Looking skyward, she estimated it was only the afternoon. She could give it another hour or so before it might've been a good idea to hike it back to the nearest town. It was just a question of what was the best way to spend that hour. Invariably, her eyes shifted to the temple like it would somehow provide an answer.
"Hmm..." It did feel like a waste for this place to just be up here forgotten. Ishika wasn't even a religious gal and she could tell this was once a place someone put a lot of love and care into. "Allie-oop!" Settling on a course of action, Ishika nimbly jumped to her feet and left the fire going. She might go back for thirds later; but for now she returned to that main hall.
Meya Isei:Meya was witness to it all. Witness to Ishika crushing armies underfoot. Witness to her destroying cities. She had seen people devoured in the numbers of thousands by this redhead and she was just... So helpless. Meya had never felt more helpless in her life. She was literally just a piece of lint on Ishika's sandal as she walked and she realized, rather horrifically that she had no way to escape... either through using her sword to cut her way out or to end her self. Meya had tried to bite off her own tongue but fate was cruel and one of the strands managed to gag her when she had opened her mouth to shout. Meya could only let out muffled cries at this point as the strands had wrapped around her body and almost turned her bindings into a cocoon. She was wrapped up in a bundle really... but that also meant that it was less likely Ishika would kill her by accident. Meya realized with horror that she would live. She was going to watch Ishika ravage all this and in the end her death would not be that of a warrior. It would be a death of a woman starved and thirsty wasting away. Meya let out a muffled scream, looking up at Ishika above pleadingly. For any mercy. For any release. Nothing came, Ishika just kept on walking with her little passenger below.
Lady Ryo:Ryo had managed to arrange people in her city in the collection bowl to pray to Ishika. To worship her. Indeed, that had spread to those communities that remained on the floor. All of them were praying to Ishika, to their redheaded Goddess for her mercy. Ryo herself was upon the balcony of her castle again and prayed as she saw Ishika enter in the distance. "Please, we will grant you our everything. We'll live only for you. We'll teach our children and their children to worship you forever. We-we'll be your playthings if that's what you desire! Please, spare us extermination, Goddess! Spare us your wrath and I swear I will rebuild the ashes in your image and ensure all survivors only have faith in the one true Goddess! I-I'll give you my chastity! My devotion! My unwavering faith to you and only you! I'll burn and slaughter all heathens that would reject your mercy! All those that displease you!" Ryo sounded desperate and her once neat and tidy clothes were wrinkled and messy. Her hair was wild and had long sense fallen unkempt. She looked deranged almost as she watched her country crushed.
Ishika Tsumori:Naturally Ishika knew none of this. She didn't hear their prayers. She didn't feel anything different than the last time she was in this room. But, for a moment, it almost seemed like it worked. The redhead slid her sandals off and looked around at the main hall with a surveying glance. For Meya it almost seemed like her plea for mercy had been granted as well as Ishika felt an itch and brought the sole of one foot atop the other. The black tabi filled the woman's world as it came down. Surely such an unfathomably large dark ceiling would end her as it had all others. As it would turn out - No, no it did not. Meya was between two tabi and was so insignificantly tiny that she was doomed to live. As Ishika's foot pulled away she resumed walking, this time not destroying anything in her path by virtue of there being nothing left in it.
She made for the back halls again and vanished from view, only heard as thunder in the distance. Five minutes passed before the sounds of her returning boomed out. "I knew I saw it!" The redhead could be heard proudly declaring as she returned with an old broom in hand. The handle was quite dusty but it seemed to be in surprisingly good condition still.
"Be a waste to let this Temple stay all old and dirty." She thought aloud and nodded before making for one of the walls; an area Ishika had ignored up until this point. An unspoiled stretch of cities and dust-sized people. The redhead began to hum a generic tune and furrowed her brow as she brought the broom down. Boom. It was nowhere near as loud as anything Ishika did, but the impact kicked up a dust storm of...Well...Dust, that went on for miles before she began to sweep. Her intentions were clear. If it was on the floor it was going to be wiped out. Either under her feet or this broom.
Ishika Tsumori:The irony? This was precisely what Lady Ryo desired of her to begin with.
Meya Isei:Meya almost cried tears of joy as Ishika brought her foot up as though to scratch an itch. It turned out however that this was not her release. She felt despair as she was instead tangled deeper. Her form sank into the massive black fiber beneath her and Meya literally became part of a single thread in Ishika's tabi. As the outside world faded from view, Meya prayed to any god that might listen to help her. To do anything.
Empress Himiko:Turned out, God was listening. "Help eh?" A voice filled Meya's mind. "Well of course I'll help, I'd be a cruel God if I didn't." She chuckled. Meya's joy was short lived as her body started to fizzle away. "I'll make it so you never need to be afraid of being crushed or dying again. You get to rise higher than any dust ever has."
Meya Isei:Meya's joy turned to ashes as her body fizzled away rapidly. It wasn't death however. Her awareness changed until she was aware of... something filling her. She also felt a crushing weight bearing down on her. She was made aware of what she was. Her soul was trapped in Ishika's tabi and she felt through it. Meya's horror became soundless screams as elsewhere a cruel goddess laughed.
Lady Ryo:Ryo meanwhile was going through her own sort of hell. The theological hell. She saw Ishika and as she walked off Ryo allowed herself to have some hope. Hope that her Goddess would have mercy. Then she returned and her shoulders slumped. People were talking to her but she couldn't hear them. She could only look at Ishika. Watch her as she happily cleaned it all. Swept her country away, all of it. She was sweeping it away like dust. Every step crushed people. Every sweep ended towns and cities. Ryo watched and eventually, something snapped in her and she laughed. And laughed. And threw back her head in a cackle of a broken woman. "I see now. Yes. I see it all clearly now, Goddess! We are all sinful! Our society has fallen into irredeemable sin!" She turned to her minister and gripped the man by his robes before tossing him over her balcony. "We're all filth you are sweeping aside." She said as she covered her face with a hand and looked at her gathered staff with a crazed look in her eyes. "We're all dust that has to be swept aside. I understand now!" She opened her arms wide as she turned back to face Ishika. "Clean us of sin, Goddess! Wipe it all away!" She laughed.
Ishika Tsumori:And wipe it all away Ishika most certainly did. It didn't matter what point of her life you looked at; the one thing you could say about Ishika without fail was she didn't leave things half-assed. When the redhead committed to cleaning she cleaned. Her broom swept through entire cities with miles-high fields of straw. She crushed cities miraculously missed underfoot; and it became a microbial scramble in her wake. Some were fortunate - Or...Unfortunate depending on how you looked at it. Creatures too small to be crushed and who survived by mere chance, left behind in an endless field of wood without any sight of the world they once knew to be seen. Ishika got the corners, the walls, the edges, the back rooms even. And when all was said and done she swept it all to the front and with one forceful shove she sent it all flying to the dirt outside. Any sign of the civilizations on the floor were wiped without a trace. All that remained were flecks of dust that would never eek out their existence as dust as long as Himiko was willing.
"Whew!" The redhead wiped her forearm against her brow and set the broom aside. Oh. She wasn't done. Now she came for the dais. Now she came...For the offering bowl. By using the same cloth she'd used to upend her food before, Ishika wiped the mantle and legitimately cleaned a lot of dust. She also cleared a few more cities with her dusty cloth rag. "Oh hey, incense burners." The redhead noted, never having noticed them before because she was looking for a person. "I wonder..." One trip to the back and sure enough, Ishi found some aged incense. "Smell probably not there anymore, but it'll burn." She said with a nod and set the two burning sticks in place. Now all that remained was Ryo in the bowl.
Frankly, Ishika was surprised to see coins in the bowl at all. It didn't look like they'd been touched in hundreds of years. Admittedly, there was a temptation to pocket them, but that...Iunno that just felt kinda wrong. So Ishika just cleaned around them and wiped out fields of dust until the bowl regained something of a shine. With all that finally done, Ishika pulled her hand back and nodded with a satisfied smile. "There we go!" It felt like her joyous eyes were staring right at Ryo specifically. As if her new Goddess approved of her mental break.
"Well...Guess while I'm in a temple..." Ishi shrugged and closed her eyes.
Lady Ryo:Ryo stood in her throne room just beyond the balcony and the room itself was coated in a lot of blood. She held a katana in her loose fingers and around her were the bodies of her ministers, blood dripping from the blade. She turned back to the balcony and looked up at Ishika as the incense rose up. It would suffocate everyone in the city soon, replacing the air with another thing. To a normal human it was nothing. To the dust it was as good as poison. Ryo looked up at Ishika's face with that deranged smile. "Oh, how foolish of me." She said as though just having a thought. "I'm filthy as well. So I have to be wiped away. Silly me. Please, Goddess, let me take care of that!" Ryo said as she lifted her blade up and drove it into her own gut. She let out a gasp of pain as she fell to her knees and slowly carved open her stomach to spill out what was inside. "Fo-for you..." She said as she collapsed forward and grasped toward the sky with bloodied fingers. Her vision was already turning black from the shock and pain from it all. "All of it, wipe it all away, Goddess..." Ryo said as she breathed her last after offering her life to Ishika.
Empress Himiko:"Wew. Okay. That was kinda hot." Himiko mused from her distant place as she watched it all play out. "Going right in the lewd library."
Ishika Tsumori:In perhaps the greatest irony of all of this, Ishika prayed for the temple itself. She notably avoided using Himiko's name, but the redhead hoped for a good future for the place. She wanted it to be put to use and to be restored like the person who once lived there would've wanted; and with her prayer done the woman's eyes opened. The smoke from the incense permeated around and she looked down at the coins from on high. The city was choking to death. They were already dead in just a few minutes. However, evidently that wasn't fast enough. Ishika reached into her pocket and pulled out a few spare coins, tossing them into the bowl without a care in the world.
The bowl echoed and chimed as a handful of coins all rained down into it. They smacked into the spaces around the city and flipped over it. Most slid into the edges of the coin and caused tremors; but one coin remained in the air. A single yen, ironically worth far less than the coin the Capital was built on, danced over head before coming hurtling down like a copper meteorite. There was only the clinking of metal connecting and that was it. The Capital was completely wiped out.
"Ugh, fuck is it that time already?" Ishika saw the sky turning gold outside and groaned. "Guess I'm eating dinner now and high tailing it back to town after." She mused as she stepped away from the altar. One last look around and she could nod with pride at the job she'd done. The walls and ceilings were still in poor shape, but she had every intention of telling the nearest town about this place. Hopefully they could restore it to its former glory. Now that it was dust free.