[DMPRP] Chantry of Secrets [Shun/???]

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun slowly tilted his head as he recognized the blade. Where did this come from? He reached out and took it from the air, looking it over. There was some dried blood upon the blade.

He had a feeling this was supposed to have been the one he used on Heliodora, even if he had cleaned that up. There was no washing away the deed itself, though.

With a huff, he went further in, glancing between the rows and rows of file cabinets.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

It was only a couple of rows before he would notice it, a foot that was there sticking out.

The shoe was familiar.

Mostly because it was the same that he wore on his own feet.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun paused as he saw the foot sticking out. The shoe was identical to the ones he was wearing right now.

He did not have a good feeling about this.

"Show yourself."

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

There was no movement.

No response.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

He waited a moment or so, then began to advance, slowly. The grip around the blade in hand tightened, as a few shards of black ice formed in the air around him.

Then, Shun moved to see whoever it was, ready to react in case it was hostile. He had a few ideas of what he might find.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

Within the shoe was a foot that lead to a leg that was attached to a body that was very much unmoving. It leaned against the wall, pushed there against a file cabinet.

Black hair fell out of a bun, messy and matted with what was probably blood, chin tucked to it's chest and face not visible. Above the body, words were scratched into the metal with something that looked red.

THE PRICE OF FAILURE.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun came to a halt as he stared at the most likely dead body slumped down against the wall. He couldn't see its face, but he didn't need to. Involuntarily, he took a step back and his skin went a little pale. He rarely reacted this way at the sight of a corpse, having long since been desensitized, but seeing who it represented, as well as the bloody message etched above it was enough to invoke it. He also didn't need to spend much time trying to read the message to get the gist of it.

Tearing his gaze away from the form, he turned about sharply.

"What is the purpose of this?" he hissed.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

There was no answer but the hand of the body fell suddenly away from it's chest, as if it finally lost grip of what it had been clutching.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

The movement caused Shun to stare at the body once more. He hesitated before he slowly approached the fallen form to get a better look. It had been holding onto something.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

There in his chest, for it was Shun, was a blade of inky darkness. The blade did not reflect light at all and seemed to be devoid of it.

The hand had fallen away from clutching at it, as if he had tried to stop the blade or, perhaps, to pull it out.

He had also been dead a while.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun stared at the inky black blade, not entirely certain what to make of it. He wasn't sure if he should touch it. Cautiously, he reached over to pull it out of the body, which had signs of having been here for awhile.

He didn't know who had killed his double here, or if the body was even completely real. This room or the entity that was somewhere around here could have conjured it to make some sort of point.

Or this was some past version of him. He didn't want to think too hard about how him coming across something like that was possible.

Whatever the exact reasoning was, he was still crouching besides a dead version of himself. That alone was disturbing on a few different fronts. This image had already burned itself into his mind.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

The moment he pulled the blade out, a sickening wet noise made, it disappeared in a burst of shadow that raced along his arm until it was covering his eyes.

Darkness covered his eyes.

This blade was a part of him, he knew it, and only he could call it forth. Yet there was nothing he could do now, completely unable to even dismiss it. A grip stronger than his, a will stronger than his, now gripped his hand that held his shadow blade and turned it towards his own body.

Try as he might he could not push back. It was closer and closer and pain blossomed in his chest as it pierced his skin.

His sight cleared, the vision fading. Both the body and the blade were now gone but the messaged remained scratched into the metal.

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

That was an unpleasant squelch the blade had made. Though, he recoiled back as it vanished and raced along his arm. Stumbling back as darkness overtook his eyesight, something that he hasn't quite experienced in about a month or so now.

He gritted his teeth as he fought against whatever held his hand, slowly pushing the tip of the blade closer to his chest. Just as he felt the immense pain of it piercing into him, he snapped from the vision, gasping and clutching at his chest where the stab wound would have been.

No blood. Shun was unharmed. He stared at the cabinets before him, now devoid of the body that had laid there moments ago. The message remained.

The price of failure.

It may not have been something of the past after all, but something that could come to him yet.

Not wanting to linger around here any longer, he turned to leave the archives. He'd deal with the shadowed blade later.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

A voice whispered in his ear, the same voice that had spoke to him through the door.

"Perhaps it'll serve you better than it did me," it said as he stepped through the doorway.

The heavy door swung shut, the noise echoing. It was now closed to him.

Blade Kuroda

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