Old Scores

Kirito’s panting echoed in his ears as he parried the attack of the Kurayomi skeleton and followed through with his second scimitar removing the rotting skeleton’s head. As the creation staggered Kirito thrust his blades into the humanoid construct and wedged them into its ribs. Kirito twisted on his feet and slammed the rotting corpse to the ground before withdrawing his blades to look around the ship. “Damn Kurayomi, how did they summon these things on the ship?!” Kirito yelled out but no one was listening. At that moment the Hancock was covered in the dead materializing into existence around him and the rest of the Alliance shinobi. Catching sight of Mikoto he could see his Inkan friend was still fighting before he turned to look around the ship for the rest of the squad. As he looked behind him he barely caught the shine of the blade swinging down on him. Jerking to his right he almost pulled out of range of the skeleton’s blade as it sliced through his right arm. He looked up to watch as the large hammer of the Hancock’s Captain came crashing down on the skeleton destroying the creation in a single blow. Kirito’s smile was quickly darkened as he watched a sword thrust through the Captain’s chest and throw him to the side. “They just keep coming, we’re not going to win this.” he thought. Pushing up to his feet he pivoted on his heels swinging his blades, the edges hit one after another across the skeleton’s neck before popping its head from is shoulder’s and down the creation went swinging wildly from the floor at anything close enough, friend or foe. Kirito felt a sudden shift on the boat’s deck and could barely hear Mikoto yell his name out over the battle. Turning Kirito was met by a pristine white ribcage. Looking up Kirito saw the three large summons looking down on him, “you’re kidding m-“, Kirito barely mumbled out as the skeleton in front of him swung a massive hand down toward the startled Arashi. Jumping back he barely escaped the seven foot tall construct’s hand taking a moment to ready himself he lifted his blades in front of him and the three constructs lurched forward toward him.

“Mikoto! A little help here!” Suddenly Kirito realized the constructs were not looking at him but moving toward him, glancing back he realized he was standing in the doorway to the lower decks and it became clear. “They’re after the engines” he thought turning back to look at the contructs he was surprised to see a hand in his face. “Fuck, its fast..” his thoughts turned to fear as he felt the large hand wrap around his face and slam him to the side as the skeleton moved past. As the first skeleton released him Kirito swung his sword at the creature’s arm as it entered the hallway barely scratching its dense bone. Before he could attack again a large forearm swung against his gut slamming him back against the wall knocking the air out of him before he crumpled to the ground. The second skeleton’s  first step cleared him but the second step into the hallway was on the mid of Kirito’s back causing him to scream out in pain as he felt the weight of the large creature on his back for a moment and the twinge of his ribs cracking. The second skeleton moved on down the hall and into the lower decks, screams and metal on bone could be heard coming from the hallway as the first made its way deep inside of the ship. Kirito laid half in and half out of the door way as he felt a hand wrap around his shin and pull him out onto the deck and with a painful twist his was on his back looking up at the third massive skeleton angling a blade at his chest. It raised the sword and motioned to stab downward but stopped in mid swing and looked up toward the hallway. Its jerky motions looked like that of someone having their strings pulled and being stopped. It stood and walked over him but not without stepping down on his arm as it too made its way into the ship.

Kirito laid on the deck there and could hear the death cries and sounds of battle around him. After a few seconds he turned over with a flop and pushed himself to his feet. Stumbling forward he bent down to grabs his swords was tossed off his feet as he felt this whole ship shutter from an explosion. This time when he stood up his feet adhered to the deck using the wall walking technique before he surveyed the damage, “were we hit?!” he weakly yelled out as he walked to the railing. Smoke billowed from the side of the ship where a massive hole now made it possible to see clearly into the area of the ship where the engines were. Turning Mikoto was looking over the edge of the ship as well before he slapped the back of Kirito’s shoulder “We need to get off now!” Mikoto turned to the shinobi still onboard the ship, “Everyone abandon ship!” Looking around Kirito could see that only a few of the original crew were still alive and it looked as if the skeleton’s aboard had already jumped ship the moment the larger skeleton’s destroyed the engines.

The Hancock lurched to one side as the airship started to capsize.  “Everyone get off the ship!”  Kirito yelled as shinobi started jumping from the ship to the nearby alliance ships. Some of the shinobi made the jumps easily, while others didn’t. Kirito watched as a medic from the Hancock jumped for a nearby ship only to be caught and slip from the hands of those who caught her to fall to her death. Kirito ran back for the doorway as Mikoto yelled after him to get off the ship before attempting the jump himself. Kirito snatched up one of his blade’s and watched as another slid further down the hallway. Running after the sword he grabbed the blade and looked down the stairs to see one of the large skeletons crawling its way back up the stairs with its lower body missing. Without waiting for the skeleton to get up the steps Kirito turned and ran back out onto the deck but what he saw made his heart fall out of his chest. In the time he had taken to run after his swords the Hancock had slipped below the clouds and was sinking fast. Most of the other shinobi airships were above him and he knew he could make that jump. Sliding his swords into their sheaths he stood there looking up as the battle seems to draw distant, the sails whipping in the wind and then his eyes focused on the sails. His eyes grew wide and Kirito run up the deck to where the wheel was as the large skeleton had crawled its way onto the deck.

“Ok how did I do that last time… I built up the dune reaper… condensed it.. THAT’S IT!” As if his answer had been hand delivered to him Kirito activated his family’s technique and the clouds around the Hancock slowly started to swirl inward around the vessel wrapping it in a white shroud as Kirito planned his last act. Looking up at the lead ship Kirito gritted his teeth, “Screw you I’m not done yet…” with a blast of wind Kirito directed the wind around him forward and felt a jerk as he was almost taken off his feet as the wind and sails collided. The Hancock was propelled forward once more on the final turn of its career as the newly appointed Chunin turned the falling vessel into a mid-air torpedo. Grabbing ahold of the wheel Kirito saw the large skeleton slide down the deck swinging its arms trying to grab ahold of something before wedging itself against the rails on the back of the boat. Losing sight of the enemy ship Kirito prayed that his aim was dead on and just like that the Hancock broke through the clouds like a bat out of hell on a collision course with the lead enemy vessel.

Kirito’s grin turned into a frown as he realized he was coming up on the vessel too fast, “too much chakra…” Turning Kirito’s foot almost slipped out from under him as he ran toward the back of the boat, the collision shook the entire boat as Kirito could feel the hull of both ships ripping each other apart. The large skeleton laid against the back of the ship reaching out to grab at Kirito as he leapt from the back of the boat, “Later!”

Feeling the wind whipping around him Kirito looked down and could see the village through the clouds and he thought to himself, “This isn’t exactly how I pictured me flying one day but at least it’s beautiful and I get to see it before I die”. It felt like eternity as Kirito fell and then out of the corner of his eyes he saw the ship cut through the clouds, it was the Hancock’s sister ship. The large airship shot forward as it came under Kirito and he knew he wasn’t going to die today. As the vessel came closer he used an air jutsu to slow his decent and a piercing pain started to grow on his forehead till he snorted and stirred awake to look at his hawk pecking at his forehead.

Waving his hands he sat up as the bird hopped away from him, “Get off me Satsume, I’m not dead yet you can’t eat me! Gah what is wrong with you?” The red tailed hawk looked back at him and tilted its head, “Well I knew you weren’t dead you don’t look dead but your friend there does.” Kirito followed the hawk’s eyes to the large upper body of the skeleton laying near Kirito. “That he does, doesn’t he?” Kirito dusted himself off before he walked over to the large skeleton. “What are you doing?” The voice pierced the quiet of Kirito’s mind. “Making sure the score is known” Kirito spoke as he snapped the head off of the skeleton. “What do you mean?” The hawk hopped up onto the ruined railing of the ship with a flutter of its wings. Inching toward him Satsume watched as Kirito used a kunai to etch something into the side of the skeleton’s skull. With a smile Kirito admired his work and walked over balancing the skull on the destroyed wheel. “Really surprised this much of the ship is in one piece” Kirito remarked as he stepped back eyeing the skull to make sure it wasn’t going to fall off. After he was satisfied He hopped over the railing and looked back at the remains of the airship as it sat covered in sand. “Lets get back Satsume.” Kirito held out his arm and the hawk flew over to his arm and the two walked off toward Sunagakure.



//// OOC
If any were to go looking  they would find a small fragment of the Hancock’s hull in Wind Country East and atop of the old steering wheel they would find a large skull with the words “Hancock 1 – Covenant 0” scratched into the side of the skull.