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Nebula Arisen

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Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2025 5:17 pm

Prompt: Waking from the dream of history class has only brought more questions, and Nalani is going to get the answers to them one way or another.

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2025 8:30 pm

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ＤＵＫＥＯＦＷＩＮＤＵＲＩＡ

Haruka was running. He wasn't sure where to go and he didn't care. Or rather, his mind had yet to fill those blanks. But he knew he had to escape. He desperately required solitude, for at least a brief moment. To have been in an active combat environment was nothing new, but the stranger that attacked him...she...she killed him. Poured liquid death straight down his lungs and burned his inside with noxious fluids that brought him to a slow, agonizing death. He couldn't move. He couldn't speak. All Haruka could do was desperately try to gasp but to no avail. It was only when he awakened that Haruka could even attempt to articulate the agony he'd just experienced. And his body's first response was to get out of there and hope never to see that woman again.

Unfortunately, the duke of the wind would not be so easily granted such things.

Haruka could hear her footsteps behind him. But not for long. Jumping out from the open hallway and onto the grass, he then jumped into the air. Before his feet hit the ground, the air gathered below him to allow him to bounce off of it like a trampoline. After a few leaps, he was on the roof. Running down and jumping off to another wing of the campus, He paused behind a wall in the shade. His heart was racing. Could he not calm himself? But why? Haruka had long since promised his life away to his country; was this really so different? And yet there was a terror that resonated down to his core he simply could not shake.

Hopefully though, he had rid himself of her for the time being. I just have to...find guards...plan a way to...subdue her... In a way, he was glad that he seemed to be this woman's target. Stopping to catch his breath, Haruka tried to think about the positives of this scenario. Getting her out of that room meant getting her away from the royal family. Whatever this woman's issues were, he could at least attempt to keep them away from those who are truly important. Broken weapons get replaced. Those truly blessed by the wind cannot. Yes, there was comfort in that at least. Hopefully, though, no lives would need to be lost at all.

Location: Right outside the campus
Company: No one (?)
Wearing: Outfit
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2025 9:59 pm

Sometimes it had been difficult to tell the difference between dreams and reality when she had been following shipping routes during the war. Often, it hadn’t mattered. Her sleep and waking life had been filled with the same things: water, blood, and screams. The blank period between kneeling in a burning village and sitting at a desk in a classroom meant nothing to her. Time was a strange beast, and memory a fickle one. She sat up, head heavy on her shoulders, and rocked up onto her feet. There were others around her who were also just waking up, making noises of confusion. A familiar head of dark pink locks roused beside her. She looked out over the room at large, seeking out her cousins, and finding instead–

The not-Jinto she had killed. Not Jinto, but still a Konokaze, with distinct gray eyes meeting her own. Fear filled those eyes, and, just as she knew down to her bones that the sun would rise in the east as it fell to the west, she knew that he was going to run a split second before he did. It was natural, instinctive. She could no less curb the urge to pursue than he could to flee.

Kicking off her heels, she took off after him in a dead sprint, chasing him down a hall before he tried to be clever by taking a window. She watched him bounce from point to point in the air as she climbed out herself, long pelican feathers tearing through her sleeves as her bones hollowed out. He vanished onto the rooftop, and with one great flap of her wings, she followed after him.

Nalani glided over the roof, catching sight of him dashing off to hide behind a wall, and she fell into a roll, all of her feathers shedding off of her, her jacket now left behind in pieces. Her footsteps were silent, her bodyweight different with her bird bones, lighter, but she let them regain their density as she pushed herself into a run. A tentacled arm caught onto the wall to swing her around the corner, and there he was.

Nalani slammed into him, the human hand coming up to grab his throat lengthening into another tentacle that looped and looped and looped around the width of his neck to hold him in a firm grip. She searched his features, nostrils flaring and seal whiskers sprouting as she breathed him in, her invocation of the octopus bringing forth more arms to pin his limbs against the brick. The fabrics smelled and tasted of classic Konokaze incense, but the human musk beneath it was familiar as well.

Strange. There was a scent of rancid decay on him. Because she had already killed him? The meat must have wasted quickly. Perhaps she wouldn’t eat him after she got her answers.

"Tell me the whereabouts of Jinto Konokaze, and I may yet spare your life this time," she snarled, tentacles giving him a warning squeeze as her face settled back into more human features. "Is he here as well, or is he still hiding away in Winduria like the coward he is?"

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location ⚘ Outside Campus
accompanying ⚘ Haruka
wearing ⚘ clothes
ooc ⚘

Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2025 1:53 pm

ＨＡＲＵＫＡ ☁ ＫＯＮＯＫＡＺＥ
ＤＵＫＥＯＦＷＩＮＤＵＲＩＡ

Haruka’s heart continued to pound in his chest. For most of his life, he was led to believe that, like some of the birds he studied as a youth, the Konokaze clan were like birds of prey specifically. Predators. And he, as a weapon, was to be a sharp pair of spare talons. But right now, he instead felt like prey. He hadn’t quite seen it yet, as he had in others, but he felt it in her. The urge to kill. Death was in her every motion in a way he hadn’t seen from anyone before. Such fury must’ve been as vast as the sky itself.

But why? Do I dare try to ask? It’s clear that her intentions with me are fatal at best. Is it because I was the easiest to assume to be Windurian, as Lady Willow would say? An attack from a former warring nation? And if so, why can I not will myself to defend my country’s honor? What is this feel that so strongly pushed me to run instead of face her head on?

It was strange. Normally he’d give his life for his country without question. It was not the sort of thing one as lowly as he was meant to question. Weapons were meant to be used; that was all. That had been all for so very long. So why? Why could he not face her? Before Haruka could ponder any longer on the subject, though, there was a shift in the wind. Not via control, rather simple movement…what is- A feather hit Haruka’s face. At the same time, a large swooped down like a vulture and slammed him down.

Haruka would attempt to move, but the hand that quickly struck to squeeze his neck turned into a massive tentacle that strangled him all the better. "Tell me the whereabouts of Jinto Konokaze, and I may yet spare your life this time," spat out the she-creature, vile hate spewing from every word of a being more beast than man. But as she continued, the mysterious woman reverted her facial features to something more recognizably human. The grip around his neck had also settled, though only just enough to allow her to speak.

It would take some moments for the duke to respond. Upon seeing her visage in full like this, Haruka could see the full brunt of the murderous rage that draped her form in blood-red massacre. His eyes remained wide as he struggled to process the sheer magnitude of her malice. Malice that, with her eyes being the same as his, almost felt the same as that of his father when Haruka failed him. Just as he was failing him now by being so weak.

Hands pulled at the tentacles that had sprouted to take his limbs as he kept him pinned to the wall, tugging at them with all his might to try and get himself loose. Alas, the woman’s strength was far beyond his own. Jinto Konokaze…when she said his name, the malice practically drowned out my vision entirely…does this have to do with his failure? Gasping for breath, he reared his head back as far as he could from her. ”Who are you, and what business do you have with Jinto Konokaze? State your intentions towards him.” If her rage against the Konokaze family, he would have to find it in himself to face her properly. That way, he could at least do some meaningful damage to her before she went upon the rest of them. But if her ire rested solely upon his uncle, then…this encounter would be a rather volatile one.

Location: Right outside the campus
Company: Nalani
Wearing: Outfit
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2026 4:42 pm

Fear had paralyzed her prey for several long moments, the only thing shared between them being their ragged breaths. Then he seemed to rally some, and struggled fruitlessly in her grip, rearing his head as far as he could with solid brick against his back. His gasped out demands had her eyes narrowing. Did he truly not know who she was? What had hunted for him and his kin for so long?

"I am what he made me," she hissed, teeth gaining sharp points behind her lips, "I am the thing that wears his daughter’s skin, I am the monster that has been hunting him down since he murdered her family in cold blood, and my patience wears thin, little Konokaze. I will regale you with how I intend to render him limb from limb after you tell me! Where! He! Is!"

Her voice ended in a guttural screech as she slammed him against the wall one, two, three, four times with her words, scales flaring across her cheekbones, and pupils contracting into shark slits.

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location ⚘ Outside Campus
accompanying ⚘ Haruka
wearing ⚘ clothes
ooc ⚘ RP

Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2026 11:16 am

ＨＡＲＵＫＡ ☁ ＫＯＮＯＫＡＺＥ
ＤＵＫＥＯＦＷＩＮＤＵＲＩＡ

In the past, Haruka’s hallucinations had been…brief. Fleeting. His senses putting to form what years of bloodshed had taught him to perceive in people. But with the woman before him, they would not yield. His eyes were constantly assaulted by monstrous black figures that screeched out with every bristle of her shifting form. Her rage, her hate, the very essence of her vengeance would not be made to disappear. Every corner of his vision was bloodlust. Every corner of his vision was her unbridled fury. And it was making itself clear that it could not be sated. Not by him alone.

Still, that didn’t stop the woman from making sure that he felt the full breadth of her unparalleled hate. "I am what he made me," spoke the sea devil as she retained less and less of her false human features. For it was more than her eyes that sparked familiarity within Haruka now. During the later days of the war, he would occasionally hear rumors of such a creature. A beast that could take the form of women, seafaring predators, or anything in-between. A water yokai that demanded blood. Konokaze blood. But as few lived to tell the tale of its attacks, he had begun to think it as folklore by the war’s end. Oh how wrong he was.

"I am the thing that wears his daughter’s skin, I am the monster that has been hunting him down since he murdered her family in cold blood, and my patience wears thin, little Konokaze. I will regale you with how I intend to render him limb from limb after you tell me! Where! He! Is!"

In a barbaric display of dominance, the malevolent force thrashed him against the wall repeatedly. Haruka grunted as his back hit the hard brick again and again. Another blunder on his part. Showing weakness was not the way of the Konokaze and not what a tool was good for. With haggard breaths, his head hung low as she finally let up. ”You are…Jinto’s…daughter?” asked Haruka weakly as he came to understand the revelation her words had brought him. At first he thought to doubt it. If she can change her form so willingly, her eyes now that of some form of sea beast, then what stopped her from making her eyes resemble his?

But then he remembered those same eyes in the dream state they just escaped from. With the idea of collusion between this monster and the history instructor highly unlikely at best, the duke found only one conclusion…and if that were the case, then…

Haruka would bring his gaze to meet that of the yokai once more. ”If I told you his whereabouts…it would not bring you the retribution you seek. For Jinto Konokaze…is already dead.” The words came out weaker still than his last. Such recollections were…unpleasant. But if she too was of Konokaze blood, and if her tragedy was the cause of that day, then she had a right to know. Just as well, there was a part of Haruka that wished to confirm things as well. Even though he knew deep down that he was not to ask why he was used, the curiosity remained.

Location: Right outside the campus
Company: Nalani
Wearing: Outfit
OOC:

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Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2026 8:44 pm

A hiss whistled through her teeth at his question, at the ******** gall to refer to her relationship with Jinto Konokaze in the present tense.

"Was, I was," she emphasized with a growl, "Before he killed her."

All her prey offered was silence, long enough that her waning patience had her considering shaking him again. As her grip around him began to curl tighter, he raised his head, those damned Konokaze eyes meeting her own pale irises. Human irises locked onto shark ones. The weariness etched into his features foretold either truth or more stalling, and the thought of either had her nearly vibrating out of her skin. She had never been so close to finding out, never been so close to learning–

”For Jinto Konokaze…is already dead.”

The world fell still.

The only sound between them was ragged breathing. Her chest was heaving. Her invocations faded, her grip on him loosening so that his feet returned to the ground.

Dead.

Jinto Konokaze.

Dead.

Nalani seized back control of her invocations, and they returned to shove this deceiver, this gods damned charlatan back harder against the wall, a new rage welling up as double eyelids blinked back the ocean rolling into her eyes.

"Liar! How?" she shrieked over the storm screaming in her head. "What did it?! Who would dare?!"

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location ⚘ Outside Campus
accompanying ⚘ Haruka
wearing ⚘ clothes
ooc ⚘

Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2026 7:57 pm

ＨＡＲＵＫＡ ☁ ＫＯＮＯＫＡＺＥ
ＤＵＫＥＯＦＷＩＮＤＵＲＩＡ

There was lifelessness in the air as the yokai that had cornered Haruka stood shocked by his admission. It was within the creature’s state of shock that he had finally been freed from her death grip. Or at least partially; a singular hand still kept his neck in place. Standing there, guilt welling up within him over his uncle’s failures, the duke was unsure of how to proceed. Would she continue to be a threat to the Konokaze clan despite the debt they owed to her having already been paid? Or was this sense of dread that he got for her a mere feint? After all, supernatural beasts such as the one before him were known for deception. Deception…and destruction.

From just this brief display of her abilities, I doubt I would do enough to even scratch her. Terror oozes out of her very pores. Fury in her every breath. But does that mean I am to retreat? From a tactical standpoint, it might serve me better. Even so, the risk of her leaving the academy…wait…why would she come here if her goal was to murder Jinto?

Unfortunately, Haruka would not get any more time to ponder such things. WHAM! Just like that, he was forced into the wall again. The malevolent spirit before him had renewed her spiteful assault on him with even greater force than before. Her roars were a far cry from that of a human being, but the duke was nonetheless able to understand the words that she, or maybe it, spat out at him. Once again the creature’s eyes went from that of a Konokaze to that of what was perhaps its true form.

"Liar! How?"

”I-I…”

"What did it?! Who would dare?!"

”I…I was the one who…did it.”

With the force of its aquatic limbs constricting him even tighter, it was that much more difficult for Haruka to give the yokai the answers it sought out. While he knew stories of heroes able to outfox such malevolence, Haruka knew not how to speak of a fiction that would save him from his encounter. But if this was to be his penance, then…so be it. Weapons can be replaced; should this be what stopped the yokai, then it would be of no consequence.

”He was said to have…dishonored the clan. Failed…in his objectives.”

Frankly, Haruka had not been given much detail beyond that. And as such, he was unsure whether this would sate the yokai’s bloodlust or not. If it had come to Utopia with the sole purpose of using him to get to Jinto, however, that would likely not be the case. But this was fine. As long as it ended here, there was no reason to concern himself with his future any further. Or at least…that’s what he knew he would be told.

Location: Right outside the campus
Company: Nalani
Wearing: Outfit
OOC:

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Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 9:42 pm

For a moment, Nalani only stared hard at her weakened prey, then a hysterical, disbelieving laugh ripped out of her throat. Him? This boy who hardly eclipsed her in height, nevermind in width, had been the one to take Jinto Konokaze’s life? The destroyer of worlds, her world, felled by this hatchling! It was absurd! The last time she had seen this boy, he had been unable to face against his younger brother, who might as well have been an infant! And he was trying to convince her he had–the ******** audacity. Her arms squeezed again.

"More lies! If you’re just trying to protect him, let me assure you that your efforts will be wasted! How could you, of all people, best him! Why would they use you to execute him! A spineless, cowardly WORM who could not best even a child!"

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location ⚘ Outside Campus
accompanying ⚘ Haruka
wearing ⚘ clothes
ooc ⚘

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2026 4:58 pm

ＨＡＲＵＫＡ ☁ ＫＯＮＯＫＡＺＥ
ＤＵＫＥＯＦＷＩＮＤＵＲＩＡ

While Haruka’s mind knew to release to the yokai as little agony to be feasted upon as possible, an instinctual part of him couldn’t help itself. As such, he had no choice but cry out as the creature referring to itself as his cousin constricted its tendrils with even greater strength than before. Panting and groaning, Haruka struggled to keep his head upright.

”I…do not mean that I…bested him in combat!”

Gritting his teeth, he steeled himself as best as he could. His hands formed fists, fingers digging tightly into his palms. ”He was…NGH…meant to take his own life…but he failed to do so. As such, he was forced down and I…was simply the tool used to dispatch him.” Looking the creature in the eye, he could hardly believe this beast to be the being he once knew as Nalani Kaehuwahine. That girl was…quiet. Kind. That the flashes of anger she’d show on occasion could turn into this…

No. This was not the Nalani Konokaze he knew. Surely this was a malevolent spirit who found her in the depths of the sea and took both her form and her fury and twisted it into the sinister being before him. Because if not…then…

Location: Right outside the campus
Company: Nalani
Wearing: Outfit
OOC:

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Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2026 12:00 pm

It should have pleased her to see her prey struggle within her grasp, but there was little else to feel beyond the white noise of an unyielding, unceasing rage filling her head, roaring like waves crashing against the shore in her ears. There was an impatience needling under her skin as he gasped and floundered in her grip like a dying fish, but finally, finally he managed to speak. Inhuman eyes searched his all too human face as his words pierced through the fizzing and popping emptiness of her mind, bouncing off the hollow of her skull in a disbelieving echo.

Take his own life.

Tool to dispatch him.

What the ******** did that mean?

"Why? Why would they want him dead?!" she snarled, squeezing arms giving him another shake, "Was destroying my family not enough for them? Or did they think killing him would save them from my wrath?!"

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location ⚘ Outside Campus
accompanying ⚘ Haruka
wearing ⚘ clothes
ooc ⚘

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2026 2:10 pm

ＨＡＲＵＫＡ ☁ ＫＯＮＯＫＡＺＥ
ＤＵＫＥＯＦＷＩＮＤＵＲＩＡ

As Haruka continued to be shaken by the thing that wore his cousin’s face, he surmised that his words only served to further enrage it. Which made sense. Malevolent spirits such as the one before him, in contrast to their great strength, were simple in mind. The facts presented to it clearly threw the simple worldview it had developed into chaos. And as such, it was seeing to it that he too was thrust about.

”There was…threat of opposition from….AGH Stilicidium…if retribution was not had,” the duke just barely squeezed out. Waving his hands around, he had hoped that the winds would produce even the slightest gale to aid in his escape. Alas, too unfocused were his thoughts and too useless was his form to do much of anything.

”But don’t…speak as if you…truly care!”

This was not, could not be the Nalani Konokaze he once knew. To think that she could ever be reduced to such a single-minded beast was an insult to her memory. And it was in that where his growing frustrations lay. ”You may…wear her face, yokai…but know that you...do not...deceive me!” More than the physical torture, the charade this creature continued to pull weighed on him the most. And while it might’ve done him no good to show how much it pained him to see it take this form, he would not play this creature’s game any longer.

Location: Right outside the campus
Company: Nalani
Wearing: Outfit
OOC:

Beyond The Time
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Posted: Tue May 05, 2026 7:57 pm

Her prey continued his feeble struggles as he grit out the answers she was demanding, and her gaze unfocused as they hit with the accuracy of a harpoon in her belly. Retribution from Stilicidium…? That didn’t make sense, that would mean Stilicidium knew…had known...her grandmother, her uncle, they had known, this whole time--how could they–how could they–

The Konokaze’s next words drew some of her attention back to him, his usually indifferent features twisting in pain–or perhaps the little hatchling was actually angry. And what did he know of anger? Of the dark, wretched depths her feelings continued to descend to? His claim forced a humorless laugh out of her. Did he truly believe she was trying to trick him into believing she was human? That she was the girl he had last seen years ago? How could she be? How could she hide the storm beneath her skin, the monster that had consumed her soul? She was what she was…and him? The tool used to steal her vengeance out from under her.

"Deceit is not my weapon," she snarled, sharp teeth baring in a ghoulish resemblance of a grin as her grip upon him tightened exponentially, "and no longer will you be theirs!"

In a move of pure, furious spite, she tore him apart in a fountainous burst of blood.

Dripping with sticky red, the only sound in the aftermath was her shuddering breaths as she took in the grisly scene she had made. Konokaze gray stared emptily past her, and it should have been satisfying, there should have been relief, but as every time before–no. Worse than every time before was the emptiness that yawned gapingly wide through the rage. Jinto was dead.

Jinto was dead.

Why had the gods been so unkind as to let her keep living past this?

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location ⚘ Outside Campus
accompanying ⚘ Haruka
wearing ⚘ clothes
ooc ⚘

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