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The Portal Games

Kotone's Promo

The grounds of the Divine's shrine were always quiet late at night, or at least, so thought Kotone. The shrine maidens that wandered the grounds, tending to the wards hanging from the black lines running from the shrine to its walls, always complained among themselves of the heavy footsteps of the wandering mare. Her heavy footfalls could be heard from half a hallway away, a true shame for one that called herself a ninja.

She knew that they thought such things, for though she could never sneak up on them, she could hear them from some distance. The brown-furred mare's ears were sensitive, as was her entire body, a gift of the gods to counter whatever it was that kept her from true silence. Or at least, so it was said. It felt that it was more often used to deliver insults to save others the trouble of saying them to her face.

The mare shook her head as she put the latest insult behind the doors of her mental vault, sealing them away behind the teachings of her mentor. One did not allow the opinions of others to alter one's judgment of the moment. The past belonged to the past, and none may return there, so it was pointless to dwell on it. One must instead focus on the future, and the changes that one needed to make in the present to ensure that it was the future that one wished.

Standing from where she'd knelt among the flower gardens before the walls, Kotone fixed the vixens that tended to the plants with a firm stare. The shrine maidens paused, their eyes wide.

Instead of saying anything, the mare smiled. It was a small, knowing smile, and it was just enough to set the maidens running. She watched them leave, shaking her head as they darted for the paper doors that led to the dormitories within the walls. They were likely to report her to the Divine's priestess, hoping to get her in trouble.

It wouldn't, of course. As the ninja assigned to the shrine, she was allowed to wander in the night, even if her footfalls were as 'heavy as an avalanche'. Kotone turned, continuing her walk around the garden on the raised walkway, built to keep the unclean from touching the purified grounds.

The moonlight fell gentle tonight, she thought. It was not so harsh as it could sometimes be during the full moon, and it cast a silvery glow on the red wood that formed the cube-shaped shrine in the center of the grounds. Shadows fell and danced as the clouds shifted to and fro over the moon itself, and she watched them as she always did.

Eventually, one shadow moved wrong, and a black-wrapped mouse momentarily revealed himself. Realizing he'd misjudged the dance of the shrine's shadow, he darted for cover, but too late.

THUMP!

Kotone leaped from the walkway to the purified grounds, a knife already flying from her hand. The rodent turned and blocked the projectile. She'd expected that; the throw had merely been a way to keep him from running, and in the time it took for him to block it, she was already upon him.

With her greater height, she slammed his head against her knee, and then extended her legs to kick him between his. Even as the mouse slumped over, gasping for breath, she swung him around, throwing him to the ground and following him down. Her knee landed just beneath his ribs, forcing the air from his lungs.

As trained, she jammed her hand between his teeth, barely reaching in time to keep him from biting down. She felt the edge of his fangs against her hand, but held her pose. The way that he chewed, she knew that there was a poison tooth waiting to be cracked, a quick death to keep him from saying who had sent him.

The noise had attracted attention, and a trio of more experienced shrine maidens approached via the walkway. Their long bows came free, aimed for the mouse beneath Kotone.

There were no questions asked. Thieves and worse invaded the Divine's shrine on a weekly basis, always looking for something valuable, or looking to poison it. Kotone slowly stood, the mare bringing the mouse with her. Holding him with one hand, she kept him restrained as one of the shrine maidens stepped forward. They slid several pieces of leather through the gap in the mouse's lips, keeping him from biting down and finally allowing her to take her hand from his lips.

As they took possession of the prisoner, Kotone bowed her head. She expected no thanks; ninjas were never due such. They operated in shadow, and she was here merely out of the need to counter others trained in the shadow arts. While she lacked the ability to hide as they did, she knew how they hid, and more importantly, how to fight them.

"Ninja."

She looked up. The eldest of the shrine maidens looked her up and down, shaking her head.

"Cleanse yourself. There is blood on your hand; it must not poison the shrine any further than your nature already has."

"...Yes, Shrine Maiden."

She emerged from the bath with a sigh, the smell of lavender and smoke following her up. The blood had been barely a droplet, but it had been reason enough for the shrine maidens to look down on her. Any foulness, anything less than the purity of the shrine maidens and their own order was reason to look down on others.

It was not the way that the Divine had first set down orders for the world. To maintain clarity. To maintain beauty. To maintain order. Those were the standards that the shrine maidens were meant to respect, and nowhere in their teachings did it say that they were better than those that they watched over, and certainly it never forbade someone like her - someone larger, someone out of place, someone that had skills that weren't...acceptable - from being near the shrine.

Kotone shook her head. She tried to tell herself that it was merely something that she didn't understand, much as she often tried to tell herself that there was something she had yet to learn to move silently, but the former was beginning to feel as much of a lie as the latter. The mare sighed.

"If I were in charge..."

Such a phrase was anathema to a ninja, particularly one still learning...but it seemed to be the key to a door. A shimmering black portal opened before her, leading to a sweeping sea. As her training to protect the shrine kicked in, Kotone leaped through. She must investigate what lay on the other side.