[Nōhime Ouritsu]

i think you're slipping

i bring you pain, the kind you can't suffer quietly

The feeling of blade cutting into flesh would cause the boy to grit his teeth but the pain would soon become a secondary worry as the very visage of the room around him would begin to change. Gone were the large chandelier and large doors, replaced by a row of torches and a large staircase. So it was a genjutsu after all with little else but the map and tanto actually being real. Ouritsu silently cursed himself for not realizing it sooner. The entire maze had been lit by torches and it hadn't struck him odd that there was a giant chandelier all of a sudden. Well, at least he figured it out before stabbing himself to death.

A figure would be standing on the stairs giving the boy a quizzical look. He seemed surprised to come across someone that had knowledge of genjutsu, though he would have probably been more dumbfounded if he knew that Ouritsu didn't have access to the basic genjutsu cancelling technique; but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Whoever this guy was dressed just as weird as the woman from the first room which immediately made the genin skeptical of his words. He had been tricked once and was still paying for it and he wasn't all that willing to get duped a second time. However, he had taken the eight forks in the road and seemingly got past the final hurdle so all signs pointed to this being the true exit from the maze.

"The exit, huh? One second..." He replied before reaching into his munitions pouch and pulling out one of the medical kits. It was a pretty simple piece of equipment: bandages, disinfectant, safety scissors and the such. Ouritsu would take a few moments to clean and dress the cut along his arm so he wouldn't keep bleeding all over the floor, and once all that was taken care of he'd follow the man up the stairs and hopefully out of the maze. This had been a grand exercise in patience and critical thinking for the young Nohime and he had the wet clothes and bandaged arm to show for it. He hoped that the rest of the exams would be a little more traditional, or at the very least not take place in a dimly lit dungeon.

notes go here • tagged/open • word count

PYXIS ★

[Yoshiko]

First Exam: Maze Four Into the Stone Maze The man wouldn't much wait for the boy, but he also wasn't running for the exit. Patching himself up Ouritsu would only have to move a little hastened in order to catch back up to the man. This individual wasn't miss leading the Nohime, as they'd inevitably arrive outside of both the maze and the structure or whatever held it. Out in the open sun would be where the next part of the exam takes place. [End Thread] SPOILER: Click to show You're now physically suffering from the cold water. Expect to be playing out a runny nose and shivers until noted otherwise.