In all My Dreams I Die [Solo]

She'd found someplace.....secluded. The campus for the Acadamy was fairly enormous, large enough that it hadn't taken her much time at all to find an isolated tree on the edge of a training field to sit herself under. How long had it been now since she'd become a shinigami? It had been ages since she'd been to the world of the living. She'd had her regular patrols as an Intern, however those had been very limited in scope. A result of her being so fresh, it was simply a matter of protocol, from what she could understand, that she wasn't just thrown down to earth. Which made sense. Build yourself a good base right?

And hadn't she? Sitting there at the base of the tree, she looked off into the distance, eyeing the other Shino students that were training. She had done pretty ...well so far for all considered purposes. She had to admit, she didn't know what it was going to be like at all. She seemed to be one of the quicker learners in her class. But she supposed she could just chalk that up to her Mod Soul Programming, she was MADE to be easy to train after all. But even so, some of her classmates were surpassing her quite easily in most subjects. Always a bigger fish or something like that. At least when it came to most subjects. Most.

Her eyes shifted to the sheathed blade resting in her lap. Gently, her fingers ran along the surface of the weapon. It's shape having already twisted from it's original base appearance. Just running her fingers along it's length, she could FEEL the slow, crawling presence in the back of her mind.

Are you Afraid?

A shiver coursed through her entire body, and she turned around, pausing when she saw...... it.

Darkness sprawled out across the entirety of the lawn behind her. An enormous shadowy mass beneath a veil of darkness. But she knew exactly was beneath that dark veil. Her eyes darted around ....the scenery seemed.....different. Ish.

This was a Plaza..... the center of an estate. A familiar estate..... And then she saw them.
The massive containers of Sake, knocked over and spilled out, the poisoned alcohol flowing freely in ...absurd ammounts, far too much flowing for what would reasonably be in the barrels themselves. So much that it was slowly flooding the very bottom of the courtyard.....and Lerna suddenly bolted up to her feet as she saw the slow flow of alcohol starting to spread towards her, making her step up onto the stone steps behind her, before her gaze snapped up to the shadowy creature across the small pond of alcohol that was slowly filling the courtyard.

Was this.....her inner world? She glanced around, staring at the towers that surrounded the olace, interlaced with vast endless trees. As if nature were trying to reclaim the estate.
"This is ......it? My soul. My entire being is just...THIS place? Gotta say I'm a little disappointed Yamato No Orochi." She murmured blandly, looking up to stare at the beast that was for some reason hiding from her.

I believe that would be Your name. Not ours.

She ....paused. Her nose slowly wrinkling as she stared at the beast. It was then that she heard that watery noise, she glanced down and almost JUMPED out of her skin as she LEAPT back! Vanishing with a swift shunpo as she backed up onto the rooftop of the nearest building, watching that small pond turning rapidly into a lake! "Jesus. Alright. I get the deal." She murmured before she STOMPED her foot, a burst of reiryoku flowing through her body, punching clean through the roof tiles, until a shard of stone bounced up and into the air, deftly snared by the blonde as she stuck her tongue out at the dark mass. "So we fight? We kiss and make out? Gotta say I dunno if I can handle all seven of you." She noted with a sly smile, only to pause when she felt something wet. Wait....

She looked down again just in time to see that rising level of sake suddenly flowing over her feet. WH-?! When did it rise so fast?! She had only an instant to try and jump, but it wasn't enough, she felt something grab onto her feet and she was suddenly YANKED down! Submerged within those dark depths and letting out a yell of surprise! Suddenly she was surrounded by water!

I don't expect you in any condition to fight us.

She wasn't worried about drowning, that just wasn't ever a thing for her. But in that water, she still felt a ...dizzying panic as she began to look around. It looked so much murkier than she expected. It was almost pitch black down here, and as she looked around, she could SEE that massive dark shape coursing around her, swimming about. So it was a fight after all, huh? And yet.....that dark shape never struck at her from the murky depths. She just....floated there, slowly looking around. And ...frowning.

Why WAS this her Inner world? She knew this place. It was where she'd been defeated. The estate of the Kunitsukami whose daughters she'd devoured. Where she'd been poisoned with drugged Liquor. And then beheaded.

In that instant, she instinctively reached up to cover the back of her neck as if expecting a blade to come from nowhere. And it was in that very moment...she saw it. A glimmer down in the depths, as something caught the light filtering in from above. Something all the way down at the bottom of the lake.....in the center of the courtyard. She ...hesitated... looking around in those dark depths, as if expecting that attack to pop out of nowhere. But it never came.... It was ....silent. EERILY silent.

She slowly started to swim down towards the bottom, narrowing her eyes as she felt somehow...heavy as she moved through the water, slowly floundering her way down to the very bottom, down to that sliver of flickering light. And as she reached the very bottom, she began to see what exactly it was that she was swimming toward.

A sword.

But not just any sword. She recognized it....intensely. A blade she had swallowed ages ago, kept in her stomach and nutured with her own monstrous appetite. A sword that had been fed Seven princesses..... and countless other souls. HER sword. She could not help but reach out, hands vying for the blade. When a dark shape suddenly FLASHED in from her peripheral! She twisted, just in time to see a dark shape suddenly speeding toward her. It was ....human?! Sheer surprise rocked Lerna as she raised her arms! Her skin darkening as she sucked in that alcohol, fusing it to her skin in an attempt to protect herself, only for a flash of metal to cleave right through her wrists in passing! "SHIT!" She shouted as she suddenly reeled back! Just enough time for that dark shape to place itself between her and the weapon itself. Soon followed by Six other shadowy figures.

Lerna suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes suddenly wide as she found herself staring at the faces she hadn't seen in forever. That sleek black hair. Those fair pale faces. And the murderous looks in their eyes that seemed entirely new.

If you really want to wield us.
Do you think you can devour us a second time?

You never had a human form.
But you always wanted one.

The haunting voice echoed from every direction ad Lerna found herself on the defensive, eyes wide, staring at the seven figures that she VERY clearly remembered killing and eating. Each and every one of them staring threateningly her way.
Ah yes.... A Sword that lay in her stomach when she was in her prime. One that drank in that which she consumed and digested, sucking in the blood and bones of her meals. She supposed it only made sense it had also absorbed the alcohol that had been her undoing. But all the same... she couldn't believe that THEY had somehow survived. Maidens beyond beauty. Not only filled with strength, but with looks that were unparalleled.


Looks she had envied. One of the very reasons she had devoured them with such paced care. IT had worked. All seven of them, digested and absorbed. And in that moment....she found her eyes flicking to the blade buried in the ground.
She began ......to slowly walk along the bottom of that fermented ocean.... Slowly. Cautiously, watching as those haunting faces as they simply....floated in the water, eyes hunting her with looks alone as she went. Slowly approaching the blade buried in the soil itself. And she froze just before it.... as if afraid that reaching out would cause them all to lunge at her at once. But she couldn't resist the pull it was inflicting upon her. She wanted it. She NEEDED it. An .....alternative to this .....rough fascimile she'd clung to for hundreds of years.

Her eyes shifted in the direction of those haunting witches. Seven Witches.....Seven heads. And.....herself.

A name.
In exchange for a true form.
To no longer cling to your pathetic best effort.
Is that not a fair trade?

She felt her heart up in her throat, as she glanced down at the blade.... and held out her hand, her own pale fingers hovering over the pommel of the weapon. The name. She could see it. On the blade of the weapon. Scratched out and faded. No doubt from having sat in her stomach for so long. But she knew what it said. The name that pathetic fucker of a shinigami had not even pronounced correctly.

Her fingers closed around the handle. And she could feel her skin crawling, shifting.
Changing as she felt that name on her tongue.
"Fair enough. Sōteiken."