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Description

Ukuni’s shortcut.

    Ukuni could not abide by the humiliation. She was a ninja and one of the highest-ranking ones in the order. Again, and again the goody two shoes’ monks had fought against her, and this was going to be the day she finally had her vengeance.

    She was a tall and fit woman with long black hair and light green highlighted bangs. Her long hair was tied up into a tight bun held in perfect place by a pair of green chopsticks. On her head was a tightly locked cat ear headband that matched a tail that poked out from under her short black mini dress. On her hands were wrapped back gloves. Normally she would wear her boots, a clunky black pair that se felt powerful in. However, this was the problem, this was why she was so upset.

    She had been relaxing for the morning, something she had precious little time to even do lately. She had kicked off of her boots and let them rest in a hot water bath in the spa in the town her order had taken over. Her feet were long and slender with a high arch and soft round heel. Her toes were long and curvy with beautiful round nails which were currently painted a pale green to match her bangs. The hot water attacked the aches in her feet and soothed her almost instantly. Though she was the kind of person that usually had trouble relaxing or taking moments to herself, the footbath was wonderful. She was so distracted that she didn’t see the pesky monk, slip in the building and take something.

    Ukuni saw movement but she was so distracted on the feelings on her soft soles from the heat that she was slow to respond. Though it nagged at her. Did she see a monk? Did they just steal something? She looked back and saw that her black katana was in fact still hanging from the wall. That was her most valuable possession and one that would immediately spring her to action had it been taken.

    Ukuni took another minute to enjoy the heat permeate in between her long toes, making the muscles and even the joints begin to relax further than they had in a long time. That was when she mustered another look back, looking down past her katana to something else that should be there…her boots. But they were not there!

    “That accursed monk stole my boots!” Ukuni shouted, ripping her feet from the water so fast she sprayed droplets all around. She stomped to the door, her wet bare soles smacking against the floor as she went. She snatched her katana and slung it over her back as she stepped barefoot out onto the street.

    Most who were used to boots would not so much enjoy being barefoot on the street, their feet not ready for such an endeavor. However, Ukuni was different, she had been a monk once and trained for years in her bare feet. Though they looked perfect and unblemished, they were tougher than most people’s shoes and protected against nearly anything using her innate abilities and years of body training. Ukuni’s feet were lethal weapons and no rough ground in a useless town was going to slow her down.

    She took off running, her muscles lighting up instantly and setting her off before her target. She was one of the fastest and fittest of the order of a thousand ninjas and there were few that could match her. Though the pesky monk who stole her shoes had a head start on her she would catch up quickly. Sure enough, after mere moments she saw the monk, a young woman with bright red hair and a white top. She didn’t recognise her or remember her name. It was likely some sort of monk craziness with an adjective and a living thing. Dancing Cow or something just as silly. Ukuni was given such a name when she was a monk but she pushed it to the back of her mind. Ukuni was her name and that was the core of who she was.

    She caught up with the monk as she ran and though Ukuni was faster and stronger the monk was wiry and unpredictable. She dodged between people and obstacles, making it hard for Ukuni to close in close enough and get a hold of her. The monk teased her, wearing Ukuni’s boots over her shoulder, tied together by the laces. Ukuni narrowed her eyes, the anger and frustration only serving to strengthen her resolve.

    Ukuni knew that she had to get ahead of the monk in order to capture her. The monk was heading to a town construction site and that was where she could make surprise her. She dodged off to the side, leaping up onto a wall with a move that lost her none of her forward momentum. She pushed on for speed, entering the construction site, flipping off the wall and landing on something wet as her feet hit the ground. She paused for only a moment seeing the monk coming right into her trap.

    She grinned, readying herself to launch forward and tackle the annoying monk to the ground. Only when she went to do it, she didn’t. Her legs tensed; her body leaned forward but when she went to lunge, she only went less than half a foot before being pulled back precisely where she started. Sweat dripped down her face as she looked down. She was fine, her body unchanged but under her feet she saw something she had not anticipated. In a puddle surrounding her feet was a pale yellow puddle of what looked like spilled glue.

    Ukuni’s focus was jerked back to the task at hand as she saw the monk continue on. She had to get moving, she had to get after her. Again, Ukuni tried to lunge forward, using all of her speed and leverage to take off running. However, her leading foot only lifted a few inches, the glue stretching up from the ground, clinging to the bottom of her heel, her sole and the pads of her toes. Ukuni gritted her teeth and growled, struggling to keep her foot moving and take a single step forward. However, the max stretch of the glue seemed only to be five inches, locking at that distance from the starting point and allowing her to get no further. She fought and strained but not only could she get it to go no further, she could not hold it. The elastic tightness of the glue began to tremble, warning her that it was about to snap. Ukuni didn’t want to let the stretch win but it was no use, soon the glue yanked her foot back to the ground with a loud SNAP! It hurt, the impact causing her heel to sting from the collision.

    Ukuni could not be discouraged, trying to launch off, this time leading with her other foot. The same thing happened, the glue gave her no more than five inches of slack before arresting any further movement. It was impossible for Ukuni to take a step her feet had only one option and that was to go back in place. Her other foot snapped back, stinging more than the first. Ukuni screamed and tried again and again to move, to try and fight for a step the glue would not let her have. One after the other she fought with her feet but they could not break the elasticity, they could not escape the stick. When she landed in the glue puddle she made a pair of footprints in them, and it was in these footprints she was inescapably imprisoned.

    Ukuni took a moment to catch her breath, realising that speed and ferocity could not snap her out of the glue. She had to use brute strength. She bent down and tugged on her leg, less trying to lift her whole foot out but freeing her heel first. She pulled up at an angle that would put the most pressure on the glue. It was like tearing something, you just had to find the point where it was weakest. The glue stretched, again locking at the five inch maximum point but at a sharp angle. All of the strain was on a smaller point at the edge of her heel where the adhesion point was. Ukuni used her whole body and all of her strength to pull. She would see the glue break or her skin. Either way she would come free. The pain grew and she struggled, waiting for something to give. However, the glue proved that its strength was far greater than Ukuni’s ability to pull. It would not break nor was it showing any sign of weakening whatsoever. Ukuni looked to her skin and though it was stretching too much of it was stuck. She could not just escape by loosing a layer of skin, she half to take half her foot apart to get out. Besides, the training and physical augmentations of her training meant that her feet were the strongest part of her and probably almost as indestructible as the glue. Brute strength could not free her and she was forced to let the glue snap her heel back down, causing the worst sting yet. Her heels hurt, she could not deal with more snaps like that.

    Next she tried at her toes, causing the singular digits to rise out of the glue, each trailed by a strand of powerful glue. Her toe knuckles popped and though encouraging and good feeling, it did nothing to help them escape. She crouched down as low as she could, looking for any sign of weakness in the glue with which to attack. However, it was more discouraging than anything as it was clear the glue grabbed every piece of skin it could and formed a powerful seal. There was no wriggling out or trick to freeing her feet.

    Ukuni calmed herself as best she could. She risked letting her anger take over and that would make her stronger and more powerful but it might do more harm than good. Slowly unsheathed her katana from her back and held it in her hands. She could always lop off her ankles to escape but she was so fond of her feet shed rather die than be without even one of them. She would escape whole or she would not escape at all.

    She crouched down, causing both of her heels to rise up, trailed by tight strands of the unyielding glue. She tilted on knee forward, causing it to stretch forward and give a lager surface area.

    “This sword is made of Eversteel.” Ukuni bragged. “It can cut through anything!”

    Ukuni used both hands and began to saw at the glue. She expected hard resistance but found none. At first, she was encouraged, thinking the swords edge could easily cut through the glue. However, as she looked closer her eyes widened. It wasn’t easy because she was cutting easily through the glue, it was easy because she wasn’t cutting at all. The glue was so slick it created zero friction for the blade, and it just slid across it. No matter how fast or hard she sawed she could not cause the glue to even become marked. She let the one heel rest, letting the glue have it back as she stretched out with the other heel. Instead of sawing she hacked, trying to use brute force to damage the glue but even with the force it just caused the blade to bounce off. She stood, stretching her glue and figuring out a way to take a swing on it. However, with standing where she was, she could not get a good clean shot at the glue no matter how she stretched it or positioned herself.

    “Dammit!” Ukuni cried as she sheathed her blade. “There’s no safe way for me to cut myself out of this shit!”

    Ukuni growled, her anger rising to the surface, there was nothing she could do to stop it. She screamed, again trying to run out of the glue, stretching the glue to its limit each time and suffering the snap backs. Rage had all but taken over at this point causing her to fight and write. At first she was almost running in place, her body leaned forward and her knees shooting up one and the other. The pops and snaps of the glue echoed out around her and as fast as she moved, as hard as she stretched, she could make no progress. She fought for several moments to bust out of the glue but at the end was still there, still in that spot, still standing in her own cursed footprints. She looked down for a moment as she caught her breath, hopeful that she made at least a small progress, maybe even stretching out the footprints she was trapped in. But as she looked, she realized that she had not. There was no progress, her feet were precisely and perfectly back in the same spot they were when she planted them in the glue.

    Ukuni screamed again, her howl meeting with the wind that blew through the town. She leaned forward, her hands hitting the regular ground ahead. It was like she was climbing a wall but instead of vertical it was horizontal. Her fingernails dug into the ground for traction where she used every ounce of her strength to crawl forward. She didn’t care how much it hurt, she didn’t care about the strain, she wanted out. The glue strained with her feet, linking them to her footprints no matter what direction or how hard they pulled. This time she didn’t care of she escaped; she didn’t even care of she freed a foot. She knew that any second the glue would snap her soles back and pull her back up to standing. All she cared about is that when she snapped back her toes were just a little bit closer to the edge of the puddle, that there was a little but of slack behind her heels and where the footprints began. She gave it her all, fought for all she was worth and sure enough the glue asserted itself, yanked her feet back in place and pulled her back up like a punching dummy returning to standing for another barrage. She took a few seconds to catch her breath, hoping beyond hope that this time she made progress. But as she looked down her toes were no closer to the edge, her heels were still locked tight to the edge of her footprint. She had again made np progress and was still tightly and strictly trapped in her glue coated footprints.

    “I can’t…get out.” Ukuni admitted, shame clear on her voice as teas wetted in the corners of her eyes. “I’m stuck!”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Description

Ukuni’s shortcut.

    Ukuni could not abide by the humiliation. She was a ninja and one of the highest-ranking ones in the order. Again, and again the goody two shoes’ monks had fought against her, and this was going to be the day she finally had her vengeance.

    She was a tall and fit woman with long black hair and light green highlighted bangs. Her long hair was tied up into a tight bun held in perfect place by a pair of green chopsticks. On her head was a tightly locked cat ear headband that matched a tail that poked out from under her short black mini dress. On her hands were wrapped back gloves. Normally she would wear her boots, a clunky black pair that se felt powerful in. However, this was the problem, this was why she was so upset.

    She had been relaxing for the morning, something she had precious little time to even do lately. She had kicked off of her boots and let them rest in a hot water bath in the spa in the town her order had taken over. Her feet were long and slender with a high arch and soft round heel. Her toes were long and curvy with beautiful round nails which were currently painted a pale green to match her bangs. The hot water attacked the aches in her feet and soothed her almost instantly. Though she was the kind of person that usually had trouble relaxing or taking moments to herself, the footbath was wonderful. She was so distracted that she didn’t see the pesky monk, slip in the building and take something.

    Ukuni saw movement but she was so distracted on the feelings on her soft soles from the heat that she was slow to respond. Though it nagged at her. Did she see a monk? Did they just steal something? She looked back and saw that her black katana was in fact still hanging from the wall. That was her most valuable possession and one that would immediately spring her to action had it been taken.

    Ukuni took another minute to enjoy the heat permeate in between her long toes, making the muscles and even the joints begin to relax further than they had in a long time. That was when she mustered another look back, looking down past her katana to something else that should be there…her boots. But they were not there!

    “That accursed monk stole my boots!” Ukuni shouted, ripping her feet from the water so fast she sprayed droplets all around. She stomped to the door, her wet bare soles smacking against the floor as she went. She snatched her katana and slung it over her back as she stepped barefoot out onto the street.

    Most who were used to boots would not so much enjoy being barefoot on the street, their feet not ready for such an endeavor. However, Ukuni was different, she had been a monk once and trained for years in her bare feet. Though they looked perfect and unblemished, they were tougher than most people’s shoes and protected against nearly anything using her innate abilities and years of body training. Ukuni’s feet were lethal weapons and no rough ground in a useless town was going to slow her down.

    She took off running, her muscles lighting up instantly and setting her off before her target. She was one of the fastest and fittest of the order of a thousand ninjas and there were few that could match her. Though the pesky monk who stole her shoes had a head start on her she would catch up quickly. Sure enough, after mere moments she saw the monk, a young woman with bright red hair and a white top. She didn’t recognise her or remember her name. It was likely some sort of monk craziness with an adjective and a living thing. Dancing Cow or something just as silly. Ukuni was given such a name when she was a monk but she pushed it to the back of her mind. Ukuni was her name and that was the core of who she was.

    She caught up with the monk as she ran and though Ukuni was faster and stronger the monk was wiry and unpredictable. She dodged between people and obstacles, making it hard for Ukuni to close in close enough and get a hold of her. The monk teased her, wearing Ukuni’s boots over her shoulder, tied together by the laces. Ukuni narrowed her eyes, the anger and frustration only serving to strengthen her resolve.

    Ukuni knew that she had to get ahead of the monk in order to capture her. The monk was heading to a town construction site and that was where she could make surprise her. She dodged off to the side, leaping up onto a wall with a move that lost her none of her forward momentum. She pushed on for speed, entering the construction site, flipping off the wall and landing on something wet as her feet hit the ground. She paused for only a moment seeing the monk coming right into her trap.

    She grinned, readying herself to launch forward and tackle the annoying monk to the ground. Only when she went to do it, she didn’t. Her legs tensed; her body leaned forward but when she went to lunge, she only went less than half a foot before being pulled back precisely where she started. Sweat dripped down her face as she looked down. She was fine, her body unchanged but under her feet she saw something she had not anticipated. In a puddle surrounding her feet was a pale yellow puddle of what looked like spilled glue.

    Ukuni’s focus was jerked back to the task at hand as she saw the monk continue on. She had to get moving, she had to get after her. Again, Ukuni tried to lunge forward, using all of her speed and leverage to take off running. However, her leading foot only lifted a few inches, the glue stretching up from the ground, clinging to the bottom of her heel, her sole and the pads of her toes. Ukuni gritted her teeth and growled, struggling to keep her foot moving and take a single step forward. However, the max stretch of the glue seemed only to be five inches, locking at that distance from the starting point and allowing her to get no further. She fought and strained but not only could she get it to go no further, she could not hold it. The elastic tightness of the glue began to tremble, warning her that it was about to snap. Ukuni didn’t want to let the stretch win but it was no use, soon the glue yanked her foot back to the ground with a loud SNAP! It hurt, the impact causing her heel to sting from the collision.

    Ukuni could not be discouraged, trying to launch off, this time leading with her other foot. The same thing happened, the glue gave her no more than five inches of slack before arresting any further movement. It was impossible for Ukuni to take a step her feet had only one option and that was to go back in place. Her other foot snapped back, stinging more than the first. Ukuni screamed and tried again and again to move, to try and fight for a step the glue would not let her have. One after the other she fought with her feet but they could not break the elasticity, they could not escape the stick. When she landed in the glue puddle she made a pair of footprints in them, and it was in these footprints she was inescapably imprisoned.

    Ukuni took a moment to catch her breath, realising that speed and ferocity could not snap her out of the glue. She had to use brute strength. She bent down and tugged on her leg, less trying to lift her whole foot out but freeing her heel first. She pulled up at an angle that would put the most pressure on the glue. It was like tearing something, you just had to find the point where it was weakest. The glue stretched, again locking at the five inch maximum point but at a sharp angle. All of the strain was on a smaller point at the edge of her heel where the adhesion point was. Ukuni used her whole body and all of her strength to pull. She would see the glue break or her skin. Either way she would come free. The pain grew and she struggled, waiting for something to give. However, the glue proved that its strength was far greater than Ukuni’s ability to pull. It would not break nor was it showing any sign of weakening whatsoever. Ukuni looked to her skin and though it was stretching too much of it was stuck. She could not just escape by loosing a layer of skin, she half to take half her foot apart to get out. Besides, the training and physical augmentations of her training meant that her feet were the strongest part of her and probably almost as indestructible as the glue. Brute strength could not free her and she was forced to let the glue snap her heel back down, causing the worst sting yet. Her heels hurt, she could not deal with more snaps like that.

    Next she tried at her toes, causing the singular digits to rise out of the glue, each trailed by a strand of powerful glue. Her toe knuckles popped and though encouraging and good feeling, it did nothing to help them escape. She crouched down as low as she could, looking for any sign of weakness in the glue with which to attack. However, it was more discouraging than anything as it was clear the glue grabbed every piece of skin it could and formed a powerful seal. There was no wriggling out or trick to freeing her feet.

    Ukuni calmed herself as best she could. She risked letting her anger take over and that would make her stronger and more powerful but it might do more harm than good. Slowly unsheathed her katana from her back and held it in her hands. She could always lop off her ankles to escape but she was so fond of her feet shed rather die than be without even one of them. She would escape whole or she would not escape at all.

    She crouched down, causing both of her heels to rise up, trailed by tight strands of the unyielding glue. She tilted on knee forward, causing it to stretch forward and give a lager surface area.

    “This sword is made of Eversteel.” Ukuni bragged. “It can cut through anything!”

    Ukuni used both hands and began to saw at the glue. She expected hard resistance but found none. At first, she was encouraged, thinking the swords edge could easily cut through the glue. However, as she looked closer her eyes widened. It wasn’t easy because she was cutting easily through the glue, it was easy because she wasn’t cutting at all. The glue was so slick it created zero friction for the blade, and it just slid across it. No matter how fast or hard she sawed she could not cause the glue to even become marked. She let the one heel rest, letting the glue have it back as she stretched out with the other heel. Instead of sawing she hacked, trying to use brute force to damage the glue but even with the force it just caused the blade to bounce off. She stood, stretching her glue and figuring out a way to take a swing on it. However, with standing where she was, she could not get a good clean shot at the glue no matter how she stretched it or positioned herself.

    “Dammit!” Ukuni cried as she sheathed her blade. “There’s no safe way for me to cut myself out of this shit!”

    Ukuni growled, her anger rising to the surface, there was nothing she could do to stop it. She screamed, again trying to run out of the glue, stretching the glue to its limit each time and suffering the snap backs. Rage had all but taken over at this point causing her to fight and write. At first she was almost running in place, her body leaned forward and her knees shooting up one and the other. The pops and snaps of the glue echoed out around her and as fast as she moved, as hard as she stretched, she could make no progress. She fought for several moments to bust out of the glue but at the end was still there, still in that spot, still standing in her own cursed footprints. She looked down for a moment as she caught her breath, hopeful that she made at least a small progress, maybe even stretching out the footprints she was trapped in. But as she looked, she realized that she had not. There was no progress, her feet were precisely and perfectly back in the same spot they were when she planted them in the glue.

    Ukuni screamed again, her howl meeting with the wind that blew through the town. She leaned forward, her hands hitting the regular ground ahead. It was like she was climbing a wall but instead of vertical it was horizontal. Her fingernails dug into the ground for traction where she used every ounce of her strength to crawl forward. She didn’t care how much it hurt, she didn’t care about the strain, she wanted out. The glue strained with her feet, linking them to her footprints no matter what direction or how hard they pulled. This time she didn’t care of she escaped; she didn’t even care of she freed a foot. She knew that any second the glue would snap her soles back and pull her back up to standing. All she cared about is that when she snapped back her toes were just a little bit closer to the edge of the puddle, that there was a little but of slack behind her heels and where the footprints began. She gave it her all, fought for all she was worth and sure enough the glue asserted itself, yanked her feet back in place and pulled her back up like a punching dummy returning to standing for another barrage. She took a few seconds to catch her breath, hoping beyond hope that this time she made progress. But as she looked down her toes were no closer to the edge, her heels were still locked tight to the edge of her footprint. She had again made np progress and was still tightly and strictly trapped in her glue coated footprints.

    “I can’t…get out.” Ukuni admitted, shame clear on her voice as teas wetted in the corners of her eyes. “I’m stuck!”

TO BE CONTINUED…