Emiko had made a promise to a certain little panda-child and she was going to keep that promise. Aella had asked her a few days ago if she had ever used her sand to build some sort of sandcastle of epic proportions: and in truth she hadn't. Playing around with her sand in a more 'friendly' fashion had never really crossed her mind before. But, she was more than willing to indulge the child if it would keep her happy.

So, Emiko had chosen one of the little parks nearby the tower and had set up shop so to speak: given the amount of sand in her gourd she knew she was going to need a bit more to do what she had wanted, and so she had brought several bags of sand that she had then soaked with her own chakra so that she could manipulate it as easily as her own. She mixed the sand of her gourd within it and got it all churned up nicely; a few kids watching closely to see what she was about to do.

Once she was sure her chakra was distributed evenly she then began to form the actual structure. She could have made something small and minute but there was no fun in that. No, she wanted to make something big enough for Aella, and any brave kids lurking about, to actually be able to play in. So, she had started the building process before Aella had even arrived, molding her chakra infused sand into a huge 'life size' sand castle. It was big enough for children to easily play in, and was rather complex for being something made out of sand. It had many rooms, hidden 'trap' doors that led to slides made out of compressed sand. The whole thing was built with nothing more than her sand, since she could compress it in such a way that water wasn't needed.

The kids nearby were awed, as she could hear them whispering things like "That's awesome!" and "I want to play in there, too!". Emiko just grinned and kept on building it up. If she could she would find a way to make it a permanent structure, but the only idea that came to mind was to call Junior over and have him blast it with some heat, effectively glassing it. But, that would come about later, for now she was willing to use her chakra to keep the thing solid and standing.

What the Sandcastle Looks Like:

Giggling announced the child's arrival even before regular eyes could see her. Due to her chakra radar having grown even stronger over the past few days she had caught a glimpse of the fact that Emiko was already hard at work keeping the promise she had made to her. She had been shocked and surprised all at the same time to learn that in all of her years in the desert Emiko had never used her sand for something fun. But, Emiko had quickly made a promise to Aella that she would build her the biggest sand castle she could manage.

And she had...

Aella had been expecting something fun looking, but already she could tell this was going to be so much more than that. She could see many passage ways inside of the castle, and even hidden trap doors of sorts - secrets to be explored. This was going to be more like a playground, and she was all to happy to share with the other children in Makkura so they too could have some fun.

"Emiko, this is amazing! Are you finished?!", she asked excitedly.

Kinzoku had been sitting on the side the entire time, watching Emiko build the castle of sand. He too had a gourd upon his back, except his was black and glowing. Some of the kids asked him if he had sand too, and Kinzoku said yes... sort of. His was made of Iron Sand, and it wasn't exactly safe for people other than him to handle it.

Besides trying to come to grips with the fact that so many other kids had come here from other villages, including Yokuchi, where he himself had defected from, he constantly thought about if someone came after them, and if they got violent. Kinzoku would have to deal with them. Alec had been showing him a lot of appreciation and trust, and Kinzoku wanted to do his best to show the man that he'd had his back.

Kinzoku didn't really want to think about violence much, especially with the sounds of kids laughing and giggling, and at the sight of Alec's grand daughter. She seemed quite amazed at Emiko's creation, and he thought of making it a little better. So, out came the cork to the gourd to allow the black mass to come spilling fourth, snaking its way toward the castle and forming a “hand” of sorts at the end. It began to dig out certain areas around the castle.

Manipulation:

When the “Iron Arm” retracted into the glowing gourd, Kinzoku stood and walked over, holding out one of his hands. A thick silver liquid began to spill from it, filling up the holes he'd dug, creating a “river” of sorts around the castle. Such would make the kids make other noises and laughter of excitement and amazement.

Liquid Metal:

Chakra: 770/800

"Almost finished.", she responded to Aella as she made a few more adjustments to the traps inside; some of which were now 'rigged' so to speak so that when they were triggered little sand monsters would come out and 'attack' - tickle - whoever triggered them until they were defeated. She glanced over when she noticed the black mass that she recognized to be Kinzoku's special iron sand come over and create a hand of sorts that then began to dig around the castle. Emiko simply grinned and folded her arms across her chest as she watched.

She could hear the kids were even more amazed than before, especially when Kinzoku started to fill up the hole he had dug around the castle with what looked to be liquid metal and yet which she couldn't feel radiating any sort of heat like normal liquid metal would. She couldn't help but grin: it was like a special moat around the castle, only adding to the grandeur of it all. "Haha, excellent. The castle's all ready... just be careful, there are tickle monsters lying in wait in there.. might have to defeat them before you can play properly.", she said with a sly grin.

Emiko went and leaned against the tree not two feet from her. She had to stay close enough to be able to control the sand and keep it solid so that the whole castle didn't collapse, but she didn't mind spending some time in the park; it was nice not to be looked at with fear for once, and all of these children were looking at Emiko and Kinzoku like they were great, especially with such an awesome castle and moat filled with what looked like liquid metal. "I might have to find a way to make this castle more permanent... I don't think the kids are going to want us to stop anytime soon.", she said to Kinzoku as she watched a few of the kids creep closer for a better look since Emiko had stated she was finished with the building of it.

Aella watched in complete awe as Kinzoku appeared and began to use sand that didn't smell like sand at all; it smelled like metal. She watched as the big black hand began to dig around the castle, and after a few moments she realized that it was a moat of sorts. When he came closer and held out his hand she almost expected to see him use water to fill it, but instead he created a liquid substance that smelled like metal as well. When she had been in the Academy she had learned that metal could be melted down into a liquid substance, but only once it was super heated. This, however, didn't produce those kinds of burning heat.

Her head tilted curiously as she giggled again. "That's neat! I always thought metal had to be really really hot to be liquid.", she said in response to what Kinzoku had done. She then turned her attention to Emiko as she said she was finished, but that there were some monsters inside of the castle who were hidden away and which would need defeated before they could properly play. "Those monsters sound scary, but I'm a brave panda!", she said as she put her fists on her hips and puffed out her chest.

She then looked back to the liquid looking metal, and then to the castle. "I wish I had a ship! Then I'd be able to cannonball the castle until the monsters ran away! Then it'd be all ours!" She looked around for a moment, as did a few of the other kids, looking for something that could be used as a boat and some projectile type weapons to fire at the castle.

Out came the Iron Sand again; most of it smelling heavily of blood. Kinzoku hadn't really used the substance for anything besides killing people. Some of it sank into the dirt, and if one looked, they'd be able to see the ground moving. This was the Iron Sand mixing with the minerals below them to form more sand.

What looked like a shark's fin began to rise up out of the ground, but as it rose more, it resembled thee front of what looked like a boat. Kinzoku manipulated it to resemble the ship he saw those cookie pirates riding on. The makeshift sand boat came up out of the ground and settled itself correctly, big enough for a small child such as Aella to ride on if she wanted. There was the chance that she could have been magnetized from the Iron Sand, but it would be painless, and most likely come in handy to pull her back if she mistakenly fell into the Liquid Metal.

The boat had little guns composed mostly of the dirt from below them upon it's sides. The moat moved over into the Liquid Metal, and a platform lowered on it's left side to allow Aella to board it. ”The kids around here would like that,” was Kinzoku's response to Emiko's idea of making the castle more permanent. ”Alec Jr could easily harden the sand with that heat of his. I don't think he'd mind the process...”

She watched as Kinzoku's sand seemed to mix with the ground, causing the ground to move which she could see her her vantage point leaning on the tree. She then watched as something that looked at first like a sharks fin came up out of the ground, which continued on, and turned into a ship. A grin spread across her face; Aella and the kids were going to have a ball.

Emiko nodded in response. She didn't see Junior minding using a little heat to make the castle a permanent part of the park: it'd make the children more than happy.

She then focused her attention back to Aella, waiting to see her storm the castle with the ship that Kinzoku had made. Little chakra sand monsters began to roam around the many levels of the castle, some looking to be wielding weapons made of sand just like them: swords, bows and arrows, and some even had little gourds on their backs. The majority of the 'monsters' looked like typical ones from a child's imagination - the thing under the bed, the shadow on the wall. But, others looked animal like, one being very snake like, another resembling a wolf, and another looking like an elephant. "There go the monsters...~"

Aella looked over as she saw Kinzoku's sand seem to mix with the ground. Her head tilted in curiousity as she watched. She saw what looked to be a sharks fin come up out of the ground, and her mouth formed a little circle in amazement. She watched as what started out looking like a sharks fin then turned into a ship; an old one like the ones she had seen in books and stories when she would go and visit the library back in Niwa.

Her grin grew as she saw the ship fully formed, and she clapped her hands happily as she bounced in place. "Yay, a ship! That's awesome!" She could smell the scent of blood coming from the sand but she didn't pay it any mind - it was easy enough to ignore in her excitement. She watched as a platform lowered on the left side and used it to get onto the ship, all while giggling in her excitement.

She then turned her attention to the castle where she could see the monsters now roaming freely around the thing. They each looked to be holding some sort of weapon, or had a gourd similiar to Kinzoku's and Emiko's. She went over to one of the boats guns and pointed towards the monsters wandering through the castle. "I will be taking that castle!"