A Can, and What 500 Yen Can Buy You

[Norisuke Kujo]

The can, a metal one, the kind a can opener is required if you don’t want a mess on your hands to unseal it, rolls down, and is kicked back up a slope in a dreary, rocky hollow.

It’s empty, hell, it’s even been washed, little droplets of water flinging themselves about the inside and out of the can as the process repeats itsef.

Norisuke, the delinquent kicking the can, looks incessantly moody. Several feet to the left is an empty-ish, crumpled looking wallet (with his ID inside.) Devoid of money, and yet, several things are seen strewn about this little hideout:

A washing bucket,
a washboard,
bars of soap (not with any sort of flowery scent, a good flag of Norisuke’s insecurities)
a portable radio, currently tuned in to some garish metal genre music,
a pot,
tomato seeds,
a shovel,
a metal suitcase with a padlock, resting in a halfdug hole,
beef jerky snacks (some empty, some still sealed)
a box of crackers,
a watering can,
a fishing rod,
an empty bait box,
replacement hooks,
a huge packet of batteries.

 

[Sato Yuji]

Kei skipped along the area just outside of the main wall. Brother was away on, yet another, mission and Kei was beginning to feel slighted. If she had known coming back to Kumo would mean Brother was never home she wouldn’t have suggested it. Sighing she jumped onto a rock. For someone who could not open her eyes, she was surprisingly good at moving over dangerous surfaces. She deftly jumped from one rock to the next as she tried to figure out what to do next. Kei was about to turn back towards the village when an interesting smell caught her attention. She hadn’t smelled that scent in a long time, so she decided to track it down. Following the scent, she almost fell down the side of a ravine. Catching herself she walked down to the bottom. The smell was coming from the person who was already occupying it. Smiling brightly in the general direction of the smell she announced: “Kei thinks you smell like Tansy.”

 

[Norisuke Kujo]

“...” The boy, upon acquiring the intruder in his sight, swats his foot sideways, striking the can, the containers whirling through the air on its path toward Kei. “What the fuck is tansy?”

Whether it hits or not, Norisuke immediately ducks out from the hollow, his finger punching down on the radio’s POWER button. With the music ceasing, he picks up another empty can, tossing it up and down, ready to launch another.

 

[Sato Yuji]

Kai laughed as she felt an angry spike through her shoulder. Dropping her shoulder without opening her eyes the can flew harmlessly over it. "Tansy, also know as bitter buttons, is a type of flower. It's very yellow." she said cheerfully listening as the music turned off. She wasn't worried about having another thing thrown at her. She was much faster then anything he could throw and she had an advance warning system. "Kei answered your question so now Tansy must answer hers." She began to approach the other. "Why is Tansy our here? And why did Tansy throw something at Kei? Brother sad throwing stuff at people is rude when you first meet them, unless they are enemies, and that people shouldn't be rude." Her voice took a distinct pouting tone when she said the last part. Then she brightened considerably "Are you an enemy? Kei hasn't been able to fight anyone yet." As she said the more threatening sentence her hands dropped around her back.

 

[Norisuke Kujo]

Norisuke’s initial reaction to this macabre, third-person speaking girl is to chuck another can. The second projectile moves far slower, and in an exceptionally predictable path. Despite all these amateurish flags, the weak throw is intentional.

Rather than making a subsequent path toward Kei, Norisuke looks around in the bag of soap, inspecting each brand—and then each ingredient to the soap!

“I didn’t get tansy scented soap. And, my name is Norisuke Kujo.”

Kujo...a clan whose infamous name resurfaces and then rightfully drowns again in history, even local. Dating back the malevolent tyrant, Sadao Kujo, who predates his present descendant by eight centuries, their entire heritage is steeped in willful evil.

And here was their last line, hanging around in wilderness, and throwing things at girls.

 

[Sato Yuji]

Kei pouted as yet another thing came flying at her. Why did no one greet her nicely. She was beginning to get annoyed with the amateur throws. He wasn’t even trying to hit her.

As she approached the boy seemed to look at something. When he spoke up she laughed at him, “Tansy smells like Tansy.” She said with a shrug. She didn’t recognize the last name but given her memory, or lack of it, that wasn’t surprising. As another thing came at her she got seriously ticked. Smiling innocently she gripped the swords that had been hidden behind her back, the chain unraveling from around her waist. It would have been a comical sight, the weapons blades were almost as large as her forearm and a loop of chain was still around her waist like a belt, if it hadn’t also been apparent that she knew how to wield it. She held the weapon with an ease that suggested experience.

“Kei thinks you should stop throwing things at her.” She said a dark edge taking over the childish sentence. “Kei is starting to get annoyed at Tansy.”

 

[Norisuke Kujo]

“Great, maybe Kei will want to leave Norisuke alone, and fuck off somewhere she’s wanted?” His response comes with an imitation. Not shifting his pitch to a girly one, but mockingly matching her sing-song rhythm of speaking.

The boy slides the briefcase out of the ground, and crouches, digging the hole it belongs in deeper.

 

[Sato Yuji]

Kei pouted at the boy. She honestly considered leaving but this was the most interesting thing that had happened to her all day. If she left now she would just be bored somewhere else. “Kei thinks Tansy is being rude to her and Brother said she shouldn’t let people do that.” As she said that one of her arms drew back and launched one of her knives so that it brushed past his shoulder. Instead of having it slam into the opposing wall she yanked it back. The whole operation took less then a few second. From her hand to over his shoulder to back to her hand was a smooth motion that only caused a slight wind. “Kei might get angry if Tansy continues to be rude.”

 

[Norisuke Kujo]

Norisuke’s shovel comes up, and is pinned to the wall, a surge of shock, and awe...and then a spike of fascination. There was still the underlying, pleasantly unmoving shell of anger over him. But he was positively odorous of curiousity, as the shovel then comes off the wall, and is dragged through the thin air to Kei.

“...It’s still Norisuke.”

As he rose to his feet, his fingertips twitch, fearful anticipation leaking, along with boyish, subconscious attraction as he truly sees the strange girl.

“So, did you do that shit because you hate Kujos? Or because I told you to fuck off?”

As he finishes that sentence, his foot is antsily poised neath the washing bucket, prepared to wield it as a barrier between chainsword and his skin.

 

[Sato Yuji]

Kei was surprised when she felt something heavy then her sword return to her, she hadn't been aiming at anything in particular when she had thrown it. The added weight didn't throw her off, she simply reached out with her other hand and grabbed the excess thing, disengaging it from her blade. Spinning the shovel around she slammed the butt of it into the ground. A weird sensation over took her, it was like someone had stuck her hand into an electrical socket causing her to be on edge. Kei ignored his statement as he continued to talk.

"What's a Kujo?" She asked curiously cocking her head to the side with her eyes still closed, "Why should I care what you are, you were rude and Brother told me not to allow rudeness that is directed at me."

 

[Norisuke Kujo]

“Uh huh. I’m a Kujo. The last of many. And you’re ‘Kei’, and you’ve fuckin’ got some ‘brother’. So you’re just pissed at me?”

Norisuke’s foot relaxes on the pail, his eyes—not that Kei can see him do it—narrow, looking her up and down. Curiousity rises and falls as silent questions are posited and answered, familiarity and affection (however small and superficial) steadily climbing. His enamel of anger cracks, as he paces to the right, arms crossing.

“Fine, I’ll just ask nicely for you to go away, or at least stop bothering me.” As he finishes that sentence, nerves burst up. He begins kicking the can up, and then repeatedly jutting his leg out in all sorts of angles, beginning to demonstrate some mundane skill at keeping a can in the air.

As of now, the can’s spent fifteen seconds in the air, and, though he’s not letting it be seen physically, Kei can perceive plainly that Norisuke is quite determined...to show off in front of her as long as possible.

“So why’re you out here, if you’ve got a brother you’re so keen on blabbing at me about?”

 

[Sato Yuji]

"So Kujo is a last name?" She asked curiously, "Kei doesn't have one of those." Brightening up when her brother was mentioned she smiled. "Brother is Jein and he is a Chunnin for Kumo." A voice took on a more dreamy quality as she spoke. "Brother is super strong." She frowned at him her aura changing. "Why else would Kei be annoyed at you?" her confusion was clear. As she spoke she felt something crack and a slight amount of warmth spill from it.

Listening as he began to talk to she realized that his words weren't exactly lining up with what he was feeling or how he was acting. Case in point he was beginning to kick something around but not at her. She felt like someone was blinking a light at her. Look at me, look at me was what it signaled. Smiling she head the metallic sound of a can hitting a shoe. She couldn't help wondering what he was doing. Sometimes not being able to see was a pain.

Her demeanor changed again when the boy mentioned her brother not being around. Becoming quite depressed she threw herself at the boy taking them both to the ground in a tackle hug. "Brother left me." She said crying, "For the third time and Kei was so, so bored. Then Kei found Tansy and Tansy is not boring." She grinned up at him during the last sentence.

 

[Norisuke Kujo]

When the girl comes at Norisuke, to his humiliation, all he can do is flush, and shove himself off of her. There’s fluctuating levels of excitement, shame, and indignance. The Kujo boy made continuous, embarassed rejection of Kei’s attempts to get closer again.

A sort of silly game starts, as, rather than shoving or forming some sort of barrier (a planned process,) Norisuke rolls and runs out of the way, not at all agile or precise about it. Just hasty attempts to keep this peculiar girl at bay!

“Look! Look, look, look...I...” He attempts another dodge. “Just stop trying to touch me! Alright?!”

This is going too far than what Norisuke knows what to do with—and it shows—as he makes pleas, rather than issue commands at the girl. To further exacerbate his embarassment, he’s running from someone so much smaller,
and a girl no less! If someone from the city saw him like this...his credibility as a tough, capable man is over.

Norisuke’s flustering attraction and disarmedness isn’t exactly extinguished, it’s worsened. His shell of anger begins to repair, his pride deeply cut, obvious even past Kei’s emotional senses, as he also indignantly cries “It’s Norisuke! Not TANSY!” for the umpteenth time.

 

[Sato Yuji]

Kei pouted as she was shoved away from the boy but grinned when she felt something hot on her face. The scent of flowers also got stronger developed a sweeter undertone. She laughed as she felt him run away from her. Kei had never been considered scary before, she was a tiny child only about 5 feet tall and was the opposite of scary looking. That was only highlighted by her attire. Brother always said she dressed like a civilian child who wanted to be kidnapped. Bright colors, skirts, and a clock were staples in her outfit choice. Before she left today she had dressed in what her brother called her red outfit. A peasant blouse with a puffy red skirt. That was covered by a bright red cloak that reached to the ground. Overall, it wasn't a very scary looking outfit.

"Does Tansy not like Kei," she said pouting again. Deciding to humor herself she easily followed the boy's movement. He wasn't very fast so it was easy enough for her to keep up with him. The warmth in her gut also increased. It seemed the boy was very emotional which was not something she was used to. She laughed as she heard the sound of fire flaring in the background. It seemed Tansy didn't like his name. "What about Nori?" she grinned "Kei's little seaweed." After renaming him she moved in for another hug. This time clinging to him.

 

[Norisuke Kujo]

“Off, off, OFF!” He’s positively humiliated now, and begins swinging around. “You’re messing up my uniform!”

With all this unwanted contact, Kei can feel, in every facet, spikes his humiliation. Norisuke bends his upper torso forward, trying to pry the girl off of him.

“I swear! I’m not fucking afraid to hit girls!”

This tango of awkwardness and desperately trying to reach back and rip her hands from him (which is fruitless) leads them to trash his little camp.

The pot is kicked over, Kei stomps on one of his jerky snacks, and Norisuke crushes the cracker box, causing waves of fury to crash out of him, as he thrashes around with a greater deal of intensity.

 

[Sato Yuji]

Kei blew a raspberry at Nori as she disentangled herself from the taller boy. He was much too excitable. The feeling in her face had turned into a weight on her back and that was a sensation she did not enjoy.

"Do you really want to hit Kei?" She asked in a childish tone. Making the area around her appear sad. "Kei was just trying to be nice. She hugs everyone she meets." Kei was, of course, exaggerating her feelings but Nori didn't have to know that. While it was true that she hugged the people she first met it wasn't because she was trying to be nice. "Kei is sorry for Nori wrecking his hideout. Kei can help put it back together if Nori wants." Her bottom lip trembled as if she was about to cry.

While his reactions were fun they weren't fun enough to create a potential enemy over, no matter how weak they currently were. Plus being with someone was infinitely more interesting than being alone.

 

[Sato Yuji]

Kei was willing to continue with the game she was playing with the other boy but then she realized the time. It was getting late and Brother was supposed to return to the village soon. Playing with some random stranger didn't compare to spending time with Brother so she decided to take her leave. Smoothing her face out from its fake scrunch. "Kei has to go now, but it was fun playing with Nori." Smiling brightly she ran out of the hideout and up the wall of the crevice which it was in, disappearing into the sunset.
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