A Cold Heart... (Open)

[Chikamatsu Shin]

The alleys were dark. The smell of piss and cheap booze filled the air as the young woman made her way through the decrepit passages of the Black Bazaar. The soft spoken kunoichi was on the hunt of something rather hard to come across, the blood of a Yamanaka Shinobi. She needed to be able to use the blood of the clan to maximize her study in poisons and other toxins for her puppetcraft. She has heard rumors of their ability to withstand toxins and she wanted to try and find a bypass to their natural resistance. She wouldn't want to be defeated because the enemy's blood was tolerant to her attacks. Being a puppeteer she needed to make sure each strike from her nano-puppets landed their full potential. Any resilience in her enemies would not be tolerated.

Making her way down an alley she was suddenly stopped by a middle aged man. There he stood in front of the beautiful woman, cloaked in a dark charcoal and navy blue niqab and dress. He was towering over the young woman in a sweat and liquor stained shirt. It was probably white once upon a time, and torn shorts. The man smelled worse than the streets did and he had a semi-empty bottle of sake in his hand. He leaned closer to try and pull the niqab from the girl's face. His nasty fingers came close to her face before he froze in his place.

"*Hick-Up*... wha???"<i></i>

The only visible part of the young girl were her eyes and her arching brows. They seemed to remain calm even though the larger man was before her. Slight movement could be seen under her niqab.

"Disgusting..."<i></i>

She turned to walk around the man as he fell to the ground screaming in pain. Thousands of Micro-Puppets in the shape of spiders had already covered the man and began deconstructing his body. As his screams began to become muffled the heap where he once laid began to become smaller as the spiders crawled away from the man and back to Kumomi. At five paces away Kumomi glanced back to see the spot where the man had been deconstructed completely and she grinned.

MFT:367

 

[Toshiwakai Kagari]

Spoiler

OOC: I updated my profile, with the biggest change being Kagari's age. So instead of him being 13 he's now 15.

thinking...
talking...


"Sigh..." A obvious sign of defeat rolled out of a young teen as he stood in a crowded marketplace. A small blue ball had rolled out of the lottery wheel, signifying Kagari had won something. The trouble was, the price was not exactly what Kagari was hoping for. "Congratulations! You won a 15% discount to Santouka Ramen!" A short, overweight bald man said as he wrang a golden bell annoyingly loud admist the crowd, although no one was paying attention. "Thanks..." Kagari smiled heasitently and accepted the coupon before stuffing it into his pocket. He politely bowed to the bald man, and walked away. Out of earshot distance, Kagari grumbled as he took out the discount coupon. "I just came from Santouka, awesome..." He had finished a delivery shift just recently before heading into the Black Bazaar to pick some books. Only in Black Bazaar can you find the rarest goods, in this case some popular manga from the other regions. "Well at least I got what I came for..." Kagari mused as he felt the small book shuffle in his bag.

As he made his way through the crowded Bazaar, he finally got some free space away from all the people in the marketplace. It was pretty packed today, after all it's not everyday that all the markets are selling their goods at half off because of the new year. He took a small break and proped himself up against a wall, taking a small sip of water from his canteen. As he enjoyed the quiet, he closed his eyes and rested like he had been taught by Kyujin all those years ago. Breath in...breathe out; while the most simplest way of gathering energy, it can be very satisfying after what felt like being confined in a tight space. He was shook out of his short moment of peace and quiet when he heard a scream. He opened his eyes quickly as he looked around, seeing if he could identify the point of the scream. Another short scream, more blood curdling than the last; Kagari promptly left and tried to follow the sound.

Kagari stepped carefully, minding his surroundings as he noticed the area got darker..and darker. He was heading into the very deep portions of Grand Palais, the places where people disappear either by choice or by misfortune. As he rounded a corner, he could see blood that littered the alleyway as if someone had taken a bucket full of a dark maroon paint and splashed it everywhere in the small confined zone. Kagari had a stern expression on his face, obviously anticipating for "whatever" caused this act of "violence" upon what once was a human being. He took a few steps closer as he inspected the area, touching the a wet pool of blood lightly. The blood was warm, obviously fresh from a kill. 'This is definatley where it happened.' Kagari wiped the blood on his pants before taking a small bottle of purell and wiping his hands. He could see bits of limbs and skin that were in the immediate vicinity of the "death". It looked like he had been evicerated by something, nothing of the victim was left other than the bloodbath in front of him and pieces of clothing. As he looked around the alleyway for the slightest clue, he caught the intense gaze of a woman staring directly at the spot.


Her face was hidden, covered by what looked like a veil or a hijab. It was obvious she was young, maybe the same age as Kagari or a year older; but Kagari couldn't tell because most of her body was either layered or hidden by her outfit. Every detail of her body was covered by silk, except her eyes and a thin veil covering her mouth. She looked quite out of place in a daark alleway in Grand Palais. With her dark green eyes that felt like it was piercing into Kagari's very soul. She was the only one around, a key witness to the murder. He got up, brushed the dirt off his pants and gestured a friendly wave to the woman. "Excuse me miss...uh. Did he explode?" Kagari pointed to the ground in a very non-chalant way. His unsympathetic attitude was kind of inaproppiate for the situation considering the victim just got their life brutally taken, but Kagari accepted this as kind of the norm in Grand Palais.

Kagari cringed a bit at his words, his cynicism had got the better of him. 'Not the best words for a first impression...especially in front of a girl...Smooth moves stud.' His logical self berated his opening line of inquiry; clearly Kagari was on his way to becoming a great detective. He cleared his throat before speaking again.

"You wouldn't happen to know what happened here?"

Spoiler

Notes:
Kagari investigated the bloodbath and found Kumomi in front of him.
MFT
Words: 803

 

[Chikamatsu Shin]

Steps were approaching the scene, but Kumomi's heart did not speed up in the slightest. She was a kunoichi and did not fear death. As the steps became louder the young woman shot a glance to the person responsible for making them. To her surprise she saw a young boy appeared in the scene, a grin stretched across her face. She didn't recognize him but his aura gave strength that was close to her own. She turned her body to face the boy. She stepped towards him, not breaking eye contact for a second.

"I wouldn't say explode but I would say deconstructed..."<i></i>

She was now standing a few feet away from the boy and the puddle of blood. Kumomi spat into the remains.

"Just desserts."<i></i>

She wiped her mouth before turning around and taking a few steps away from the boy. With each step more and more Micro-Puppets began to swarm around the girl. Ten feet away and around one thousand puppets: wasps, mosquitos, beetles, and spiders, had gathered from under the young genin's dress. With a slight chuckle she stopped dead in her tracks.

"So young boy, is there something you are wanting to do about it? I should warn you though, there is always more to the story than you may think..."<i></i>

 

[Toshiwakai Kagari]

The girl got closer to Kagari, her steel gaze unchaging as she didn't take her eyes off of him. Kagari kept his attention on the girl, she was obviously unfazed by the scene not showing any clear emotion other than a slight grin on her face. It was a clear sign she knew what happened...But the next few words confirmed Kagari's suspicion.

"I wouldn't say explode but I would say deconstructed..."

Kagari sweatdropped at those words as she was very close now. Only the pool of blood stood between her and Kagari. Her next actions surprised him, as she spat on what was left of the man. She herself was unfazed by the situation, as she had distaste for the man that once was this pool of blood. The girl didn't show any signs of sympathy, at all.

"Just desserts"

She turned around, clearly focussed on something else. He noticed that little creatures began to form around the girl. But they weren't made of flesh of blood, but of obviously machine and chakra. Kagari sweatdropped a little, he could tell that his next words would be his last if he didn't choose them correctly. He looked one more time at the blood around him and steeled himself; he could most likely make it out of the alleyway if he had tor run. But a small idea popped in his head, albeit a stupid one.

"So young boy, is there something you are wanting to do about it? I should warn you though, there is always more to the story than you think..."

"Not really. But I do have one question..." Kagari put his left hand into pocket, shuffling for something before pulling a piece of paper out.

"Do you want some ramen?" Kagari pointed to the coupon he had won earlier, just staring at the girl who basically was surrounded by death.

 

[Chikamatsu Shin]

A question? Was this boy dense in the head? As he spoke the puppets began to circulate around the entire alley as if prepping for an attack. His next words would determine whether or not Kumomi had to attack and right before she sent the signal she chuckled slightly. Ramen? Was this child serious? The sixteen year old girl turned to face the boy. She took a step towards him and raised a single hand into the air allowing the swarm to crawl back under her long sleeve and into their natural resting place underneath her dress. She held the position for a second before dropping her arm back down to her side. Another step towards the boy but this time she had a rather confused look on her face. What could this boy be up to?

"Umm... What do you mean?"<i></i>

((OoC: sorry for the short post, kinda don't know how to respond haha))

 

[Toshiwakai Kagari]

(Ooc: It's fine. That was the point lol. Also Kagari's 15 so unless your purposely using young boy for a certain reason; then never mind.)

Kagari gulped a bit as he noticed the puppet were covering any exit he could find. He started regretting his few choice words, he'd rather not die by being rejected by some girl who harvested his organs. But his words seem to catch her off guard, as she turned around and moved closer again; drawing back the swarm as they crawled underneath her layered clothing.

The silence was deafening, her clear confusion at his question but it seemed to at least defuse the situation. Kagari inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, he may have escaped death for a couple more seconds.

"Umm...What do you mean?" Were the next few words out of her mouth, her silent poise now slightly gone. "Do you want some ramen? I'm hungry and I have a coupon here for a discount. Santouaka's a pretty good place, if you don't like ramen you can get some giyoza or a beef bowl."

 

[Chikamatsu Shin]

((OoC: Everyone is either old or young in Kumomi's eyes... so yeah it's on purpose))

Was this boy serious? He had basically just found out that Kumomi destroyed a man and what was his response? A date? The cloaked woman chuckled slightly to herself with her hand slightly covering her mouth, the only lady like way to laugh in public though. Trying to calm her chuckle down a little bit she curtseyed at the boy with a grin on her face.

"Is that an attempt to ask me out on a date? Eh, young boy?"<i></i>

She stepped towards the boy until she was probably at an uncomfortable distance, leering into his eyes to try and decipher his true intentions. She wasn't going to fall for his tricks. She already had chakra charging in her feet incase she needed an escape plan.

 

[Toshiwakai Kagari]

Again, it was dead silent in the alleyway. Even though the girl had withdrawn her bugs of death, the atmosphere was still just as tense as ever. The silence was quickly met with at least some laughter from the veiled girl, that at least put Kagari at ease. She calmed down a bit and showed...happiness? She had a slight grin on her face, 'At least she's amused at the situation...' Kagari observed, showing a slight smile to hid his slight nervousness. 'If she says yes, I'll eat some ramen; we'll talk and I'll just leave and thank God that I was able to avoid being..."deconstructed." If she says no, then I'll just say that's fine and calmly exit the alleyway. Hopefully she lets me go...in my current state Kagari inwardly sighed as he kept trying to play out the next few moments in his head as best he could. 'If she says no...No I can convince her Not to kill me. I just need to keep playing my hand right...' Kagari outwardly sighed, obviously trying to calm himself.

"Is that an attempt to ask me out on a date? Eh, young boy?"

Kagari looked up and noticed she was just a few inches away from his face, staring again directly into his eyes. He didn't move, and met her gaze as best he could. She was really close, almost to close. He wasn't unfazed by the distance, as he could study her features more closely. 'She's very pretty I'll give her that...But she's also very...very dangerous.' Kagari closed his eyes and inhaled sowly, before exhaling out of his mouth. Building up some more courage, Kagari spoke.

"Well, I guess it is kind of a lame attempt. But honestly...I just want to get home and read my manga I just bought earlier. See it's Jojo's Bizzare Adventure, the oldest manga in the world- Ok look thats not important right now." Kagari fumbled a bit over his words, his over eagerness for his favorite series sometimes made him very talkative. He cleared his throat, before speaking again ."But my mom's not home and I'd rather not eat another microwaveable meal for dinner. So!" Kagari then showed the coupon to the girl, as if it was like a golden ticket you'd show off to your friends.

"I guess it is an attempt to ask you for a date. So I'll ask again, would you like to eat some ramen?" Kagari smiled at the young girl.

"Eh Young girl?" Kagari imitated the girl's tagline for him, mostly for comedic effect.

 

[Chikamatsu Shin]

"Well, I guess it is kind of a lame attempt. But honestly...I just want to get home and read my manga I just bought earlier. See it's Jojo's Bizzare Adventure, the oldest manga in the world- Ok look that's not important right now, but my mom's not home and I'd rather not eat another microwaveable meal for dinner. So!"<i></i>

The girl took a deep breath. This boy wasn't a threat at all, just a kid. She took a couple of steps to the side and turned her body in a manner in which landed her slightly behind the boy.

"Well I guess I can try this Santouka's place..."<i></i>

She blushed slightly, she needed to replace her demeanor with something lighter and safer. The girl has had darker thoughts more and more often lately and she knew it was not acceptable for someone wanting to join the Medical Branch of the Hidden Sand forces. It was all because of that single event. She had to overcome it but for now she would enjoy free food with this little boy.

((OoC: sorry, short post is short))

 

[Toshiwakai Kagari]

"Well I guess I can try this Santouka's place..."

'Oh my God I avoided a bullet.' If it wasn't for the current situation, Kagari would be practically cheering in public or prostrated on knees thanking God for his life. Kagari smiled, put the coupon back in his pocket before leaving the bloody alleyway. "Well it's a nice place, I would know I work there." Kagari laughed lightly, he wasn't too thrilled on returnning back to the resturant but if it meant avoiding possible death; he would take it. He could see that her cheeks started to darken, and Kagari raised an eyebrow. 'Is she being...bashful? After all that's happened..?' Kagari shook those thoughts out of his head before beckoning her to follow him. "This way miss....Oh wait, I never caught your name." Kagari realized that in the timeframe that they had been...uh "talking"; both of them didn't really introduce themselves.

"I'm Kagari, but from the look on your face you're most likely going to be calling me young boy..." Kagari laughed a little as they exited the alleway.

"Do you have a name I can call you or do I have to come up with one?"

(OoC: Short post is short as well.)

 

[Chikamatsu Shin]

And the mask seemed to work. If she was able to play it convincingly for long enough any trace of her activity in the murder would be completely erased. She let out a sigh when the boy said it was a nice place. as she followed the boy a few of her Nano-Beetles began to crawl around her checking to see if there were any blood splatters on her dress, and if there were they would dispose of them quickly. The girl politely followed him out of the alleyway and towards the restaurant, she was excited to see what this place was like. Then she was actually shocked by the boy's question. He wanted her name, she wasn't sure if she could trust him quite yet so she decided to just give her family name.

"Well, young boy, my name is Kugutsu..."<i></i>

Her voice was quiet and trailed off at the end, probably giving away the fact she didn't give her given name. But as they exited the alleyway she wanted to ask him a question, but she just didn't know if it was appropriate yet... So instead she just kept following the boy, her thumbs twiddled behind her back as she walked. Her deep emerald eyes kept track of the boy's every movement. Being a Micro-Puppeteer she has a keen eye of the slightest shift in movement and if this boy was going to pull anything she was ready.

 

[Toshiwakai Kagari]

"Well, young boy, my name is Kugutsu..."

'So she does have a name.' Kagari mused a bit as they started their short walk to Santouka. "it's nice to meet you Kugutsu, although I would have liked it under better circumstances..." Kagari scratched the back of his head, as he turned his head one more time to gaze at the alleway breifly before turning his attention to the path in front of them. "It's a...2-3 minute walk depending on the crowd in the marketplace...Hopefully it's not as bad as it was a half hour ago." Kagari sighed at the thought of fighting through the crowd again, especially now that he had to escort someone.


They fell into a sort of comfortable silence as they found themselves in front of the marketplace. Thankfully Kagari's wishes were heard, as most of the crowd had gone away. The marketplace was still bustling with people shopping for groceries, clothes, or whatever the peddlers were selling. You could get easily lost in here though and people are constantly shouting at you to buy there goods. "Stay close, so I don't lose you." Kagari turned to the veiled girl with a straight look on his face.

"Heey You two? You wanna buy something?!" A man shouted at Kagari and Kugutsu as they walked through the marketplace. Another shout came out, "My clothes make the man sir! Your girlfriend over there will approve!" More shouts came thier way as multiple peddlers were battling for attention. Kagari sweatdropped a little as he turned torwards the girl.

"Sorry about the shouting, this usually happens when you try to make your way to the marketplace. We're close though, I promise you." </B><i></i> Kagari said as he turned back to see if the girl was fazed by the constant noise. <B>Just ignore the shouting, most of these guys are just desperate to make a sell. Although if you do spot something let me know so we can take a quick look .."

(OoC: Probably my last post for a few hours, I'm gonna go to sleep @.@)

 

[Chikamatsu Shin]

Kumomi followed the boy as he spoke about the market in itself, but her mind was elsewhere. Though she tried to focus on what was currently happening the dark thoughts in her mind lingered. the incident was still so fresh in her mind that she was unable to convince herself to move away from it. She was completely zoning out as the young boy was talking about the market. The young girl stopped dead in her tracks in the middle of the market. A single tear trickled down her cheek. She took a step back and pulled her gloved hands up to her chest.

"I'm sorry..."<i></i>

Another step back and she felt as if her heart was sinking. She looked at Kagari with fear in her eyes. She took another step back, but this time she tripped. She fell and rested her back against a nearby wall. Her eyes had completely zoned out. She let out a scream as hundreds of Nano-Spiders crawled up and our from her garments to cover her and protect her. Her vision seemed to be gone as she could only relive the attack.

((umm... I didn't know where to go so I may just decided to break down))

 

[Toshiwakai Kagari]

He noticed that Kugutsu was having trouble focusing, she looked like her mind was on something else entirely. Maybe the crowd was scaring her, or something else was bothering her. But one thing was clear to Kagari, she was about to snap at any moment. "Hey...are you alright?" She was beginning to panic, took one step and tripped backwards with her wall hiting something solid. A small scream let out as Kagari noticed that her bugs were starting to form a proective cone around her. Kagari started getting more worried, as people around the marketplace was starting to take notice of situation. He could see small crowds of people gathering around, asking what happened.

"Is she alright?"

"Why did she scream?"

"What's happening?"

More and more people were gathering around, this was going to get ugly real quick. Kagari knew that Kugutsu was in some way responsible for the gruesome murder in the alleway, he didn't want to press her for any more details about it. He reasoned it had been self defense, seeing how the man that once was tried to hurt her. But there's a difference between self-defense and completely disentegrating a human being. The situation was getting worse though, people were eyeing her, concerened for her but if she was to "respond" the same way as earlier in the alleway;the crowd here will be "deconstructed". 'Shit, more people are surrounding us. I need to get them away quickly.' Kagari turned to face the crowd, doing his best to try divert their attention to him. "Hey, give her some space! She's not to great around crowd, please get back!" Kagari started sweatdropping at his lame attempt to get the crowd away; as it seemed they begin to push in more to see what's wrong. He was visibly getting more worred as he noticed the bugs were poised to protect her, most likely striking at anyone who got to close or whoever Kugutsu choose as her target. 'PPlease don't lash out...please for the love of God don't lash out!'

 

[Chikamatsu Shin]

The girl closed her eyes and cried, tears rushed down her face. Rolling over to her side the girl pushed herself up off of the ground before she started to run. Pushing people out of her way the young girl made her way out of the market. She continued running.

((OoC: Sorry for the quick cut out, trying to build stuff up for personal plot... We'll have to RP again when I'm not trying to guide her plot. Thank you very much for helping e though))
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[Toshiwakai Kagari]

As the crowd kept pushing in, Kagari was doing his best to calm to distract the crowd away from Kugutsu. Suddenly, the girl got up and took off without saying a word. "Wait!" Kagari called out, but she was already out of the marketplace. Kagari took chase but she had disappeared, gone into the wind. "What was that about...?" Kagari sractched his head in wonder, for a girl who was very flippant and seemingly unbothered by most things; she had social anxiety issues. It was obvious she was unstable, that she needed mental help. Kagari sighed as he took out the ramen coupon; looking at it with a bit of disapointment. It seems that his friendly gesture didn't work out as planned. "Looks like I got rejected on my first date..." Kagari chuckled to himself, and tore up the coupon and went back to what was his original destination before meeting Kugutsu in the alleyway.

As he exited the marketplace he pondered who the girl was. She was obviously a kunochi, a very capable one. The girl was unhindered by death, and could just breakdown at any moment. That's what worried Kagari most, is how quickly she was able to mentally break, and with her abilities she could lash out willingly on anyone. If she was a genin, then Kagari worried for whoever was their sensei or who was in their squad. Kagari pondered on where could she have gone, her home? Her family? Who knows, but Kagari was thankful that she didn't hurt the crowd...or him thankfully. As he made his way to his home, he thought if he would see her again. "She's trouble, powerful and unstable. I guess she's the "perfect" ninja...That's the last time I walk into an alleyway in Grand Palais."

(OoC: That's fine! Thanks for the RP regardless.)

WC: 298
MFT
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