Private i want to lose myself at sea

[Komorebi Rin]

Little mouse, little mouse, where will you scurry to?

Nanaka hummed a limerick beneath the soft tenor of lips so tightly pressed together, twining and untwining a bundle of yarn through thin fingers. She made a great many sights, but showcased no natural skill in the craft; that is to say, any shapes she suspended were not very good. Still, it brought her an almost childlike sense of entertainment. It kept her hands busy from dark inclinations, and her thoughts away from deeper shades. Her eyes - always half-lidded, nothing garnering enough attention for a full focus of their light - wandered softly over her hands as they worked. A bird. A cat. A dog.

A shark?

That cat, dressed in black, has claws coming down for you.

A distraction caught a corner of boredom - tugging both her mouth from its set and her eyes from their lull. Her hands pause, coiled in a fish-like piece, and she dangles it down her legs. Seated as she was atop a building in the district, pointedly ignoring and people watching the passersby, the color would spill from her hands until it shivered like chimes in the wind. A sight not sorely seen; one, however, that brought with it great interest. With ears like a cat, and a tail coiled from her hip, she wasn't in much a position to judge - so judge she didn't, and considered instead. What exactly was Suna that it made people like them? What exactly were they, if not animals or its people?

Run away, little mouse, to hide from the cat.

"Good creature, pardon me." She breathed as easily as a flower expelling pollen - a dandelion, even, with its wishing seeds carried; and that wish so very intoxicating in the mouths of prey. Her tail curled at its tip, all black fur and lithe, and twitch to offer its own wave. Her hand did, however, reach out enough to trail vivid string from each knuckle. "Be you friend or be you foe?" It was a game to her. It was a truth, still. "Are you quite lost?"

Sharp teeth and bright eyes are no match for a rat.

 

[Hojirozame Samezuka]

A late night... a... night unlike his last few, with a bed and a guaranteed access to food there wasn't much reason for him to need to do something like this again. Whilst Fuku slept snuggled up on Hoji's pillow, the shark boy would be out prowling the night he needed none of this not to sustain himself physically at least. But... his hunger was still starving he hadn't been on the hunt for a while his life being.. easy, almost too easy. Yet a feral animal born in the wild could not lose their instincts not so soon at least without a ton of scrubbing and refining. For now he'd have to satiate his hunger and there was only one way possible to do such a thing.

In the deepest, most darkest of alleys is where he stalked his most recent target, it seemed to be an academy student somewhat injured a slight limp in their leg causing them to practically shuffle across the residential district. An easy target who should go down relatively easy, he seemed to be younger than the Samezuka, a lot smaller and more meek looking. But unlike his previous hunts he'd learnt to not take looks for granted, and was much more of a fighter able to hold his own if one would struggle. Luckily for him as he walked in to this alley after the young girl he would see her small figure getting further and further away. With a quick dash he would skulk in, crawling with speed on the sandy floor, he'd not been noticed until he was a couple feet away from his target. She'd spin round and flinch a scream about to leave from her mouth as Hoji would slice at her throat, blood spurting out and causing her to grab at her neck as she feeble noises left from her mouth.

Digging in to her shoulders with each of his claws as she kicked and struggled with her legs he would crunch down on her scalp, through her skull and right in to her head as her body would twitch momentarily before falling limp. His prey had been defeated and it was time to devour his prize, digging in with his sharp teeth he would begin to chow down before he heard a noise from behidn him. The colour returning to his beady eyes as he looked down at the bloody corpse before him. Before slowly looking over his shoulder to see who or what was behind him. "Uurhm... nro nrot lost. And... I am... urrhh..." Crap, he didn't really know what to say, he'd never been caught before, not once. For the very first time... he felt guilty, an image of Raizo's smile coming to his mind as he dropped the body and fully rose to his two feet.

"I am me. Yoou should... gro, now. .... Plrease?" He really wasn't in the mood to talk right now, currently about to grovel with self pity. He was confused, it all happened so fast, but why? He had already eaten dinner, why?

 

[Komorebi Rin]

It was such a grisly sight in this festival macabre. Nanaka - for what graces she pretended to have - was invested from the moment the shuffle of scared feet passed her, let alone the scamper of a beast and the scream it rose. She made no move to assist. She made no move at all - not 'til the hybrid boy had finished his bloodsport and was sufficiently entrenched in a way she could benefit from. That was when the colored threads slipped from her fingers and brushed the strewn dirt below - dangling from a pianist's fingers, both composing and marionette. She was a stand-out piece among the night sky, a single beckoning shadow with tail curling high and ears shuffled between dirty-colored tresses. "Not lost, indeed. You seemed to know exactly where you were going." What you were doing, went unspoken. Her tone was soft - considerate - and mused, as if she found it more intrigued than disgusted.

Well, no one had said she'd never been in the same position. "You, that is? Very well, You." Her feet hung down with small kicks - casting their own dark shadows that ebbed and flowed across the alley, blanketing them both in a pendulum of devoid. "I'm Nanaka. Come now, don't run off just yet. Not on a full stomach," there was somehow a lack of judgment in a voice that rumbled forth like a purr, alluring and entrapping in a similar beat. She seemed to cast her net and reel it in within the same breath. If anything, she spoke equitably gentler than normal; why, she wouldn't want to be prey on his menu, would she? Why scare him off, either? This had never happened for her before. New experiences were always exciting. "A sated appetite is met best with good company. Why not open a dialogue, little shark?"

Her tongue lolled behind her lips, exhalation in the sweetest of sighs. Saccharine. She twirled a lollipop fished from her shorts between idle fingers, drawn back to prop her knee and her head upon it. Just watching him - the glint of hazel in her eyes sparkling gold under dim light. Truly, a cat in shadows. "Does this happen often? Are you meant to do it?" And where was he going to go from here with a witness? She didn't feel the need to restrain him. The way stars echoed in a frame around her felt sufficient in keeping his attention: one predator to another.

 

[Hojirozame Samezuka]

He stood there almost frozen listening to her speak, she seemed some what beast like, with a tail and cat ears to boots, certainly one of the most perplex people he had ever talked to. Not that he could interpret the words any differently to what she was saying though, his skill in social conversation was... below average at very best. However he was somewhat surprised by her lack of a reaction, he figured that this would most certainly lead in to some sort of confrontation, however he still was hesitant getting any closer to her than he was now. Gritting his teeth he would fully face to look at her making sure that his sharp claws could be seen in an attempt to somewhat scare her off by his stance alone. However his attempts proved less than fruitful. "I urh... yeah...." With guilt he would reply to her first statement, despite as much as he could try to deny... his predator instincts were none other than his own. They wrestled with the person he was becoming almost as if they were pulling him back in to the deep blue cavern on the sea's lonely floor.

Although it would be wrong to say that he wasn't scared, not necessarily of... Nanaka. But instead what she could do, if she ran to get help, decide to engage in a fight. His whole life he had been building up could disappear in the blink of an eye, and whilst it was selfish, he didn't want to lose it all. Not for something so... pathetic at this. And she seemed to scarily calm for Hoji not to somewhat panic.

"A sated appetite is met best with good company. Why not open a dialogue, little shark?"

Hoji would take a gulp as he began to wonder what this would dissolve in to, he didn't think she saw him as a threat and thus had two options swirling around in his head. "Urhm... little.. shark? No... Hojirozame..." In an attempt to somewhat threaten her he would be plain and blunt, whilst technically sharing his name it was a double edged sword. In this instance, one that he hoped Nanaka wouldn't care to fight. He could feel the blood on his skin slowly dripping down his chest as well as the sand around him becoming more moist and crimson in colour. His need to do something, anything rose greatly. He wanted to be free... that was his dream right? Not executed and shamed in front of the ones he held as friends, she didn't look like a student certainly stronger, perhaps even part of the shinobi force...

"It... I wron't sray! Yoou... mrust leave... before you join her..." Going down on all fours he would dig his claws in to the sand as he slowly began to prowl towards Nanaka, he didn't wish to kill her or anything of the sort, despite the most recent events... he really did not feel like it at all. In fact he hoped she would run and just say nothing. "Yoou did nrot see anything!" A low snarl exuding from his teeth as he would get closer and closer ready to pounce if violence would be the answer to this situation.

 

[Komorebi Rin]

"You seem unwell." Her words dripped like a toxicant from cherry red lips; something poisoned in the wine, so beautiful, so sweet. "Hojirozame." His name fell softer - slinked - a drop of something into the brew. A pinch of shark fin. She didn't move as a threat - she needn't move at all, as he seemed priming to stalk towards her. Only the slightest of bristles through a tail that curled and twitched in a snaking shape behind her, each shadow a new silhouette cast. It wasn't that she wasn't intimidated; it was that the idea of being intimidated was in itself so laughable, so arguable, so indignant that she had to lean more into the play. She allowed no cracks in her careful masquerade. What fun would they have if she bit back? What would be left of him, devoured in turn?

He wasn't her first beast of prey. He wasn't even her first blood-soaked companion. It was imperative, however, that she didn't join his vivid smock.
She didn't even know what color she'd bleed anymore.

A twitch of tenseness in small, bare shoulders, crested by the black of a jacket that didn't quite sit on her shape. A man on all fours brought her back to the alley. Was he to keep her from her scraps? She would not starve tonight with his belly full. "I wouldn't, my friend." Dangerously close to fiend. Her fingers moved beneath the moonlight, threading through its rays until an array was revealed within them - wire after wire, between her and Hojirozame and the rest of the world. A cocoon of shattered glass, sharp and unwilling. "Too many steps closer and you won't enjoy the feeling." She had to caution him with her hand: the trap had been set before he appeared, and it'd be there after he was dismissed. "I wouldn't want to hurt you, Hojirozame." Honesty? The way she waived him off appeared more in warning than threat. Would he tell the difference?

"It's not your fault. The hunger. The need." Could she talk low, sweet? Soothing to a child? "It's not your fault you do these things. You're a good boy, aren't you, Hojirozame? You like it in Sunagakure, don't you? I wouldn't take that from you." She extended a claw into the refraction of the sky, each nail slanting out and ears twitching in obvious attention atop her pelt. "I'm not too different." She would never get caught. "I understand."

She didn't like the feeling when he snarled. She felt a curdle in her chest, passing it off with a soft murmur. "Please, call me Nanaka. We're kindred. You know kin, yes?"

 

[Hojirozame Samezuka]

Almost dizzy from her words he really was panicked in this moment, he had no clue what she was about to do or say next, she was so different from anyone he'd ever spoken to. So, conniving and stealthy, he'd never experienced anything like this in the wild, not once! And it was truly and utterly horrific in a way he couldn't describe, sweat dripping from his brow as he knew that there was practically nothing he could do. Seeing the cacophony of sharp wires before him he knew that he'd been caught right in her web, never expecting a spider of this size to find him whilst he hunted. "Unwrell? Urhh..." He attempted to stand his ground whilst she would continue to speak however it felt like everything she said would add an extra weight to his back.

Taking a large gulp he would try to answer the rest of what she said, finding it more like an exam or pop quiz than a conversation. Her voice was soothing but all of his senses were screaming shaking his fight or flight response. "Grood broy... not too drifferent...? Are we... really nrot?" It seemed like she was beginning to chip through his armour though as he would begin to actually respond more and more with each thing she said. He couldn't help it, he didn't know any better. "You understrand...? Kin? Like... like Shraniki??" The last part would almost be a whisper to himself although it was more of a question than everything. His thoughts were racing with images of Raizo, Michi, Shraniki, Fuku and lastly.. the soft and small smile of Nanaka.... it was tearing him apart.

With his mind coming to such a state of panic, something deep inside of him had decided now it was the time to come to fruition. With the requisites finally being met with him having a contract of his own, the natural energy stirring and bubbling throughout his very body. For the first time in his life he felt a strange energy swirl round him as his regularly blue chakra would begin to form around his body from a moment as the air around him would swirl. A mix of yellow and white natural energy would overtake his very form before dispersing in a small flash before Hoji would stand up on his own two feet perplexed, yet... energetic?

Spoiler: new look

With a bright yellow avian like tattoo along his chest glowly lightly with energy, as well as two small markings making his way down from his mouth his body would flow with a decent amount of natural energy. All that power that had been left untouched and unawakened from when he was but a meek embryo would now take form in this sudden and unexpected transformation. The most shocking reveal however was the fact that he had grown two functioning angelic like wings to boot... with no idea how to control them whatsoever. "HRUH?! WHRAT THE-!!" In an instant attempting to use them was a mistake as with one flap of his left wing he would get hurdled straight in to the the wires, it slicing through the top layer of his skin causing blood to spurt out, even taking a few feathers off. In a panic of pain he would scream attempting to get out, however this only caused him to brute force through the rest of the wires, getting small cuts all over his body as the wires would snap and his wings flapping all over the place in a desperate state.

In an instant he'd charge right through the trap and zoom right towards Nanaka uncontrollably hitting the walls of the alley and bouncing around before soaring right in to her grabbing their wrist as the two was taken in to the air. "AARGH I CRAN'T FLY!!!" He had no idea what he was doing it was as if his new appendages had a mind of their own and would do anything at all to cause him to soar, unknowingly the back of his mind was controlling them somewhat, like giving a kid the steering wheel to a car. The two would begin to take in to the high sky becoming dozens of metres above the residential district as he helplessly fluttered in the air without control. "NAHNAHKA HRELP PLREASE I DRON'T KNOW WHRAT TO DO!!"​

 

[Komorebi Rin]

What the fuck is a Shraniki?

Sure, she's like a Shraniki. Whatever kept the man-shark at bay and relaxing under the gentle ministrations her hands played across his psyche - strings, invisible, had already been plucked at the stem of his brain. How much more did he need to be played until he was hers? How much fiddling did one beast require from another to be consider tamed? It was an exhilarating battle of - she wouldn't say wits - but just on the wire, a genuinely perilous situation she enjoyed puzzling through until she, inevitably, got what she wanted. "See, I don't have to be too scary. You don't have to be scary, either. Scary things don't make you a scary person. You can still be good. We could be good, togeth --"

Our lords Kazekage that arte in Heaven.

Nanaka's smug sighing had all but broken into an uncharacteristic yelp as something exploded from Hojirozame, sending him into a frenzy not unlike her fears. She had, within the split of seconds, lost all superiority she was basking so very lazily in; and just like a cat, that startle bristled her fur on end and hopped her up on shocked paws, tail sticking straight out with a poof along its manicured length. "Holy shit!?", were the words from the Nanaka outside her funhouse of thoughts & feelings. The mirrors and their reflections hadn't quite shattered as much as been smashed through when Hoji barrelled forward in his panic. A shark, with wings, loosed in the fragility of one young girl's mind. He tripped all of her wires, pushed through every cut that sprayed bloody murder, and lunged in terror at her - equally in terror, but not as fast on feet that'd been paralyzed with their plummet from divinity. "Hojir--" she wanted to yell, as if she could now talk him down from this scene and - well, leave, now. Get the hell out of here. It was no longer her problem, it was no longer to her benefit, and she wasn't about to -

and then she was off the ground, instinct alone stalling her from flailing in time with him. A kitten scruffed. A beast of prey now rabbit-like in the beating of its heart and eyes so very wide they might betray the terror within. She grasped at him only as she could, their awkward flight path dipping them in a swoop then jerking back to the side, threatening a roll and eventual plummet to their very untimely demise. Would a cat still land on its feet from this height? She had never been this high before. She did not like being this high. Oh Gods. "H-Hojiro -- Hoji!" She not so much snarled as gasped, all pretense of anything but confusion, shock and - whatever the opposite of awe was, like a radiant sight that wished only to eat you alive. "What's happeni - you don't know you don't know. Gods. Gods. Gods." What was she to do? She couldn't kill him to release herself. She wasn't even at his mercy - at least she could make peace with the jaws of a shark and bite him down with her. He had no idea what was going on. She had no idea what was going on.

And they were both quickly approaching twenty leagues over the sandsea. "You have to calm down!" She didn't have the tools for this. "You have to relax! You're going to get us both killed like this!" A hand gripped along his bare chest, stalled by the furious flap of wings - beautiful, she would add, if they were not an instrument of her demise - and launch strings from the tip of each digit until they wound around his waist. Something of an airshark seatbelt. They were stuck together until she got him back to the ground - and then she was going to rip off those beating spans and eat them in front of him. "They're attached to you! Hoji! They're YOUR wings! You have to take control of them!" Please, please, have a single thought in that dumbfounded expression of yours. Her hands would both press in, gripping him, and the intent was consoling - comforting - a presence to add to both his confidence and his concern. She was not going down with him. "Try! Get close! To ground! I'll catch us! Hoji!

Please! Trust!"

 

[Hojirozame Samezuka]

Flying maniacally around he would scream off in to the night as he held tightly on to Nanaka he realised that he grabbed her without thinking yet he didn't mean to anything more just a means to escaping this feathered hell the two found themselves in. Helplessly fluttering about in the sky it was only her who helped to ground him in this time of confusion. his whole world was spinning as the cold breeze blasted in to their face's as he struggled to breath at such a high altitude. Feeling the girl wrap herself round his waist in an attempt to preent herself from falling mid-flight Hoji would panickedly speak back to her. "I CRAN'T CALM DROWN I DRON'T KNOW HROW!!" For a second he would stop moving his wings not that he chose to, before plummeting for just a moment before catching the two with his wings again.

They would move about against his will and the night air certainly wasn't helping him direct the two, he let go off Nanaka's arm as she was somewhat safely wrapped across his waist as he grabbed the side of his head with each hand trying to regain any semblance of control. Although she suddenly made a good point, they were his wings. "MY WRINGS?! WRAIT THREY ARE!!! THERE MRINE!!" Unbeknownst to the two of them this transformation had a ticking timer, it wouldn't last forever and they were soon to run out. Shaking his head over and over he rattled his brain with every thought in his body. Until... he'd got it! Using his hands he grabbed on to each wing with one hand and would use his arms to help him direct himself. "OKRAY I TRUST YOOU!!" It started off very choppy as the two started stumbling towards the ground with his wings although they were very slowly getting ever so closer to a tall building.

When they were almost in reach for whatever Nanaka was about to do Hoji was really starting to get the hang of it using his arms to flap his angelic wings, impractical in battle sure but as a training wheel! It was beginning to work! "I'M DROING IT NANAKA IM REALLY DOING IT-!" Unfortunately the pair had run out of time a small flash radiated from Hoji for a moment, right before his wings dispersed in an instant and the markings on his body disappeared, the two now with no source keeping them in the air would begin to plummet towards the ground. The fate of their lives being in Nanaka's hands. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

 

[Komorebi Rin]

This was the first time someone said they trusted her.

Now, Nanaka knew that her plea for trust was a desperate ploy to get them back to the ground, in one piece, so that she could then rip him into stupid little bits in recompense for the wild fit he'd just dragged her on -- but. There was some type of quality that caught her eyes to open - for their first time in advents - a full, attentive, wind-whipped hazel. Bright and wide under the light of a chaotic moon they soared beneath. As they flew, and jerked, and yelped; and she held no barrier between her and the caustic beast - as terrified, more terrified - she couldn't help but ... listen to him? He was so, so scared. A sound she reveled in when it came from street trash, crying in the pits of alleys she chased them down until thread by thread lifted them in prostration as a meal -- but he wasn't scared of her. He was scared of himself. He was scared for himself - and for her. Nobody had been so vulnerable around her without expecting their death by her hand - she had seen him, earlier, scared of what she could do. That was the environment she thrived in. They were lifted from it.

Just a boy, or some type of thing that was one once, thrust into terror and changes in himself he didn't know how to manage and didn't have anyone who could really understand what was happening -- god, fucking, damnit. She dug her claws into the side of his chest. She hissed in a breath through clenched teeth. She curled her tail in up the arch of her spine and flit her ears to her head, his cries of victory fading to a fit of shrieking as whatever strange form of power he exhibited all but left him in the sudden space of night. She wasn't going to let -- herself, down. Not that far down. She was going to follow through. What the fuck ever. Very well.

Her legs lifted to hike around him, pinning his back where markings once glowed with her heels, and freefell her arms from his skin to release the threads that had previously attached them together. They surged, instead, out of her fingers arced wide in their plummet - and while he screamed, she would dart her eyes and identify every pillar of chance they had. Projections were drawn in that decisive glow of her eyes within seconds. She moved in the split of them. A line from each finger caught a building or alcove in a clinging grip, forming the first axle. She used the force of her legs around him, and the strength of a will born in the very dredge of society - one that was infallible in its execution of survival - and TWISTED both of their bodies midair, spiraling to twine and twine around the web she had started to spin.

It took moments more, and a genuine brush with the idea of death, before the jerk of her arms could bring in the finale and halt their movement with it - slowing with the first threads and coming to a stop feet above the graveled street with the remainder. They were cocooned in some approximation of the trap she had laid earlier, without the biting of the threads: now a haven. A sanctuary. A chance for her to catch her breath, face occupying the small of his chest as she huffed short and rapid against it. She would have to recollect herself, dust off her dishevelment, and be herself again the moment she slipped from this throe - and she listened to the sound of his same heavily beating heart for the time she could steal. What a strange tempo. It was nothing like the ones she had slowed. Exhilirating.

She lifted her head, slowly, and pushed a hand into his chest as wires clutched still from its grip - and then higher, grabbing his chin and staring down at him in the hammock she made. She could kill him right now. She could slice him into nothing. She could rip out that restless reverberation and crush it in paws that so longingly vyed for their control again. He was nothing to her. He probably wasn't much of anything to anyone. He was a disgusting, uncontrollable beast. He had caused an excruciating amount of trouble for her within a span of one meeting. He deserved nothing less than execution for his crimes.

She dipped her head until the crown of her forehead pressed into the bill of his, her breathing slowing and then pitching into -- laughter. And louder it went, adrenaline pumping through every tense limb that held them in this web together. She laughed. She laughed, and laughed, until her throat became hoarse from the pealing sound. "That was insane, Hoji. Hahahahaha. You're insane. Hahahaha."

 

[Hojirozame Samezuka]

It all happened so fast for the little shark, Nanaka had taken the lead for sure as Hoji would be silenced as her heels would grab round his back as her arms flowed through the wind, wires shooting from each of her fingertips. Quiet as could be he'd only be able to watch in... bewilderment filling his eyes as the two danced in the night sky a twisting tango as they spun throughout darkness only lit by the grace of the moonlight. Like the most dangerous of ballads he was stunned watching the grace of her form take this on with such vigour and determination one that he had never quite seen the likes of before one that... made his heart beat... even faster. He could feel hers as well his began to beat in sink with hers as well as the thread would begin to intertwine the two rotating as one whether on purpose or not.

Despite everything she had seem from him... all the pain and annoyance he had caused, the bottom of his mouth smeared with the blood of the innocent now having dried in the cold air, and yet... she chose to not only save her life but take him in tow. Whether she thought the same or not, a cold blue blush would form across his face matching the complexion granted from the soft light. He'd find himself in the warm safe haven in which the two shared for just that moment in time, her breath against his face he really was unsure what to do right now, no one in his life had ever wished to get so close to the boy. It made him feel... welcome.. and wanted... he didn't want to leave the web which the two were constricted in. The feeling as her hand moved up to his chest and on to his chin his face turning as bright as it could in a time like this as he'd take in a gulp.

Her head against his... looking down at her nose and mouth with his beady eyes as she'd cackle with laughter, and he couldn't help but find it.. mesmerising... she was truly and utterly... amazing in every way shape and form... he couldn't lose this person no way. There was no one else in his life like her. All he knew he wanted was for the two of them to touch not because they were constricted to but out of a bond. Perhaps he was getting ahead of himself but with desperation he ripped right through the sanctuary which bonded the two as his claws glimmered sharply before embracing the girl for a hug, his arms twisting round her back. He had no clue where it would lead, would he be torn apart? Embraced back? He didn't care. But he knew this. "Nahnahka... yoou.. are amrazing!!" Tearing up as he held slightly tighter, "YOOU SRAVED MY LRIFE... IM SORRAE!! THRANK YOOU!!! "

 

[Komorebi Rin]

What was this feeling? Suddenly hot, suddenly cold? It was like her blood froze in its surge through her veins but retained the heat it brought to each limb. It was ... an uncomfortable tingling sensation, from the tip of a nose crinkled against his inhuman shark bill to the rattle of laughter in her throat - to the way her hand lingered on his chest, the tip of her tail spiraling in slow, languid movements. This was not her. This was not right.

And then there were arms around her, and the unsteady beat of her heat only increased in pace between each thrum. Were they to tear her to pieces? To hold her down? To shove her away? She could think of no other reason someone would move themselves to be closer to her. Was this disgusting, ingrateful imbecile of a beast actually intending her harm after her infinite graciousness? She had saved his excuse for a life! She had stained herself with the blood from his gullet for --

Amazing?
... Yeah, that sounded right. Maybe she could let it pass, once around the merry-go.

"Hojirozame, what --," ah, but he was thanking her, squeezing her tighter, wobbling the incandescent twine of threading they hung atop. This was ... he was ... ... hugging her? To ... what end? When came the bright of his teeth, tearing her flesh away for one more scar beneath the skintight of her top? She had a wicked tear carefully concealed behind a ribbon around her neck, a line left by what could have nearly been a decapitation. Would he go for one of her ears, perched in a careful twitch at the top of her head? They had their close calls with notches. What about his own claws, primed for the vulnerable small of her back? Why was he - just - hugging her? ... And why hadn't she pulled away, just yet? Her arms had stalled at their sides, an awkward angle to each finger entertaining a shiver on every clawtip. Her lips contorted, down. They twisted up. Her expression was unreadable as the scent of the sea hit her full facial and she could only wrinkle her nose.

And then she sighed, seeming to collect herself slowly at each piece. The shards of Nanaka Chikamatsu, notorious for her lack of hesitation, scooped in shy hands until they formed a picture whole again. She couldn't help another laugh - it was almost a snort. You know ... he wasn't worthless, as a brute. He killed prey quickly and efficiently, understood when to be guarded, followed directions when not, and had some sort of ... flying ability, which is a useful asset. He couldn't be bad to keep around. He was indebted to her, after all. He owed her their lives. She could use that. ... Yeah, that was it.

She tilted her head to leave the grasp, untangle herself from the shark boy, but -- her lips met his cheek, instead, and nosed in for a sealing statement. She left a kiss there. Patted the back of his head, flicking her tail in hard punctuation. "You're so funny, Hoji. Yes, yes. There, there. I know. I did a pretty incredible job." There was humor behind every word, her voice lulling back to silk song. "You showcased something remarkable tonight. You might just be ... something remarkable, Hojirozame." She smiled against his face, and it ... wasn't as wicked as it could have been. All things considered.

"Ah, but, we really shouldn't tell anybody, anything that happened tonight." She would truly have to kill him if word of these exploits - and his continued life at her hands - got out: except the part where she was really fucking cool. He could tell everybody that. "Yes? A secret between new ...,"

pause

"friends?"

 

[Hojirozame Samezuka]

Hojirozame no one really called him that, he was often known as Hoji or a brat, monster those sort of names. Not one saw him as just... himself. He kept her embraced until she would willingly wiggle out and he made sure not to constrain her against her will, the hug was a sign of companionship. A bond he was trying to make, that he felt he needed to. Although when something would be left across his cheek, he didn't really know what to do, for a moment he just... froze. Completely... he had no words to say. He just was.. happy, joyous? There wasn't anything he could say to describe it except give his usual dumbfound smile, it was all he knew and all he wanted to know.

Listening to her speak now felt different to everything before, it was soft and comforting all the fear of being a deer in headlights was erased, he could.. relax.. he felt somewhat... safe. It was almost ridiculous for him to show such an affinity for this girl despite everything that had taken place before, he just couldn't help himself. He wanted to cosy down by a warm campfire with her and his other friends and just have a good time. "Re... remarkable... thranks!" Her compliment whether it was completely true or not he didn't think twice and his smile would just grow even bigger as he stood there and would just follow her advice, he wouldn't utter a word as long as it meant that they would remain friends.

"Secret... friends!! Dreal! Wre wrill be nrew friends! Brut urhm... I wranted to ask... do yoou... urhm..." It was hard for him to spit out but he almost wanted to show her off, that he had formed somewhat of a bond with someone he admired so much. That she was just so... wow. He'd never admired a person as much as this, he likely hadn't really admired anyone, he'd cared about people and liked them sure, but in all honesty for him this was the coolest person he'd ever met. So with his arms awkwardly by his sides, before he would bring a hand up to scratch the back of his head it was here where he'd ask. "Do yoou wanna mreet my friends?" A loaded question, whether she knew it or not.

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[Komorebi Rin]

There was something wrong about being in the muck - not so much the nature of it, nor the company she shared in it, but that she lingered in it as long as she did. Was this quicksand? Her usual feeling of slipping was all but lost in the ... security? The ease? The unease of her time with Hojirozame? She couldn't help but click her tongue with her teeth, as if she was tutting herself back into line - or, on some level, admonishing Hoji for the trap her legs had found themselves in. She swallowed that down. She wasn't the one caught in a web. She was the predator. He was the ...

He was the ...

God, whatever. Fuck off. "You have a very pretty smile, Hoji." It was rows of teeth beneath a monstrous bill. It made her feel at home, in some manner of complacent disgust. She would use the compliment as a distraction to untangle herself without offense, measuring herself between underlying panic and a desperation that all but crawled along her skin. Her arms twitched. Her nails lingered briefly on his chest before drawing up and tapping the rim of her jaw, tilting her head to hide her smile beneath pretty black nails. "I think we'll be very good friends. Know you can call on me if you ever need my assistance, Hojirozame." And then she would lean in, just briefly, as much as she could let herself, and her smile would twitch before she caught it in a purr. "And I can do the same, yes?"

He was an incredible asset. He was a ferocious killer, and he was terribly easy to manipulate.

And that's all this was, of course. A manipulation.

She slunk off his body and stood a little straighter in their makeshift hammock, twining her fingers around each other to lower them down inch by inch - an uncomfortable elevator, but basking still in their lingered excitement. "You have ... other friends?" She didn't mean to say that without thinking - how she never said anything without thinking! - but he was unlikely to take it poorly as she addended herself with the wisp of a gentle light; and like the will o', a smile to tempt with it. "It would be my honor. Why, we could all be friends." Especially if they're anything like you. "Now doesn't that sound fun?"

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