Looks Like Someone Could Use a Hand.

[Kazumi]

Most of what Naoki said actually seemed to make sense to the girl as she softly nodded along. "What sort of name is that?" She finally did ask when the name Magnetica came up. It sounded silly, even by fictional standards. She looked away from Naoki as she tried to picture what that must have been, but all she could imagine was some tall woman with long static hair floating with lighting around here, though even that made as much sense as the name did.

Yumi's expression lit up for a few moments and she nodded enthusiastically, "yeah piano. I.. guess they probably don't ave them out here. They are pretty big after all... they are like a large harp inside a flat wooden box, and you press keys to make little hammers hit each of the strings. It sounds wonderful. I... don't think I could play it for you, but I am sure I could find some recordings somewhere of it." She gave Naoki a small smirk as she fondly thought back to when she was an even younger girl. "Maybe I could teach you someday, if you want. If you are as good at music as you say you are. That's about all I will be able to do."

She finally looked over towards her bandaged right arm, the tip of it had stained the bandages quite red, likely from all her movement. "I can still feel it... even though its not there." She picked her left hand up and moved it and her right stub as if she were going to clasp her two hands together in front of her. Her left hand grabbed only air of course and she let off a sigh. "At least... they will rest knowing that he is eternally suffering in his afterlife now. Maybe that would have made my dad proud..." Yumi picked her left hand up and looked towards its open palm. "I still don't know what happened..."

 

[Samejima]

Hmm... Never really thought about the name. Naoki shrugged, as if to say that was the only thing she knew about the matter, and listened attentively to Yumi as she explained what a piano was.

It could have already existed somewhere in Suna for all she knew, but she wouldn't have been able to go anywhere that would've had one. "Hmm... Is a harp that long thing with lots and lots of strings?" She was sure it was called a koto, but she could've been wrong. "Keys..." This part was the most confusing for Naoki. Aren't keys used to unlock doors? She would likely ask about it later however, as Yumi's thoughts and words took a turn for the sobering after Naoki nodded happily to the prospects of a music lesson.

Ooh... Afterlife...? For clarity's sake, Naoki was raised without an awareness to certain paranormal aspects. She wasn't sure if Yumi's parents would be happy to know that their daughter sent someone to Afterlife to suffer eternally, but she didn't comment on that. "So you don't remember anything..." Of course, that's why there's bandages on her head... Hmm...? "Earlier, you said you wanted to... kill him, again? Was that maybe something that happened?"

 

[Kazumi]

Softly, Yumi shook her head when Naoki suggested that she didn't remember what happened. "I remember.. most of it." She then listened, partly listened anyway, in silence as Naoki finished her speaking. "I remember... him... falling off of a table.l I must have been dreaming or... I don't know, it was so real..." She still didn't seem sure what to make of it all, but she slowly contiued anyway, perhaps Naoki could make more sense of it than she could. "I remember having Trust in my left hand, and I apparently stabbed... him... in the neck with ti. He then fell off the table and thrashed about while I cut myself free, but ..."

Yumi clenched her left hand and pressed it against her chest, "I don't know what it was I stabbed him with. I remember seeing Steady... or wait... I don't know." She winced a little as if the recollection was causing her head to ache. "When I looked at it, it wasn't either of them. It was like jagged red glass and... it melted or something?" There was another pause before she again shook her head, "it probably was just another dream... I guess I really don't know what happened."

 

[Samejima]

Naoki listened as attentively as she could, but she couldn't make heads nor tails of it either. She did think she was dreaming for some reason, so it might really have just been a dream... A lot of dreams seem pretty real, but... She recalled that time when she lost her sight. At some point, she thought it'd all been just a dream too, but it wasn't.

As illustrated by the fact that she could see no illustrations.

It's all real then... all of it... Yumi had killed a man, who killed her parents, despite having been tied up beforehand. Naoki sat there in silence for a bit as she processed the information. Trust? She stabbed him with it, so it was probably some kinda weapon? And what's Steady? Another weapon? And then... She looked at it, and it was actually jagged red glass... which melted. Hmm... But that was something that's pretty scary, I don't think she could've just dreamed it up... "It... might not be a dream at all. You're sure that's what happened?"

 

[Kazumi]

Yumi took a deep slow breath and let it out as a long continious stream as she tried to collect herself. "Well.. this is what I remember." Yumi then proceeded to recount the tale as best as she recalled it to Naoki. How she had stayed out late, dreading going home after that meeting. What she had seen when she walked into her house. The point at which she believes she was knocked out. Waking up on that table with that man looming there, with her hands and ankles bound.

She continued on to when she clawed at the man's face when her hand had managed to wiggle free, and how he removed that hand and forearm in a fit of rage. The dreams she had whenever she was unconscious from the blunt trauma and from the shock and blood loss. The conversation of her parents while she played in the snow and the ghastly figure of her father and that gem before the man impaled him again. Holding one of her blades in her hand as she stabbed that demonic man as she woke up and found him bleeding all over her before collapsing to the the floor and finally the blade that had melted away.

She shook her head again, her left hand absently cradling her right elbow. "That is about all I remember before waking up here..." The girl bit her lip and shook a little, having gone over it seemed to be both cathartic and midlyl traumatizing at the same time. She then looked up over towards Naoki, as if she would have all the answers for her that she desperately needed.

 

[Samejima]

Fidgeting a little in the stool as she heard the story, Naoki would wince a little when Yumi mentioned her arm being removed, and once more when she said she stabbed him. By the end of the story, Naoki's left hand was covering her mouth in horror. She went through so much... and after that kind of meeting, all that worry...

Then Yumi finished her story, a little shaky and, to Naoki at least, still trying to have herself believe that it was all real as she affirmed the location of where her right arm now ended. The student, patient, now-orphaned Yumi looked up at her, and with the next few beeps confirming her expression of desperation and a need for answers, answers Naoki didn't have...

Naoki would stand up rather tentatively, walking over to try and hug Yumi tight while still being mindful of her wounds. It was probably the only thing she could think of doing, not having any words for the situation at present. How do you go through all that and not... not... break? Break was the only way she could describe it. There's no way the genin would have been able to imagine herself going through all that, but she came close, and that closeness was quite enough for her. She was not going to think about 'breaking' any more. Yumi... How do I help you with something like that...

Tears wetting the inside of her headband, though she showed no signs of it aside from her slightly cracked voice, "Sorry, Yumi... Sorry... I don't know what to say..."

 

[Kazumi]

Did she believe Naoki would somehow be able to make everything better? All of the family that she knows is dead or missing, first her uncle and now her parents. She is going to fail out of the academy, she has no idea how to runa business on her own, she lost her dominant arm and she had no idea what to do. It didn't stop her from hoping that Naoki might have some magical solution, a way to wake her from this nightmare.

For now, however, she settled for a hug. It was awkward as she tried to wrap both her arms around Naoki, but her right stub couldn't reach over towards Naoki far enough to make it anyting more than a single armed one. She kept Naoki in that hug for over a dozen seconds as she couldn't bring herself to let it end. It reminded her of her mom's hug which only threated to bring her to tears even more, but she somehow managed to resist it.

Finally Yumi allowed Naoki to release the hug, and she gave the girl a saddened but deeply appreciative smile. "I know... I just wish I knew what to do. If there was anything I really can do."

 

[Samejima]

Naoki was released about the same time she let go of Yumi, and so she stepped back as was common courtesy for personal space. She settled back into the stool, thinking of how to answer Yumi for now. "I'm sure you'll find something... Sunagakure is a big village, we just have to find what we can do to help people is all..."

"For now though, you should focus on getting rest!" she said, getting up with a bit of a start. She'd fluff up Yumi's pillow a little before a quick "c'mon, lie down" would be uttered, followed by a nudge if Yumi didn't comply. If she did, Naoki would proceed to tuck the girl in, pulling the stool backwards a little so she could lean on the wall while waiting for Yumi to fall asleep.

If she didn't, Naoki would likely wait there for a reason as to why Yumi wasn't willing to just rest for a bit, and hopefully be able to calm these fears as they were voiced.

 

[Kazumi]

At first Yumi resisted Naoki's urging her to lie down, but as her energy drained and she did lie down she began to feel weary. Her eyes fluttered for a moment, as if battling to stay open now that he saw horizontal again. The wonders of medication would be lost on her as she stared across the room towards Naoki who now sat pressed up against the wall waiting on her. When she closed her eyes she could see... things she didn't want to see, but they grew heavier as Naoki went out of focus. It did not take long for the student to slip into unconsciousness, a soft snoring announcing her passage into the Dreamlands.

[Sleeping Topic]

 

[Samejima]

She must've been pretty tired... Yumi's rhythmic breathing turned into soft snoring, and that was when Naoki picked up her cue to leave. I should go do the patrol. Maybe I'll find something quicker if I get closer around Yumi's place... Quietly, she took her bag, making sure not to rattle it too much, made her way to the door and closed it carefully behind her. As she left, she waved goodbye to the mednin she met earlier in the day, or the ones she recognized anyway.

[Topic Left]