Need a Little Ice Breaker [Open RP]

[Santaru Arisu]

Time off!

This was something that had been neglected by Ketsu for some time now. Not that he had been denied time off or anything but normally it just filled up with other things, like errands or cleaning. Now was the time when he could do whatever he wanted. Normally he would spend his time with Pao or Haji but this time he was hoping to do something a little different. He wanted to meet someone new.

This was difficult for Ketsueki mainly due to trying to not come off awkward. When you spend your whole life in a hospital you tend to either baby people or become a stern parent. Friendships do not normally form in a hospital unless you have a long time patient…and those are mostly filled with remorse or pity.

These feelings are what brought him now to the one place that was always one the move, The Susukino District. This was a place that was full of life! Ketsu walked proudly forward into the district looking for anyone or anything going on.

This caused him to get overwhelmed spinning around trying to find something to catch his attention bouncing from one thing to the next almost frantically. Eventually the world began to spin and he found himself sitting down, trying desperately to regain control of his senses. He looked into a nearby fountain and looked at himself. Maybe he was too distracted. During his work he focused so hard and so well that it was second nature. Once he was out of that environment he just did not want to do that anymore. Maybe he was looking for a loss of control, chaos to balance out his ordered life?

He decided that if he could not find something interesting going on he would make something interesting happen instead. As such he brushed off the dust on his clothing and sat back and pulled out a blood red harmonica. Yes he knew it was stupid and yes he was bad at playing instruments.

As such he sat down and began to play on it. A medium difficulty song which meant he would play it …average. He was not bad but he certainly was not good and he was aware of it. He was a doctor not a musician but how else would he draw in someone, either he would interest them or he would be told to shut up. Either way something interesting would happen now right?

Maybe…Maybe not but either way this was the best way he knew how to meet people. If nothing else maybe next he would go try speed dating or something.

(Topic Open to all…sorry for the lame premise but I need to take the rust off my rping and start working the creativity wheel again)

 

[Kagetsu Yuii]

Time to run errands was becoming sparse for Yuii, so much so that the once tedious task of picking out a new shirt or ordering her groceries was actually starting to become a luxury. The legation and her new rank demanded so much of her day that she would not be surprised to find a chain attached to her desk fitted for her ankle. Worse, all they ever wanted to talk about was work! The chatty woman was being starved for conversation until she craved normal small talk like a sand nin craved water in the desert. She wanted drinks, she wanted company, she wanted to burn every damn piece of paper in the legation.

It was time for a change!

So Yuii had sulked away early that day, dodging the judging gaze of her jail keep- secretary, and made her way to the very heart of drama and gab: The Dawnbringer's plaza. Dressed plainly in her fur lined jacket, leggings and warm boots she could have passed as any civilian if not for the attentive waist height tiger slinking along at her side. Her feline companion tended to gain them a wide walking berth.

Her first thought was a bar, but it was still too early in the day for drinking to be acceptable. She could go for tea but she wasn't so desperate that she wanted to drink boiled plants and pretend that was good. Then she considered buying an entire cake and eating it while she wept, because that was certain to make her feel better by the end. That would probably get her a bit of attention at least, though her ability as Sennin might come into question. Shopping then she decided, an experience she had once never found enjoyment from but allowed her to at least grill the poor shop keepers with awkward questions until they shoo'ed her away.

She was about to engage the first of her poor targets, already giddily planning the first round of odd questions to ask the poor woman manning the shop selling scarves. 'Could her scarves fit two people?', 'had she ever successfully tied someone up with one?', 'could one suspend the body weight of a grown man with the silk ones?', 'had she ever tried before?' 'No, why not?'

A sudden peel of harmonica music drifted over the square, distracting Yuii and temporarily saving the staff of the little shop whilst the petite Sennin craned to see where the 'noise' was coming from.

Her eyes a-lit on the red haired man by the fountain. He wasn't the usual sort of busker one found in the district; the lack of talent was a clear give away but he also wasn't really dressed the part. By showmanship alone she could rule him out as one of the Mochizuki troupe at least. Yuii didn't know much about music but she knew god from bad and the jarring cacophony coming from the red auditory torture device was the latter for certain.

The blue haired Kunoichi grimaced and exchanged glances with her striped feline companion. The tiger had her ears flattened in an attempt to block the 'noise' out and was eyeing Yuii with the wild, questioning gaze of that asked if she could eat the noise making creature. She could only imagine what the ill-named harmonica sounded like to a cat, especially one with keen hearing like Oniyuri. As fresh string of 'notes' made her cringe, and decided her course of action.

Cutting directly through the crowd, Yuii stopped mere centimetres from Ketsueki's and stared up at him with a mix of amusement and chagrin. Oniyuri circled around him, her eyes half shut in irritation. "No, stop" was all the blue haired woman said while attempting to pluck the instrument from his hands.

 

[Santaru Arisu]

Music typically got harder the longer you played it. After a time it gets more complex towards the center leading up to a climax and then would drab off. A good artist was one who could walk you through the entire thing without you realizing they were doing. In this example Ketsu was trampling his people through the swamp and it was only getting murkier and murkier. Not only was his mind distracted but his fingers were slipping up quite a bit on the device. He was out of practice, though not much considering he was not far off from his usual skill.

The sudden loss of his harmonica was accompanied by a very simple statement. "No, stop" It startled him enough that he nearly fell backwards. Looking forward in a bit of bewilderment was a blue haired woman. His head tilted to the side looking form her to the sky behind her…she looked…not upset but maybe affirmative? He was unsure, going from her face to her warm…HOLY GOD THAT”S A TIGER!

He looked at it, mild shock, bewilderment, and maybe no..wait yes fear it was fear as well in there. Ketsueki was aware that shinobi often had…eccentrics to them, whether it be their personality, or physical abilities or say things that traveled with them. Anything from spirits, to other bodies, to animals were not uncommon. It did not however make these things any less scary to him. He swallowed a little bit and then looked back at the woman…wait it worked!

A sudden bit of cheer rose up within him. He met a person! The elation that came with this discovery also came with him comprehending what she had just said. He placed a hand on his chin as he took into account that she had mentioned a no and a stop. Ahh...so it was the fact that he was bad made her feel a need to halt the music and save the poor people around him. Shoot…well it was apart of his original plan. He needed to commence with the plan, this was the person he was meeting with and it started off on a poor note. He could turn this around.

He glanced over at the Tiger again and shivered. He was about to move but then paused again. Dammit how long have I been thinking?

He cleared his throat and gave a half forced smile. He was happy to see her but her companion made things a little awkward for him. “A pleasure to…ACK!” As he stood up he was going for an attempt at a sweeping bow. He wanted to be formal and charismatic to try and make up for the terrible playing only to slip on some water and fall forward into the ground.

Ahh yes…the classic mess up. My father would be so proud right now. He had a sudden thought of his two other friends laughing off in the distance somewhere. Switching to a sitting position he looked straight up towards with a hand on the back of his head and a much more relaxed grin…yea he had not only forgotten about the Tiger but also knew how bad he had messed up. “Hiya…you would not happen to mind if we were to hang out for a bit?”

Ahh yes the classic forward approach…what could possibly go wrong. Ketsueki punched his inner monologue and hoped it would be quiet while he attempted to live in the moment for a bit. He dared not look around at whomever might be watching…he was certain he would lose his nerve if he did anything but focus straight ahead.

 

[Matsuno Hama]

Earlier
A loose, off beat and evolving tune came from the brightly colored shinobi. His headband was hanging off of the front of his belt, the metal guard emblazoned with the symbol of the village facing forward as if the entire thing were just a ninja fanny pack. The hakama he wore today was a solid hot pink in color, accented by aquamarine trim and a few multi-colored but complementary floral designs along the edges toward the bottom, as if to suggest that he was walking through a field dreamed about by the creator of fruit loops and LSD on a good day. In one hand he gripped the short stock of his hosozao shamisen, the square base resting at the angle of his shoulder where it slopes down to meet his collarbone. From his lips dangled a long piece of saw-grass, the white core of the end being chewed on for its sweet flavor. His hair was kept back in a ponytail that stopped just between the center of his shoulder blades, and it was hard to tell if the corner of his mouth where he kept the blade of saw-grass was upturned in a half smirk or just making room for the core. His eyes were covered by bandages, and then those bandages were covered by a pair of deep navy blue RayBan-style sunglasses positioned where they would best protect... his eyes.. from the... sun...

Wait who wears raybans over bandages?

The door chime jingled as he entered the tea shop, and soon loosely plucked tunes from the horozao began, tuning at first before he broke out into a stream of fluid but unconnected songs. It didn't take long for the corner of the shop he sat in to become crowded by a few of the female patrons; the otherwise pretty shinobi played a rather entrancing tune when coupled with his humming, the music flowing from him as naturally as the blood flowing within him.

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Spoiler

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"Βγούμε από αυτή την εγκατάσταση σας βρώμικο, βρώμικο άνθρωπο! Μείνετε μακριά από την κόρη μου, δεν θα πρέπει να υποσχεθεί να σας! Θα πάμε να παντρευτεί αξιοσέβαστο επιχειρηματίες και θα πάμε για να αρέσει είτε από Raiden θα ρίχνει έξω και αποκήρυξε! Δεν θα αμαυρώνουν την αξία τους!"

A cup of tea flew from the opened door of the tea shop to crash nearby. Indistinguishable, at first, the yelling from inside was that of a little old lady who was pushing the tall shinobi who had entered previously from the grounds of her establishment. From behind her a group of servers were gathered and following, blowing kisses as if to add to the lipsticked ones already decorating his face and more than a few on the bandages around his eyes, the RayBans knocked askew, barely propped up against his nose, one arm completely off of it's place behind his ear. He was grinning slightly wider now, the sawgrass gone but replaced with the rather apparent mark of a kiss that is somehow diagonal across his lips. Strange. The apparently blind man walked out without the instrument he had walked in with, and straightened his hakama against his shoulders, reaching back to fluff his color from its tousled, half-in half-out position as if he'd been grabbed by the neck.

He took a moment to straighten himself out as he stepped into the street, and then reached out a hand behind and slightly off to his right side. At first it seemed odd, his posture one of waiting but, soon enough, the missing shamisen made its re-entry to the thread, flying through the air end over end to stop suddenly as it was caught, with surprisingly gentle finesse, by the Jounin. He tilted his head in the direction of what could only be described as a griffon's heated mating call coming from not to far away, and that slight grin became a broad one as he heard the request-that-was-a-plea for the sound to stop. Turning toward his friend, he once again propped the shamisen up on his shoulder and began to step through the crowd, reaching up to push his sunglasses back to their appropriate position.

"'Ey, Ketsueki, I thought I heard metal tearing." You know, because, instead of just thinking about the poor quality of music that was being played, you were only a true friend if you addressed it out loud. "Bothering the recently promoted head of Main Branch already, huh?" As he walked from the tea shop he'd been kicked out of, it would become apparent that he just might have possibly gotten out of paying whatever bill he had accrued with his sudden ejection.

Seriously though who the hell wears RayBans over bandages?

 

[Kagetsu Yuii]

Well, that hadn't been the reaction she expected, minus perhaps the fear and awe Oniyuri gained. The tiger preened under the attention, positively glowing to be recognised as the fierce beast she was. Harmonica pilfered, Yuii twirled the red metallic instrument in her hand like a kunai and shoved it into her back pocket. She wasn't sure what her end game was there but it wasn't really planning on stealing the, what seemed to be, expensive little noise maker. better it remained in her custody awhile an penance for the terrible noises it had been willing to create. He definitely was not one with affinity for music or sound unless that screeching had been an attempt at a jutsu of mass ear drum destruction.

Yuii watched as the red head seemed to go through an inner monologue, complete with gestures and emotional changes that were made odder still but his darkened eyes. Was he was incapable of speaking or if he was now trying to be a mime, now? It was definitely more entertaining than his earlier busking, and found herself smiling whimsically. Oniyuri seemed pleased to have the noise ended and she circled around to sit tamely at Yuii's side with her head stretched out for scratches. It was hard to tell because the low sound was drowned out by Yuii's own giggles, but it seemed like the oversized feline was laughing at him. Eventually he found his words, but failed epicly at trying to begin a proper dialogue going.

"You're like a newborn lamb on those feet of yours," she said, bursting into a peel of laughter as he transformed from mime to clown. If this was supposed to be some kind of interactive entertainment, Yuii knelt so that they were eye level again, casually leaning against her own knee, and held her hand out for a handshake. "I guess I have nothing better to do. What does hanging out entail."

It would be nice to chat with someone new that didn't want to grill her for information or make a branch request. Ayumus desperation for visits was starting to make sense.

Unfortunately for her, that cat was let out of the bag by a Rayban wearing, lipstick covered musician the moment she thought it was tied up. She eyed the gaudily dressed newcomer with mild amusement and threw up her hands in defeat. "Oh darn. I'm infamous," she sighed dramatically, "Doomed to be forever known. You one of my Branch?" Not that any ANBU in their right mind would admit to being an ANBU in public because ANBU were ANBU and had their strict ANBU rules to adhere to to be in ANBU. ANBU. That was one of the joys of being main branch, she still had to handle teh paperwork for the alias' of the shinobi that didn't fall under her jurisdiction. The only alternative was Med branch, and he didn't look traumatised by free hugs enough to be one of Junko's underlings.

The red head though? He seemed a victim of Junko's 'inappropriate hugs'.

"Your friend wants a friend I think?" she said, popping to her feet, "though I think making bird mating calls with a harmonica is a bit of a strange way to go about it but you're in luck; I have nothing to do. Entertain me." the last part was addressed to Ketsueki.

"

 

[Santaru Arisu]

She giggled…she seemed amused…not necessarily a bad thing but certainly not what he was trying to be. Charismatic and charming were things he was trying to work on…he supposed with him on the floor he had ended this on a more comical term. Though at the same point this actually did not seem like an end…well an end for the charismatic and charming but the start of actually meeting someone.

She stated that he was like a newborn on his legs. While he wanted to protest that it was more than just natural coordination that was stopping him he also noticed that she was laughed and moving down to his level. She held out her hand for a handshake and asked him what exactly hanging out meant to him. He naturally took her hand but the moment felt oddly intimate for him, a slight pinkness took to his cheeks and after taking her hand firmly giving it that all important double shake he let go and rubbed his hands together nervously.

Think quickly…think quickly…but not too much. Simple things! Yes of course simple things. What did people do when they met? They talked, typically about unimportant things, Umm, shoot where was his book when he needed it. Right do not mention the book that would make Ting and Haji make fun of him for the next year and secondarily make anyone who met him think he was weird…

Ketsueki looked over and saw Ting Pao. Of course he saw Ting Pao. Haji and Pao always seemed to crawl out of the woodwork whenever Ketsu thought he had time himself. For those who did not know Kei was rather anti-social and considering how much and how long he had known Ting…well he would technically be his best friend. Right! Was best friend the word he would use for such things? Why was he suddenly debating his relationship with someone who called him friend?

Ketsu looked up and saw Ting Pao again and watched as the girl before him popped up. Had he missed something? He stood up rather abruptly and gave a small wave towards Pao. He was really…really curious about what was going on with Pao and what had happened to him but the girl mentioned that Ketsu needed to entertain her. He was already lost…he never planned for someone to actually meet him…in his life he had forever been in a anti-social bubble until Pao came and forced himself into his life. He was swiftly moved from his comfort zone after that.

“Uhh yes of course, entertainment. I can of course provide that!” He gave Pao a very obvious and desperate look for help and walked over to him. “You see me and Pao were about to do the funnest thing you have ever laid eyes on, right Pao?”

Desperate times call for desperate measures. He needed to make the best first impression and Pao had most of the time steered him…wait what was he thinking this is suicide. Regret poured in immediately but there was no going back.

Be gentle…

 

[Matsuno Hama]

"Doomed to be forever known. You one of my Branch?"

"Yes Ma'am. Ting Pao, Jounin." He answered casually, and as he approached he reached into the voluminous layers of his hakama and clothing that lay beneath it. Drawing a tea cup from within, completely normal, he brought it to his lips and drained the contents from the small object. Completely normal. He seemed to savor it a moment before swallowing, then tossed the empty cup aside and sniffed, listening to his friend make a promise to show the 'funnest thing she had ever laid eyes on'. She is absolutely damned-skippy-peanut-butter going to see the funnest thing ever! He even decided to let the eyes comment slide, because what he was about to do was so amazing, so mind-bendingly brilliant that nothing could ruin the majesty of the moment about to occur in the middle of the streets of the Dawnbringer Plaza.

With a nod so solemn in it was almost serious the brightly colored Jounin rolled his shoulders, then his neck, popping the joints and stepping back to limber up. A few jumping jacks, a couple of washing-machine like curls of his upper torso with his arms held out hooked in front of him. As if to make sure he was ready he began a few of the basic martial art styles in order to test the fluidity of his movements. These testing practices resulted in displays of prowess directed as Ketsu and Yuii, lunges that took him forward onto one foot, before he slowly drew himself back with the other. Mystically, as he moved back, he waved his arms before him and, surely if you could see his eyes, they would have been wide with the heavy, momentous atmosphere suggested by the dramatized motions he was making. After doing this for a few moments, he seemed to be satisfied that whatever level of ritualistic importance that needed to be done, had been accomplished.

And so, he very gently proffered the shamisen to Ketsueki, and once it was taken or, if not taken then at least set aside, he gave a slow and deep bow not just to both his friend and superior, but also to the tiger accompanying the latter. Then, making sure to do so in such a manner that the hakama and clothes beneath pooled out around him rather than under him, he turned so that the sun was to his left and sat, knees tucked beneath him as he bowed his head.

"Cat." He said aloud, and with an almost sacred temerity he drew his hands up before him and began to.. wiggle them together? Fingers brushing against eachother before becoming entwined, his palms kept together at first, only to be partially separated before he stopped.

"Dog." A new flurry of movements as his hands went into motion yet again, stopping seconds later.

"Bird." It was hopefully at this point that at least one of the three(Yes, the tiger is included) that stood, witnessing, would realize that the tall, elegant Jounin was creating shadow puppets. It was also possible that, upon this realization of what the funnest thing ever was, they would be reminded of the joys of puppetteering as children and, with their heart skipping a beat would excitedly look to the ground to see the magnificence of his creations!

"Lizard. He said again, each time his tone solemn. And of course, upon the ground, via the shadows of his arms and hands, they would see in all of it's glory...

Friggin' nothing. The shadows were a jumbled blurb upon the ground cast by his hands, the movements having little to no effect on the general shape of the nothing he was creating.

Because blind people can't make shadow puppets.

 

[Kagetsu Yuii]

Yuii hummed thoughtfully, but couldn't recall seeing the oddly dressed man before. That wasn't his problem, but hers. Certainly he was flamboyant enough she would recall a prior meeting. She assumed, since he knew her, that they both must and so she did not bother to offer her name. There was a certain level of assumption one could make with the aforementioned infamy. She glanced at Ketsueki as if to ask, 'and you?' but did not ask outright for his name.

Exercise in the middle of the square. while interesting was certainly not the funnest thing she had ever seen or done. Still, Yuii watched on expectantly, her head tilted slightly with confusion. She wasn't meant to join in was she? She'd already done her training for the day and there were far too many people around for her liking. She was a personable person but when it came to her use of jutsu she didn't like an audience. No, she decided, she wasn't meant to join. So then what? She was soon to find out.

The tide of laughter began with a disbelieving chuckle in the back of her throat. "Cat?" she echoed, smile widening with mirth. Her eyebrows rose then pressed together to form a crease between her eyes as she tried to understand what it was she was watching. Was that a special sort of hand seal? Was there going to be a jutsu? She hoped he was aware that destructive uses of chakra used in public couldn't be tolerated; she was the literal law on this! Whatever it was it took hold with hypnotic precision and forced her to watch, like the lead up to a terrible accident or a violent mental break down.

Oniyuri's ears pricked forward at the word dog and her head darted around to look for her species ancient enemy. Target non-apparent she stalked around the group, nose raised to the still air to find her quarry. Bird made her jump, and like a startled house cat she arched and froze, fixing the blind man with a wide eyed stare. There were birds now? Where? Where were the birds? Her furred mouth opened, flashing her teeth as she sucked in air to find their scent. The thought of pouncing on one or two juicy, fat pigeons, made her drool a little. She loved birds, almost as must as-

'Lizard.'

A sound ominously like the word, "where!?" erupted from the cat as what was happening finally clicked for Yuii and she burst into laughter. Shadow puppets? Were those meant to be shadow puppets? She hadn't even known to scurinize the ground to see if the barely apparent shadows looked like something. She leaned hard on the fountain edge, gasping for breaths between fits of giggles and lifted a hand for in defeat. It wasn't the funnest thing, but this was high up on the list of hilarity.

The only movement besides the light shadow on the ground was the bland man's hands and those were giving no clue to where the tasty creature hid. so Oniyuri reared up and placed both large mitted laws on the shadow puppet novice's shoulders, "Where is it!?" she cried, sniffing at Ping's face and rubbing his Raybans generously with tiger snot.

Yuii shot forward and pulled the great cat back, wrestling her into a headlock to to keep her from mauling the bland man. "Bravo, though one must wonder how it is a blind man even knows of the concept of shadows." She giggled again, "Now what about you blood red baby lamb? Entertain me."

 

[Santaru Arisu]

Well…that was…something.

At first even Ketsu had been quite interested in what was going on. The over exaggerated hand movements and the way his hands were moving, Ketsu almost thought Ting had invented one of his new “Party” Style Jutsu. They always seemed to use awkward or weird hand symbols that were basically bastardized versions of the real ones to do really weird things with chakra. This was Ting in a nut shell though. Ketsu was smart, Haji was crazy, and Ting was creative. If Ketsu wanted to assign a leader to the group it would have been Ting. He had known him so long and seen some of the craziest stuff he had ever seen via some new and bizarre thing that Ting had come up with. Honestly, he thought that Ting being blind was never a handicap and actually opened up his mind to so many more possibilities that were just non-observable to those who could see. Ting could see things in ways no one else could, and that was what drew Ketsu towards him.

Ketsu’s excitement grew and grew. It also did not help that not only was the person in front of him highly interested in what was going on but even the Tiger was going out of his mind trying to figure it out. Ketsu logged away highly intelligent killing machine, and was almost ready to just tell Ting to get on with it when suddenly he stopped.

It wasn’t until the Tiger came forward and was pulled back with the girl now laughing that Ketsu looked absolutely confused. Then she mentioned how he could possibly know what shadows were…

“How…? Wha…” Ketsu’s brain stopped working. He was dumbfounded, like when a child asks you a surprisingly adult question and you need to answer all the other questions that pop up that you cannot even get an answer to the one presented. He slowly brought his hands to his forehead and gave out the smallest chuckle. “No seriously how?” It did not demand an answer he just never knew where when or how Ting Pao.

My god he never ceases to confuse me…one day Ketsu would understand this man but this year was not the year.

The female turned her attention to him and with the phrase red blood baby lamb that lead him to a most grossly beautiful image he removed his hand from his face and looked to Ting Pao. The image in his mind just saying, Yea Ketsu what you gunna do to top that. Damn you Ting Pao.

Ketsu of course looked to himself and simply asked that question…what would he do?

Alright she wants to be entertained…what does she even like? She seemed to really love it when Ting did his shadow puppet trick when it failed…does that mean that he would need to fail at something? Did he not already do that though when he was trying to be charming and charismatic? Panic began to set in and it was probably very obvious…Ting knew Ketsu enough to know he was probably stuck in a mental rut at this point. The polar opposite sociability of Ketsu always made him wonder how Ting found enjoyment in generally hanging around with him.

Ketsu reached into his back pocket and pulled out a deck of cards. He started to shuffle them to get rid of his nervousness. He could feel the shuffle, things going neatly into place, back and forth back and forth. It soothed him, kept him in a regular interval and when he opened his eyes he had confidence. As he shuffled he grinned towards Ting and said, “Pick a card any card?” He held out the deck to Ting, but when Ting took a card he would probably notice braille on the card to inform him which card it was. Now these cards were not normal playing cards but on each of the cards there was a shogi piece, now these were not only colored to match one side of the board or the other, respectively being black and white as well as the piece in total it made forty cards.

After Ting had picked it he would then take it back and shuffle it again. Next he would turn to the woman before him and said, “Okay now you.” Once again the braille mixed with picture of a shogi piece would inform her of her card. After that he took it back and mixed again, only to then lean down to the Tiger and by lean he really did not need to go too low and said, “Of course you as well Mr. or Miss Tiger.” He slide the cards down and allowed the large feline to pick a card.

After all was said and done the cards were now being shuffled. Eventually he started to speed up the shuffling going faster and faster. As he shuffled he began to speak, creating bridges and larger shuffling patterns. “Now the goal here to present that same card towards each of you and present you with your gift.”

This was the tricky part and as such he stopped using his hands to shuffle, allowing the cards to float and automatically shuffle in the air. He moved as if this was not even unusual and reached into his other back pocket. With this he pulled out another set of cards and started to shuffle it. Now with one deck shuffling around his body and one in his hands being normally shuffled he stated, “Now…are you ready for your prizes?” Ketsueki shifted his body and threw the deck he had in his hand into the air and was ready to naturally mix them together with the other ones. However as he did this…the cards did not respond to his mental commands.

He panicked for a moment and saw tiny golden webbing attached to these cards which connected to the cards he was manipulating. Ketsu tried to reach his hands out to start catching cards but his fingers suddenly felt stuck together. His feet now also feeling pulled together made him slip and in mid trip suddenly realize something…”Damn you Haji…” he fell to the ground face first, losing control of his cards and having a massive pile of 92 cards spill out. Upon landing on the ground a number of different card exploded in a puff of smoke revealing everything from balloons, tea cups with warm tea, grilled fish, (Which just so happened to appear before the Tiger), and many other different snacks and party favors.

Ketsu lifted himself up and noticed his Shogi surprise cards had all been activated…as he looked up he noticed one card attached to his head and in a puff of smoke…several candles all lite were upon his head almost as if he was a birthday cake. With this he looked down and just slumped back down onto the floor accepting his failure. The smell of different foods and drinks along with the party balloons and stream poppers would probably suddenly make people question how a sudden abrupt party erupted.

He did not want to show his face but casually glanced up at the woman before him and simple said, “Ahh…huh…is this your card?" With this he held the candle card holding the White Golden General.

 

[Kagetsu Yuii]

Yuii took her card with a cheery 'thank-you' and peered at it curiously. The sight of the shogi piece made her skin crawl, but that was no fault of theirs just her own clouded memories. The braille didn't escape her attention, though she had admittedly forgotten what most of the raised dots meant. It had been a long time since she lived with her aunt, and she had never been fully interested in learning it. It was a thoughtful touch that Yuii mused was because he seemed to be close with the blond puppeteer. Kumogakure often failed to extend to its blind people that same courtesy despite the increased number of them from Hashigaki.

At her side, Oniyuri tilted her head and held one giant kitten mitten up over the cards. She wiggled her toes and made a grab for her card but failed to pinch it properly between the black digital pads. Three more tries and her frustrated growl alerted Yuii to her troubles. "Here," She laughed, picking the card Oniyuri was struggling to hold then placing it in the cat's upturned paw. The feline huffed to herself and steadfastly refused to make eye contact after humiliating herself. "Oniyuri isn't very good with small bits of paper but she has lovely writing," Yuii explained, mashing her hand into the fur of her increasingly grumpy companion's head.

The pair watched on curiously as Ketsueki explained the trick. Yuii squirmed with all the same excitement a child might feel as she wondered what exactly a prize meant. Money, she hoped. Yuii could always use more of that; even with her pay increase as Sennin. The chances were slim it would be that unless he was a generous and virtually unknown millionaire,so cake then, maybe? Yuii would be happy with the cake.

The trick went wrong all at once and suddenly their little space by the fountain became a sprawling bazaar of food and items.

Yuii gasped and covered with both hands as a fit of giggles threatened to escape. With Ting, it had been obvious the blind man intended to be foolish, but nothing about the explosion of cards, from their strange explosion to the shock on Ketsu's face, looked deliberate. "Oh, oh no." she clucked sympathetically between laughter, "Look at all this. How fantastic! And your head!" She grabbed one of the candles off the red-haired man's head and oohed over it. "Not even Genjutsu, how neat!"

He held up a card and Yuii, distracted now by trying to find the aforementioned cake, stopped to peer at it. "Oh, uhm?" She glanced at her card and gave a quick nod, "sure was."

Unmoved by all the chaos, Oniyuri settled onto her belly and dug into her free meal. "I think it was excellent," she added with a mouth full of fish, "Do it again but all fish, lamby."