Open Watching the Gates

[Chikara]

Act I, OVA I: Watching the Gates WC: 567

Chi didn't enter the village of Suna the normal way. No, she arrived on the opposite side of the gates and was let in by Koolaid, who ripped a door open in the metal wall and then closed it back up again. He was strong, but so was Ichiro. There was no telling what Ichiro could be up to at this very moment but she could feel Morisei's power coming from inside the village. If he wanted to leave, he would need to go through these gates. Probably. After what Chi had seen from her own entrance into the village, it was possible he was using some sort of back door to move in and out of the village. Whatever his plan was he surely wasn't going to give up his day job to fulfill it. He still had people and animals to sell to the highest bidders. Chi approached the gates of Suna with a gentle rush of awe. Her village didn't have a giant wall protecting it, which is part of why it's gone now probably. Seeing the humongous Bulwark that protected this village let her know that it was safe from outside threats but it was the inside threats that worried her most. So that is why she's arrived at the gates, to watch. She had been given another chance here and she wouldn't let that slip from her fingers. It was, in a certain sense, partially her fault that Ichiro was here in the first place. It was, in the same sense, completely her fault that he had the staff of Morisei. She wasn't strong enough to stop him from taking her away, but next time would be different, she thought. Next time she would finish him and her skin would be stained with his blood. She gripped her spear tightly as her thoughts turned to actual feelings and rage began to run through her bloodstream. In her arm that wasn't holding the spear, she held her goat brother Naku. He was tiny, just barely longer than the short girl's forearm. He had been this size since as long as Chi could remember, which was his whole life because he was only three-years-old. She looked down at him and he could sense her stare. He looked up at her and bleated joyfully, his little tail flapping happily at this attention he was receiving. He bleated a little louder and Chi chuckled, relaxing her grip on the spear as well as the rage in her system. "You are my star. Guiding me." She spoke in a language that would be gibberish to most, and a few people nearby looked at her funny. It was bad enough she was dressed as she was, wearing a wolf pelt over a long, flowing dress underneath. The people of the village should be grateful she was wearing clothes at all. After all, she spent most of her life mostly naked. The state she was found in originally, covered in nothing but wraps and a wolf pelt, were more than what she may have been seen wearing out in the wild. So now she stands, fully dressed like a proper civilized citizen, caring a tiny goat in one hand, brandishing a spear in the other, staring at the front gates of the village and waiting for Ichiro to show his face. Or, you know, anything else interesting~

OOC:

 

[Kazumi]

The Bulwark Gates were much busier than one would expect for a settlement isolated in the middle of the harshest desert on the continent. As the weeks had turned to months, the activity of the Unbent had slowly decreased across the countryside, and trade had begun to flourish once more. A direct side effect of this was that there was almost always a queue to enter the village, with over a dozen beasts of burden in loose groups lined up for inspection as their caravan owners spoke to the shinobi guards posted.

By in large, it was merchants that made their way to the village, hoping to sale their wares to the needy populations inside. So when a young woman stood outside, garbed in the skin of a wolf, holding a small bleating goat, more than a few eyes turned her way as hushed comments floated over the loosely organized masses. It took nearly half an hour before a large shinobi made his way down the line to Chi. He stood half again as high as she was and was wide enough for two men, but there scarcely seemed to be an ounce of fat on the hulking man’s form.

He stopped in front of her, his metallic forehead protector reflecting traces of the sun down into Chi’s face as he inspected her. He flipped the page in his clipboard and began to scribble something down onto the sheet with a pen that he held like a toothpick. “Name and reason for entry?” He looked up from his board, giving her another curious glance as he waited for her to respond. Aside from a trace of curiosity in the man’s rumbling voice, he seemed far less surprised by her attire and company than the rest of the merchants and travelers were.

 

[Chikara]

Act I, OVA I: Watching the Gates WC: 364

It wasn't long before Chi's presence brought some unwanted company. Chi watched out of her peripherals as a large man began to approach her. She wasn't afraid because she was insanely confident in her fighting ability. He seemed to be letting people into the village, a gate guardian she thought. His size really hit her when he was standing in front of her. She looked him up and down before he spoke and made a threat assessment. Naku bleated at him happily and then Chi shushed him in her native tongue. "Am, Chi. No… Entry." She found the words to answer his questions but barely. Her accent was thick but not thick enough to make it hard to understand her words, assuming the man could get past the terrible grammar. "Come from… Erm…" She couldn't remember the word for 'inside' and so instead she pointed towards the village, not towards the center but in the direction of the Shinku's home. She knew the location exactly in relation to where she was at that moment. Her sense of direction was obscene for a human, but she was hardly human anymore. "Shinku family." She said after a moments pause to let what she was saying sink in. If he was still confused she was more than happy to point in the same direction again without any added explanation. He seemed to approach her without any sense of surprise by her attire which was a pleasant surprise. She had gotten used to people looking at her funny. Of course, this man was probably one of those 'shinobi' and it made sense to her that he might have seen much crazier things keeping watch over the gates. "Tough?" She questioned with a slight smirk, lifting her staff and then stabbing the blunt tip into the ground . Naku bleated again and struggled in her arms. She reluctantly let go of her little goat brother and the kid-mimic walked straight to the man and attempted to stand on his leg. He bleated at him as if wanting the man to give him attention. "Sorry, Naku… Naku… Whore?" Chi said, remembering the word 'whore' from when the noble would get mad at his girls for giving him too much attention. At least, that was how it appeared to her.

OOC:

 

[Chikara]

[topic left due to inactivity]