The edge of tomorrow, ruins of today. [Ryosuke]

[Yoshi [Lynx!]]

WORD COUNT: 360

TAGGED: @blackspire

TAGGED: LYNX

They had been on the road for little more than an hour. The travel to where they were going wasn't exactly long, but whenever they came past something that the most wanted criminal this side of the planet remembered, she simply had to stop and explain to Ryosuke exactly what had happened there so many years ago. Tell him of old friends, the best hiding places, how they had once travelled to this exact part of the forest  to have a nice campfire, cooking break on sticks and filling it with ketchup and sausage. It must've been awkward. Travelling together with such a young soul, who had been through unspeakable horrors.. Yet she was so openly telling him of things that most others would've forgotten.. About how she had sold other parents small children stories that they could read at night.. So many memories, so many moments that had stuck with her, despite her trying to hide and forget her past in an attempt to move on from the pain. The nightmares... The feeling that she hadn't been strong enough to save her parents. Soon they arrived at a place outside a small abandonned village. The village itself had wooden houses overgrown by moss. Windows were broken, and someone had painted hateful messages on the wooden walls. Supposedly small gangs had moved in there at the time the others had moved out. Now it was all a mess...

...They had to walk up a small hill. Despite it having been about a decade that anyone had walked here, the remains of stone steps could still be  seen. The girl had fallen silent, and she was hesitant in moving forwards. With each step up the stone stairs, she came closer to something that she wasn't sure she wanted to face. On  the side of the hill, one could barely make out the remains of a garden. Potatoes and tomatoes had been grown there, yet now they were growing wild and rampant across the entire place. To the left, what she had remembered as a small tree that was barely large enough for her to climb in as a kid, was now enormous. The branches and leaves stretching so far and wide, that it would've blocked view from inside the house.  The house itself?.. Barely anything remained. The basis for the house, a cemented base, was almost all that remained. The remaining wooden parts that  remained, and how once been different rooms, were almost non-existant...

Now even Yoshi's footsteps seemed to have died out, as she stepped up to what had seemingly been the door once. Although it was invisible to Ryosuke, the girl could see everything as it was. Stretching her hand out to touch thin air, she did a motion as if pushing a door open, before stepping onto the soil. "This is where we used to have our shoes, and the litter for our kitty, Mr. Bingles.." Pointing and explaining, she was talking in a tone t hat was completely unlike her. Stepping further in, she repeated  the motion, as if opening a door. "This here used to be our kitchen. It wasn't too large, but mom used to let me sit near the sink and clean the potatoes or carrots with her.." The kitchen area really wasn't large. It was clear that the girl had come from a family that really didn't have much at all in the world. Continuing the tour around the house, she stepped into the room furthest away from the door. "This here was our bedroom. We only had one, and we usually slept in one big  bed.. That is till I got sick, and mom and dad slept together on the couch to keep me warm and comfortable at night.. I wasn't very old, doctors and the like came to see me from many different towns.. All they ever managed  to figure, was that life was leaving me." Stepping forwards, she knelt down. In the floor, there was a little square, clearly meant to have been hidden by pieces of the wooden floor that no longer existed. "My dad created this little room for me. To hide things in.. When the thieves broke in, what little I had in there is all I had left."...

Slowly rising from her position, she took a deep breath, before going to the last room. The largest room of them all. The living room. This room had a lot more features left from when it had been in use. There were broken pieces of porcelain all over the place. A bent-out-of-shape metal frame that had held together a mirror was on the ground in a corner, hidden under what remained of ashes and rot. Small shards of glass were spread on the floor. "This is where I found them. Mom, dad. They had been cut cleanly across the throats..  I remember mom was lying right here. Stretched towards my room. The blood on the floor, I think she had been crawling towards me, trying to protect me even if she couldn't protect herself."

Lowering her head. The tone in which she had spoken had been mechanical, concise, analytical. Everything else about her wasn't. The girls hands were curlt into fists. Silent tears were dripping down from her cheek. The girl had something that she wanted to say, but she was swallowing her words. Breathing deeply, almost unable to say the words, her voice was cracked. This was everything that had been bothering her. This was the root of all the pain that she had been feeling. It was what had set everything in motion, and why she thought so very little of herself. "E-everything was taken from me h-here... T-this was... The l-last time... That I felt loved."

SPOILER: Click to show

None.

[Father 'Suke]

Ryosuke had traversed many roads, and many roads lay in weight of his endless journey still in this life and onto the next. Curious as it is, the young disciple of Venator and yet also kage of the rain only looked and listened to the girl as she led the way to the new location, one of which was the area that he knew and into the area he knew not of. It started with separate stops, each one holding a separate mark in time. As they passed by them individually and he could truly understand that like her, he too probably would have said something while passing the individual areas if he were in her shoes.

This was understood by him, yet he listened to her as she spilled her memories into words, painting a picture for him to follow. The picture was a dark one, with happy tones that flowed across it that worked to create this newer and more developed picture. Light blues and violets to mark in the lines of which he could only imagine were those friendship lines, yet the red stained velvet were hardships laying waste to the blues. He can imagine her pain, and wanted to do something for her, to rid the pain away from her and in so doing he wanted to give her better and more secure memories if at all were possible.

Their walk took them to a gangster zone, a place that was a dreaded cesspool of emotional scars that could only be cleansed by hard work it seemed. He figured that he’ll have to make a few missions out of this, because knowing such pain and sorrow was a dreaded curse of a thing. Walking past this though was a hill with must too overgrown gardens and yet Yoshi fell silent, the memories she had been explaining stopped and the canvas was left unfinished in his mind. That was of no matter though, there were many secrets in this life and the next that he could only understand the sorrow that much further in such things.

Such as when she imagined the home that was still there, giving him the grand tour, it was the hardest thing for him to watch as he could picture himself giving the same tour if his parents had been freed. If they were not imprisoned for the color of their skin that he lacked, the abilities they harnessed far better than he. It was a wretched curse, a curse nonetheless and he could only imagine the pain she felt, as if it were his own. Children of painful strife were in masse it had seemed, only to find such sorrow to be unbearable in times such as this it could only be contained that much further.

She once had a cat, a place that was small yet home, a mother and a father. All of which only lead for him to picture it as more so home than before as he could feel the weeping of angels bringing down the rain. The rain here felt lighter though, as she was saying such things, it seemed his own mentality was being lifted upwards and with a look he saw her head lower after speaking of her parent’s demise. Bandits were rampant in the area, yet they protected their daughter with all the strength and power they could, and for all the love they could share he could see their feelings on the canvas in his mind.

Then she spoke those last words and they struck a chord within Ryosuke, the last time she felt loved was here, taken from here, and died here. Such words were not fitting, as he recalled how those children loved her when she stole from him, how he had come to enjoy her presence and trust her as well. It was merely semantics in which such things were born and while her head was lowered, tears shed and fists curled, those deep breaths made he brought his hands up and began to remove his headband of the rain from his head. Taking a kunai to the inside of it he chiseled in a message to uplift spirits.

He spoke the same message once done, “For those whom you have been touched by, and those whom you too have touched; remember that you are not alone in this world for there are many that love you.” The message was done being spoken, but he wasn’t finished yet, “This is a place of sad memories, but happy ones too. You cannot have one without the other, or else you wouldn’t be who you are. The person that I met years ago, I can still see her in you and you are still strong and powerful as you were then. Remember your strength and remember where you come from.”

Moving on to then give her a hug, his larger body undoubtedly was that of a bear compared to her tiny one yet he remained ever so calm in this regard. “You’re a shinobi of rain, a friend to all those children, and you are like a stubborn love to me. It is for these qualities that you will always have a place to call home, and at the same time a place for new memories to be born. Remember, there are many people who you can rely on now, you don’t need to build up those walls of self-protection any longer to detach yourself from the world. There are many beautiful things in it now that you have yet to enjoy.”

With that he pulled back, kind smile to his face as he would put a finger and push her chin up lightly during such a time, his dull eyes seeming to brighten, “You are felt loved many times after this place and there are still many places left for you to feel loved as well. Remember this as you look into the world, you are not alone and you are loved for as long as you hold breath and then some.” With that he put the headband to her forehead, tying it comfortably as he remained smiling, giving her his personal headband and as he was tying this, undoubtedly if she were observant she could see the little pouch full of that iron sand she gave him years ago on a necklace.

[Yoshi [Lynx!]]

WORD COUNT: 360

TAGGED: @blackspire

TAGGED: LYNX

Standing there, she took a deep breath, rubbing her own eyes, getting the annoyance of the tears away. Had there been something between them? Had there not? It was hard for her to figure out, and with her emotions in a complete mess, it wasn't something that she knew how to act upon.. When the girl was embraced, he was trying to make her realise that there were plenty of people that had loved her. It simply didn't feel true for her however.  Sure, the children she had taken care of in a little gang were reliant on her, but none of them would've done what her mother did for her. None of them would climb across the floor with a slit throat in an attempt to protect her. It was all superficial love. None of those people were any that she could see as part of her family. Perhaps Ryosuke was the closest thing she had to a family member.

When he tied the headband around her forehead, she slightly lowered her head so that it would be  easier for him. Noticing the amulet, she smiled softly, to herself. He was carrying it around with him, constantly, just as he had promised. A promise that he was keeping.. Giving it a gentle nudge with a finger so it dangled from side to side, she took a step back from him and started untying the headband again. Slowly, without saying a word at first. Taking a deep breath, she held the headband toward her chest, towards her heart, as she spoke. "I am not ready to return to being a shinobi yet. I'll keep the headband, though... Maybe in the near future." Kissing two of her fingers, the index and middle finger, she placed them onto his lips, as he was far too tall for her to actually reach him on her own.. Slowly she'd then turn around, let out a soft sigh, looking at the mess that had once been her home.

"There really is nothing left for me here. I thought I would find something by coming back.. I found nothing. I think what I want to do is to play some music, maybe learn to sing. I've got plenty of money, easily enough to last for a few years.. Being outside active duty,  if you so permit, wouldn't be all too bad.."

With that, she started stepping across the ruins of what was once her home. It was a girl without anyone or anything close to her. It was a girl who had no family, very few friends, and no directions in life. The closest thing she had, was Ryosuke and the music that she had just discovered.. Hopefully she could have some good fortune in the future, for the past didn't leave much of anything.

"I don't think they'd want me to come back to live here after what happened. They'd want me to find my own peace, start a new life. To cry  more tears for them would  be doing them dishonor.. Lets go home.."

SPOILER: Click to show

None.

[Father 'Suke]

‘Suke had watched as she lowered her head to let his tying to be unhindered and easier, it eased the task quite well. Yet not too long after he had finished the task he saw her undoing it and yet the reasoning made quite a good amount of sense while he watched it being held to her heart. She not being ready to become a shinobi was perfectly acceptable as he could only understand that with his own empathizing manner. She wished to keep it, and he smiled without any real harm being seen in this and actually chuckled when she did her way to kiss him, always he had forgotten he was much taller than others to begin with.

Her speaking was enough for him though as he responded in kind, “You can take your own pace to either reenter the work as a shinobi or take your leave, you need not have my permission for that. Pursue that music, get better mentally and physically, and only return to being a shinobi when you yourself are ready. And I do agree with what your parents would want, you should create a new place for yourself. If you need any help in doing that, I will be around. Though busy, I can always make time to aid and partake with you.” The words left his lips with no container, a smile to his lips.

“So, let us go hom—,” his words cut short as a shinobi in black with a dragon mask on his face had been standing in their path. This AnBu stood firm, looking to Ryosuke and Yoshi and once whispering something to Ryosuke he had disappeared with a shunshin. ‘Suke looked to Yoshi and spoke with an apologetic tone, yet there could easily be annoyance in his eyes, “I seem to have some matter to take care of such as the council who wished to execute you, and there also seems to be someone at the embassy who wants to see me. So, I guess I’ll have to get to work earlier than expected…”

His voice was still apologetic, his eyes seeming to have calmed as he caringly continued, “Is there anything I can do for you before I head out?” He asked, kneeling down as he spoke so that his own eyes met her own. The smile remained, kindred eyes to watch her, while he awaited a response. He did all this to only further show importance of her over his own tasks, granted he was only kage by title alone for less than a week but he still did what he did without any change to his personality. The importance of those he cared for were always going to be more important than his work.

OOC: Sorry for the late post, while I was over at my fiance's there was little to no internet.

[Yoshi [Lynx!]]

WORD COUNT: 360

TAGGED: @blackspire

TAGGED: LYNX

There were interruptions, whispers worried tones, acknowledgement, understanding and general confusion and frustration, all unfolding within a very short timeframe just leaving the girl standing there completely confused. Looking down in the ground, the only thought that echoed through her mind was how much Ryosuke actually had grown up. Raising a hand to the side of her head like a soldier, she saluted him, before letting out a soft laugh, showing that she wasn't taking his forced absence too harshly.

"Nah, its all good, Ryo-kun. I'll stay here for a short while then, sing a couple of songs, play a little music, before I head to the embassy myself. I'll be there searching for Rena. I promised I would let her know what was going to happen to me as soon as I could."

Looking to him, she slowly turned to walk over to the back of their house. A place where there were two small bumps of earth. It was here that she assumed her parents had been buried by whomever had come to check on the burnt mess and found whatever remained of them. Pulling out the bass, she sat down and started stroking the strings. He was trusting her enough that she could take care of herself and wouldn't run off.. So she was going to make sure that his trust wasn't misplaced...

//EXIT

SPOILER: Click to show

None.

[Father 'Suke]

‘Suke had but to acknowledge her, hearing that there was this friend whom she spoke of and with a nod and smile he waved her off. There was too much stuff going on and it was ruining some hopes, dreams, and the likes. With a steady sigh at the realization of his far too busy life he stood and only smiled as she began to go and play for her parents. He did not wish to intrude on that sweet and kindred moment, it was far too sweet for him to interrupt with bland words of farewell, so he bowed and spun on his heel to head out. He had much business to attend to sadly.

[Exit]