The Man in the Black Clothes (open, NK)

Kari wandered the streets with her notebook in hand. She was dressed more casually today, wearing a light plum t-shirt with a picture of a plum on it. She had a black skirt which dropped to just below her knees and a black girdle underneath that. Her red hair was let down to fall below her shoulders. The girl held on to her notebook on her side despite carrying a purse like bag. Her goal today was to capture some more expressions and maybe a new smile. She had so many but because it was her favorite expression to study, she could not stop collecting more with her sketches.  

Finding an tree behind the road, she sat down and proceeded to draw out the scene in front of her. This picture of of little importance and only served to pass time while she looked for a proper subject. Her eyes lazily bounced around picking out small details to clutter her paper, the lack of good models, the small fractures or cracks weaved in by age into the side of the buildings, the man holding a spinning a kunai in the dark alley. Her pencil stopped. The behavior or less than abnormal, especially if he was a ninja. She reached into her bag which had a scroll with a weaker puppet and a kunai of her own. She did not want to fight, but she at least wanted to know why he was standing there as such.

Closing her notebook, she stored it in her bag. She then stood up and made her way across the street. Her blank face remain stagnate as she made her way a to the alley. Hopefully the boy wouldn't run away. Then again, if he was dangerous, she would wish for him to flee. She was not exactly prepared to deal with another ninja. Given he didn't flee, she would stop a foot or two away from the ally.
"Greetings. I think you..." she started to speak in her usual toneless dreary voice but she stopped after noticing a unique necklace around his neck. She herself was carrying her whistle and more of a self defense thing. His looked too decorative and it was interesting. It appeared to be a black diamond. This was not a new expression but it was a new sight, something she wanted to record.
"I am Kari Tsukami, may I ask where you found that gem? I never seen anything like it?"

WC 412

As Rehtal stood there in the ally, flipping his kunai around. He saw a very short girl approach him. Rethal was about 2 feet taller then her. When she was 10 feet away, Rethal threw the kunai 10 feet up into the air, letting the light flash off of it. He then caught the kunai and put inside his cloak. He stayed there, letting her come to him. Once she was a foot or two away from him, she started to talk, but interrupted herself with a question about his necklace. Rethal, in his deep voice, said, "The necklace was a gift to me from a priest of the church of Acaba."


Trying to keep it brief, he said, "Nice to meet, you. I saw you drawing earlier, may I inquire further into what it was?"


WC: 136
TWC: 424

Kari carefully watched the boy throw his weapon into the air. His goal or idea for doing such an action was unclear but it was in no way beneficial in being hostile, unless his goal was to throw her off from his hostile intentions. If that was the case it worked. This was more than enough evidence to drop her original goal of questioning his reasoning for being there and instead focus or the more interesting item, the necklace.

Upon further inspection of the boy, she could see everything about him was hidden with the exception of his eye. It was an interesting way of dressing if you wanted to be abnormal but it was not against the rules. It kind of made her wish she had her cloak back. Without anything covering her face, she was at the mercy of appearing weird herself, a curse the boy did not have to suffer if he had a similar issue. Still, it didn't matter now as the objective was only just the necklace.

The boy's, or now man's, voice was very deep making Kari assume he was much older than her. She would have to adjust her manner of speech to ensure she was given the proper respects. "Church of Acaba..." the girl repeated quietly in her emotionless dreary speech. It was an interesting name for sure. She never heard of such a building herself nor any religion that followed such a deity, not that she was an expert on such a subject. She tended to stay away from those people since they made life the most difficult for her with their weird values and confusing mannerisms.

The man had a follow up question but he sort of skipped a few steps of conversation. Kari's father constantly drilled her about knowing another person’s name or title prior to the starting of a conversation. With the man being such a mystery, she did not wish to continue till she had something. Giving proper respect was one of the best ways to ensure she was giving her family name a good reputation. "My apologies but I never got your name Sir. May you tell me so that I can give you your proper respects and formalities." Her voice retained the same slowness and level of volume. Her eyes climbed up his face onto the only attribute that gave her any clue to who he was. Meanwhile she reached into her bag to pull out her notebook. She did not mind sharing her work. There were only sketches and her current collection held no value as of now.

WC 434

Black dragon god, Savior of humanity, black dragon knights, Kari was all but confused. She blanked stared at the man unsure what to say. These sounded like things a religious priest would say. The very priest who would shun ninjas and would make her life harder than it had to be. Kari started to wonder if her inquiry about the necklace was going to be worth the consequences this conversation could have. In all honesty, it probably wasn't but she knew next to nothing about this entity. Her curiosity swallowed up one half of her mind while her reasoning to run away set up their defense on the other. Then girl lowered her head, thinking about which path she could take.

Before she could make a decision, the boy introduced himself, sort of. His answer was far from normal. Normally, people would give their full name as she did, give just their preferred name like her colleagues, or their title. Sometimes people would give some form of their name and then a nickname or alternate pronunciation in hopes to be, what they would say, closer friends. However, never has anyone opening admitted to hiding their name and instead give their nickname. It was interesting but it served no purpose for Kari's goal of giving proper respect. Was this man her senior as a ninja? Did he belong to an outside entity? Was he just some crazy person with a weapon they shouldn't have? Kari was baffled and unsure what to do. With that kunai, she could assume he was a ninja, but why would a ninja openly make themselves appear suspicious.

Her options to respond were very clear. She could call him out for being suspicious and arrest him. She could walk away and report him, a more safer option. She could inquiry on his strange behavior a less safe but not necessary dangerous option. She could just ignore him and let him be, a dangerous move for her village should he actually be dangerous. Her head remained down, probably way for too long. In this position, she was in danger of being attacked. So she finally raised her head a little only for him to inquiry if she herself was a ninja. This was it. She was in a prime position to collect more information to make a proper decision.

The girl looked the man in his eye. "Re-thal," the girl repeated even slower than her normal speech pattern, "No. I am not a shinobi. I am a traveling artist." The girl started her lie though her speech remained dreary and emotionless. Since the man did not know who she was, she felt she could use that to learn whom he was or at least more about his church group of black dragons. She considered herself lucky that most of her puppetry were still under maintenance and thus not on her person. However, if this became violent, that would become a curse. "I have never heard of the church of Acaba. Would I be allowed to draw your building of worship? The Haven Country has so many different cultures inside. I find them all interesting."

Kari's first move was made. This would test how hostile the church group was. The more dangerous ones forbid outsiders from entering in her experience. While she has heard of groups kidnapping people, she had never encountered one, and she also doubted they would openly reveal themselves in front of a stranger who could be a ninja. The girl tilted her head, since she seen other girl's do that when they ask for stuff. It was suppose to make them cute especially when they smiled. It was then that Kari realized she wasn't smiling. It was an error on her part to incorporate such a tactic but she could not stop now. Therefore, she did her best to make a grin showing a little bit of her teeth. However, it was nowhere near the level of the smiles used by other women. Anybody with any remote understanding of emotion or expressions should be able to tell that the smile looked faked. It would still be a while before the girl would achieve the same level of her mother.

WC: 704

Kari was surprise to fine a lack of response on her smile. Most people would call her out or make a comment about her expression being faked. Maybe she actually managed to properly emote. If only she had a mirror or something to record her face. It would be a shame to lose such a valuable experience. Never the less, she had to break from the gesture. It was not good on her neck to remain like that for too long. In addition, boy had giving her his answer.

Kari listened to the man's story while returning to her normal blank or stoic expression. His church was on the decline and there were so few members left. On top of that, the building apparently burned down robbing the girl of her new experience and subject for her notebook. This of course was if he was telling the truth. The girl had no reason to not believe him. While his character was shady, she had nothing to lose and the man had nothing to gain for her believing the story. The girl remained stoic during the story without breaking to sniffle, gasp, or even nod. The story seemed like it was suppose to be sad so should she frown?
"I am sorry to hear that. I wish I could have seen it before its fall..."

Without the ability to see his face, she could not tell how the man was feeling. She did not know if he was angry, sad, happy, or anything. Thus, she could not produce the correct response. Kari had never been in a situation like this before and it was not an experience she wanted. Without that church, she was slowly losing interest in this conversation. The man was just too different from the normal person for her to interact with properly. This didn't even take in the unnatural secrecy, which only compounded the difficulty. At the very least, he did not know she was a ninja. At least that is what she initially thought.

"Oh... really?" Kari closed her eyes despite her voice remaining the same tone. There was no sense of surprise in her voice or blank eyes after hearing the man go back on his claim of not knowing the girl's profession. If he did know this, she wondered why he asked the question. Did he not know the strain relationship between the church and the shinobi? There was so much to think about, if only she could take a break from talking to think. She opened her eyes after noticing the man not speaking. Only one thing ran though her mind. What did he want?

"I don't like those games. I lied because you allowed me to. If you are not dangerous though, then I have no reason to continue my facade. Still... I wanted to draw your church. It is disappointing that I can't." Kari looked at her notebook's cover. The man's comment about being dangerous was unneeded. If anything, it only made her think about the possibilities of him being a threat more. It was a waste of thought, but the little bit of knowledge she had on him just would not let her scratch that itch of danger. "I cannot say I trust someone who will not share their name. I apologize if that offends you."


WC: 556

The man exhibited such a sharp contrast in character during the duration of this short conversation. At first he seemed out of place and dangerous, hanging out in the dark alley with his kunai. Then he took on a secretive persona of a mysterious priest for some unknown religious faction. Now he was simply Hasler Tah Shak. This name and the nickname he gave himself were both abnormal sounding compared to the other people she spoke too but she would not judge. It was nice to be offered this information which sated her curiosity, or at least what little of it that could be satisfied.

"Thank you for your truth. I apologize for not recognizing your seniority sempai," Kari apologized in her soft slow voice. Her words sounded scripted as if she had a practiced this line multiple times. Following this, she gave a quick bow and held out a coupon for a free night at her father's hotel. Whether the man accepted the gesture or not would not matter to the girl. All the difficulty of dealing with a stranger drastically shrunk. The man was her ally after all, a fellow ninja of Hoshi. While she did not have her own headband, this was all she needed to completely rid herself of any thoughts of the man being hostile. "I apologize for my misunderstandings. I will be sure to treat you with the proper respects," she added before raising her head.

"Sempai you need not to reveal anymore to me. I trust you are who you say you are. I will be sure to call you by your requested name as you desired." When the Rethal pulled out a picture of his church, Kari quickly gazed over it. It was not interesting to draw off someone else's work. She wanted to record her own experiences after all. With that out of the way, she was now free to return to her own drawing, despite how unmotivated she was to complete it, especially after being tease about seeing a new place. "I have no use for keeping the experiences of others. Though I wonder, where do you practice your worship now that there are so little of you?"

WC: 368