Food Shopping [Private/Solo]

Food Shopping:

"Why did it have to be you..." 

A sigh escapes her lips, crestfallen as she finally meets the person who requested this mission. It had been a good start to her day. Starting with some meditation and light studying and exercise, followed by handling Dana's usual antics as she corraled her roommate away from the kitchen. Seeing as Dana's cooking was just as...eccentric as her personality it was just an important a chore as anything else to prevent breakfast from winding up poisoned. 

After that it was just reporting in to do some missions, same as usual, in which this case it was just meant to be a simple grocery run. Go out, help one of the elderly who's struggling with carrying all their purchases, and help them take it back to their home. A simple open and shut mission. Which made it a bit painful when she came across a very familiar face from her time at Kirigakure when she arrived at the meeting spot. 

His nose was fat and bulbous, a real eye catcher with bulging eyes on a wrinkly, chubby face. Making it hard to take him seriously for her case. He was short, somehow shorter than her. It didn't stop him from having a standoffish look on his face. Though despite how much of a pudgy look his face had, his body was lanky in appearance, giving him a look that was both overfed and malnourished. His greying hair ties up in a bun on the back of his head. 

It was a regretful thing to say but Yuri knew the guy. Quite well actually, a septuagenarian guy named Wōisumi and he quite blatantly stole from her. It made her wonder if the pocket change he stole was contributing to the mission funds here, which put a not too pleasant fake smile on her face as she greets him. 

"You..." 

It wasn't really a greeting, more so an acknowledgement of their presence thinly veiled with the knowledge that they stole from her, and that he was, to be blunt, a grumpy and insufferable old man. Somehow bearing a pissed look with a hint of entitlement even while looking at the girl he robbed, as if he'd done no wrong.

WC: 373

"What'sit to ya kid. I don't need any drama from some kid, jus' ta carry ma' groceries." 

The old man digs in his ear with one of his pinkies as with a very wet sounding inhale he spots a loogie on the ground. Yuri's face twisting into an absolute disgust as she watches the man head into the grocer's store. She wasn't looking forward to this. She was all about helping her fellow neighbor, and she'd even let the guy get off when he hassled her once, but talking to him now his personality was confrontational and it left her wondering why she even tried to help him. 


With a sigh she shakes her head following him inside. 

"Still that's no way to treat someone, especially a Shinobi of the village you live in." 

She sighs. She didn't exactly expect them to change their behavior but she couldn't just accept that without at least trying to correct the man. As they walk down the meat isle, he stops in his track turning to look at her with a harsh glare. The temperamental air about them made a bit less serious by the latent stink of bloody meat hanging in the air. Yuri stops simultaneously, a chill going up her spine. Something in the look of his eyes unnerved her, there wasn't something she'd call anger, or hatred. If anything it was characterized by a distinct emptiness to it. 

When someone looked at another person there was a sort of nuance to their expression that told you that they acknowledged you as a person. A sort of depth, as if they could tell there was more to you than the material body. An acknowledgement of spirit and meaning. There was none of that in his eyes, in fact it imparted the feeling that she was devoid of spirit. At best it was unsettling and at worst it could be considered horrifying. 


The old man snorts, turning around to continue down the deli section, leaving a confused Yuri hesitantly following behind them. Without asking or being asked, out of nowhere he said. 

"Ya ain't a Shinobi, not'ta real one, na' yet. Trust me."


WC:  734

There was a silence as Yuri digests what he just said. Regular patrons of the store ignoring them, passing around like a stream against rocks. She wasn't sure how to take this, a dizzying dysphoria gripping her mind as she turns the words over and over again in her head. Her pride wasn't hung up on being a Shinobi, if anything more of her identified with samurai, even if she wasn't truly one. The way that this old man said it though, Izumi's words felt like an insult somehow. Though she couldn't yet figure out why. 


The discomfort was enough to make her feel sick to her stomach. Which made it hard to follow when they started to continue walking again, picking through displays of fish. Letting out a tight lipped sigh as Yuri silently follows behind. Eventually he breaks the silence. 

"Don't take any offense runt. Maybe 's a good thing even. Lotta fresh eyed kids don't make it sometimes, and th' ones that do..." 

He shakes his head, there was a weariness to his face, guilt. Sighing again as he continues.

"Not th' same. The ones you could really call a warrior have this look in the eye. 's an unnatural look. When alot of people fight there's emotion broiled into the act. Passion, fear,  pain. Sometimes though, there's nothin' ain't a single thing, and the types like that're th' worst." 

He shakes his head, body tense. With a million mile away look as he stares at rainbow fish, while her discomfort left it was replaced by a feeling just as heavy. A sense of foreboding directed at the past, instead of the future. 

"Don't feel human around them. It's like being a piece of meat. Then fear gets ya, and then they've really got ya. That's why I said what I said. Take offense to it if ya want, or maybe take comfort, but now ya know. Maybe one day you'll get eyes like those. Though I wouldn't know if th' you there would still be you if ya did." 

Eventually Yuri just let out a deep breathe. She couldn't really disagree with them. It felt disrespectful to press the point, no, it felt misguided. She couldn't deny her thoughts on what a Shinobi were was shallow, and she wasn't a real warrior, she'd never been in a true fight, only spars. All she could do was drop the current topic. 

"Okay." 

Yuri says, trying to move forward, though it felt like she left a part of herself at this topic, and as they purchase a fish she finds she can't even remember which fish they got. All that was in her mind was that she would return to this topic again one day, at least in her head.


WC: 1196

It was hard to say anything else for the rest of the shopping trip, and honestly it didn't seem like there was anything else to say. Izumi going through and collecting all the store goods they needed. Beans, meat, grains, vegetables, there wasn't much worth note except for perhaps a prodigious amount of alcohol. Yuri did keep in mind to keep a very good distance when it was time to check out, though that earned her a stink eye from the old man. 


There was an awkwardness as they left the grocers that earned a sigh from Yuri. Carrying the tons of food behind the path of the old man back to his house. It did make her curious, she'd never seen where he'd lived before, not to mention he was kind of a two bit thief, which made her wonder how he lived. He certainly didn't scrimp on food or booze. 

Heading down by the docks, Yuri could feel the slight change in the area. You could always tell how well or how poorly people were doing by the environment, and going from the cleaner and more prettied up commercial area, the docks and sea side had a rougher and rowdier feel to them. More things were broken down, more people were rough and tumble, and there was a sense of hard work permeating the air. Metal became sharper against a grindstone but it was still work down. People were made sharper but past a certain point work became over work and wore them into dust. She could still feel that same kind of nature here. 

"We're here." 

The Izumi grunted out the yellow paint outside was peeling off, and the door had dents and breaks in it that showed off its years of use and abuse. In a way it was almost exactly like what she expected out of him. Old, a bit decrepit, and likely carrying a good many stories inside. History, not often seen unless you go past the doors as he fishes a key out of his ratty pocket he opens the door with a finicky click. Yuri now more curious about the inside than the outside, though what she found was both within that range of expectations and still, somehow, osmething that caught her off guard and, even worse, hurt to see too.

WC: 1585

It was tidy, or as tidy as it could be given the circumstances, but also it was cramped, and small. There was a melancholy hanging over the place. A mixture of the low lighting from shut curtains that only let thin beams of light cut through the room, with the slight stains and signs of wear. The living room and the kitchen were combined and partitioned from each other by a thin separator that also functioned as a kitchen counter. A book case sat empty with the frames of pictures facing down. Maybe they'd lost someone.

It made Yuri painfully aware of something. The awkwardness bringing a stark clarity that even though she had this notion of wanting to help people, she was still only good at fighting. No matter how she racked her brains as she walks into his house, all she could come up with was silence. A quiet nod at him as she sets down the bags inside the kitchen, and gives the slight courtesy of helping unpack them. Once done, she walks towards the door, over the brown raggedy carpeting and exits giving Izumi a plain goodbye. The odd spell that made talking difficult seemingly starting to break upon hearing the soft squeaking and click of the door.

It had left her with alot to think about, on her walk back home. Where before the need to interact with people and learn to understand them felt more casual, situations like this came around and made her question that flippant belief. It gave her something to think about, and ultimately something to work on. For the next time she ran into him, or someone like him, she wouldn't feel forced into silence simply because she had nothing she knew to say. The idea made her smill slightly.




WC: 1858

==Exit Claims==

Mission

1000 Ryo
5 AP

Stats:

Jutsu/Skill/Element/Spec
1500 WC to Manufacturer [1500/1500][25% Discount from Max stats]

Approved