Watching Walls is Better with Two...or more?

Mission Details:

It was a good thing that the sun had a tendency to rise early in the Land of Wind, as the living conditions of Ken Tanahashi didn’t really allow him to have any kind of alarm. The ruins of his family home barely protected him from the elements, and he lived by the grace of the shade of its former walls, and woke when the sun told him it was time to get up or overheat. Today it served him well as he had been requested to guard the village gates, and his posting was all day, so with that in mind he put on a white linen robe, something nice and light to keep him cool in the desert heat, packed his normal things, brushed the sand from his hair, affixed his glasses in place, and made his way towards the massive gates.

On days where he had work he held his head a little higher than usual, willing to meet gazes with the other residents of the “Suna” slums and nodding greetings to those who were willing to look back. He whistled a simple tune that his mother used to sing to him when he was a child, finding the memory comforting, even if it made him a little sad. While his past wasn’t something he necessarily liked to dwell on it was still a place he could draw strength from. He missed the familiar feeling of being able to rest his hand on the hilt of his father’s sword, but it was something that he had to let go of. He may never be able to truly call himself Samurai again, but he would work hard to get back to that position, and stuff like gate duty was a gateway towards having a semblance of his old life back.\

The walk was nice, it was a nice and quiet day in the village. When he made his way through the village markets people would try to sell him trinkets and whatnot, and he politely declined before hurrying up to get to his charge. Upon arrival at the gate he reported to the CO there, who informed him that someone else would be joining him for his shift, something that he nodded at as he leaned against the wall, pulling a cigarette from the small tin in his robe and lighting it, inhaling deeply as he looked to begin scanning to see who he was being paired with. Ken was a friendly enough person before he lived in the slums, but his new situation didn’t give him much change to socialize. He was somewhat looking forward to having the chance to meet another member of the village, especially one of the “shinobi” who were charged to protect it. He would never consider himself to be one of them, as he was a Samurai at heart, but if that’s what had to happen for him to get work, he wouldn’t fight it.

(20 exp)

Etsu strolled their bodies towards the gates leading to the village, she had awoken up before the sun was up, making breakfast for everyone, while letting Kana deal with the coffee. For a usually upbeat headmate Kana could be quite snobbish when it came to coffee, especially when it came to their adopted parent / sensei / mentor Ei-Sensei having no problem with using an Automatic Coffee Machine.

But with a food in everyone's stomachs, coffee running through their veins, and the beauty rising sun filling their artistic senses they made their way towards the gates, wearing a black crop top with an image of a cute skull wearing a cupcake hat, and short shorts. All around them would be sewn in seals that were prettied up to look-like embroidery work.

While not a rushed walk, it did let them soak in the early morning stirrings of their streets. Well, not there's in any legal sense, but for the last 7 years the streets where their home. Even after getting adopted by Ei-Sensei a few years back they made a habit of feeling the pulse on the streets.

Or simply just randomly popping out a portable stage and putting on a show. Music, Stage Magic, Acrobatics, Art Demonstrations, they busked, hustled, and entertained. As Kana would say "The World is a stage, and The Stage is a world of entertainment." Of course while they had gotten skilled with getting coin from their shows, the real money in Back Alley Casinos would allow them to set foot in their establishments.

Still the ex-Guttersnipe loved the people who called the streets home, and had no problem donating some of her coin to helping them out, or going to shelters to cook them up a few meals. Their skilled hands, and prodigious talent with chemistry made for a great combination in the kitchen.

As she got to the post she saw her partner, Ken Tanashi. She knew they knew that name some how but it wasn't clicking, even seeing his form leaning against the wall, taking a drag of a cigarette it was a niggling in her brain that they coudn't quiet place a finger on, "Hey! You ... we swear we've seen you before, we're'd we meet?" Etsu inquired as she started using Flash Blade Creation to pop out a portable wooden stage, and two keytars, both of which she'd get their straps around her shoulders like bandoliers, and start fingering the keys warming up her fingers with a little, jaunty melody.

[1]

As the young girl approached him, Ken putting her somewhere in her mid to late teens, he could feel her chakra. He knew that this had to be the person he was being assigned to guard the gate with, and to be honest was a little bit surprised at what he saw. She was dressed in a very odd way, much of her pale flesh exposed by the outlandish outfit. She looked like she belonged at a beach in a place where the sun wasn’t so dangerous, but here that attire was simply a hazard. She approached Ken and her speech made him even more confused. He had only sensed one chakra signature, yet she was speaking as though there were more than one of her. He took a look around to see if he was missing something, but it didn’t seem to be the case.

“I’m sorry, I’m a bit confused. I am nobody. Simply a man living in the rubble of his former hamlet, that has been incorporated in this “village” as its slum. My name is Ken Tanahashi, the last of a line of Samurai...And I must ask, why aren’t you wearing robes? Your skin could become so damaged in this sun, the desert isn’t a forgiving place.” He was showing his age in his concern, thumbing over his quiver of arrows and preparing to get to task, but still wondering if this other person or people were coming.

The gates were massive and intimidating, the thought of guarding them seeming like some massive undertaking. He wasn’t worried about his skills, or even the skill of the ninja standing beside him, though he was somewhat curious as to why she was setting up a stage. He was a fan of music, his mother taking great pride in teaching him of the arts when he was younger, so he wasn’t complaining, but it seemed an...odd thing to do during a mission. “Do you have a band coming?”

109.5/110 chakra
(40 exp)

Etsu nodded at that, the desert was unforgiving, and cruel, but she had been lucky so far to escape it's brutality by usually sticking to the shade, or having some form of hydration on hand.  But that was neither here nor there.

Like hell it isn't Etsu, that is actually a pretty good point and I feel stupid for not thinking aboutit until now. Kana berated them in their Mindscape.

Deciding to reply to both her headmate and her fellow Shinobi she gave a playful roll of her eyes, "We'll be fine, I mean I haven't died yet in 15 years ... I just seem to always turn out fine as long as I stay hydrated, but if it'll make you feel better, I can make a cloak to keep ourself cool."  A few seconds later it clicked, "The slums! That's were I know you from! Kind of, sort of. Um ... let's see here you might almost remember us better as ..."

A hand would shoot up with a finger raised as if asking for a moment while she looked blankly at the ground. Almost as if she were having some sort of internal debate or thinking hard about something.

No! I'm not driving! He's new and I don't like new things.

Pffft! Come on! You can't just have us in control all the time you feel nervous, we're right here beside you. That and come on! I sort of, vaguely,  kinda recall someone who looked like him a few times when out on the streets.

That's no-

Bored now, YOINK!

And with that shoved Kimiko into the driver's seat of their body. Ken would see Enkai's hair audibly deflate, and hang limply across her body, as she seemed to slouch as to try to fold into herself, a slight shift of her head making a wall of hair between him and her with only a single eye looking at him.

She stared for a few seconds tears starting to form around her visible eye before her hair returned to it's wavy, poofy self it was moments ago, her eyes seeming to shine with raw joy and exuberance, "Maybe you remember seeing that? We were guttersnipes here in Suna for ... 5 years? And even now we wonder the streets."

Etsu did feel bad at the gentle sobs in her head from Kimiko's sobbing and Kana's anger towards her as she comforted Kimiko, but how else were they going to get her  social life or meet new people if she was hiding in the back of their minds?

At being asked if there was a band coming Enkai threw a million Ryo Smile, "We are the band. Honestly, just standing around for hours doing nothing is boring and will  be costing me money. But throwing on a show? It'll make the time pass faster, get us a bit more Ryo, and we can chat with you to pass the time to help the time pass faster. After all, this Ninja Gig is only so we can support our real job as an Artist and Performer. Surely you want more out of life than simply existing from mission to mission?"

[2]

This individual was certainly...different. Ken had never dealt with someone quite like...them. He wondered if this was one of the potential side effects to the ninja magics, but figured that as they were chakra based in nature it seemed unlikely. It was more likely that they had some form of multiple personality disorder, which wasn’t something Ken found alarming, as it was simply a part of who they were. They seemed friendly enough, so he wasn’t going to hold anything like that against them. It was also interesting to note that so far the two ninja he had met in his life were quite unlike anything that his father had warned him they could be. It was well known that Samurai and Ninja didn’t get along particularly well, but he saw no reason to treat this person any different because they weren’t a samurai.

“I apologize, I’ve spent the majority of my year in the slums keeping to myself. After my belongings were stolen I learned not to trust anyone and to stay isolated as a precautionary thing. It would seem that the Samurai like myself are no longer overly welcome in this area, but I’m hoping to change people’s perception on that.” When she spoke of her goals of being a performer he nodded, liking the idea that some ninja had dreams besides being ninja, which lined up with what Ei had told him when they had met. Hilariously they seemed to have the same goals, and so he wondered if all Ninja were practitioners of the arts, but he knew there was no way that could be the case.

“I do not seek out a career in the arts, though I certainly do appreciate them. When I was a child my mother would sing and play for me every day, and it is a memory I hold dear to my heart of her. The bushido code and the blade are my life, and my goal is to restore the name of the Samurai, and cement the lineage of the Tanahashi clan of samurai so that they will be known across the lands for all time. I want people to speak of our name for generations after we are gone.” His hand subconsciously moved towards his quiver of arrows, gently plucking one with his fingers and beginning to rotate it between his hands as he glanced out over the gate. “It is good to see that work like this doesn’t dampen your spirits, it’s not the most exciting thing in the world for sure.”

109/110 Chakra
(60 exp)

At hearing of his things being stolen, and being weary of others, it was that same danger that brought Kana into the world after all, but it was still sad that he'd taken to withdraw from the world around him than have a good friend help him confront that dangers of the slums.

Etsu gave a head tilt to Kensei, "We know how that is, we had a hardtime in the slums at first, but really, you can't hide from the world, if you spend all your time away from people you'll never move forward and leave your mark on them. Maybe ... possibly we can visit you later and help you have some fun out in about in the village. It's gotta be better than being all by yourself, alone and not showing the world the real you."

Etsu wanted to go over and give him a comforting hug but Kana and Kimiko wanted to give him time to get used to them before he got the full Etsu package, and she smothered him with affection like she had a habit of doing with almost everyone she met.

At hearing his dreams Kana took over to start up everything and gave him an impressed whistle, "No shit? That's a pretty solid dream, I can appreciate that, and yeah. Life's too short to let your spirits get down too often, and if you can't have fun, ya got to make some fun for yourself amirite?"

Finishing up the stage she'd wield two Keytars, and hit up a drum loop, "I'll throw you a nice little show, get myself a crowd, and have a little fun."

WIth that she started playing her first song, her hands quickly and skillfully seeming to play a multitude of instruments at once.

[3]

Kensai would make his way to the wall, standing on top of it and listening to the music bow in hand and arrow knocked. He was prepared for whatever might come their way, and this was a simple task. As the hours melted away, he would feel a sense of pride and accomplishment in his job. The day itself was uneventful, nothing to write home about, but it was a job well done and that was something anyone could be happy about. This world was a hard and unforgiving place, something he knew oh too well, and when he left the wall and said farewell to the individual he had worked with today, he did so with that in mind. It was good to find kind and good people amidst the seas of vile and nefarious ninja that plagued it. He would sleep well that night, preparing for whatever the next day would bring him...

{Exit}
(80 exp)