Open Along Came a Spider...

[Teke]

It was late afternoon in the village, though the sun still beat down like it was noon but the citizens were all but used to that. Shirayuri had decided on this particular day to take a detour through the market district on her way home. She had just finished a day of classes at the academy and was hoping to stretch her legs a little and buy some snacks with the bit of money her mother had given her in the morning. Given the time of day the markets were still bustling with activity, there was plenty of time before the shops started to shut up for the day and people going about their days as usual. Yuri herself, however, was taking her time as she moved amongst the crowds, she was being very conscious of bumping into someone as she generally didn't like touching people, it made her feel a bit uneasy and honestly, at any point, she could have one of a dozen poisons on her person. The reason she had risked the crowds today instead of waiting till the sun had gone down and the crowds had dispersed along with it was simple. She had managed to convince her parents, mostly her father, to order in a bunch of plant samples that aren't normally found in the Wind country, it was to be her birthday present much to her mother's dismay who had other plans Yuri could only cringe at a guess of.

Those very samples had arrived as she was leaving for class in the morning and she'd done nothing but think about them all day, buzzing with excitement and she wanted to get snacks ready for the inevitable all-nighter she was about to pull as she studied each sample in various different ways. For this, she would do her best to overcome the crippling anxiety such places made her feel, and thankfully she didn't look too out of place in a place amongst adults. In the academy, she is by far one of the tallest students even against the boys and it gets her a lot of unwanted attention, usually nothing positive though any that can look past this usually get turned away by her resting bitch face which makes her look more likely to bite your face of rather than look at it.

Eventually, the girl would end up in front of the store she was looking for, they gave the widest range of snack foods in the whole market that she knew of and always had new and unusual things that she found much amusement in trying. The only problem today was, the interior of the place was pretty packed, she was aware of its popularity but this was a bit ridiculous almost as if someone was playing a prank on her. She stood outside of the building, looking in as she tried to give herself a pep talk in her head.

"I know what I want and where to go, I know how much it all costs, it'll take five minutes, less if we avoid the new arrivals section... but what if they have something really good... then it'll be really crowded too..."

It was getting her nowhere fast and people were noticing the girl now staring at the place with a look of disdain on her face, though they didn't approach her she sure looked suspicious. This inner monologuing went back and forth for a good ten minutes or so before she began to realize how she must look just stood like this and quickly started to notice all the strange glances she was getting. Without much more thinking about it her legs started to move quickly, pulling her into the alleyway next to the shop and into the shadows where people couldn't stare.

"Great, now what do I do..." She said with exasperation. "I can't wait here till nightfall, but now they've all seen me... uugh..."

She complained to herself as her back came to rest against the cooled sandstone wall and she slowly sunk to the ground in a sitting position. As she did so an unannounced visitor who had been disturbed by the girls' sudden appearance let it's presence be known as small black spider came down from above, stopping just in the girls' vision. She hadn't noticed in her haste but she'd actually walked through a small part of the webbing the spider was constructing across the alley and it was now in her hair. She reached her hand up to the arachnid and let it climb onto her hand and watched it scurry around as she swapped her hands over and over to let it keep running.

"Sorry little guy didn't mean to interrupt your work, I know how that feels trust me." She said with a slight smile forming on her lips, softening her stone-like expression for just a moment.

[WC - 815]

 

[Kanmuri]

Adult life isn't easy. There are these things called responsibilities, and people really take for granted just how important they are. Jidai was no exception. As children, the world is theirs for the taking. There are people to provide and take care of them. People expect them to fail and don't judge them when they do. On the contrary, they lend a helping hand and attempt to get them back up on their feet. Yet, upon reaching a certain age the demeanor of these people change. Instead of smiling at an individual, they scrunch up their noses, furrow their brows, and raise their heads high with hubris if they deem that another has looked at them for too long. These same people, who would love and care for a younger individual, get angry at the failures of their brethren and lash out when their standards are not met. They feel challenged at the notion of someone improving and look to destroy and set them back when given the chance. This is just a few of the many things new adults have to deal with all because they reached a certain age--because they've been on the earth for 20 years despite only being alive for potentially less than a quarter than they are expected to live for. And what sucked the most--the most anger-inducing fact of all this--was the reality that the only reason people treated other this way was because they themselves were once treated that way and were now afraid of someone else being on top and treating them like trash once again.

It was sad. It was disgusting. It was both revolting and repulsing.

And there Jidai was...a victim and unfortunate byproduct of all of that nonsensical rubbish. He knew nothing of the world. He went from being in a repetitive, traditional life in a cell as a kid to a member of a gang of teens that looked out and supported each other (until they didn't) while he was a teenager. Then worst came to worst. People had to die. Jidai was alone, and then he was on the streets. All because he couldn't make rent. What did they expect someone of his size to even do? He was a behemoth. Standing at 9 feet 5 inches and weighing a literal ton, what jobs were open to him? Who would hire him? Just what did this world expect from someone who wasn't even given the chance to succeed in life?

Nothing. Nothing was expected from him because no one cared for him. This was just one of the many untold stories of the world. There are kids suffering and living lives that don't make it into the shinobi newspapers or speeches. Yea, the slave trade may have been mostly taken care of in Sunagakure, but what about in the Underground? There were tons of kids and teens on the streets with no one to call their family but the other abadoned kids. Whether their parents had died. Whether they ran away from home. Or whether they came from mysterious and unexplained backgrounds like Jidai, the world didn't care for these pawns because that's exactly what they were.

Collateral.



They were pieces on a board that once off of the board were thrown away and kept to side never to be thought of again. And Jidai was no exception. He had no mission. He had no purpose. He had no one who expected anything of him. And so he was forced to where he was now. On the streets, sleeping in an alley with only his hoodie, sweats, and flip flops to keep him warm. Well, at least he was able to have peace and quiet in a place where no one dared to enter. Why would anyone enter a dark alley in a country filled with people with the power to disintegrate buildings and smash mountains?

Apparently to escape the eyes of other people.

"Great, now what do I do..." She said with exasperation. "I can't wait here till nightfall, but now they've all seen me... uugh..."

By the sounds of it, a woman had made her way into the alley in which the giant had called his den for the night. Slightly disturbed by the sound of her voice, Jidai would be forced awake as she continued to speak, "Sorry little guy didn't mean to interrupt your work, I know how that feels trust me."


"Well did you mean to interrupt my sleep?"

The unnaturally, spine-tingling deep voice of the man would echo throughout the entire alley and possibly even into the streets as he spoke. Usually, Jidai knew better than to talk, but there were two things that caused Jidai to act out of character in this moment. For one, he had been interrupted in the one place he looked to avoid interaction with other people. The second reason being he had just woken up from sleeping and his mind was not in the right place.

Jidai, who probably looked like a miniature wall when laying down would rise to his complete height and release a mildly loud yawn, which once again was probably not advised given how naturally blaring and reverberant his voice was. But now the man was standing at full height and looking down at a woman who barely made it to his belly button. This situation didn't look right at all, but anyone passing most likely wouldn't see the pair of individuals given the darkness in the alley.

Only Primus knows what's going on this little girl's mind now.

 

[Teke]

Shirayuri was happily playing with the small spider, letting it run back and forth across her fingers and sometimes up her arms, admiring the arachnids movements, it was always so pleasantly elegant to her. With her focus solely on this creature, she didn't even notice the movement coming from deeper in the alleyway. She took a look back out into the sunlit street and let out a long sigh, she needed to pluck up the courage sooner rather than later or she'd be wasting good snack and research time. The crowd of people however simply kept on moving back and forth, going about their days with no regard for the young lady, not that they even knew how she despised them at this very moment. Slowly she started to stand back up, intending to place the spider back onto its web so it could continue working and it would give her something to watch and take her mind off of things for a little bit.

She hadn't even gotten fully to her feet when a booming voice sounded behind her, sending chills through her spine, immediately her legs lost all their strength and she collapsed back onto the sandy ground with a thud. Now looking up at the giant of a man as the little spider made it's way out of her fallen grasp and escaped up the alley walls back to its home.

"I... didn't, I'm sorry I didn't know someone was here!" She blurted out, shaken by the sudden fright.

"I just needed a place to hide... for a few minutes." She tried to explain, hoping it was enough to sate him.

Obviously meeting strange men in dark alleyways something talked about a lot, as kids you're told to avoid them for just such reasons because no one wants to be kidnapped, killed or worse. The sudden shock was starting to wear off a little but the adrenaline pumping through her was making her legs like jelly and despite her best efforts she was stuck on the ground for now. What was she going to do anyway? She couldn't just run out into the crowd because in her head that was far worse than a building-sized man looming over her. She did her best to put on a brave face and started to dust off her clothes and fix some wrinkles the fall had caused.

"I'm scared of large crowds, so I just need to gain my composure and I'll leave you be. I didn't realize someone was... living here?" She asked curiously as it dawned on her that this man may be homeless.

[WC - 436]