Ghost Stories [Tutor]

[Ueno Kotone]

"YOU. DIDN'T. FREAKING. TALK TO HER?!"
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
​

A cigarette hung from from her lips as Kotone stormed through streets with Maru in tow. She crammed a lighter into her coat pocket before pulling out a somewhat crumpled pack to check the contents. Three left. No big deal, finish the pack, experiment over, mom doesn't need to know. Shoving the box back with the lighter, the blonde girl shot a look back at the fox she was currently violently dragging along by his collar. Besides, this fiasco was a good enough excuse for some underage smoking.

"So I'm going to ask one more time. You meet back up with Ayana, have some intense character building moment, and decide 'No, I'm totally not going to bring up the creepy shadow infested hell-town' during the entire freaking interaction?" Kotone tightened her grip on the fox, feeling her shoulder ache from her particularly dangerous escapades in the previous weeks. The girl knew she should have been the one talk to Ayana, herding foxes wasn't shaping up to be a particularly pleasant task. Even so, her failed venture into the raikage's tower, late night training session, and subsequent pivot by her academy sensei into a recommendation for an upcoming graduation exam had left Kotone with little time or energy to deal with the matter.

"And on top of that, you didn't think to-" The blonde paused to shove her way through a particularly congested side-street as she glanced around at addresses and street signs. "OUT OF THE WAY PEOPLE, LITTLE GIRL WALKING HER FOX, MAKE WAY!" Emerging from the crowd, Kotone took a quick drag on her cigarette before she sent another icy glare to Maru. "And I didn't freaking find this out until weeks later, and only because I caught you doing... Whatever the hell you do." The girl took a sharp turn, doing her best to remember the address on file for Ayana during her somewhat ill-conceived investigation.

A chill evening wind cut through the street, forcing Kotone to toss her hood up and sending her mind back to the streets of Cronopolis. "You think, maybe, I might have been like, really freaking busy?" The blonde sighed, exhaling a cloud of smoke as she double-checked another sign before yanking Maru around one more corner. She really should have been at home cramming, her exam was tomorrow after all, but the matter of the shadow attack needed to be dealt with, and Kotone couldn't help but feel a twinge of desire to see Ayana again. She still wasn't sure exactly why.

Glancing up at an address plate, the blonde girl ran it through her somewhat foggy memory, eventually settling on it seeming accurate. After taking one more puff, Kotone raised a hand and wasted no time in pounding on the door. Despite intending to be more diplomatic, the noise boomed through the neighborhood as she barely held back frustration at the rapidly setting sun and her need to be back home. "SPACE CASE, OPEN UP. WE'VE GOT, LIKE, TRAUMATIC CHARACTER BUILDING BACKSTORY TO DROP ON YOU."

 

[Midori Futotta]

[

I]'Hm?'[/i] Maru thought when Kotone began yelling at him when he tried telling her that he recently tutored Ayana. "Like… tell her what exactly?" he asked seemingly really having no clue what he was supposed to tell the Ayana. Like all he said was that he already had seen Ayana, then Kotone turned on him and decided to drag him by the collar then continue to rant about him not telling that nerd something. Finally the blonde reminded him about the whole murder house episode in which Maru had forgotten all about until now. "Ohhhhhhhh… I forgot all about that. I guess it just slipped my mind because there were a few distractions." he gave her a cheesy smile since now he knew what she was talking about. With the magazine being insulted and him trying to make up for what he already had done, the fox forgot to tell her about that. No biggie!

They maneuvered through the crowd, Maru allowing himself to be dragged as he finally noticed that the twelve year old was actually smoking a cigarette. "Yanno you shouldn't be smoking at your age." he scolded the brat while she was scolding him. He wondered if her mom would approve of this otherwise the fox could use it for blackmail later on. "Besides the event seemed more important for you than it was for me. So you get the pleasure of telling her about that episode yourself, you're welcome." he shot back while he was yanked around the corner. Like though he wanted to protect the child, Maru didn't think he'd want to be the one who told the holy girl about her town being haunted. Maru's ability to be empathic to human standards is a bit rusty plus he couldn't bring that up along with the whole nuking a small village too. That would be a pretty awkward conversation if the fox told about nuking a town and then told her that her town was haunted by demons.

As Maru had been dragged around, he wondered why the Kotone didn't just invest in a leash so he didn't have to walk all hunched over when she decided to drag him around. A leash probably would give him a few suspicious stares, given his history for being perverted but at least it would be more enjoyable. Once they arrived at Ayana's address, Kotone had knocked on the door and called the nerd down. Maru could hear the stress in Kotone's voice which made him chuckle. "Hehehe… Brave enough to smoke but cowardly to stay out at night." he teased deciding to make it a little mission to stall Kotone from getting home for as long as possible. After making his declaration to stall Kotone, Maru instantly got bored just waiting around and decided to get a reaction out of Kotone since she was his only entertainment as of now. So he reached up, grabbed her cheek, then pulled and kept at it until Ayana came to the door.

 

[Ayana]

Ayana just got back from her own little bit of training and sneaking around when she heard the yelling. She didn't hear exactly what the yelling was about, but she definitely recognized Kotone's voice. The girl was wearing a track suit, yellow kind of jacket with black shirt. And yellow track pants. Yep, she had invested a little bit of money that she managed to scrounge up to get some new clothes for whenever she trains.

But back at the topic a hand, the girl was on a rooftop a few blocks away from her house hearing the yelling, not really making out what was being said. The girl put a hand to her head. This yelling really just gives the girl a headache. Actually, a lot of social interaction seems to do just that.

With a sigh, Ayana travelled to her house by rooftop, since nobody really uses that method, and less people to deal with. But with that said, as she neared her house, so did the yelling, and it started to become more clear. Yep, it was definitely Kotone, and it seemed she was walking her fox? Ayana stopped at a rooftop and looked down. Sure enough, there was Kotone, and did she have a cigarette in her mouth? Jeez that stuff is bad. And in the small girl's tow was... Ayana bit the inside of her lip. She still doesn't know how to feel about Maru. On one side, she can tolerate him since he did save her, after his actions almost killed her, and shooed off an anbu that seemed to have been following her. But on the other side, he was a creep and blew up a whole town, innocents and bad guys died alike.

Ayana didn't know what the two were up to, because the last she had seen of them, Maru had pulled a prank whilst being in a wall while Kotone was screaming at him and fighting off a security guard. So she did the best thing an introvert would do. Follow them, but by running on through the rooftops. Eventually they made it to her house and Kotone started to knock on the door and yelling for Ayana to open up. The only problem is, is that Ayana is outside and... Oh no, her Aunt and Uncle don't know of her recent trainings, how she basically sneaks out to train since they basically keep her locked up.

"Oh, give me a break." Ayana jumped down from the nearest rooftop and tackled both Maru and Kotone with all she has to get them into a decently sized bush that was near the door. As soon as they all landed, Ayana put a hand over both of their mouths and said "Shush!" Ayana could smell the cigarettes on Kotone's, which was all she can do not to throw up on them both.

Nearly a second later, the door to her house opened. Ayana could hear her Uncle's voice, "Damned kids, playing their jokes." Ayana waited until the door closed and then she studied the two people in front of her, trying to figure out what to say. "I don't know why you both are here right now, but let's go somewhere else. Rooftops would be better, not a whole lot of people up there." And with that, Ayana removed her hands from covering their mouths, and ran up the side of her house, before jumping to the next house over, focusing chakra to her hands so that she sticks to the side of that house. She then climbed the rest of the way and got up onto the rooftops of the house adjacent to her home. There she waited for her companions.

 

[Ueno Kotone]

"OOF GOOT FROUKON SCHOL ON DA MONON." Kotone fumed as she felt he cheek rearranged by the fox. The girl was just about to slap away the very unwanted hand when she caught a rapidly approaching object out of the corner of her eye. She had no time to react as something impacted into her and sent her careening into a nearby bush, knocking her cigarette onto the adjacent sidewalk. "WHAT THE HE-" A hand immediately clapped over the blonde's mouth, resulting in a wild struggle before a soft familiar voice shot into her ear.

After a few more seconds of frenzied arm motions, the situation immediate clicked in Kotone's mind, and she let out a muffed "Space case?" from behind the tight fingers. The familiar aura of the brown-haired girl slowly calmed the blonde, settling her into a moderately aggravated pout as she heard a man's voice yell from the opened house door. Kotone couldn't help but acknowledge just how grumpy Ayana's butler seemed, and filed away a note in her mind to give him a talking to on any future visits.

As the door closed and the hand was removed, Kotone immediately spun around only to watch Ayana suddenly take off to a nearby rooftop. The blonde girl sighed and rubbed her temple before giving Maru one more directing yank before releasing his kimono and setting off to scale to the building as well. Being much less versed in chakra manipulation, Kotone made due with the less graceful aid of a gutter-shimmy, followed by a running leap that cleared the gap in one motion.

"So assuming we're done with the spider monkey ambushes-" The girl shoved a hand into her pocket as she landed, quickly producing and lighting another smoke as she reoriented herself. Two left. Definitely understandable given the flying space case attack, and then she'd be done. "-and that we've found like, an appropriately dramatic location for this meeting-" Kotone breathed out a plume of smoke and glanced back to see if the fox had followed the pair. "First off: WHAT THE HELL? Second off, as I totally intended to ask after your immediate exit stage right: WHAT THE HELL?"

The girl shot a glance off the rooftop as she massaged her head again, trying to manage her temper that she felt wrong directing at Ayana for still undisclosed reasons. Turning back to Ayana, she shot a glance up and down the bespectacled girl. The girl still looked physically the same, but she seemed to carry herself different, giving Kotone pause to wonder just what had gone down during her solo meeting with the fox. Kotone took another hit off her cigarette, sighing out the result, and tried to refocus on the task at hand. "So, I don't know if our furry associate wants to FINALLY BE FREAKING USEFUL, or if I need to bring up your creepy haunted bumpkin town, but we, like, need to talk."

 

[Midori Futotta]

Maru giggled to himself when Kotone was starting to make funny angry noises from his cheek pulling. He used both hard now to pull on both of Kotone's cheeks figuring she would probably already react to him and bat his hands away. One moment, he was standing there bugging Kotone then the next he was hit by something so fast that even his own shadow looked confused when it saw Maru being tackled by an unseen force. At first, Maru thought he was bitch slapped so hard by Kotone that he was going down. But then when he landed behind a bush he felt a weight on him. "Who the-" Maru's mouth was covered then told to shush by a familiar voice. He calmed when realizing that it was just Ayana, but when the fox heard the door opening Maru's eyes extended out of his eye holes similar to how a cartoon character does when they are surprised or looking at something hard. His eyes bent a little to look at what appears to be some grumpy old man who complained then went back into the house.

When Ayana explained to them that rooftops were better places to speak, she took her hand off then went climbing on the side of the house and Kotone gave him one last yank before going off to join Ayana. Maru being much more lazier he just looked up for a moment, just simply jumped into the roof from where he was standing. Then as the trio were gathered Maru kicked off one of his getting, crouched down then proceeded to scratch under his chin with his foot and shook himself prior to standing up to his full height. Now that they were there, the blonde wasted no time in getting the ball going though she seemed a little more upset with Ayana. Probably still sour about him pinching her cheeks or him not telling Ayana about the whole murder house ordeal. Whatever her reasons, Ayana did seem to be coming out of her shell quite nicely. Still the same nerd but with a little more flair in which he gave himself the credit for but he guessed how she'd handle this news should be the real test.

Finally Kotone began on breaking the news about her cursed town in which Maru was more than happy to bring up. "Yes! Ner- Ayana! Ayana it appears I let slip my mind about me and bratty blonde's adventure to your old town in the countryside." Maru stated, deciding to ease her with some good news. "Don't worry it's still there. But like apparently we learned about the whole thing of why the Anbu may be following you and what may have caused the 'incident' at that house. Keep in mind going there was not my idea it was Kotone's but yeah– Kotone you could explain your findings with her!" he stated figuring Kotone would like to be the one who told her more about the whole ordeal. Passing it back onto her because one: it was her mission so she should be the one to tell and he should be the one fact checking in case she says anything that didn't make any sense. The second reason was that she was more liked plus Maru would try to play down the threat since, that's what he just does even if it's really bad news. Best to hear it from someone who won't sugarcoat anything who could possibly get away with being uncensored.

 

[Ayana]

Ayana understands the sudden outburst from Kotone, she did just tackle them and told them to follow her. But... Kotone didn't have to pull out another cigarette and started smoking right then and there. As the other girl puffed out some smoke, Ayana couldn't help but cough as the poisonous substance enters her respiratory system. How can people really just breathe that stuff in on a regular basis was a wonder to her.

Then the other girl how their furry accomplice, aka Maru, needs to be useful and- The truth will only hurt more. Ayana grabbed her head, it felt like a headache, but also... was it her imagination, or did she hear something. It was weird since she felt like it wasn't an outside source of noise, but rather something in her mind. She didn't quite catch the last part Kotone had said, but maybe Maru had something to say?

The fox had talked of how they visited her town outside the gates and how the ANBU are following her and- You are not ready for the truth. Another headache and that same voice that seemed to be resounding inside her head. The truth...

Her findings on dissociative amnesia had taught her that she is missing information from her brain. Something that her own mind may have very well have locked away. But why? What was this voice? Maybe she can play along for right now, and depending on what they tell her, and how she reacts, she will let them in on her own findings and then they can tackle the situation from there. She'll just hope that she remembers to tell them if... Whatever happens happens.

 

[Ueno Kotone]

Wind whipped through Kotone's hair as she listened to the fox's attempt at an intro to the circumstances. The girl nodded along as she furiously puffed smoke in an attempt to mellow her previous annoyance, only to choke slightly at Maru's offloading of accountability to her. She had most definitely been the one responsible for their adventure out into the countryside, but when phrased as something that was specifically her idea, the girl couldn't help but feel a twinge of embarrassment. She still wasn't entirely sure just what had driven her to do so much snooping into Ayana's life.

Kotone shot a conspicuous elbow into the fox's ribs, wedging the blow deep into him as she collected her thoughts. "Yeah, like, I guess that's a pretty good segue into the one and only Detective Kotone's findings." The blonde brushed a stray strand of hair of her from her face, trying to determine a good entry point into the information. "So like, I really don't know how much of this you know, you kept totally checking out when your past came up. But the town, the like town you were born in, is haunted by some crazy-ass shadow people that I think killed your parents, question mark? And we had to fight them off with the help a particularly zesty pan-fried plate of-"

The blonde girl trailed off as she finally took notice of another one of Ayana's trademark space-outs. After a few finger-snaps to blank eyes, Kotone flicked her cigarette off the roof and rushed over to the brown-haired girl. Shooting both arms out to Ayana, the blonde felt the slightest flush on her own cheeks as she wrapped around Ayana's shoulders to steady her. "Woah, woah, like easy Space Case, we really don't need any two story dives to the sidewalk." Kotone shot a concerned look at Maru as she pressed weight onto the girl in her arms, forcing the pair into a much less precarious sitting position on the roof.

Once she had forced Ayana safely onto the ground, the blonde girl shot a hand back into her coat pocket to produce yet another cigarette. At this rate she was going to be out before this encounter was even over. Surely that'd be fair enough justification to find more? Not her fault they kept getting wasted. Flicking at the lighter to minimal results, she used her other hand to gently shake at the brown-haired girl's shoulder. "So uh, you like good now? Honestly it might be better if I finally found out just what the hell was going on in Planet Ayana before we sift through the backstory."

 

[Midori Futotta]

Maru pushed responsibility on Kotone to tell Ayana, he gestured his head towards Ayana to urge the blonde to tell her. Strangely enough she almost seemed to be shocked when he told her that the whole adventure was her idea. Like, it was the truth so why the hell did it seem like Maru was supposed to keep Kotone being the mastermind behind the mission a secret? Nothless, Kotone responded to his statement with an elbow to the ribs which made him accidentally transform his mouth into the maw of a fox before changing back to his normal mouth again. He held the spot where she hit him then began to tear up a bit. 'That hurted my ribs and my feelings.' Maru thought as he began to whimper a bit though in that same instant she saw that Ayana was starting to act a little funny. One moment she was fine then all of the sudden she was grabbing her head totally beginning to freak out. Maru just stood there to see how this played out, forgetting for a moment that they were on the roof and by the way Ayana was acting it would be easy to fall.

Nonetheless Kotone tried to snap Ayana out of the episode that she was having, even gave her something in which looked like a hug then after seeing the flush on the blonde's cheeks. Maru grinned from ear to ear. "HO-HO! I THINK THERE'S A SHIP READY TO SAIL OVER HERE." Maru's eyes burned with passion! He was witnessing first hand a Yuri in the making, he knew his inner demon was watching with interest at this drama unfolding before them. Maru took off his mask, which conveniently had another mask underneath the mask that he wore and used his first mask as a camera to take a snapshot of the moment when she looked back at him with concern. Putting his mask back over his second mask while he figured out what on earth he was going to do with a snapshot which would probably be to spread it after this. Kotone was supposed to be famous so he would bet this would be good enough for the paparazzi to give him a few hours on the stuff. He might even auction it.

Once Kotone pulled out another cigarette, he rubbed his hands greedily. His fox ears curled into the shape of devil horns at the blackmail he could possibly do… or the hours he'd get from exposing the snapshot. If that one didn't stick, Maru pressed his mask to take another snapshot of Kotone smoking a cigarette over Ayana. This gotta get him something for sure. Done with his photography right now, he decided to wait on making what he got public. Just to at least see if Ayana was doing alright. "Yeah, you good Ayana? Gotta assume that's a psychic attack or something. Happens to me when my evil spirit wants me to talk or if the succubus that lives in the other side of my head is mad at me for… something?" he shrugged. Maru literally was a walking poltergeist so he knew a psychic attack when he saw it, comes with dealing with the otherworldly. "You'll experience a lot more of that if you try to hide from your past. Back at your village people are being killed or turned into these shadow things. They need a holy warrior and right now you're the only one. Time to man up and do your destiny so I don't have to cause I'm not no holy warrior." Maru stated, pushing the responsibility of protecting the town on to Ayana since it's her legacy, with her father being the town hero and all.

 

[Ayana]

Ayana felt an even crazier headache ensue after what Kotone had just said. But this time, she heard her, and knew it too. "I know... Demons! They killed my parents! They-" And just like that, Ayana had another splitting headache. She felt tears roll down her face, but she can't remember why. Oh no, it happened again, she thought to herself. They definitely know something about her past that she doesn't have the memory to access. She felt Kotone rush to her and give her a hug. The girl seemed warm. Comforting.

Then Maru started to talk about physic attacks. How he is assuming that due to his other inhabitants inside his brain want something. That voice earlier... Was it something like what Maru said? But he had continued on, how these things won't stop if she keeps hiding from the past. How people are being turned to shadows and need a holy warrior.

"Shadows are demons. They are a hive mind. Take out the Queen and the workers will soon follow. Ahhh!" These headaches were quickly turning into migraines. Ayana knew she said something, but apparently with whatever Maru had said, along with what she said, it was enough to bring on a migraine.

Now she can't just act it off any longer, the fact of knowing that she has memory issues won't help her or her friend or Creep a bit on whatever the hell they are trying to figure out. "It happened again, didn't it? A memory episode. Either of you probably said something, key words or phrases, that somewhere deep in my brain something didn't like, wanted to keep erased. Doctors call it dissociative amnesia. Loss of certain important memories that wouldn't easily be forgotten. I did my own digging. Seems like I may have had something traumatic happen to me, considering the definition of the phrase." Ayana walked a little bit away from Maru and Kotone, she looked down at the people walking about, not knowing there are three people on top of a house roof. She turned back to them, "Do me a favor. If you find anything. Don't tell me until you think you have enough information. I want to wait until there is so much information, that it hopefully turns to a possibility of snapping me out of this dissociative amnesia that I have. I'll do what I can of storing info if my brain decides to have another memory episode."

Now if only she can figure out what to do with this voice in her head.

 

[Ueno Kotone]

The lighter finally caught as Ayana seemed to calm for a moment, the licking flame casting a warm glow between the two. Fresh hot smoke rolled out of the blonde's mouth as the other collected her thoughts. The furious Foxarazzi snapshots had gone unnoticed in the blonde's fretting over the brown-haired girl, but as his follow-up broke the silence she couldn't help but feel annoyance at the prodding. Kotone was of course completely fine with her own rough handling of the situation, but some protective instinct flared back up at Maru's words. "Freaking can it fox, I don't think she needs to hear about your personal problems ri-"

Suddenly Ayana spoke again. Something about demons, a hivemind, a queen, and workers? Kotone paused, her mouth hanging open as she tried to process the statement. She was getting used to Maru's occasional incoherence, and Ayana had been quite a handful in the short time the trio had been together, but this came completely out of left field. "Uh, do we like have a problem Houst-" Kotone was immediately cut off again as the other girl seemed to snap back to herself, leaving the blonde to quietly listen to a surprising amount of talking from the normally quiet girl.

The words hung in the air as the blonde girl threw another look up and down Ayana, who, in turn, rose and paced away. "Huh, yeah you're like a total space case, but when you put it like that, it's totally... Heavy." Kotone pushed herself up as she ashed her cigarette onto the roof and then approached the brown-haired girl from behind. She stared at the delicate figure, eventually following her gaze to the strolling pedestrians below. Then came Ayana's command. Kotone was struck by the words, feeling her cheeks flash red as she finally felt shame at diving into Ayana's life out of nowhere.

The girl didn't seem to be admonishing her for the investigation, but the blonde couldn't help but feel awkward for just springing the little bit of information they had gathered so suddenly. Kotone sighed and approached closer, resting a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder. "Hey uh, point taken. You totally don't have to deal with this right now since we don't know everything. We can totes workshop it." The blonde threw a look over her shoulder, finally acknowledging whatever else Maru had been up in the meanwhile. "RIGHT FOX?" Kotone let out another cloud of smoke, trying to catch it on the wind to blow into the fox's face.

Turning back to Ayana, the blonde girl shifted her hand up, giving a few pats on her head as she took a step to be side-by-side with her. The city hummed beneath her as the sun began to dip below the horizon, causing Kotone to pull her coat tighter as the night air set in. "You guys wanna like, get some food or something? I'll totally buy for making you cry space case, my bad."

 

[Midori Futotta]

Maru gave Kotone a glare for interrupting him as he was basically telling Ayana her destiny. Though Ayana seemingly had already known something about those shadows by telling them about some kind of Queen or at least something that acted like a Queen to the hive mind of those things. If the thing that was creating shadow's was indeed female however, Maru's usefulness definitely went downwards since one of his commandments was that he doesn't directly harm female's no matter what. He could however be mean, make other people attack them for him, trap, bind, or maybe accidentally hit them if the jutsu he would cast would be a bit unstable but he should NEVER use an offensive jutsu against a woman! Even if that means losing or possibly dying from it. Either way, this gave them more information even if it was simple in nature they did get something from the psychic attack. Though.. he couldn't help but wonder if this demon controlling the shadows could be tamed because turning people into demons would be pretty useful. Perhaps it could work on the flock of tengu he keeps caged up?

Ayana explained that her doctors explained that she had something called dissociative amnesia which sounded a lot more boring than a psychic attack. Maru watched as Ayana moved away from them to look down at the people below who were unaware of their presence. Kotone approached her from behind to give him more Yuri scenes for him to give to the press. Maru wondered if he should get more snapshots to submit to the press but he decided against it since he doesn't have any substantial warrant to photograph since nothing physical was going on. Instead, Ayana told them that if they found out anything, do not tell her without enough information. Maru grinned from ear to ear again, the smile on his face spreading slowly like a virus when Kotone agreed to her terms. "He-He-He! Well then…" he said with the most smug look on his face since both her and Ayana simply just confirmed that he was right to not tell.

When Kotone simply offered up food to make up for what she did, he wasted no time criticizing the child for even bringing him over here. Maru was like a shark when there was blood in the water, when he was proven right he'd rub it into her face. "Pft! She gets an apology?! Whose idea it was to bring me here to tell her in the first place and made it seem like I was wrong! It's a good thing I forgot and avoided that whole circus you call helping her! How does it feel knowing that what I did was right you stupid blonde! Idiot! Numbskull! Nincompoop! Nitwit! Dumbass!" Maru laughed rattling off more insults for the child for having wasted his time even coming here. All could have been avoided if they would have just turned a blind eye to Ayana's odd behavior, this could've been avoided if they just continued to work in secret instead of telling her something unimportant. It was a wonderful thing, to know that he was in the right here and Kotone was in the hotseat. Maru would've shouted it to the people below but he had something better in mind than a mere snack. "So say it. Say I'm right and you are an dumb blonde. Then I won't consider my revenge by submitting some yuri snapshots plus your smoking habit to the press. Oh how I weep for your poor mother." he chuckled then waited.

 

[Ayana]

Ayana was glad that Kotone is willing to hold information from her on this kind of thing. Ironic, yes, that trust is built on never keeping things, secrets from friends, especially if it involves their lives. But this will be the only exception, until they find out how to permanently keep her memories. Now, if only she can solve the other girl's smoking habits. That is, Ayana is hoping that Kotone isn't starting to have smoking be a habit.

The other girl invited her to get some food with her and even said that she'll pay for making her cry. Was that why Ayana was crying? She doesn't really know, curse this diagnosis.

But as she was about to say something, she heard a very loud Creep. She didn't know the whole story behind why Maru was yelling at Kotone, but it probably had something to do with whatever they had told her before her episode came. The girl gritted her teeth hearing the man spew insults at Kotone. It didn't help when Maru decided to blackmail Kotone.

All tolerance Ayana had for Creep was gone, as she also remembered their last meeting. "Shut it!" Ayana yelled. A faint glow started to come from her. "You will not demean my friend. Yeah, from how you say it, she may have acted recklessly, but if she didn't come and find me and told me whatever it was that triggered my memory episode, then I would still be at square one of why it feels like I'm missing something important. That's the worst part. I feel a heaviness in my heart, but I don't know why." She started to glow a little bit brighter. "And I also thought I told you to never speak to me ever again! Did that ever come across your mind when you were talking to Kotone? And I also swear! If you go through with your threats, I will go to the 'monkies', and make up a lie so that they will be breathing down your neck. They will surely believe a little girl than someone that blew up a village."

She turned to Kotone, still a little bit heated, "And you! Stop smoking! It's bad for you and it makes you smell bad."

She walked over and sat down at the edge of the roof. "You both talk it over, hug it out, or just plainly say sorry to each other. Just stop bickering at each other. And I don't care who started it, just figure it out." It took all Ayana had to say all of that. She did have to give Maru one thing. He taught her how to stand up for herself. With that, she can learn by herself to stand up for other people, and... Sometimes lose it when people are being mean or just endless bickering and insulting.

 

[Ueno Kotone]

The fox's words came in angry waves, rolling through Kotone's veins like hot fire. Removing her hand from Ayana, the blonde girl slowly spun around and stomped toward Maru, the smoke pouring out of her mouth seeming to serve as a stand-in for the quickly building rage. Her hand shot forward to the fox's collar only to be stopped midway as the threat came. "I... What?" Kotone was dumbstruck, the statement throwing her off a moment as she processed the information. She hadn't been aware of the not-so-secret photoshoot, but her stomach twisted, quickly realizing that such a thing wouldn't be out of character for the fox.

"I. FREAKING. SWEAR. TO. G-" The blonde's oath was suddenly cut short as Ayana's voice cut through the air. There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a quiet twelve year old girl. The words poured out, leaving Kotone to turn and watch slack-jawed at the verbal explosion. The girl desperately wanted to pile onto the tongue-lashing as well, but it was so thorough that she was left with trying to find something valuable to add.

The follow-up threat hung in the air, leaving Kotone to shoot a glance to the horizon as the sun finally dipped out of sight. She took another puff, letting the red-cherry tip cast a warm glow across her face. "Woah, like way to go Space C-" The blonde was interrupted by her own mini-scolding. The rage redoubled as the commands came, leaving Kotone to tightly shut her eyes and count down from ten. Ayana might have been right in her assessments, but accuracy had no bearing on whether Kotone was going to happily let herself be on the receiving end of that.

Seconds ticked by as the blonde girl tried to calm herself, circling a finger across forehead as she tried to find gentle words. "So like, I'm sorry you're a traumatized orphan psycho, and still totally sorry I dropped in on your with the fox. But let's get one thing straight. NEITHER OF YOU FREAKING TALKS TO ME LIKE THAT." The blonde spun back around to Maru, finally connecting her hand with his kimono in one jittery yank. "I am totally not apologizing for shit, but if you get rid of whatever you have on me, how about you don't become a rug and we put it behind us? ARE WE ALL FREAKING HAPPY WITH THAT?"

Before giving the fox a change to respond, Kotone released him and refocused her attention on Ayana. Making a conscioius point not to put out her cigarette, she reapproached. "So what the hell do you want to eat Space Case?"

 

[Midori Futotta]

Maru had the high ground here and the look on Kotone's face told him that he actually had something on her. Score! He stood there with a smug smile on his face with the child about to make a threat but Ayana told them both to shut up. Maru's eyes widened at that, he thought she would still be meek and soft spoken but the fox guessed that he created a monster. That damn glow came over her again, which instinctively made him move back as she began to scold him for what he said to Kotone. Maru remained silent during the child's rant, saying that Kotone had actually helped her because he guessed that it was helping her know what was missing from her life. Ayana also brought up how she told him to not speak to her ever again, honestly he didn't really take that statement seriously anyway since… lots of females tell him that and he does it anyway.

Ayana gave him a threat of her own, telling that she would make up a lie that would get the ape's breathing down his neck. Now this is what got to him since she was using her privilege of being an innocent human girl against him. Of course the monkey's would believe the little girl over the guy who blew up a village for an act, over the guy who had led a group of demons who live outside of these walls, over the known peeping tom. It was good, almost too good but wicked thoughts came across his mind. He waited to see what Kotone would do but all she did was act as her typical self. Refusing to do what Ayana said which was to apologise to him so they can just make up. While she decided to be a strong willed self Maru decided to do half of what Ayana said.

"Well I will say that I'm sorry then for calling you an idiot. It was wrong for me to make fun of you." he apologized, drooping his ears to look sad so he could hide his true intentions. "I got carried away and got upset. I won't leak the snapshots. It's like my youkai always tell me–" he paused before looking at Kotone with eyes as wide as dishes flashing a bright green light. Speaking in a nonessential language that couldn't even be translated by humans which went something like this;

"Y' ymg' ephaimgvulgtlagln llll ymg' ahogog ah'lloigshogg"​

Maru's eyes stopped glowing and he went back to normal. Giving Kotone a pat on the head, then walked off to talk to Ayana to see what she wanted to eat. "So Ayana, I've been really feeling like deep fried tofu." Maru tried to start a conversation to distract Ayana from Kotone, even spreading his nine tails out to block her view of Kotone. When Maru went to distract Ayana with a little small talk, that's when Kotone saw it. A gigantic muscular hand gripping the edge of the building, the rotting hand covered in stitches and had tubes in its arms which looked oddly enough like… film? When the hand appeared Kotone's world turned black and white. Her vision looked as though she was looking at one of those old black and white horror movies. She could even eat a camera rolling on the distance while old monster movie music played from speakers that could not be seen.

As Kotone was witnessing the horror pulling itself up to show itself, it was revealed that the stitched abomination were parents…. HER PARENTS JOZU AND BUNKO! If lovecraft, Junji ito, and Doctor Frankenstein collaborated to make what Kotone's parents looked like, this was the only way to describe the creature that was wearing her kin's likeness. The monster as it came up to its full height stood roughly around seven feet. It was a hulking abomination with four arms, two of them looking more feminine than the muscular looking ones which in one hand held a microphone while the other had a record player stitched where it's hand was supposed to be. In the center of it's chest was a small TV screen which was playing one of Kotone's shows however it seemingly glitches to show horrific images of Maru's inner demon smirking at Kotone. The thing also had a spotlight in its stomach which began to shine a flickering light onto the child, camera lights flashing behind it from the many cameras that made up it's spine. One leg of the creature was a stand where a microphone would be while the other leg was a long radio that was playing static. But despite the general grotesqueness of the creature, the worst part was probably how her distorted parents' heads looked that was stitched onto the creature.

Her father's head had one of those huge cameras coming out of his mouth, one eye was replaced with a speaker which looped him screaming for help while one eye was looking at her in an unexplainable fear from his brains being cut into by buzz saws that seemed to be a substitute instead of film. Blood leaking down his face from his head. As for Kotone's mother's head, both eyes were replaced with minicamras which flashed then made pictures of Kotone's reactions slide out from both nostrals. Her mouth permanently help open since there was a microphone parudinfi from its lips and from the speaker in her mothers head, Kotone could hear her voice come to her…. and sung….

"Hush little baby please say the words. You won't apologise that's what I heard. And if my baby won't apologise. I guess I'll scratch out her cute little eye's…" it sung in Kotone's mother's voice, demanding that she apologize. Meanwhile Maru continued to shoot the breeze, acting a lot more nicer to Ayana than he would normally act. "Look. I know, you care about other people but can you just put that aside to tell me how you're doing. Like what do you do for fun?" Maru suddenly was starting to ask things about Ayana to make himself seem like he was interested in her, making sure to block her vision of Kotone. He didn't have to worry about Ayana seeing the monster he summoned since it wasn't real, it was just some illusion of genjutsu that may harm her if he gave it the word but all she had to do was say sorry then the curse would go away. Sure he didn't have to do that but Kotone wouldn't apologise otherwise.

[Ooc: Maru uses Torment of the Physical Plain against Kotone! The monster is can only be seen by Kotone and cannot be seen/harm by anyone except her and Maru]

 

[Ayana]

Ayana suspected Kotone to act the way she did of continuing her own defiance and telling her to not talk to her like that. A little bit of guilt built up in Ayana, but she had to stand strong. She cares for her friend, but sometimes the worst but also best thing to do, is to stand up to ones own friends, for they could wake up or realize that they have been doing something wrong.

To her own surprise, the two seem to come to some sort of agreement, at least to say Kotone did her own little threatening and Maru responded with an apology along with... What in tarnation did he just say?

Her glow slowly stopped, as she turned and gave the fox a weird look. Was what he said even a language a human would understand?

They both then turned their attention to her, asking her what she would want to eat at. Ayana did all she can to ignore Maru, to make a point of what she said to him back at the Forest. She instead, responded to Kotone, "Whatever you think is good, I'll try."

Out of the corner of her eyes, she seen the fox enter her view, and his tails seem to be more out for some reason. He kept up trying to talk to her, and she kept up ignoring him. As long as he doesn't do anything too drastic, she won't glow or explode with light. But that only happens when she loses her cool.

 

[Ueno Kotone]

Kotone's attention was brought back to the fox, her lips immediately pursing to deliver a sharp reply only to be caught off guard by the apology. The words came as something of a shock to the girl, though quickly redoubling into doubt as she imagined what kind of trickery Maru might be up to. "Well... That's still totally not cool but if yo-" The blonde girl was immediately cut off by the strange utterance that seemed to seep its way into her soul. A vague sense of dread hung over Kotone as she tried to shake away the emblazoned image of the fox's eyes, feeling another wave of annoyance flare up as he turned away from her.

"So like are you going to explain the creepy-ass eldritch spell-" The blonde girl was once more broken mid sentence as the sound of some fleshy form approached from behind. Turning around, the blonde girl was left in abject horror as a hand propelled a nightmarish figure into her view, leaving her stock still as the hanging cigarette fell from her lips. Her mind fought to analyze the figure as her eyes seemed forced onto the grotesque being, no matter how much she wanted to look away.

The situation touched something inside the child. The particulars of the genjutsu dredging up some buried psychic trauma that had always been wiggling around in her mind. Sure she had always enjoyed the glitz and attention of her status, but Kotone couldn't help but feel some lasting damage at being thrust into the spotlight and used as a thing of prestige in the public eye. And then she saw the faces.

"M-mom? D-daddy?!" The cigarette sizzled out between her feet as she finally understood the true meaning of the mass of horror, leaving her to gave dumbly at her parents as the wind whipped up her hair. The scene was broken with the crooning of Bunko's voice, Kotone's feet moving before she even registered the words. The blonde girl spun and hurtled herself foward, elbowing past Maru to roughly grab Ayana's hand. "FREAKING MOVE, SPACE CASE. NOW." Kotone chanced another look back, seeking to catch the fox's eyes only to be met by the faces of her parents as the monstrosity approached.

A shudder surged down the girl's spine as the words of her mother's song finally tumbled through her brain. Apologize? The chill was immediately replaced by pure anger as her mind quickly worked out the likely source of this nightmare. "I SWEAR TO GOD FOX, IF YOU MADE THAT THING, MAKE IT STOP." Kotone shook her had, forcing herself to break the transfixed gaze on her parents' faces and stare blazing blue daggers into Maru. The blonde tensed, anger and fear slowly entertwining into one as she prepared to leap across to another rooftop with Ayana in tow if the the creature lurched closer.

 

[Midori Futotta]

Maru had successfully drawn attention away from Kotone from what it seems. Ayana was just ignoring him while he continued to babble on to keep her distracted from what Kotone was going through, with her nightmare and all. He continued to play dumb, doing his best to seem like he was trying to make up for whatever she was mad about. ”Now listen, mistakes were made but what choice did I have? Destroying the village was the only way to free them from enemy control! I do that with that bird/dog people encampment not too far from my mountain for a bite to eat so with people who fear and hate you how could I be wrong.” Maru explained as he heard Kotone sat something about her parents in a quivering voice which almost got him to chuckle. This little brat had dragged him around as though he was some pet, fought a grown crazed woman, and saw literal shadow demons but she was completely mindfucked when seeing a zombie-showbiz-horror that so happened to be wearing her parents' heads. This was like a basic abomination using his genjutsu but he guessed that human children are more afraid of their own family turning into something weird than anything else. Maru went on to say something random to keep Ayana’s attention. ”Hey Ayana, gimme some cheese! You know that chihuahua been stalking me for the last month trying to teach me how to properly marry and court a horse. Do you know the muffin man?” was all he got a chance to say before Kotone rushed passed him like a frighten dear trying to get away from a predirior, with a elbow that almost betrayed her size,

Maru backed away looking confused as the nightmarish creature slowly followed in behind the child. He watched Kotone as she looked back in pure terror at the monster who in her mother's own voice repeated the song again… There was an advantage of the creature being unseen by anyone other than the person being affected by the genjutsu, he could easily pretend that the thing wasn’t there and make her seem like she was crazy. When she instantly blamed him for creating the monster he decided to do the simple thing and just play dumb so he could at the very least not get blasted by holy chakra. ”What are you talking about? There's nothing even here!’ he shouted, sounding outraged at the fact that he was getting blamed for the whole ordeal. Taking advantage of the fact that Kotone looked ready to jump, he decided to play the part of a worried adult talking to a madman. ”Now why don’t you take a deep breath and calm down. Come away from the edge so we can just talk, I don’t know what you think I did but there is nothing here.” he spoke with both of his hands up, desperately trying to keep the child calm.

The monster stepped forward then sang the same song again only louder this time… Meanwhile Maru kept on with the act, frowning as though he really was worried. ”Look I know how you feel, you’re tired. All these things with Ayana and me are taking its toll on your mind but I swear there's nothing here… just ask Ayana she’d know if there was something there.” he looked at Ayana then mouthed the words ’talk to her.’ Then after Ayana would try to talk to Kotone, the monster would slowly begin to fade away. Maru turned around then began to giggle to himself right quick, starting out as small giggles before he just erupted with laughter!!!!!!!

[OOC: Maru drops his genjutsu on Kotone, the monster is now gone]

 

[Ayana]

Ayana had kept ignoring Maru, though she thought she was hearing Kotone say some things as the fox kept babbling on. It was hard to tell what was all actually said, but what she did hear was when the other girl freaked out and rushed over to grab at her, yelling out her nickname and telling her to move.

Confused, Ayana was about to tell Kotone to calm down, that is, until the other girl started to blame Maru for whatever was happening. As if on cue, Maru started to act like he cared. That was another thing that had stuck with Ayana when Maru taught her to stand up for herself. How he had gotten into the whole blowing up a village trouble because he was acting. She doesn't know for sure what the fox has up his sleeve, but after he asked Ayana to validate that there was nothing up here, she studied him cautiously. There wasn't much to see here up on the roof. But by the way Kotone is acting, she is obviously living a horror. "I don't see anything at all." But as soon as she said that, Maru started to giggle and then burst out in laughter. Ayana bit the inside of her cheeks, she doesn't know what Maru had done to Kotone, and there wasn't really any proof to throw some holy chakra his way, she won't do something like that unless if she is absolutely mad, but it was obvious her thoughts on his acting from their earlier tutoring session that it was at play here, at least, trying to convince her that nothing was out of the ordinary. "Though the way he is acting now, with laughing means something probably did happen." She managed to say in a calm voice.

 

[Midori Futotta]

Maru laughing stopped upon hearing Ayana start to blame him for the whole thing. While the way he was acting was a dead giveaway, the fox couldn't help but to play innocent just to see if he could get away with what he's done. "Oh I see how it is, blame the only person who might be responsible for her hallucinations." Maru glared, putting a hand on his hip before gesturing to Kotone. "I try sharing some of my youkai traditional apology and I get blamed when some puny mind individual has hallucinations? Did you think that maybe her mind isn't used to hearing such words because she isn't connected to the supernatural? Or better yet that maybe the mission took a mental toll on her fragile mind? I don't know what happened so I can't tell you why but I didn't do anything intentionally and you can't prove otherwise." he stated, sounded offended by his 'false' accusation.

Maru would've continued to tapdance on the heads of these two but when he looked at his wrist, he could tell that it was almost time to get ready for that hour meeting with his evil spirits again. Deciding to cut this adventure short he decided to announce his departure. "Oof almost the hour meeting. Gotta go comfort my demons and get them ready to legally torture the souls of the living without killing. Yanno, official youkai business. Catch you two later." he stated, letting a sharp whistle slice through the air before a dense fog appeared in the far distance of the street. From the fog emerged two large red Oni who were carrying a splendid black and gold palanquin right until they were just a few buildings away so they weren't directly in front of Ayana's house. Once Maru's ride was here, he waved his hand deciding to give Ayana and Kotone a little parting gift before he went on to his thunder mountain Mt. Osore. "Oh yeah. Decided to count this meeting as a tutor so congrats, you both pass. You both can go apply for your Gennin exams and even get a foot into any branch you want. The lesson is… whatever you think you learned from this meeting. So yeah, talk to ya later!" he leapt from the roof, then left the duo with the lesson that they learned… What that lesson was even Maru didn't even know

[Ooc: Tutoring Finished]
[Ayana Passed]
[Kotone Passed]
[Left topic]
WC: 1500+
Post: 5/5

 

[Ayana]

It infuriated Ayana that Maru was right. Even though his terrible acting was enough to know that he was up to something, the girl couldn't blast him with holy chakra without any solid evidence. That being said, the way Kotone acted, with Ayana herself not being able to really see anything, gave her the idea that the fox had put Kotone under a Genjutsu.

He lied straight to her face, and she can't do anything about it, regardless of her empty threats of going to the 'monkeys', the ANBU. And just like that, he decided to leave, saying something about a meeting with demons and torturing. The girl went over to Kotone to make sure she was alright. The girl seemed shaken up, but more or less fine. She wondered what the other girl saw that was so terrifying. Would it be as bad as whatever it was that Ayana is going through right now?

The last thing Maru had said left Ayana thinking. She can apply for Genin exams. Even moreso, she could go for any of the three branches. There is so much to think about. But mainly what is going through her own mind is which branch would help her find the information she is looking for?

The ANBU have been following her for quite a while in the sense of ever since she felt like something was missing in her life. They could very well possibly know about her history, of what made her this way. Then there's the Medical Branch. They would surely know a lot more about Dissociative Amnesia and help her unlock more of her brain that has kept those secrets away from her. And the Main Branch. Well, she hasn't really heard much on them, but she might as well keep tabs on it just in case if the other two fall through.

(Wc:2666)
(Post: 5/5)
(Topic left)