New Beginnings [Open]

[Morishige]

Dressed in small night gown, Mieko walked around the campus aimlessly unsure of what to do with this free time. It was the weekend; and aside from instructors on site catching up on work, or those who resided on campus like Mieko herself, it was pretty empty. There were several students who were practicing in the training grounds while there were also those in the library studying for the next week. But Mieko could never stay for long; she seemed to grow confused with each activity and had to keep moving.

However, the confusion was within. She didn't know what to do with her time. She had spent so long taking orders or beatings that when neither were present in her life she couldn't cope. So she wandered without direction. Naturally there were some who came up to her and asked if she was lost, but would give the strangest look when she would reply with a blank stare and move on.

Eventually she found herself at her dorm. She shared the room with a few other girls who were not present. Mieko had been having trouble sleeping on the bed as it wasn't as firm as the raw earth, and it was apparent on her face. She may have had patches on her bruises and several sets of stitches, but the tired look in her eyes was ever present. She would lay awake for hours, tossing and turning on the bed before getting up once again and heading outside. She passed the practicing students and made her way to the edge of the woods.

This was familiar to her. It almost felt like home. This little training arena was a small source of comfort as she seemingly balance on the edge of the boundary. Part of her wished to go in and wake up from this dream. And the other half knew it wasn't a dream. This was to be her life now, in service to her saviors. Once she was found to be chakra sensitive then her fate was sealed as a soldier of this great nation. She could remember old stories of the hero ninjas and it gave her shred of hope that maybe this would be the best of both worlds.

Because right now? She was coming apart.

Mieko found a large tree and sat up against it, the dirt clinging to a gown that she shouldn't have been wearing out in the first place. She pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them before placing her head down to rest on them. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, retreating into her mind to relive those painful moments of her past. It wasn't pleasant, but it was better than this freedom she wasn't prepared for.

[MFT : 467]

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Having been accepted as a new teacher at the academy, due to a slight increase of her down-time between missions, she walked out holding a leather folder. The folder bore important documents that she had to read-over and sign in order to fully confirm her commitment to the academy. While she won't be the 'every-day-sensei' that most children going through the academy wished for, she was still around to share her knowledge on specific fighting techniques; especially ranged combat. Strapped to her back was a comedic-large rifle and upon her hip was a small knife bearing a red jewel upon under the ricasso of the blade. A black slit could be seen moving around, as if on it's own, as she walked by -- focusing it's attention on anything and everything that 'caught it's eye'.

She walked out of the academy building with a faux smile, saying pleasantries, making polite gestures, and having a sweet tone to her voice. The leaders of the academy would be her superiors while she was performing in an academic capacity. She wasn't good at numbers, history, or anything involving complex memorization. The only thing she was proficient at was shooting and killing; something that every shinobi will end up learning one-way-or-another either at the academy or during their trials as a shinobi of Kumogakure. After taking a final bow, the door of the academy was closed, leaving her outside at the training field of the academy. As she stood up, her demeanor returned to that of a demure person; showing very little emotion otherwise. With her cap in her hand, she placed it upon her head, stringing her pony-tail through the hole in the back of the cap.[lb2][/lb2]

Business jargon and business attitudes were exhausting to Nozomi.​

[lb2][/lb2]

She took a deep breath in, held it for a moment and released. The stress of dealing with all this just to teach the next generation to be efficient jobbers, killers, and medics was difficult. It wasn't anything she couldn't handle, but it was certainly an annoyance she could have went without. As she started to focus on her way home, she noticed a tree being occupied by a shadowy figure. Even with her keen sight, she had issues discerning what this globule of shadows was. Having no fear of what it might be, Nozomi walked towards the bunching of shadows, keeping a hand upon the pommel of her Starbringer Sword.

The closer she approached, the more detail she was able to discern from the shadowy figure. It was a girl dressed in a gown, bathed in dirt, seated in a familiar position. Memories of her time as a child-soldier started to flood into her mind for a moment. She closed her eyes firmly and started to shake her head, as if trying to shake off something painful. After the memory subsided long enough for her to remain functional, she approached the young girl, taking a knee in front of her; remaining about 6 paces away to let her have space.

"Something wrong? Shouldn't you be at home?
WC: 509
MFT
[Topic entered]

 

[Morishige]

Mieko's eyes slowly opened to see half of the woman in front of her with her field of vision. She slowly turned her head to perceive her completely and found herself somewhat surprised. She was pretty, yes, but the weapon on her back was unlike anything she had seen before. It was league ahead of the machinery of those captors who held her before. It was a few moments too long before she realized that she was being addressed directly, thus, forcing her to lift her head to look up at this kneeling stranger.

"This is my home now, I guess..." she grumbled, eyes shifting to look over to the dorms. They weren't so bad and the other girls seemed to leave her alone. Her social skills weren't developed enough to determine why though; perhaps out of pity or fear? No doubt that would change we she started taking classes and showed them her true face. As of now, she was just that quiet girl in the corner bed.

"But it doesn't feel that way. I can't hear the wind at night and it's too...warm." she continued after a pause. Maybe warm wasn't the right word, but whatever it was wasn't coming to her.

"Everything here is wrong. How do you live like this..." she groaned quietly, closing her eyes once again. Mieko focused on the wind passing through the trees. It seemed to calm her.

Without a detailed report, it was possible the Jounin was going to misinterpret what she was talking about. However, that wouldn't stop the wisdom of experience from shining through, whether it applied or not.

[Apologies on her inability to have basic conversation. Hopefully, that will change with this and future topics.]​

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Nozomi wasn't aware that there were dorms in the academy. She turned her head to look towards the academy for a brief moment before removing her hat and positioning herself to sit on her rear upon the ground. The hat laid with the rim upon the ground; the 'cat-eared' appendages sticking out of the hat wasn't exactly conducive to putting it down properly. She wrapped her hands loosely around her knees and leaned back, looking towards this shy, solemn-sounding girl sitting underneath the tree. "It beats living outside. A nice, warm, comfortable bed is the greatest. You shouldn't worry too much about the wind, it usually doesn't have much nice to say," she said with a bit of a chuckle. From one that can see colors in the wind and representations of the wind's movements materializing into the shape of sylphs, she was quite intimate with the wind. It was an important part of how she carried out her job and misjudging what the wind had to say could be the difference between her life or her target's life.

"Could be worse, though. You could be living in an orphanage right now," she said from experience. Her time at the orphanage, before she started to attend the academy, was bittersweet. She had fond memories of making life-long friends and she had horrifying memories of the time she felt desolate. Prying eyes and rumors going around about her being a murderer at the age of 13 had circulated across the orphanage that she was forced to live in. While those rumors were true, they weren't something she wanted people to identify her as. She wanted to be seen like a person and not a tool of war.

"At least this place gives you a choice," she said rocking side to side, using her butt as a pivot. Returning to Kumogakure was a blessing. Having spent 7 years as a child-slave and child-soldier had really messed her up for a while; that was until she found that the people here were loving and caring. It had only been 6 years since then, but she ended up adjusting well-enough. A cool breeze blew passed, causing a slight shiver to come across her. She started to unbutton the parka that she was wearing and eventually removed it from herself and reached over towards Morishige and attempted to bundle her up into the parka. Certainly, she was cold, but the girl before her was wearing ONLY a gown, which was much less than what she was wearing.

Underneath the parka, she had a sleeveless, red-and-black turtleneck sweater. The sweater had a zipper from the chest all the way up to the throat with archer armor covering her left breast. She made sure to pull out all of her weapons, placing them on the ground beside her before attempting to place the parka around Morishige. Upon the ground were:

• Her signature rifle called "Thunderclap"
• A large revolver
• 2 black throwing knives
• The Star Bringer Sword

These weapons were on her at all times. Her choice to bring her monstrous weapon 'The Gatekeeper' depended on the situation. She didn't feel like lugging that monster around just to go to the academy; besides, people would look at her funny for carrying an overcompensating weapon with her just for a job interview. "This should keep you warm," she said as she hid her shivering from the down-trodden child. Several scars could be seen poking out of the side of her sleeveless sweater from her front and back; all looking like lashing scars.

"Did you eat anything yet?"

 

[Morishige]

In the future, Mieko might think back on this moment with a smile, thinking how ridiculous it might have been to crave horrible sleeping conditions. But currently, she had grown so accustomed to sleeping cold that the blankets seemed like a coffin it her. But this nice ladies words did bring a smile to her face at least. Talking about the wind as if it were a person made the childlike imagination of hers tick over. That hadn't happened in a good long while. But the imaginary figures of wind quickly took a dark turn when one started exerted force over the other and the weaker was consumed. The smile quickly faded.

Her body began to ache in all the familiar places of her own beatings. She could vividly view it whenever she closed her eyes. The beatings from the older kids and the adults and the wounds she inflicted upon others to avoid those very same wounds herself. It was a vicious cycle that she tried to avoid by being as obedient as possible but even then there were those who that infuriating. So much conflict tore down her sense of order than this new place which ran on order seemed... wrong.

However, Nozomi's words were comforting in ways that she probably didn't realize. Their pasts were pretty similar, and there was no way that they could have guessed they were looking at different eras of each others lives. Mieko was looking towards a future of her own making, while the Jounin comforted herself of years past. In the coming weeks, Mieko would remember these words and reflect on them and their honest truth.

But then she began to disarm, placing several of her arms on the ground in beside her for Mieko to stare at in awe and curiosity; she even craned her neck to try and get a better look at some of them before suddenly flinching when her superior made motions to place to parka around her. It was instinct at this point to prepare for pain upon anyone at all coming towards her. Mieko's eyes squeezed tightly and her body seized up before slowly releasing, one eye peeking out at Nozomi. Familiar looking scars made her question the woman who was being so kind to her. Just who was she?

With the parka so generously placed around her, Mieko shook her head in response to her question. But her appetite hadn't adjusted yet to readily available food so it wasn't that big a deal to her. She was far more curious as to the scars. A skinny finger extended outward accompanied by her forearm to point and the revealed scar tissue. "Did those happen to you while you were here?" she asked, obviously fear in her eyes of her future within the walls of this village.

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Nozomi had caught the amazed gazes upon her weapons while she reached over to put the parka around the girl. She didn't show any kind of reaction to her interest in the arms. After wrapping the parka around the girl, now looking quite warm, she reached over to her weapons and started to equip them once more. She placed her pair of magical throwing knives into two notches upon her stomach, the revolver back into it's holster, the massive rifle back upon her back, but keeps the Starbringer Sword out in front of her. There was no reason for her to put that up just yet. An inquiry was made about the scars protruding out of her shirt on either side of her body. She looked down, running a gloved finger over the scars for a moment, trying to suppress the awful memories from when she was a slave to that band of savages.

"No. I didn't get those here in the village. This village was the only reason they started to heal over," she said as she turned her gaze back towards Morishige for a brief moment. A steady hand reached over to grab her hat and placed it upon Morishige's head with a little smile. The look kinda reminded her of herself when she was younger, having obtained her first set of these uniforms. "Doesn't matter, they aren't around to hurt anyone any more," she said as she pat Morishige upon the top of the head. The talk of vengeance wasn't something she should get into, unless directly asked, by this child. She didn't have any knowledge on what caused her to be like this, so giving her the wrong idea might be detrimental to the village.

She had suffered a lot of pain and mental anguish by the hands of those slave-owners; many of her injuries would affect her for the rest of her life -- both physically and emotionally. The fact that she can never bear children and her constant bouts of Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder was enough to make any normal person crumble and crack. "Nozomi," she simply said, returning to her seat, planting her butt upon the grass. "My name is Nozomi. What's your name?" she asked. While Nozomi wasn't the name she was born with, everyone came to know her as Nozomi, which was fine to her.

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

[Topic left, temporarily, due to inactivity -- Hit me up once you return and we'll pick up where we left off]