Finding Nemo

Raika follows Azrael out to the fish market where they come upon several stands of dead or dying fish, as well as several live ones in tanks from some of the more wealthy sellers, all lined along one particular area of the general goods market. The fish had to be separated away from the other grocers for fear of the stink if any of the fish started to go bad before they could sell, as well as the stink of fish in general.

The genin looks about at several of the dead ones, although the sight of an octopus definitely catches her attention, and she gives it a careful look, glaring into one of its own eyes through the glass of the tank. The octopus seems to grow agitated at the sight of her, and Raika watches as its tentacles squirm and attempt to get away, but they can't quite seem to find enough purchase on the glass to get out, which only improves the Ryuutei clan member's mood.

"Yes, this one will do nicely."

She taps on the glass, which only excites the octopus further, ensuring that it knows that Raika has seen it and has chosen her prey. The price on it is a bit higher than normal, seeing as octopus was a fairly hard to catch delicacy, especially a living octopus. Still, the way its tentacles moved fascinated her, and she just had to find out what it tasted like. Raika stands up and gives this particular mustachioed shopkeeper her best bored look, getting ready to haggle him down to something cheaper before she remembers that Azrael is there, too, and she turns to look at him.

"What are you getting?"

Guiding Raika to the fish market, Azrael would move straight to where he had been acquiring his fish before, not paying attention to the fact that Raika had stopped following him when she saw the octopus. He didn't understand why there were so many types of these fish, but he knew one thing, they tasted good. He headed straight for a small stall towards the end of the market, though not far from where Raika would stop for the octopus. There were those that obviously avoided him, but there was an old man at one stall that never seemed bothered by him, which Azrael believed to be because the man was blind. Despite the man's blindness however, the chime of Azrael's earring would alert the man to his approach and the man would smile, "Well if it isn't my favorite customers, what can I get you today?" This was one of the reasons Azrael liked the man, whether it was due to the man's blindness that he thought there were more than one person standing before him or he knew the truth about Azrael and his many spirits that are within, it didn't matter to him all that matter was that the man did not address him as an individual but as more than one.

Azrael watched the fish swimming in a small tank, they were small fish compared to some of the others in the market, but that was why Azrael liked them, they went down easy. "We will take ten," Azrael would answer the man in his whisper, as he watched the blind man go and fish out ten of the goldfish sized fish and put them in a small bag and held them out for Azrael to take. Taking the bag and placing some Ryo in the man's hand, Azrael would instantly take one of the fish out, lift his mask slightly so that the bottom part of his chin would be exposed. Lifting it to his mouth and taking the fish down in one bite, before doing the same for a second one. As he was about to eat the second fish, Azrael would hear Raika's question as to what he was getting. Quickly eating the fish and returning his mask to its proper alignment on his face he would turn to her, "This One is getting Fish," he would reply holding up the small bag of water with the now eight fish remaining inside. "They are delicious," he would add as he moved in closer to where she was. Looking from her to the octopus to the vender of the stall, it was one of the ones that didn't like Azrael and he would take a step back as the young Yurei approached them. Azrael would look back to Raika, "You want this?" He asked pointing to the Octopus, wondering how on earth the woman was going to eat such a creature, before looking back to the vender and without a word place a single ryo on the counter. The man would go to say something and Azrael simply stared at him for a moment before the man started to get the octopus for Raika, without saying that what Azrael gave him wasn't enough for the creature. Azrael would look back to Raika, and had it not been for his mask, she might have seen a smile on his face as he held up the bag of small fish, "would you like one too?"

Raika watches without emotion as Azrael buys ten small fish for himself from a vendor he clearly knows on some level; most vendors would call nearly any customer their "favorite" if it meant that it would land them a sale, but the vendor also referred to him in plurality, like he believed Azrael was many people. That might have something to do with it. Still, she lets him eat the fish in peace. She did have to wonder mentally how his body was processing the fish raw like that, bones and organs and all. Her body could handle that kind of thing; as hungry as she constantly was, her metabolism worked so quickly that it burned off the food before anything like that could become an issue.

Regardless, she considers reaching for some of her own ryo to pay the vendor for his live octopus when Azrael simply slides a single ryo over to him, and then with a glare, seems to strong-arm him into giving it up for an extremely cheap price. Raika barely even considers that paying him so little for such a rare delicacy would likely be ruinous for him, but it's the kind of thought that's deep back in her mind, barely even counting as a thought. She was instead focusing on the live octopus, licking her chops a bit as the vendor prepares to kill the octopus, and she speaks up to the vendor firmly.

"Alive, if you please."

She turns to look at Azrael with her typical half-lidded stare when he offers her one of his eight remaining fish, and she shakes her head a bit. Fish of that size would barely feed her for a day, although they might be a good snack. Instead, she accepts the octopus strung up in a bag, ensuring that it would have an extremely hard time of escaping, though not an impossibility.

"No. I'm sure they are delicious, as you say, but most fish are too dumb for fear."

As she speaks, she unties the octopus, then flops it to the ground, watching it dazed for a moment before it seems to regain its senses. Just like she'd sometimes seen them do on the beach, the octopus begins to flee using its tentacles. It put in a lot of effort for only a little movement, as it was clearly accustomed to movement in water, and it left a trail of ink on the ground as she follows it, occasionally batting at one of its trailing tentacles to instill even more fear into the animal. It might seem cruel, and it probably was, but Raika was no stranger to cruelty. And nature was often cruel. The genin only lets the octopus go a few more meters before it seems to run out of steam, and it won't go any faster even after she bats its tentacles a little more. Finally, she extends her claws on her right hand and slams her nails into its head before she lifts it up off the ground. The tentacles' suction cups are forced to pop from their hold on the ground, and Raika uses the grip on its head to keep it in place while she eats some of the squirming, still living tentacles.

"Fear adds flavor, you see."

Azrael would simply nod to Raika turning down his offer of a fish, if she didn't want the fish, it was fine with him as it gave him more to eat himself. Though he would watch with curiosity as she released the octopus onto the ground, his head tilted to the side as he observed her chase the fleeing octopus. He had never seen someone chase their food like she was, when she captured it and began eating it, she spoke about fear adding flavor. This was a concept that Azrael had never considered, mostly because he didn't hunt for food, but it made him wonder it the same were true for the people he scared, if they too tasted better than those that were not scared. Not that he has eaten a person and he probably never would, but he has had blood, and he wondered if the fear affected the blood's taste as well.

Azrael would notice the people within the market staring at the pair of them while Raika was eating her octopus, the feeling of their eyes upon them annoying the male to the point where his chakra ghost began appearing in a circle around the two of them, blocking the view of Raik eating the octopus. It wasn't that what Raika was doing was a problem, Azrael just didn't like people looking in his direction, as he didn't want an audience while he ate. Eating another of his fish, by lifting his mask slightly, before looking to Raika as his ghosts began to move further out from them. The sound of some of the villagers knocking things over as they fled from the ghosts would be heard, but it was nothing new, it was an everyday occurrence whenever Azrael was involved. Though this time as he felt the fear of the villagers, there was only one thing on his mind thanks to Raika's statement, does fear make their blood taste better? The question would circle his mind over and over again, but he knew better than to try to act on it. He may enjoy scaring the people of the village, but he would never be able to actually hurt them. His master would not allow such a thing, still the thought was now there and would probably come into account on his next mission to hunt a criminal.

"Raika Ryuutei, This One suggests we move somewhere less occupied to continue eating." Azrael would state as he began moving past her towards the beach at the end of the market, he wasn't sure how fast she ate, and while her eating didn't bother him, he was growing tired of the villagers. His ghosts acting as though they were security keeping the commoners away from the pair of them and opening an unobscured path down towards the beach. If Raika followed him towards the beach, as they were walking Azrael would look to Raika and ask. "Does fear make people taste better too?" of course he has no idea whether or not she has eaten people before, however it was a thought that crossed his mind, even if she had only drunk blood as he had before.

Raika mostly ignores the people staring, letting them look as they please while she eats pieces of the tentacles one by one and allowing the ink and blood to mix over the rest of its body while she ate, coating it with the black mixture and further salt the seafood. She barely notices when the ghosts begin appearing due to the fact that she had to almost fixate on the octopus as its tentacles attempt to escape from the monster-like human that was currently eating it; although the eyes of the octopus were now dead, some of its body was still looking to avoid a similar fate. It was very intriguing for Raika.

It's only after a few gasps of fear that she actually looks up from the octopus to notice that Azrael was now using his ghosts to dissuade the other villagers from nearing them, but the information was simply processed and then mostly ignored. She'd seen the ghost trick a few times now, and she barely cared for them anymore. She finishes off another of the tentacles, leaving only five that are either blindly gripping her arms and claws in an attempt to make her release her catch or feeling out for any form of escape, some even searching for food to try and bring it to the now dead octopus's mouth. She allows Azrael to lead their path towards the beach, because the octopus really did require a bit of focus in order for her to eat it.

Azrael's question gives her pause, and she swallows the mouthful of tentacle flesh, feeling it land in her stomach and then her well-suited Ryuutei stomach rapidly convert it back into chakra for her to be sustained by. She was honestly lucky that her metabolism was so rapid, it allowed her to eat and be full without gaining much weight, keeping her body fit and taut and lean. The question brings back the memory of her half-brother's face, screaming in fear while she had ripped open his chest cavity. That expression hadn't left his face until she'd eaten his heart, and that was when his face had finally gone completely slack in the stillness of death. But the memory brings no sorrow for Raika. He had tried to take the power of his bloodline to some other village rather than simply refusing to become a Kirigakure ninja in the first place, and for that, he had become a traitor and deserving of the death he had received. She wondered sometimes if his meat had given her more of the Uzumaki chakra that she'd been born with, but that probably wasn't how that worked.

"Yes, the fear adds a lot of flavor. It's like a saltiness, or like... umami."

With that, Raika takes one of the other tentacles covered in ink and blood, and she tears it off before eating it nice and slow, having to slice it apart so that the flexing tentacle muscles don't get caught in her mouth or throat.

Leading the way to the beach and ensuring that Raika did not run into anything or anyone through the help of his ghosts, this was easily achieved, and they did not have far to walk with the beach front not far from the market in the first place. Nodding once more to Raika's answer as they reached the beach front, Azrael would walk to a small half fence where Never and More would already be waiting. As if this might be a routine of theirs, the ravens would wait for Azrael to give them each three of the remaining fish before taking the last one for himself, before turning to address Raika again. He would squat to the ground, his knees bent up near his chest and his hands in front of him messing with the sand as he spoke. His head slightly tilted to the side, and do to his already small stature, if he was green, one would think he was a large frog.

This time his whisper holding more questions, "This One is unfamiliar with those terms, This One has tasted the blood of a victim before, but we cannot distinguish the difference between when he was fearing and when he was dead. Does people taste the same as the animals you eat or does each one taste different? How old were you for your first kill? What did it feel like? Do you kill often? Do you always eat your kill? You do not have to answer this one if you do not wish, this one is simply curious." Raika was an interesting individual for Azrael as he had not had much experience in the world, despite his age, there were somethings that people took for granted that Azrael never experienced or had the pleasure of knowing. There would be pauses in between the questions to give her a chance to answer the questions rather than being bombarded by them all at once, Azrael may not have many social cues that he knows but he knew people didn't like to be asked a bunch all at once. This wasn't an interrogation, though for Azrael such a thing would probably be easier for him and while it may lead to an odd conversation, he was not against answering questions about himself if she had any for him. Of course, if she didn't have questions, he would be happy to ask more.

Raika watches while he feeds his ravens the remaining fish, noting that he'd taken three for himself and three to each bird. She's nearly done with the octopus, and she takes her time with eating the rest of its head, mostly avoiding the organs other than the eyes, as well as keeping away from the beak that had once been used for eating as well. Once most of the flesh is gone, she takes a hard stance and tosses the remains of the carcass into the ocean. With the water starting to pull back, the tides would pull it deeper into the ocean and away from land, allowing the fish to have their portion of the meal.

She notices him squatting down load, but she remains standing and unmoved as he starts to ask her several questions, though not immediately and all at once, it was still a lot of questions for her to answer, but that doesn't mean she doesn't try. Azrael, despite his awkwardness, has at least earned her respect, which really does mean quite a lot, especially when their first meeting had nearly had her put a fist through his head. Or at least, his illusion's head. Nevertheless, she answers his questions in the same way, giving him factual answers with little emotional intonation.

"Umami just means that it has a savory taste that fills the entire mouth. People do taste different from other animals, because it's the flesh of a predator that eats all others. I was sixteen when I killed for the first time, but that wasn't the first time I saw the look of death. It felt like victory, and it felt like my life became meaningful. I kill animals all the time, I kill humans when the situation calls for it. If I kill it, I very often eat it; especially if it's a human. If you ask, I'll answer; that's the nature of a question."

Raika stops when Azrael does, but she doesn't really have any questions of her own. She seems like the kind of woman that knows how to find the answers to her own questions, somehow. Still, she tilts her head this way and that, causing her neck to make several intense popping noises as her vertebrae realign.

"Killing for me is different than killing for you. Kirigakure has a different perspective on killing than the other nations, and the Ryuutei clan has a different perspective than Kirigakure as well. The Ryuutei clan hunts, and if we don't hunt, we don't eat."

Azrael watched as Raika through what remained of the octopus into the ocean, likely feeding whatever fish dwelled within the ocean. Never and More cawing lightly as she did so without offering it to them, and Azrael would look back and wag his finger while making a soft whispered "tch" sound at them to shut them up. As he listened to Raika's answers, Azrael's eyes would never leave her face, fully intent on learning what she was saying and taking it all in. He understood the need to kill when it was necessary, and he understood death better than most. The more he listened to her however, the more curious he would become about the taste of flesh, though for now he would not pursue it for the time being.

After cracking her neck, she would speak about how killing was different for the two of them, causing Azrael's head to tilt. Though he could understand the need of killing in order to survive, the fact that she thinks it is different was what confused him. "This One is confused again, Raika Ryuutei. Killing is killing, is it not? No matter the reason, whether to survive or for power, we view it all the same. You are a puzzle to us, Raika Ryuutei, a very curious puzzle." After saying this Azrael would stand back up, giving a brief moment of silence as he brushed sand off his hands before looking to Raika. "This One would like to hunt with you, if you allow us. We would like to see what it is like, and to... help our friend, Raika Ryuutei." His whisper would be no different than his normal speech, though there would slight pause before he called her his friend, as if he was unsure if she was his friend or if she was just there as a nightmare, either way it was not every day that Azrael would call someone his friend even the other nightmares. With the exception of his Master Sero, his Daeva Sayuri, and now his Friend Raika, even his half-sister, Azrael was finding himself with quite a collection of people that he would fight for.

Raika shrugs when Azrael insists that there's not much difference between killing for survival and killing for power, but she's apparently not looking for a philosophical debate. She just knows that for the Ryuutei Clan, killing is a completely different beast than the importance that other ninja, even Kirigakure ninja, seem to place in the act of killing. For the village, massacre was at least somewhat notable; for the Ryuutei, it was just a way of life, and most of them knew death before they knew their parents' faces.

Raika watches Azrael stand up from his previous position, and she realizes momentarily that she'd thought of him less like a frog, but more like one of his perched ravens, with his legs tucked under and his arms at his sides. She tilts her head when Azrael even calls her his friend, which some might have found presumptuous, but which Raika found quaint or naive. Which was a strange thought to have about a boy who could apparently talk to the spirits of the dead and the damned. In any case, she finds his offer to hunt with her to have much more meaning than the man likely thought it would, and judging by the pause, he put much more stock into the word friend, which was nearly a foreign word for the Ryuutei.

She reaches across with her right hand and, making sure her claws are fully retracted into her fingers, takes a hold of his left shoulder, firm but not a harsh grip, before she speaks.

"Among the Ryuutei, we don't call anyone a friend. We barely have family. But we have a Pack."

The word was fairly common, but the amount of emphasis she puts on the name "pack" made it seem like it should be capitalized, almost like an incantation.

"If you will hunt with me, you are more than merely a friend, you are a part of my Pack. We hunt together, we eat together, we train together, and we are bound deeper than our own familial bonds."

Though this was a statement, it was spoken more like a question. Azrael might also notice that her eyes, for the first time in a long time, maybe since the first time he put her in a genjutsu, were wide open and no longer held a bored expression, but a serious one. For Raika at least, this was as important for her as Azrael felt calling her his friend.

Feeling her sudden grip on his shoulder would cause Azrael's gaze to focus on the woman, she was not hurting him, though he could tell she was serious simply by her grip. Despite this however his Akayurei would instinctually flare to life purely out of reflex, the white of his eyes turning black as his blood red pupil pulsed and glowed. When their gaze met as she spoke, Azrael's mind tricks as Raika would call them would activate his Genjutsu: Akayurei. As she spoke about the Pack and that they would share a bond deeper that familial, a strong wind would surround the pair and all other sounds around them would seemingly fade from existence. Azrael wasn't sure of the words, having never used them himself before, however though his genjutsu he was able to relay thoughts as well as emotions. As Raika finished talking, she would get a sense of emotions from Azrael that would be a mixture of joy like the day he had met Sero and Sayuri, the only happy day he had in his life, though this one was quickly becoming the second.

His eyes still locked onto hers, Azrael's whisper would not come from his masked face but within her mind similar to how it did before he had taken her to meet Sero. "This One would be honored, Raika Ryuutei. We will hunt with you, we will eat with you, and we will train with you." Azrael would then raise his right arm under hers due to his short height and place it on her right shoulder in an attempt to do the same to Raika as she was doing to him before adding, "We will be your Pack." At those words the genjutsu akayurei would end and the world around them would return to normal. At this close proximity he had to trust that Raika would not bash his brain in for having just done what she called a mind trick on her, though if she did, she was within her rights to do so. Though this time it had been an accidental activation, the fact remained that he had used his genjutsu on her without her permission, which she stated before would result in her hitting him.

Raika notices his eye changing, recognizing it as being an activation of his genjutsu, but she doesn't seem to react at all, allowing it at least for now while she spoke with him and inducted the other man into her Pack. It's a bit unnerving to actually feel his emotions, like a rushed blast of formless and wordless thoughts that had no physical force behind it, just a connection. She thought him quite strange, since she'd somewhat rebuffed his calling her his friend, but she quashed the thought before it could be turned to an emotion that might give Azrael the wrong impression; she did, after all, actually have a great deal of respect for the short ninja in front of her.

She mostly ignores how he fumbles with trying to put his hand on her shoulder, as that wasn't really wholly necessary for the process, so much as the words and his acceptance into her Pack. As the world returns to normal, Raika gives his shoulder one last firm squeeze before letting go of him. She seemed completely unbothered by the genjutsu, and simply raises her bandaged left hand to prod the center of his forehead like an older sibling would do to a younger one with her index finger.

"You really are too reliant on those mind tricks. You call them genjutsu right? Well, at least they have their uses."

Then she stretches her back a bit, causing her spine to do the same popping noise her neck did earlier before she turns back to look at the way they'd come, seeing a lot of the previous customers had decided to leave, and the shopkeepers rapidly packing away their goods, since business for the day would likely be ruined, or at least for the next few hours.

"C'mon, before it gets late and the freaks come out."

Coming from Raika, that was quite a thing to say.

It wouldn't be hard for Raika to see Azrael cringe as she squeezes his shoulder, it wasn't enough to actually hurt him, but do to his general lack of physical contact it would be a new experience for him all together. As she would raise her hand to his forehead for a good second, he thought for sure she was going to hurt him, but when she simply pokes him and speak of his genjutsu he would smile under his mask. "Oh yes, Raika Ryuutei. They have many uses; we can provide many many helps to you and your hunt. This one may not be physical, but we are smarts, we breaks the peoples mind." Azrael would reply quickly, though he was not sure why. perhaps it was the fact that she invited him into her pack, and he wanted to feel useful, or if it was more because she was now a nightmare and he had something to prove about why he was second in command. Either way the words would come out the same, having been on ice for so long, Azrael mainly wanted to feel useful to Sero. However, since he had failed his master in taming the beast Kukuo, perhaps in being useful to Raika he could grow the strength he needs to help his master.

When Raika said they should leave Azrael would nod as his ghosts would activate around them both, "we will escort you back to Master's Manor. We will stop the freaks if they get close." would be all he said before he began walking, though it would be up to Raika whether their journey was in silence or not. He was more than willing to have conversation with her as they walked but if she preferred the silence then he would oblige.

{Exit Thread} (6posts)

Raika might have smiled if she had any more smiles left to make when he calls himself smart, and that he can break someone's mind. But it also makes her feel a little uncomfortable that he seemed so gleeful and proud of that fact. The feeling passes quickly, in less time than it took for her to take a step towards the way back to the Kaguya Clan district where their home as the Nightmares was.

"Well, as long as you don't break my mind, that's fine by me."

She probably didn't pick up on his insecurity; it wasn't something she was particularly looking for, and she wasn't entirely socially adept herself. In any case, Raika didn't feel so bad about scaring the villagers off with the ghosts. Maybe they would eventually get used to them, too, though, so his overreliance on them might gradually make him even more weak. She worried, not so much about him personally, but about what could happen if he's surprised by someone not being terrified of his mind tricks.

Although most of the walk back is quiet, Raika does give one quick glance at where the Ryuutei clan compound had once stood before the Ryuutei clan had taken up residence in their own homes, instead. They were still connected quite closely, all in houses near each other so that the clan was still in what was called the Ryuutei neighborhood, but they'd lost some of their influence over the years. No matter, she would bring them back.

(EXIT, thread over)