Description: TENGU FACT: Tengu are known to spirit students and monks-in-training away from their duties. When they return, they tell stories of haing tasted of strange foods, and experienced strange things.
As time passed, the light which was creeping up over a certain ordinary girl abed in a ninja glade suddenly hit her face. At first, her nose simply twitched, and she rolled over, eliciting a squeek. "Sorry Don-chan." She mumbled apologetically, before drifting off again.
About an hour later, a buzzing sound reached her ears, causing them to twitch. "It's too early... Sarai-chan." She mumbled again, but the insistent hum caused her to finally grope around until she located the source. Slowly lifting it in front of her face, it wasn't so much the message from her best friend that caught her eye but... the time. Suddenly sitting bolt upright, the high school girl lets out a cry of equal parts surprise and frustration frustration, "UWEHHHHH!?" The covers are thrown off, and Don-chan twitches his tail, but then rolls over lazily onto his back.
~Not long after~
There's a tan blur, leaping from the top of a bus, to a car, sometimes leaping off the side to some of the traffic lights and telephone poles to prevent her from losing momentum whenever those cars stop. To any normal person, she doesn't look like much of anything. To someone with keener eyes and vision though, they'd see the truth. A kunoichi with her half mask part of the way down to allow buttered toast to hang out of her mouth, clenched in her teeth, a school bag which she clutches with a death grip.
This was bold even for her, but she was going to be late!
Hopping over to the awning of a coffee shop, she flips onto a nearby theater rooftop, and continues her frantic run towards the looming Taiyou high in the distance.
Having secured temporary lodgings in the Southtown Village on the second floor of a coffee shop, Nyotengu had intended to spend the day doing a whole lot of not enough. Indeed, currently, she lounges on her side, her feather-fan temporarily discarded; in her left hand, she holds a long, thin kiseru, while the right lazily brings a delicious side sandwich up to her mouth. Humans have developed so many things since her last trip out into the world!
Her eyes snap up, however, when something lands on the awning outside her room. Moving hastily toward the window, she throws it open, poking her head out to watch the kunoichi as she moves away.
No normal human moves that way, Nyotengu thinks to herself, as she trades kiseru for feather fan, climbing out the window in short order. Taking to the air in a long, slow hover, she shadows Ibuki -- all the way to school.
For someone more than a thousand years old, spending half a day simply watching someone as they move in the world is no trouble at all. And besides -- surely whatever could make her hurry so... that has to be something interesting as well, does it not?
While the kunoichi put on quite a show as she sped to school, her absurdly long top knot fluttering in the breeze behind her, it was easy enough for an ancient being like the Tengu to follow her. Even if she had a chance of spotting her, she did not, foregoing all caution for sheer speed.
The kunoichi touches down upon the top of a taxi cab, riding it for about half a block, before she leapt right over the large fence to Taiyo high school on the gymnasium side. Catching ahold of a single tree limb from a large Japanese Maple that decorated the school with it's majestic splendor, she touches down gracefully on her toes. At that same moment, her right hand tosses something down, and one of her less impressive smoke bombs blankets only the immediate area with a haze of smoke for about five seconds at most.
When it cleared, she was no longer a kunoichi, or so it seemed. Instead she was dressed in her azure school uniform. Her pace slowing only to a fast walk as she headed towards the main school building. One of her hands busies itself with taking the toast out of her mouth and allowing her to finally eat it. The other has her casually sling her book bag over her shoulder.
Just before she actually made it however, the school bell rings with all of it's fervor, and the completely ordinary school girl swallows her current bite before sighing, "I was still late, even after all that!" Something else hits her in that moment, "And I didn't do my chemistry homework!" The sigh comes again, is in a long-suffering way, her recent trip to Osaka had caused her to forget!
Still, to any observer that may or may not be present, it sounds like something so very... /ordinary/ for someone to be fretting over. It didn't sound like she was on an infiltration mission. No, this was just... her life. Such as it was. Her pace into the main building was slow now with her hopes of making it on time dashed to pieces. she was already tardy and would have to suffer the consequences of it.
... /This/ is what kunoichi do these days? Nyotengu seems almost incredulous when she sees the young lady quick-change into her outfit; such a tremendous waste of energy for something as simple as schooling. Interesting, she reflects, that she can leave her ninja village and do so, though; truly, this is an age of changes. She'd thought less had changed after her encounter with the /other/ ninja... but perhaps that young lady was just an adherent of some very old ways.
She keeps a sense of Ibuki's unique chi -- the way her actions 'feel' -- as she watches her hopes be dashed, and her dash turn into a trundle. She draws her wings in carefully, and throws up a basic genjutsu; within moments, she, too, appears to be nothing more than a tardy student, following some distance behind Ibuki.
Attention seems to deflect off of her and toward the 'other' tardy student, where appropriate; Nyotengu just follows the kunoichi all the way to class. Surely there has to be /something/ in this building she considers so important to spend so much energy getting here...
Nyotengu was certainly correct in that respect. There was something in that building that she considers so important that she was willing to expend that much effort on it without questioning it. Surely watching her would reveal what it was. Let's go through her day.
0841: Ibuki strolls in late to her homeroom. Offers her most sincere apologies to her homeroom teacher, with an overly exaggerated bow, is made to stand in the hall anyway. Uses the oppurtunity to try to squeak in some time on her chemistry homework while noone is looking.
1006: A small amount of drool gathers upon Ibuki's desk as she falls asleep just a few minutes into second period calculus.
1010: Teacher notices. A ruler is smacked on her desk. Nyotengu may catch the glint of a kunai in her hand for just a split second before it vanishes. "Uh... The limit is infinity?" Her restraint earns her shame in front of the entire class as she answers their question incorrectly and earns a lot of snickering from her classmates. Shrinking in her seat, she's sleepily subdued for the rest of the class.
1222: Eating bento on the rooftop with a group of her friends, she's put on the spot with an awkward question about the upcoming prom. Tapping her pointer fingers together, she's wine red from her nose to her ears, "If I'm being forced to choose then..." Everyone leans in closer, "...Kyosuke." Everyone erupts into giggles.
1432: Put on the spot for only having her Chemistry homework mostly finished, she's made to stand in the hall again.
1500: The school bell rings, everyone breaks up into their club activities, except for... Ibuki. Seeming to be part of the Go Home Early club, she makes some excuses to a friend, "Look, I just can't. Family issues." "Why wouldn't your family want you join a club!? Don't they want you to get into a good university?" "They're kind of strict when it comes to my future. I can't really talk about it!"
1503: Ibuki dejectedly feeds a badger in a bolted down cage near the front of the school a small piece of an orange, before heading out the door, down the walk way out of the school. She certainly wasn't putting forth the same effort /going home/ as she'd put towards getting here.
This is all mystifying to Nyotengu, as she sits in the back of the room and watches; this seems like the exact opposite of what someone like Ibuki would -- and /should/ -- be doing with her day. Where are the climactic battles? The training? The... /anything/? If she were destined for some lesser fate, certainly, this would be normal... but this seems dreadfully boring.
Clearly, this girl needs a change in her life. And what is a tengu if not an agent of change -- a creature that breaks the truly boring out of their peaceful existences?
Ibuki is allowed to make her way back home -- at least, part of the way. As she nears the coffee shop again, there's a sudden, strong wind which sweeps in the direction of the small shop. Three flowerpots and a newspaper are knocked from their precarious positions by a sudden gust, all sweeping toward Ibuki -- and after a moment, a trash can on the ground tips onto its side and starts to roll toward her.
The numerous projectiles create only two 'safe' paths; the first is a frantic dash forward that even the kunoichi might have a little trouble with at her current level of speed. The other... is a quick jump and flip to the awning, and in turn in through the open window as a drain pipe breaks free in the wind.
By this point, Nyotengu has resumed her earlier activity completely, after the very brief interruption; the only difference is that she hides her wings. There's some irregularity to her shadow, though -- a larger back, and the faint hint of feathers... but that'd take a keen eye to notice.
Even on the way home, Ibuki was spending an egregious amount of time on her cell phone. Barely paying attention to her surroundings, she texted the word: 'Osaka' to 'Sarai-Babe'. Just moments later, she gets a reply text, which brings something of a smile to her face. Ninja life wasn't so bad, if she could at least tell someone about it.
Had the wind not picked up, she wouldn't have even noticed she was in front of the coffee shop at all. As it whips through her top knot, causing her hair to flutter back, her foot immediately digs in to try and keep her steadfast against it. A single hand moves up above her eyes to somewhat shield her face from the buffeting wind. Seeing the trash can rolling near her, her gaze makes one quick sweep of the area.
And then, she's just not there anymore. In her blue uniform, she'd leaps straight up on the billowing awning, flipping over backwards to correct herself in light of the crosswind. Her foot touch down upon it only a moment, before she leaps again. The absurdly graceful school girl at first aims for the pipe, but when it breaks mid-leap, she reaches out to grip onto the window's ledge to prevent herself. That motion saved her from falling, but her momentum was still moving forward. She carries it upward instead, seeing the open window, she flips in like some elegant gymnast.
Normally she'd leap right back out, but with the wind as it was, she was showing some measure of caution now. Instead she turns around to observe her surroundings while she waits, only to see. An extraordinarily elegant lady, laying right there. Ibuki freezes initially, but a moment later she's laughing, trying not to sound awkward at all. This was next to impossible, as she was just a school girl, and the lady in front of her? She made her feel positively plain.
"Ahahahahaha... I'm... sure you're wondering what I'm doing in your room. Well there's a really /good/ explanation for it. I'm..." She snaps her fingers repeatedly, before pointing towards her, "...a delivery girl! Authentic curry, fifteen minutes or less! This is Fifteen-O-Six on Block 62 right? And I... lost the food, and my ladder... my /delivery/ ladder." She clarifies. "...in that wind. So I'll have to go back. I guess there won't be any tip for me!"
Ibuki starts slowly walking as nonchalantly as possible towards the front door this time.' % r
There's no surprise, no urgency in Nyotengu's body language; she stays on her cushions, lounging neatly on the floor. As Ibuki frantically attempts to justify herself, she allows herself a smile. The stem of the long, thin pipe moves to her lips for a moment; she lets her talk herself in circles for as long as she likes. She's waited hundreds of years for a chance to be out in the world; she can wait ten seconds for some slip of a human to justify her presence.
Her mouth hangs open a moment, letting the smoke drift out before she finally speaks.
"Stay." Her words ring out like a gunshot.
"I heard the commotion outside... there was no ladder there, was there?" She slowly draws herself up into a seated position in front of her table, shifting her knees below herself; it's then that the room starts to shift, just slightly.
Colours become impossibly vibrant... but most importantly -- perhaps it's a glance to the side; perhaps it's a moment of hesitation; either way, Ibuki finds she loses track of the door. It was... /there/, wasn't it? Then again -- this /is/ the second floor; maybe it was actually in the floor, and she just thought she saw a door?
"Sit with me," she says, a small smirk crossing her face as she adds, "Kunoichi." She licks her lips once -- long and slow -- while Ibuki is, hopefully, distracted. "Is that still the term, I wonder...? Much has changed." Gesturing toward the other side of the small table on which her tiny sandwiches sit, she adds, "I could hear every moment of your little adventure outside... that's quite the jump. You must be well-trained."
One thing /has/ changed since the morning... Her table -- previously set for one -- is now set for two. A second plate of sandwiches, a second small bottle of sake, a second cup of coffee, a second kiseru, a second cushion to sit (or lounge) upon... it's clear she was expecting company.
'Stay.'
The Kunoichi freezes, mind grasping for an excuse not to. Even if she were so inclined, she could only be late to ninja training so much before her master noticed and acted accordingly. "Well I'd love to but..." 'There was no ladder there, was there...?' Crap. Her mouth moves, but no sound comes out initially, then she laughs again before trying to answer her, "...why would you think that? I mean, I'm just a school girl, how else..."
That's when she notices it. The room is changing around her, shifting. Features that were in one place before shift so rapidly that it looks like she's in the middle of a kaleidoscope. Where was the door again? She was losing track of it. And Ibuki covers her mouth, considering the possibilities of some sort of hallucinogenic poison or gas, in accordance with her training. She dismisses that a moment later, how would it have even been delivered. The hand moves away from her mouth.
The word 'kunoichi' seals the fact that something is wrong, and something flashes into her palm. A kunai. It was impressively fast, given the fact that she wasn't in her traditional dogi, but there it was. She doesn't do anything with it. It just stays there, not certain what to make of this. "How did..." She immediately changes the question upon the Nyotengu's evaluation of her movements, the sounds of her movements, to a pleading and desperate statement, "...Please don't tell anyone!"
Feeling trapped, the very fact that she was able to know these things, follow her movements by the senses marked her as someone formidable, she reluctantly seems to take a seat in seiza upon the second cushion. She doesn't immediately partake of her hospitality though, mind whirling to process the situation. "What do you want?" She says quietly, almost pathetically, worried beyond measure what someone could do with this knowledge. An entire half of her life could vanish, in the blink of an eye, if it got out there. Gone forever.
Now that the pair are seated across from one another, Nyotengu takes the time to study Ibuki directly -- in a way she couldn't when she was in class. She has a good physique... a serviceable command of chi... Her head cants slightly to one side, and she says, "First, I want you to put that kunai down on the table," she says, calmly. "This isn't the time or the place for that sort of thing. I'm not going to hurt you, and I'm not going to tell anyone about your little secret, my wayward kunoichi."
Letting her head roll out of that cant, lazily to one side, she brings her free hand down to her little cafe sandwich and takes a bite. "Is there a way you can send word to... where you were hurrying to and from, that you won't be back tonight, but won't cause a problem?" Leaning across the table slightly and bringing her head back to a more neutral position, she says, "I have the feeling there's much we should... discuss."
Though nothing indicates it on Nyotengu's person, her shadow, stark against the wall, flutters slightly; is that a trick of her kimono, or are those wings in her shadow? "If delivering such a message is a problem, I can give the wind a little push." Her lips turn back up into a smirk as she adds, "One of those pots was casting a tremendous shadow, and I just had to be rid of it." So the wind was her...?
"Take what you like," she adds, gesturing to the table. "A gesture of good faith... you trust me not to reveal your secret, so -- trust my hospitality."
Disarming herself went against everything she knew as a ninja. It was some small measure of control in an environment, in which she had none otherwise. And yet, just a moment later, she's reluctantly dropping it upon the table with a metallic ping and a clatter. The statements caused the sudden feeling of hopelessness in her chest to lift somewhat, though there was some tentativeness wariness still lingering around elsewhere.
Ibuki doesn't speak again until she brings up the idea of contacting them to let them know she's not coming. "There's... not really." Hesitance comes, before she gives the explanation, "I'm not even supposed to have a cell phone. Such technology is a liability, they tell me." Obviously, she didn't agree. "I skip training often enough that they won't be searching for me tonight, if that's what you're worried about." She offers with a note of hope in her voice, that that will adequately move her off the idea that they would be at all threatened by the possibility of a small number of master ninja bursting right into the room.
She should be suspicious, and she is, just a little, but the fact that the elegant lady in front of her wasn't going to rat her out was enough that she'd believe that it was just coincidence, for now. The offer of hospitality is taken in stride, and eventually she delicately picks up a small sandwich, before taking a bite without too much hesitation. "That's an unusual flavor." She mentions, not quite placing the ingredients of the sandwich.
She picks up the sake, and washes it down with a sip. While her features momentarily contort, she gets the cool, dry and bitter liquid down without too much trouble before replacing the vessel on the table. She's tried drinking before, being a somewhat rebellious teeanger, even if was done very rarely and in moderation. The same with smoking, which causes her to give the kiseru a glance. Perhaps trying to figure out the differences in it's use compared to a cigarette, and not wanting to embarrass herself.
"What did you want to discuss uh..." A beat as she comes to a realization, one hand finding the nape of her neck and rubbing it, "...Oh, we didn't actually introduce each other. I'm Ibuki. What's your name?" She asks a bit more amicably, even casually now.
As Ibuki places the kunai on the table, Nyotengu can only smile at her; she's decided to stay. Good. She really was hoping that this wouldn't turn into a fight; she's had one of those recently enough for her that it feels like an instant, and accordingly, she isn't really enthusiastic about having another when she doesn't need to. There's a time and a place for unruly, uncooperative humans. This isn't that time, and it /certainly/ isn't that place -- she likes her lodgings here, for the moment.
"Good. I may let you leave /late/, depending on how our conversation goes, young lady." 'Young lady' -- yet Nyotengu /looks/ like she's, at best, three years Ibuki's senior. Eight if she's aged /exceptionally/. Just who is she?
"It's horse dung," she comments, regarding the flavour of the sandwich; she lets this hang in the air for a few seconds before bursting into uproarious laughter, somewhere in the middle of which is a 'Just kidding.' "I'm not that kind of tengu!" she declares, once the laughter subsides -- a curiously specific denial, though one which she follows up with a hearty, "It's just spiced chicken."
When she's asked, at last, for her name, she gives it freely -- or so it seems, anyway. "Nyoko Miyama," she answers, with a big smile on her face as she does so. She takes a moment to finish her own sandwich, licking a stray bit of some sort of sauce off a finger before returning the total of her attention to Ibuki. "Once the lady of Mt. Kurama... though not, precisely, by choice."
She leans back a little, supporting herself with her free hand as she takes a pull from her kiseru. Letting it out slowly and lazily toward Ibuki, she rests her unnaturally purple eyes on the kunoichi. "Do you like the sake?" she asks, before continuing, "I was hoping to discuss something I'm sure you know all too well... the threat of a ninja clan. Were I to say the name, 'Mugen Tenshin,' or 'Hayabusa,' would those hold any special meaning, 'Ibuki'?"
The food is dizzyingly rich, the more Ibuki eats of it, and the sake quite strong; it's doubtful that Ibuki will make a great show of it at training even if she /does/ leave.
Ibuki rubs the side of her nose with a finger when she calls her young lady, not exactly the most genteel or refined gesture. "You're young enough to be an 'ojou-chan' yourself." She says somewhat flippantly, in mostly good humor, though with the edges of irritation of someone from the thought of being mildly patronized when it was undeserved.
The comment on horse dung, has Ibuki look at her sandwich, then make a coughing sound as a wave of nausea hits her, and she's about to start dry heaving. Mostly from imagination at the thought of eating horse dung. Until the laughter starts, and Ibuki looks completely indignant, "Hey that's not..." Then she grins a little, "...alright you got me! That was a good one!" Suddenly Ibuki is quiet for about five to ten seconds, dawning recognition forming on her expression, "Wait... wait..." She puts both of her palms out like she's registering. "Are you trying to pull another fast one over on me?"
Moment by moment passed, and suddenly everything started to make more sense as her mind ran over the few tengu legends she knew. "Mind if I call you Nyoko-chan?" Ibuki says casually, though the Tengu would get the sense she doesn't actually mean any disrespect by it. It's just how she is. "And it's good."
She looks down to the vessel, with a touch of admiration in her voice, maybe it's started to do it's job of loosening her tongue, as she takes another draw, and sets it down with a gulp, and a lip-smacking sound, "Maybe a little too good really." She doesn't clarify that before responding to her question on the other two ninja clans, "I know /of/ them. We're not allies, and we're not enemies." She shrugs her shoulders, "I prefer to stay out of ninja politics. I'm not about to let blood feuds centuries old interfere with how I want to live my life, you know?"
"Ohoho... so flattering. I think I like you, Ibuki." Nyotengu takes a deep breath, laughing lightly at the teenage kunoichi; she waves the comment off with a hand. She also carefully doesn't answer whether she's pulling a fast one on her guest, or if she is indeed a tengu; she may just be someone from the mountains with a very odd sense of humour. "Nyoko-chan will be fine. Please -- let yourself be more comfortable. Relax." Considering the beverages in front of her table, she decides -- after a moment -- on the coffee.
With the basics necessary for understanding already in place, Nyotengu needs only to give her the little extra push. "Much of what you've heard, I suspect, has been... carefully neutral, if not positive, if you aren't at war. To tell you the truth of the matter, however... the Hayabusa and the Mugen Tenshin have perpetrated crime after crime, with the aid of the former ruler of my people, Kuramasan." She leaves 'Maouson' out, because that's too ominous a name for Ibuki just yet.
The colours of the room continue to deepen -- but it feels more natural now for that to be the case. (Or maybe that's the sake.) "My people were forced to stay atop the mountain for generations... on threat of death." There are some half-truths here, and some outright lies -- but it's a pretty story, isn't it? "With the death of our former ruler, we've found an opportunity for freedom."
Tilting her head and supporting it gently with one hand, she brings the stem of the pipe to her lips with the other, sucking gently for a short moment before speaking again. "I would like centuries-old animosity not to influence /my/ life either, young kunoichi. I don't ask you to fight the Mugen Tenshin for me... but I ask you to help me hide -- and to protect me, if necessary." Her lips, her cheeks, her body-language are all pleading... but there's a hint of a smile in her eyes.
Her shadow, now, almost unmistakably displays her wings.
The casual atmosphere of the place actually does allow her to relax, mostly because she's used to a more strict atmosphere, in the classroom, in ninja training, around her clan elders. As a teenage girl however, didn't she want her freedom? Of course she did, and someone who allows her to act more freely causes her to relax, more than being told to relax would. The fact that in a way it's also a command, doesn't cross her mind.
And so Ibuki actually does listen, and keeps her mind entirely focused on the conversation at hand. Though the strong liquor has made her feel more than a touch light-headed, especially as the room shifts more, her mind is still rather sharp. After the tengu has had her say, she keeps a hold upon the sake cup, and stares at her for a time, her expression neutral at first. "So what you're telling me is that even the ninja clans that cultivate a reputation of being mostly 'decent' are secretly filled with jerks?"
She allows that to hang in the air for a short time, before she bursts into laughter. It's just a brief spell of it, as she places her free hand at her side. "Tell me something I don't know! Come on, there's not a single ninja clan that doesn't dirty it's hands! Mine is just kind of small and tries not to hurt anyone that doesn't have it coming!"
Putting a hand against her head, she considers the matter more deeply, running a hand against her face, "I can empathize with wanting freedom at least. So what, are you asking for sanctuary with my clan? I wouldn't recommend that, the worst place to hide from ninjas is in another ninja village. Even if ours is more secret than most." The shadow of wings takes her off guard, as she double takes, noticing the shadow doesn't quite match up to the person casting it. "You really are a Tengu!" She sounds mildly shell-shocked by the realization.
Yes. Laughter. That's good; Nyotengu laughs with her new 'friend,' this time having an entirely mutual joke with her, rather than one at her expense. She offers no comment on it -- but it does feel so nice to have a laugh. Unfortunately, it's transient, as Ibuki brings up the topic of what she's actually being asked.
"Sanctuary with your clan? A sweet offer, darling... but no," Nyotengu replies, shaking her head. "I trust no one. Except... for the moment... you. Your earnestness caught my eye this morning, when you went to school... I feel I can trust you, and you can trust me." There's that faint insistence, again -- that Ibuki can trust her, that their relationship is one of equals.
She carefully, slowly draws up to her full height, standing up and walking around to Ibuki's side of the table, seating herself next to the kunoichi. "What I need from you... is to help me hide. Teach me of the modern world. You aren't the only one who must have her secrets kept, you know."
Her deception -- such as it is -- over, she lets her wings come fully visible. One of them hovers over Ibuki as she gets settled in, and she smiles broadly. The room seems to fade a little -- but the colours of Nyotengu's kimono seem even /more/ vibrant, up close. A mere trick of the light, of their closeness -- or something more? "Sometimes, even the protectors of the mountain need protecting," she notes, with a little smile. "We can trust one another... can't we?"
With a light, lilting laugh, she says, "Tell me we can trust each other," with a smile. "I'll need you to help me with some of the most basic things -- choosing clothes that won't stick out, finding somewhere to stay... and I'm sure, after that, we can simply be friends." A beat, before she appends, "What they say about the tengu providing boons is absolutely true."
Some things don't add up. They're just tiny niggling details however, and as her head swims from the lightest touch of intoxication, she decides she's just being paranoid. Instead she smiles at the thought of teaching an ancient, legendary creature, the thought of blending in to the modern world. Of being an 'ordinary girl' too. It's certainly a novel thought. It's another person she can share her secret with, without it being a problem.
Around her, she can be a teenager and a kunoichi too.
So once she's finished, Ibuki continues to mull it over for the longest of times. And finally she provides an answer. "Nyoko-chan." There's a pregnant pause that lingers in the suddenly vibrant atmosphere, and she still seems, and sounds relaxed, even as the wing hovers over her. "You don't need to promise me any boons or anything. I don't need anything like that."
Was she really doing something for nothing? Not exactly, but perhaps the thought of a supernatural boon kind of ruined her self-image of wanting to be ordinary. "And hey." A beat, as she smiles, "We can trust each other. We're friends after all, aren't we?"
"Yes. Yes, we are," Nyotengu says, firmly.
The colour starts to drain out of the room -- once again, it's just an ordinary Western-style coffeehouse, rather than the swirl of vibrant colour it was before. "I knew you'd feel that way. Good." Not 'thank you' -- just 'good.' Why would she thank Ibuki for something she felt was hers by right? Her voice doesn't seem quite the same as before, either; she sounds, for the most part, like a regular woman, speaking with much less urgency than she had. Those wings are gone again, too; the strangeness of the world seems to be totally gone. Perhaps it's just a side effect of what she is?
The suddenly much less mysterious tengu adds, "I am the Nyotengu of Miyama," as if there were ever any doubt. "... Though you may still call me Nyoko-chan." Reaching to help Ibuki to her feet, she says, "Well then. Would you care to show me around? It's been centuries since I left the mountain..."
Ibuki's mind tries to pick up on how she's doing this. The best answer she can grasp for is ninpo. Genjutsu? Her clan didn't really dabble too much in that, being decidedly more martial and less mystic. Even though she knew that the clan leader, and some of the elders could do... 'things'. Spooky mysterious ninja things that even she hadn't a clue how they did it. Maybe that's something she'd learn when she graduated from training, though perhaps not either.
The rudeness doesn't strike her as anything more than Nyoko being extremely casual, and that's fair, since she was treating her so casually despite being a mythical creature. She grasps her hand, and is helped to her feet. "Alright. First thing's first then. Let me show you to the local..." Her grin is wide, "...mall!"
~Much Later~
Under the cover of night, she returned to her village. Someone was waiting for her. "Explain yourself." The bespectacled man stares at her with crossed arms and no visible signs of emotion, but he rubs the nape of her neck. "I had an emergency." Ibuki rubs the nape of her neck, looking completely embarrassed, having covered up any scent of alcohol with excessive use of mint. "What kind of emergency?" "The kind you don't talk to men about."
Elder Sanjou was actually for once, surprised. His arms uncross just slightly, and his lips form an 'Oh'. Normally he knew when Ibuki was lying to him, but she'd never used this excuse before. A moment later he turns around and starts to walk away, "Acceptable. Though you'll still have to make the session up." Ibuki turns away, and doesn't allow herself to smile until she reaches her room. A fashion emergency was something you /didn't/ talk to men about, after all. If his mind decided to draw different conclusions, well, that was his fault.
Log created on 23:02:47 12/01/2014 by Nyotengu, and last modified on 04:50:22 12/02/2014.