Ryo smiled as he walked into his favorite parts shop. Today he was wearing his black shinobi pants and his usual short- sleeve and long- sleeve combination. Over this he also wore the Knetegawa scroll harness. Now on his left and right top hip holsters were a scroll a piece. On the right was a black scroll that held his puppet Kuro. On his left was a white scroll where he would put the newest puppet that he was working on as soon as it was ready to be used and when it was finished and ready to be put into battle. He was here to purchase the parts he would need in order to make his next puppet the twin brother to Kuro, he was going to call Shiro. Normally he didn’t have to worry about parts as his clan’s workshops had what he usually wanted. However, this time he needed to make some custom additions to Shiro and the tools he needed were going to be in this shop. On this day, in particular however, he wasn’t alone in the shop, and he happened to be there with someone else. He hadn’t met her yet, but she looked to be a shinobi of his village. She was wearing a very interesting outfit and he had to admit that she was a looker.

For the sake of his dignity however, he didn’t focus on that and instead he approached one of the few workers and placed the order he needed. He needed a triggering mechanism, a few high-powered launchers and a few other bits and pieces that were all part of his next puppet. With the shop working on fulfilling his order he looked to the other shinobi who was in the shop with him placing a slight smile on his face “I don’t recall ever seeing you in here before. Yet, because you’re here I take it that you are also a Puppeteer. It is always nice to meet a fellow Puppeteer.” It was a reasonable assumption considering that they were in a shop that catered to the puppet masters of the village by supplying them with the little bits and pieces that they needed in order to make some of the more complex mechanisms inside of their creations. However, Ryo realized his mistake and he smiled looking embarrassed “Oh, I’m sorry. My name is Ryo Knetegawa. It is a pleasure to meet you. What is your name?”

WC: 421

“Nope… Nope… Wrong piece… No, that’s the wrong size… Ah, perfect!”

Midori scanned the various bits and bobs on the shelf in front of her, before picking up a screw, umming and ahhing for a moment before putting it back down and shaking her head. She was clad in her usual attire of beige and comfy, her right arm a light birch wood that, perhaps at a glance, could be mistaken for being a normal, fleshy arm – something it obviously wasn’t. Her hair was tied back in a somewhat messy ponytail that seemed to naturally take form of a sickle, and the pale of her skin was almost unnaturally so. Still, none of that mattered – she was too busy focusing on the parts within the shop that she had arrived at earlier that morning, and spent roughly two hours staring at the screws, much to the dismay of the shop keep who was genuinely concerned for the mental health of the woman, the sun trailing through the sky, and the type of screw still undetermined.

Still, as the bell to the door rang out, chiming to signify the arrival of someone, Midori’s concentration shifted, as she turned her head just enough to glance at the… Odd person that walked in. Short, with two scrolls, and white hair. There was little she could really say on his appearance with the glance she got, and she set the screws she was looking at back down, finally remembering that she hadn’t even come here for screws, and just got intrigued by the new make, trying to determine which was best for cost, the old or new. Perhaps she was a bit… Too passionate about puppetry.

Regardless, forehead protector proudly placed over her forehead, Midori turned, noticing that the short arrival was clearly talking to her. She shrugged, allowing her puppet arm to be as obvious as it could be, allowing him to finish speaking and introducing himself before speaking up herself. “Midori, of the Ningyou clan. And, if you can’t guess from the arm, you could say I’m a puppeteer.” She laughed, shaking her head as her hand rotated unnaturally, further emphasising its prosthetic nature. Almost testing the mechanisms, the Ningyou began flexing each individual finger, further proving the puppet nature of it as she went over to look at varying types of logs, humming. “I come here fairly often, usually just in the mornings and then gone. I just got caught up comparing screws… The last thing you want on a puppet is a few screws loose, you know?” she went to the log, tapping on it for a moment, before shrugging and stepping back. “So, Ryo, huh? Like, the currency?” shaking her head, she held up a hand, giving a slightly cheeky grin. “Kidding of course. I’m one to talk – my name’s also a brand of alcohol. So, Ryo, you called yourself a puppeteer. Care to describe your puppet to me? We’re not exactly in a workshop where there’s space for a full blow puppet show, but, a description should work. I may not look it, but, I can pick up on things… Sometimes.” Midori allowed that last part to hang in the air for a moment, puppet hand seemingly making constant motions as she spoke. “As you can see, this is the puppet I have with me. I have another, but, I came here to get a few things to spruce him up first… Heh… Spruce… Get it? Because, wood? No? Okay…” in an instant Midori shut down her own joke, not waiting for a reaction from her conversation partner. Oh, if only he knew what he got himself into.

610

The moment she turned to face him no longer looking at the screws he was able to see that her arm was indeed a puppet replacement. This wasn’t unusual in the world of Puppeteering, but he wasn’t one to go for it. Mostly due to the nature of his clan’s puppeteering style they didn’t make prosthetic limbs for humans. They didn’t believe in wasting time trying to make puppets that looked like humans so making puppet arms for humans wasn’t something they did a lot of. Looking the hand over however his eyes became transfixed on the way the arm moved and it was clear for the way he looked at it that he had the keen interest in puppets that was the key for all the great puppet masters. Listening to her explain about her being here in the morning he nodded his head in agreement “Ah, I usually come just before they close, but today my order was more precise than usual so I thought to give them plenty of time. However, I know what you mean, a few screws loose for anyone or anything can be a bad time.” He said with a smile that said he appreciated her joke and he had tried to come back with a joke of his own, but humor was not one of his better suits.

Ryo smiled a bit wider about to reply to her comment about his name with a joke, or some kind of witty retort, but she had stopped him cold. The information that her name was a type of alcohol was completely new information to him. That could be due to the fact he wasn’t one who had ever consumed alcohol so the brand names were just not known to him. As he watched her puppet arm however he only just caught that she wanted to know about his puppet. He smiled and reached down to his sheath pulling up the small black ninja scroll that was there holding it up and letting her see the label “Oh, this is my first born. His name is Kuro. He is a wolf puppet. You see in the Knetegawa clan we don’t make human shaped puppets. We prefer our puppets to be in the shape of animals. Each member of the clan writes their name inside one of the many long registries to take a certain animal for their own. The animal you pick can only be used by you or those you give permission to use within the clan. Of course, some other puppeteers have started to take our style of making animal puppets, but they can’t do it half as well.” He said with no small air of pride and a lot of love in his voice and the way he carried himself. Putting the scroll back he tapped the white scroll on his left hip “This is going to be the scroll I use to carry Kuro’s twin brother Shiro, but I need the parts I came here to get before I can finish building him.”

He nodded as he looked over her puppet arm again truly enthralled with the workmanship and the beauty of it. Upon hearing the joke about spruce, he smiled and gave a few soft chuckles finding it funny as only Puppeteers would be able to. Watching her shut down her own joke however and the reactions that it would have was a bit interesting to him. This girl was fairly weird, but in Ryo’s experience most puppeteers had a lot of excentric behaviors so he excused it readily. Presently he nodded his head “A bit of sprucing up would go a long way for any puppet I think.” He said with a wink before he asked “So, you have a puppet arm, and a regular puppet. You must’ve been at this longer than me. Any tips for a budding puppeteer?” he asked genuinely looking for advice from someone he thought to be better at this than he.

WC: 667

Midori nodded along, listening as he gave a somewhat flat joke of his own, smiling to herself at the attempt. As he spoke about placing an order, it occurred to her then that perhaps he was working on a big project. After all, it involved specifics, so, most likely it was a planned project – although, this was usual for puppet makers, so, there wasn’t anything she could really say about that. Still, he seemed to then gesture to a scroll, stating that the contents within were those of his “first born”. Midori didn’t personally look at her created puppets as children, or family, rather as an extension of herself and a physical manifestation of what could be deemed her soul, so it was interesting to see a different perspective on such a subject.

She watched and listened as he spoke with pride about this puppet, the contents of the scroll, that he named Kuro. It was apparent he had pride in his clan, speaking of their tradition of making animal puppets focused primarily on a certain species of animal that each one claims at birth. An interesting bit of cultural knowledge, so, she was certainly interested in learning more. Which she did. It seemed he took the animals of wolves as his personal choice, or at least, canines – and that his reason for coming here today was for the creation of a second puppet named Shiro. It was interesting to her, and she found herself listening intently, nodding along. Just to chip in for a bit of conversation, and to show her own clan pride, the girl spoke up a bit of her own. “That’s very cool! My family, the Ningyou, were medic’s first, puppeteers second. It’s like a rite of passage to create your own arm, to further yourself with your creations. All of the shinobi of the Ningyou have one.”

As her joke was reciprocated, Midori let out a giggle, amused to find someone with the same terrible sense of humour as herself. Still, it was then that he commented on the amount of puppets she had made, deeming Midori the longer term puppet user, which probably wasn’t wrong. So, he wanted tips? She hummed, before shrugging, and beginning to speak up. “This could come across as obvious, but, remember – we, as puppet specialists, aren’t always going to be weapon specialists. Unlike the art and techniques of weapon specialists, where their blades and staffs are their craft, our work is far more versatile, and has far more life and emotion involved. Thus, not everything we make has to be a weapon. Our possibilities are endless. For example, the puppet I am refining at the moment, named Hippocrates… He has no combat function. Instead, his two functions are simple. To carry scrolls, and to carry knowledge. The first function allows me to carry more scrolls than would be practical to carry on my person, and allows any further items I need to be always within reach. The latter is to aid me in my other skill, the art of medicine. We Ningyou believe in harmony between the medical and puppet arts, and so my work Hippocrates holds all knowledge I could find about medicine, as well as room to add further notes. We are the toolboxes of shinobi. Where others are the scalpel, the knife, the shield, or the sword, we are the swiss army knife.” She sighed, before giving a large grin, the pride of a puppeteer evident in her voice as she finished. “Don’t allow yourself to act like a normal shinobi. Remember, that you are more fluid than water, harder than stone, more free than the wind, more powerful than the crack of thunder, and more ferocious than the flames!” she raised her arm in triumph for a moment, eyes glimmering with passion, before she shrugged, picking up a log of birch. “Also, make sure you budget well.”

652 + 610 = 1262

Ryo smiled as he listened intently to what the girl had to say. Her clan was not only a clan of medics, but they also used puppets. There wasn’t much that he couldn’t find attractive about that. They were happy to not only heal people but also be puppeteers who could use puppets in a way that Ryo hadn’t thought about before. Not only that but getting to make your own arm. That sounded absolutely amusing and fun to do. After all, if your arm wasn’t a part you liked about yourself you could replace it with a puppet part and make it better so it was the best part about you now. This idea started to play around in his mind about things he could do to make himself better.

When she was ready to give him the advice his eyes focused on her as well, and he slowly started to get distracted by his various other thoughts none of them appropriate considering he only just met this woman. However, with a shake of his head he focused back on what she was saying. The advice she was giving him about how their art could be used as more than just weapons, that they could be used in other fields for other reasons. He had to think this over as he had only planned to make weapons to be used in combat, but now he thought about the various other uses a puppet could have. He would, of course, he would still make weapons of war, and use them to fight the enemies of his clan and his village. Listening to the entirety of her wisdom he smiled a bit wider committing as much of her advice to memory as he could. She had given him ideas for his next set of twins after Shiro was born.

Nodding his head, he looked at her “Thank you so much! I will remember all of that if I can!” He then smiled and tugged at the harness on his body “Well, my clan did come up with a little solution to the scroll storage problem. This is the Scroll harness. We made it to carry more scrolls on our person. I’m not on a mission so I haven’t bothered to hide it. You can adjust this kind of harness to suit your needs for whatever kind of scrolls you want. It doesn’t hinder me at all really once you get used to moving around with it on.” He thought about her analogy about the tools and he smiled “It seems like Knetegawa are more the hidden blade in the darkness, or the dagger in your off hand. That doesn’t always seem that fun, but being a swiss army knife sounds like a lot of fun.” He looked her over and tilted his head before a slow smile spread over his features “I have to say though, that some people may think the puppet arm is off putting I find it to be a beautiful addition. You are very pretty.” He said looking up to her his smile spreading on his face. The only problem was his nose was now starting to bleed slowly, but he didn’t seem to notice it at this point.

WC: 542
Total: 542 + 1,088= 1,630

She grinned at the praise and thanks, feeling quite big headed for a moment before shaking the concept of egoism out of her head. It seemed he was almost a bit overly proud of his clan, stating that his clan had come up with the idea of scroll carrying devices like straps, whereas most manufacturers of shinobi armour and weapon pouches would do such as well. Not that she’d correct him, allowing the little guy to enjoy his pride – he can’t have been too long from the academy at his height, unless he was just a short person, in which case she would take that statement back. He was very insistent upon the idea of puppets as weapons, but, Midori was fine with that. People were allowed different opinions of the same thing, and he said he was intending on using the knowledge for future puppets.

As he moved the topic to her puppet arm, she laughed, shaking her head and waving the comment off with the arm in question. “Hah, I agree! I worked on it for years, tweaking it constantly, and hey, it’s my size, it works, and it feels just like an old arm, minus the whole pain thing.” She tapped the forearm with her flesh arm, shaking her head. “There’s still pain, don’t get me wrong. Phantom pain where the nerves aren’t used to having a fake limb, and are expecting there to be normal, and not prosthetic, nerves. But, also pain when the fake nerves get tugged by the arm getting damaged too much, which causes mostly strain on the shoulder…” she nodded, before shrugging. “I purposefully designed it so that the nerves would clip on and off with ease and had just enough of a wired connection to work, so that I could attach and reattach the arm at ease. Because can you just imagine how impractical it would be if you couldn’t take off your arm? Oh… Wait… That’s a normal thing…”

She laughed, shaking her head, before realising she’d completely skipped a part of what he had said. “Oh! And thanks! I’m not usually super sure, or, really, caring, but, it’s a nice compliment, so thank you! You are also pretty!” still giggling and seeing nothing odd about calling the boy pretty in return, she then stopped laughing, noticing a small trail of blood leaking down his face from his nose. “Oh! You’re bleeding! Did you like, hit your head or something? Spontaneous bleeding isn’t generally something you want to let be a regular occurrence… Hm… You haven’t picked your nose recently have you? Doing that can aggravate the nose enough to cause the skin to break, and thus cause minor or major nose bleeds. Alternatively it could be a blood flow issue… Hold on.” She held up a hand for him to stand there, before running off to the shop keep, speaking a few bits quietly, before getting a couple tissues from the man, and running back to the nose bleeding puppeteer. With a grin, she held the tissues to him, waiting for him to take them. “Shove one of these up each nose. It’ll look stupid, and feel weird, and you’ll have to breathe out of your mouth, but it stops the bleeding by, well, soaking up the blood. So, hey, it’s a win-lose, win I guess? Or would it be a pyrrhic victory? I can never remember all of those fancy terms… I just write the long names, remembering them would be far too much effort!” she laughed, shaking her head and rambling on as always.

None could stop the Melon from talking when she’s in the zone.

None.

610 + 1262 = 1872

Ryo listened intently to what she was saying about phantom pains. He couldn’t understand the idea of a limb hurting even if it wasn’t there, but then again if it was true that might explain some of the twitches he had seen some of the older shinobi doing when they scratched at their stumps where limbs had been. Really, it was a strange sort of thing to see, but he had a clue as to why they did it now. Upon hearing that she could turn the nerves in her arm on and off he was very interested in the idea. If he could turn off the pain in his own body, then he would be able to do a lot of things without actually worrying about feeling pain or pain getting in the way of fulfilling his mission. Thinking about all the benefits and drawbacks of having puppet limbs he couldn’t help but smile to himself it seemed that the idea of having puppet limbs appealed to Ryo despite the fact that his clan didn’t think it worth the time to make human puppets. Although were human limbs the same as human puppets? This was the question that he was asking himself as he thought about the various body parts he might eventually replace with puppet parts.

Hearing her question about impractical arm removal he laughed softly nodding his head “I can only imagine that it really is a terrible inconvenience. After all, sometimes we just need our arms to get out of the way so we can escape, or not be put into hand restraints. Various other things like that. If I could take my arms off that would help out a lot.” He smiled as he seemed to think this over and then looked at her “Well, if I ever decide to replace my arms with puppet arms I will come find you for your help!” he said cheerfully. He didn’t appreciate being called “pretty” however as he had thought he could get in good with this pretty lady if he called her so. Of course, what he was expected to do with her when he was alone or if he actually managed to ‘get in good’ with her was beyond his capacity to understand. Still, he wanted it and getting called pretty himself was just slightly insulting and he was glad that no one was around to hear it other than the shop workers and he was sure that they knew very well not to mock him for that.

Only once she stated the facts did he notice that he was bleeding and he blushed as she helped him out. He took the tissues nodding his head as he skillfully and with a clearly practiced series of movements. Once his nose was stuffed up he sighed shaking his head sadly “I don’t pick my nose, and it just kinda happens. I’m not quite sure why, but when my imagination starts to run away in some spots it kinda just starts to bleed.” Realizing what he said he seemed to turn red and quickly jump onto the next topic of conversation “I could only imagine that having it all written down is much easier so long as you can quickly recall where it was written down. Your indexing system must be spectacular to help you find all of those things.” He said in the funny tone that always came when someone stuffed up their nose and things like that.

Presently, he smiled and looked to the counter where his order had been set down for him and he rushed forward to pick up the parts and look at them. Smiling wider than usual he looked at all his parts and he was almost dancing with his joy as he inspected the absentmindedly paying the shopekeep and chuckling to himself “These are perfect. Soon Shiro will be born and then Kuro won’t be so lonely anymore!” He whipped around and looked to Midori with a wide smile “I’ll be able to name one of my puppets after you! Midori is Green!” He thought about it for a long moment and frowned slightly “it will be harder considering wolves don’t naturally come in green, but I will still be able to make a convincing looking wolf puppet. That’s what I have to do after all. A Knetegawa’s only as good as the quality of his puppets after all.” Collecting the parts and holding them under his arms he nodded his head rapidly “I will make sure that Midori isn’t a weapon of war. I promise that she will be something that you could be proud of!” he said happily.

WC: 780
Total: 1,630 + 780 = 2,410

Midori kept smiling as he found her blunder of logic amusing and emphasised it, although it seemed like he had misunderstood the way the nerves actually worked, considering his statement of its many uses. Yes, she could take the arm off, but, until she did, it still hurt, and it stung to take it off, like a pinching feeling. But, she inspired him it seemed, and as he stated he might come to her for a prosthetic made, she laughed and smiled, giving a thumbs up. “Glad to hear it!” she stated, feeling quite full of pride, and still seeing absolutely nothing wrong with returning a complement, the shop keep walking out back to pretend he didn’t see anything, or to check stock. Whichever it was.

In a voice that sounded like a cartoon squid from another universe, Midori listened as Ryo talked about the nose bleeds occurring when he let his imagination run free and wild. As he complimented her system for recording things though, she laughed and shook her head. “I only write down medicines and diseases, treatments and things like that. Have you seen the length of medicinal names? There’s no way anyone could just remember them off the top of their head! That would just be… Way too much effort.” She gave an over emphasised shrug, letting the topic drop as quickly as it’d come up, and remaining as completely unaware of the reason of his nose bleed, almost forgetting he had a nose bleed were it not for the tissues up his nose, and the nasally tone in his voice.

Shortly after, the shop keep returned, carrying a few parts that he put on the desk gently, as well as a few things from under the desk, and setting them out in an orderly fashion, thus confirming that he had left the room to go do work, rather than left to go avoid the awkwardness that was the one sided attraction, although perhaps the retrieval of the order was to excuse himself purposefully – it was a mystery. Regardless, after a brief pause, her conversation partner walked over to the various pieces, picking them up off the desk with a smile as he began his monologue. It was somewhat worrying to her, how much he emphasised the emotion he believed his puppets had, but, well… She wasn’t going to say anything.

As he turned around however, he then spoke about something that actually made Midori of all people blush – the idea of someone making a puppet with her name, inspired by her, was insane to her, but not in a bad way. A large grin crossed her face as he stated that he would guarantee the puppet would not be a weapon, but a different type of puppet entirely – a support or defensive puppet perhaps? Regardless, she couldn’t help but be giddy, and had to force herself to calm down before she started jumping up and down giddily like a child in a sweet shop.

“Thank you very much! That’s so humbling to hear, and I am truly honoured! Thank you so much Ryo!” still in the moment of hyper-active Midori stupidity, the girl leant down, hugging the puppet holding boy, before jumping back and giving a thumbs up. “If you ever need help with anything, feel free to visit the Ningyou clan grounds and ask for Midori! I’m usually there working on something, or on a mission, so, from one puppeteer to another, I can say I’d be happy to catch up some time, or help out with things! And truly, I am very humbled by you naming a puppet after me, gosh! That’s insane! Thank you!”

612 + 1872 = 2484

Ryo smiled as he nodded his head in agreement “That’s true enough. I suppose. I get so confused over how many different types of wood there are and sometimes all the steps, little tiny pieces, and bits and bobs that a puppet is made of gets to me. I couldn’t imagine trying to remember all of that on top of being a medic. Seems like a huge hassle. Still, it’s good you have a system to keep track of things.” He said smiling and hefting his packages. He would be ready to finish Shiro with these items and then he would have his first pair of twins. He knew his ways were strange to some, but he didn’t care, this was how he viewed his puppets and he was the happier for it.

Her reaction to hearing that he would make a puppet named after her caught him off guard. He wasn’t sure what he had done, or if it was anything worthy of getting so excited about, but if she was happy he supposed that it was a good thing. As she hugged him his face burst out in deep red and the tissues in his nose seemed to become soggy turning more red than white. He looked up at her nodding his head quickly clearly embarrassed “Ye-yeah! W-We can catch up sometime, a-and who knows maybe we’ll be s-sent on a mission together!” he said a bit hurriedly being that he was starting to really bleed. He wanted to get out of there before he made a fool of himself. Gulping he bowed to her again “I will look forward to our next meeting! Oh, and maybe next time you’ll get to meet Kuro and Shiro. I am sure they would be happy to meet you.” He said smiling as wide as his face would allow “Well, see you then!” he said cheerfully before he rushed from the store his face still red and now the tissues were almost completely red from how much blood he was losing to his very naughty mind.

[Exit Thread]

WC: 345
Total: 345 + 2,410 = 2, 755

Training
Ninja Art: Tile Shuriken D rank Jutsu: 750/750 WC, 80/80 Ryo
Meandering River Edge C Rank Jutsu: 1,000/1,000 WC, 150/150 Ryo
Water Release: Gunshot C Rank Jutsu: 1k/1k WC, 150/150 Ryo

WC: 2,755 – 2,750 = 5 words Remaining
Ryo: 1,758 – 380 = 1,378 Ryo remaining

Midori could respect having your own way to do things. She was, after all, really fucking weird. Still, she paid little attention as the boy got a bit flustered, his speech growing broken as he stated that he hoped the two would do a mission together. In truth, Midori hoped the same, loving the idea of working together with a fellow puppet enthusiast and specialist. So, she smiled, nodding slowly in reply. As he offered the chance of perhaps meeting his two puppets Midori waved, nodding and replying. “I look forward to it! And you’ll have to meet Theophrastus and Lozen! Safe travels friend!” she exclaimed, before shaking her head, and still smiling, walking over to the wood, picking several planks of assorted woods, and taking it over to the counter, doing some bartering and talking before handing the man some ryo with a smile, taking the wood and some screws, and leaving.

The girl proceeded to leave the shop, smiling as she carried the overly large parts out into the streets and around the locations of non-significant importance, taking the scenic but safe route home, where she went to her personal study. She had materials to organise now, and a schematic to write up, humming happily as a thought went through her head. An inhuman puppet could be quite interesting to create, no? Thoughts ran through Midori’s head as she recalls having read about a mythological creature that was both human and animal, yet unalike them both together… Thoughts of how to use this creature, the nuckelavee, as inspiration for her next puppet. Oh, how wonderful it could be! She’d likely have to base Lozen on it perhaps, for surely that would make a good puppet for offense and defense, as a semi-horse rider? One way to find out!

300 + 2484 = 2784

[EXIT]

Training: