~Restless~

The night had passed and the sun had risen once more. It was the day after having arrived at the mansion and being assigned a room within it. The night felt almost never ending. The softest squeaks made by the bed or the wind blowing against the window would make her eyes shoot open as if she was wide awake again. The ever looming darkness that she felt surrounded by preventing her from being able to put her mind to rest and sleep properly. If she had managed to even get an hour of total shut eye she would be surprised. Her feelings shouldn’t be misinterpreted however as much as she dreaded being in this place, the house of Sero Osada, at the same time she felt very honored. To be given a room in the house of the man that was captain of the seven swordsman, leader of the Osada clan and right hand of the Mizukage. The lord of the house had a reputation that Fuyuko couldn’t help but respect a whole lot. So while she was afraid of the aura that the man had about him, she couldn’t help but respect him at the same time. In the end her fear of being snapped in two like a twig would still dominate her feelings. Potentially when she had affirmed for herself that such a scenario wouldn’t just randomly pop up she’d be able to get a better nights rest.

For now it had very little meaning to try and stay laying bed, she wasn’t going to get a lot more sleep than she did anyway, if it was even possible to get a minute more. So she would get herself up and about moving in her room. Tip-toeing through the room so that she wouldn’t make noise that could potentially wake up the others in the mansion. There wasn’t too much clothing she had to put back on, having left most of it on incase she would be forced into a scenario where she would need it. However she wouldn’t stay in the same clothes for this day as well, she grabbed a fresh pair of pants, a clean tight fitting t-shirt and a warm fuzzy turtleneck sweater. With the manor being so big and spacious it was colder in the building than she preferred. And finally grabbing her forehead protector on the way to the door of her room. She undid the lock and gently pulled on the door, almost as if she was sneaking through the building, trying to move through it as silently as possible. She moved herself down the hallway towards the bathroom, and prepared to get herself cleaned. Much to her surprise a bath had already been drawn, she quickly took off her clothes and soaked herself into the warm water. The water was nice and hot and warmed her up to the core, the heat of the water relaxing her muscles and sending her mind into a bliss.

~A warm embrace~

Fuyuko dosed off and begun slowly sliding deeper and deeper into the bath until the point where her nose would be unable to breath. Prompting her to shoot up straight and cough frantically to get rid of the water that had reached places it shouldn’t have. When the coughing would finish she got herself out of the bath and dried herself off and looked over to her clothes pile. Had it always been in that position? She shook the idea away so she wouldn’t drive herself paranoid, it was not worth spending her energy on thinking how she left her clothes piled before she entered the bath. Having finished drying herself off she put on her fresh set of clothes. Holding her old set as she made her way out of the bathroom. After opening the door she would have a mini heart attack, a servant was standing on the other side of the door. “You can give your clothes to me, I’ll make sure they will be cleaned and present in your room again by the end of the day. Is there anything else I could do to be of service to you miss?” The servant politely asked. Without much hesitation Fuyuko would hand over her clothes. It made her unsure how to feel however, she had never really been in a situation where she had been served by someone. It made her unsure of what the proper way to respond was. So she would respond like she would normally. “If there is a vegetable soup available, I would like to have that, thank you very much.” She said with a small bow. “I will get right on it miss, it will be served for you in the dining hall. Also there is no need for you to reply so formal miss.” He replied but there would still appear a quick small smile on the servants face. She would follow the servant down the hallway before they’d part ways again and Fuyuko would move herself to the dining hall and get herself seated awaiting the arrival of her soup.



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The night had been as peaceful as always. The mist shrouded the island, the wind blew softly and the bone-chilling humidity that often came with the enshrouding mist did not miss to seep into certain areas of the mansion this night either. Still not used to sleeping as a human, Haka had passed the night in her form of origins - that of a wolf spider. Unlike the progenitors of her clan, she was not the itsy bitsy spider of the nursery rhymes but a healthy eight-legged monstrosity easily spanning a full meter and a half in size. She had nested her chalk-white, misty grey body in the women baths of the mansion, body positioned in the upper corner as her legs stuck to both the ceiling and the two walls. There, tucked away as much as possible from unwanted attention, the seeping cold had urged her into a near hibernating state for the night.

Even when one of the servants entered the bathroom to prepare it for the guests and warmed up the waters below her, she did not stir in the slightest. It was only when the heated damp started to fill the room that she was nudged out of her arachnid repose and registered how the nearby world was coming to life. The giant spider remained without word or movement, eyeing how the servant left the baths and allowed rest and peace to settle once more in the area. During the ten minute time span that no one was around, Haka moved her eight hairy legs and skittered over to the other side, lurking in the corner above the door now. As she settled her body once more, she thought about pouncing down on whichever servant would enter next for no apparent reason other than keeping her hunting instincts as a wolf spider sharp.

Unfortunately, it was not a servant whom entered the room. It was Fuyuko, the human girl that had been with her sister when they first met. Eight eyes gazed in quietude from the corner, watching Fuyuko undress and step inside the baths seemingly without any worries to wash herself. Naturally, with the age difference between the '13-year old' Haka and the slightly older Fuyuko, there were certain distinct differences in the feminine shape of the two girls which the spider didn't quite grasp just yet. She had seen similar features with some of the female servants within the manor, but had paid little attention to those as she knew the servants were just like her - spiders in disguise - and thus possibly could be mistaken in their shape.

Indulging in her task to find humane perfection, she observed the bathing actions of the young woman and imprinted them in her memory as being some sort of humane ritual. It wasn't that she had not been in a bath before, but the last time she had been in one, it had been the healing baths at the end of the hallway, passed Sero's weapon armoury. She had been there to recover from the beating she had suffered for trying to stab him, rather than to bathe herself like this human did. She would have to try it herself, eventually, so she could understand what this bathing ritual was about and take one more step towards the enforced search for humanity.

In all this time, Haka didn't move. She didn't even blink, just lurking there, her bleak colouring in camouflage with the equally bleak colouring of the bathroom's ceiling and walls. So the spider was not surprised to see Fuyuko eventually leave the bathroom squeaky clean and wearing the new clothes the servant had come to bring her. Since they were in the vicinity, she was able to hear her request for 'vegetable soup' - whatever that was - and eventually heard footsteps distantiate from her. Waiting another couple of minutes, the spider eventually decided to drop down, taking on the form of the young schoolgirl with long white hairs and quietly walking down the hallway towards the dining room, attempting once more to mimic Sero's quieter-than-could-possibly-be-done movement.

Eventually, she reached the dining room and saw Fuyuko sit at the table as she entered. Walking a straight line towards the kitchen, and requesting wordlessly to carry the soup herself, she reappeared into the dining hall with Fuyuko's request. Vegetable soup. Step by step, eyes fixated on the hot liquid inside the bowl, she made sure not to spill any of it at the behest of the servants who, just to be sure, had one of them keep an eye out on Haka's very movement. As she reached the table, she carefully placed the soup in front of Fuyuko.

"Vegetable soup", she stated with a quiet voice, as if Fuyuko would not know this was, indeed, vegetable soup. Taking a step back, seemingly to leave Fuyuko some space, Haka would once more not budge as she observed the eating rituals of the human in front of her.

---

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Fuyuko patiently waited in the large dining hall. Looking around to try and really grasp the size of it all. She had never really been in big place before. Sure she had been on the countryside and the farms were decently sized, but those were big to stall huge amount of cattle and the like, not to live in. The size of the room made her wonder how many people could possibly fit inside of it. It had windows that were taller than the height of her house back in the village. The whole manor really made everything feel spacious, but also lonesome. It probably added more onto the scary factor of the entire place.

Her trail of thought got interrupted as one of the doors to the dining hall opened up and a young girl came walking through it. Taking a better look at her it was Haka, the servant which also came and opened up the door for them yesterday. She wasn’t as well-mannered back then, perhaps she was just afraid of meeting strangers or perhaps there were other things going on. Regardless of the reason for her behavior yesterday, she was an interesting person. Fuyuko quietly observed her in the corners of her eyes as she walked through the room and towards the kitchen. After having disappeared shortly from her sight, Haka returned with a tray. On top of the tray was a bowl which she was staring at quite a bit, it seemed like she was solely focusing on making sure that the soup would arrive to her without any complications. It put a small smile on her face watching Haka going through the ordeal. Until she got closer and closer again, Fuyuko’s hair would start to rise again, the unease she felt when entering the manor and when she was in presence of Sero. If she were a cat she was sure she would be hissing at Haka right now, but at all costs, she had to suppress her feelings and keep them to herself. At the very least as long as she was in the manor.

The tray with soup was placed in front of her, despite it obviously being what she had requested, Haka would still mention the name of the soup. Having delivered the soup she took a step backwards. Not walking away but instead just standing there behind her back as if she was looking over her shoulder waiting to start eating it. But before she did so she would turn her body slightly and her head fully towards the direction of Haka. It was peculiar to her why she used so little words. “Tell me Haka, why do you use so few words when you talk with someone? If you're a servant, aren't you supposed to talk with more words?”. Fuyuko would patiently wait to see if she would be given a reply of any sorts before she would turn around again. Reaching out for her spoon before slowly letting it sink into the soup. Letting the spoon fill up with just the hot water which had soaked up some of the flavors of the soup.  When the spoon was filled she’d slowly bring the spoon to her lips and softly blow over it a few times before putting the spoon in her mouth. If there were no interruptions she’d continue on eating her soup, sometimes having bites of just the hot water, but mainly just filling her spoon with the vegetables that had been put inside of the soup.


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The 'soup', a warm liquid of sort that had been nourished various vegetables. It had a remarkable good scent, but it didn't smell like something Haka would eat. The wolf spider, generally hunting in her natural form, hunted for things made of flesh and blood. Haka had expected Fuyuko to take a liking to the soup, upon which she would start sipping from it and enjoy the obviously humane tastes it sported, but she did not do so. Instead, she turned her head to look at Haka and ask her a bunch of annoying questions, disturbing the serene observation of the human feeding rituals.

Tell me Haka, why do you use so few words when you talk with someone? If you're a servant, aren't you supposed to talk with more words?"

Now what sort of question was this? Was Fuyuko not supposed to ask her what vegetables were in it? Or tell her how tasty it was? Following rigid logic, when one was served soup, one ate soup and talked about soup. That was what she expected to happen. If someone really felt the need to ask questions. But instead, Fuyuko made the odd statement that she was a servant, a statement made by her sister before and now mentioned in repetition. To the spider-nin it was obvious she was not a servant since she did not wear the same sort of clothes typically reserved for servants, but that did not seem to be noticed by humans or spiders  in disguise. A weakness possibly caused by the fact humans only had two eyes in their natural form, compared to the spiders' eight eyes.

"Haka is no servant.", she replied, her voice toneless as always, hoping to have explained with this she did not need to utter overly long sentences to make something understood. The actual reason was that the human language sounded ugly to her, and as such she only spoke a bare minimum of it. However, to explain this actual reason, she would ironically require a lot of words to make it well understood. Her mind already scrambled by the unexpected bend in logic, Haka was somewhat unsure if Fuyuko would now enjoy the soup in front of her, and therefore felt a need to point out there was soup on the table worthy of her attention.

"You like the soup?"

Haka had asked a question, so, logically, Fuyuko would have to answer it. However, since she had not tasted it yet, Haka deducted the human would first need to do so before she could reply. As such, her attention would be diverted towards the soup and observations of the human feeding rituals could actually take place. A fail-proof plan, in the mind of the spider.

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So few words spoken again by Haka. While her reply did somewhat answer her question, it however only barely answered one of the questions she had asked Haka. It merely clarified that Haka was no servant. While yes, she didn’t wear the attire of the other servants Fuyuko could probably think of a whole bunch of reasons why she could still be mistaken for one. However that mattered little now that Haka had made it obvious she was no servant. But the answer opened up a door to several other questions, if she was no servant, why did she bring the soup to Fuyuko? Isn’t that exactly what servants are for? Furthermore if she wasn’t a servant, what was she doing in the manor? Was she here to be trained? With the aura she was wearing it wasn’t entirely out of the question, seeing as it bore such close resemblance as to the lord of the manor. Was she potentially just like Miyu a daughter of Sero Osada?

But before she could ask any of the many new questions that had popped into her mind Haka spoke a few words again. Fuyuko would hesitate for a second, wondering what would be the best order to do things in. While Haka’s voice had been rather devoid of emotions in the few words they had shared together her actions would still show what she truly wanted to happen. Following that logic it would probably be wise for her to first do what Haka wanted to happen and then in response she might get ‘rewarded’ for her actions. So Fuyuko took a few bites from the soup before she’d turn around again to face Haka.

“The soup tastes very good.” she said with a small smile on her face. Now that there would be very little room for Haka to interrupt her she would ‘bombard’ her with questions. One way or another she would pry more out of the young girl. “Now tell me Haka, you say aren’t servant. Yet you bring me the soup I had requested, a job clearly meant for the servant, wouldn’t you agree?” Fuyuko would leave a small pause to get some sort of confirmation from Haka before continuing. “Now if that’s the case, why did you bring it to me instead? Also The answer you gave before only really answers one of my questions. Even if you aren’t a servant that doesn’t mean that’s a reason for you to talk in few words. So once again, why do you talk with so few words?”

Fuyuko decided to hold back on asking any more questions for now. If she were to reply with very little words to every question she had, she would have to pry way too hard to get the information she wanted. It was probably better to let Haka ease into it, perhaps she just wasn’t used to talking.


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Aha. As planned, the human tasted the soup, unable to not abide by the logically determined path Haka had calculated. The spoon seemed to be the tool of choice to enjoy the flavour of the soup rather than to just put the bowl to her lips and drink it, leaving Haka with a vague notion as to why the spoon was considered a better option than the bowl itself. For a few moments, a satisfactory silence descended as Haka remained unquestioned and Fuyuko enjoyed the well prepared soup by the servants. But it would not last.

Suddenly stopping, Fuyuko turned to face her again, meeting Haka's stoic gaze to reply to her question and compliment the taste of the soup. Of course, a question asked required an answer. But then, she saw the glint of an overactive mind reflected in Fuyuko's eyes and before Haka had been able to think about a countermeasure to have the human return to sipping soup, a flood of questions threatened to drown the spider-nin's mind. Why? One did not stop feeding until sated or threatened. Such was the way prey was dealt with. Why then was this human not abiding by this natural behaviour? It annoyed Haka that she couldn't understand Fuyuko's behaviour. A most unnatural behaviour, in the eyes of the spider, that she could only describe as being 'humane'. While that concept was still alien to her, she had no concluded that 'humane behaviour' was not something that abides by the laws of nature.

Still, Haka would show no emotion, her eyes fixated on Fuyuko, her aura flickering to a darker colour briefly to emphasise her annoyance as it left behind the impression that taunting a monster such as Haka was not a wise decision. Reminding herself that Sero had asked her to learn about humanity, Haka reeled in her annoyance, would then move from behind Fuyuko towards a nearby chair across her position, pull it back and sit down. She was not quite sure where to leave her hands at first, ultimately deciding to let them rest on the table. Even though the chair was an odd obstacle to her spider senses, it felt oddly comfortable to her human senses and thud considered it a good action from her part.

With that done, she fixated her gaze back on Fuyuko, hoping that she would now stop turning her head and actually eat her soup. However, she had not forgotten that questions had been asked. Annoying questions, no less, as they'd would expect her to answer properly in the human tongue.

"Everyone can bring soup.", she stated as a reply to Fuyuko's notion that only servants did so. She didn't agree at all, since she was not a servant herself. The only truth was that here, in her Creator's manor, yes, the servants usually brought the food to humans. However, would that reply suffice? Probably not, but it was mostly the other question that put her in a difficult predicament. If Fuyuko knew Haka's true nature, chances were that she'd run around screaming or trying to kill her. Humans were known to dislike spiders.

"Haka dislikes speaking.", she eventually answered, thinking that such a short answer was a valid substitute for the otherwise overly lengthy explanation on how she hated the human speech. In the context they currently were finding themselves, her answer was a truth. If Fuyuko would ever learn the spider's speech somehow, things could be different as she didn't mind speaking as much in her native tongue. That said, Haka wondered why humans talked this much, but found herself at a dilemma. If she asked that question, Fuyuko would once more be speaking instead of eating her soup. If she didn't ask it, her question would remain unanswered as Fuyuko continued eating her soup. If she would even continue... She had a feeling it would not be so, defying all natural logic once again and thus decided to ask the burning question anyway, "Why talk so much?"

---

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Fuyuko would patiently wait for Haka to answer the new questions she asked, but was met with something she had not expected at all. All though it was still pale in comparison to that of Sero Osada, the aura that she was surrounded by intensified. It became thicker and more vicious as if it was telling her that she was heading in the wrong direction. That if she wanted to leave unscathed that she would have to tread very carefully. It but her body on high alert and without realizing it her left fist was clenched tightly besides her body, ready to respond to any sort of thread that might be imposed on her. Her eyes rapidly checking out Haka’s body looking for any signs of movement that could be perceived as hostile. It was then that she realized she could probably take on Haka if it were to really come to it. Her body looked too young and untrained for Fuyuko to not have the upper hand if a fight were to break out between the two of them. But quickly after it she realized that Nozomi also didn’t look like the toughest opponent yet she was a high ranked ninja, making her realize that appearance wasn’t anything. Making Fuyuko feel not as confident as she did a few seconds ago.

Thankfully the denser aura subsided and Haka would move away from behind her, which in its own way could be somewhat perceived as threatening. The young girl moved to the other side of the table and pulled a chair across from Fuyuko back and got herself seated in it. This was another moment where Fuyuko felt like there was something odd about Haka. The way she was so ‘uncomfortable’ with tasks that Fuyuko wouldn’t describe as anything but second nature. The thought would have to wait until she had more time to think about it. For now she would have to focus on the task at hand, continuing the conversation that she had going on with Haka.

Hopefully Haka would respond with more words than she had been doing so up till that point, it would make conversing with her a lot easier. It wouldn’t feel like they were two opposite forces playing tug-o-war but instead be two cooperative forces that made things go by smoothly. Alas, her expectations weren’t met, at least not for the time being. Haka would again reply with a rather short worded answer. However it wouldn’t really answer her question, if anything it made Fuyuko feel like her question was misunderstood, perhaps phrasing it in another way would result in a more satisfactory answer. However she would hold back on asking her follow up question until Haka had finished answering all the question Fuyuko had presented her with.

Haka’s reply to her question about why she talked with so few words was rather intriguing. It also boggled her mind a little bit as she found it somewhat contradictory to the actions she had been displaying. Her face probably portrayed the confusion that was going on inside of Fuyuko’s mind. Haka said that she didn’t like speaking, but it was one of the best ways for one to gather information about things. Sure one could gather a lot of information from just observing someone, but you could only find out about someone’s true motivations if you asked them questions, if you engaged in conversation and share the information that isn’t shown through physical activity.

Luckily Haka would present the perfect opportunity for her to explain this to Haka. Her eyes sparkled as she was searching for the right words to use to properly convey her thoughts. Normally she would’ve first replied to the two statements made earlier, but it was probably wiser to do them in reverse order this time around. Perhaps Haka would understand then the importance of speech and talk with longer sentences. So Fuyuko pushed the bowl with soup a little away from herself to give her more space to talk through her body language as well.

“Why talk so much you ask. That’s a decent question to ask, so I’ll tell you about it. First of all, I don’t even talk that much. I talk about the average amount that a person would talk, there are people that talk easily twice as much or more as I do, but that’s just some side information. To answer your question more properly, talking is the best way to gather information about someone. Yes, you can gather information by observing someone, but you can’t look inside the mind of someone. You don’t know what makes the gears in their head work and what they’re thinking off. The only way to find out about what’s making the cog’s turn is through asking them and actively engage in conversation. Furthermore conversing can be a fun activity, sharing experiences with one and another and getting an enjoyable experience from it. But even that is just gaining information about the one you’re talking with, understanding them on a deeper level. I hope that explains why I’m talking ‘so much’.”

Fuyuko would wait a few seconds before she would talk again, giving Haka a little bit of time to process what she had just been told. “So about the other two things you just said. Why do you dislike speaking? Also, yes it’s true that everyone can bring soup, but certainly there is a reason why you brought the soup instead of letting a servant do it, right?” She said while tilting her head slightly. Fuyuko hoped that with explaining about the benefits of conversing Haka would now talk with more than just five words per reply.



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By now, Haka was used to receive answers anytime she asked a 'why' question. It was clear. The power of 'why' compelled people to abide by its unmentioned power. 'Why' was powerful. Haka liked the 'why' question, as every time it forced someone to answer they were generally paying less attention to something else in their drive to have it answered. However, this 'why' question might not have been her best choice as Fuyuko started to... verbally prepare herself. As if she was about to load a cannon, take her jolly good time to aim and then blast away half the landscape with it. No, the word storm that followed on this 'why' question of hers would have her reeling in shock.

What first started as a correction about herself 'not talking as much', ironically contradicted by the word storm that followed in that declaration, changed from a perceptive measuring into a link on how lengthy sentences could prove an interesting means to gather information. At that point, Haka was already more than satisfied with the answer given, having heard enough. Fuyuko didn't cease there, however. She jumped from 'simple information' into the depths of psychological deductions and mental assessment. Haka wanted to mention that it was not hard to lie, but the word storm would not have it. Ruthlessly, it drowned Haka's attempt of a reply, continuing to the pleasures of speech such as the sharing of experience. Haka, rather pale by nature, would have grown even more pale if she could, her mind trying to register and place everything being said in her arachnid mind. But it didn't stop just yet... The cherry on top being when Fuyuko combined every of her former statements into one final push, an orchestra of answers blasting away the whole attempt of Haka holding on tight to the few strands of logical structure she could find.

The spider-nin could only blink, as her mind felt fried for a moment. The questions that followed after a brief moment of pause were barely registered, only a few words lingering around. Words such as 'speaking', 'bringing soup' and 'reason', kept clinging as the word storm was being translated from human to spider speech and being processed into her rigid spider mind. At this point, she wasn't even sure anymore to what part of the word flood or which question she had to reply to, and as such Haka remained quiet for quite some time, to the point an awkward silence would slowly settle in. Her eyes didn't leave Fuyuko's, returning her a cold gaze in reply. Why, when she said she disliked speaking, did the human start speaking even more?

Some sense of structure having returned to her, she eventually figured out which question she'd reply too. The reason why she had been bringing soup, was for "Observation.". Perhaps that one word would also serve as an answer to other questions, but she wasn't quite sure anymore. Perhaps it would tell Fuyuko she truly talked too much, but she wasn't sure about that either. What she could say was that Fuyuko didn't need a question to reply or come up with more questions, making the spider-nin wonder if it was a good idea to reply to her questions to begin with.

Regaining some of her mental posture, Haka closed her eyes and brushed her long, white hair behind her ears. She still didn't understand Fuyuko's verbal retaliation, but she did know that walking away would not allow her to learn more about humanity. It would not teach her about human mannerism, nor about their food. She would not have to ask questions, true, but to some extend Fuyuko had been right about one thing: every 'why' question revealed secrets she would not have been able to perceive through observation. For a moment, she wondered how much more she would be able to pry loose if she ever bothered to teach a human the Unmei's language, discarding that idea right after and opting for a different tactical approach in the word war.

"Can I taste the soup?"

The human had grabbed a spoon, tasted it and found it to have a good taste. She was, however, not continuing it. Haka was unfamiliar with human food, and her experience with 'fruit wine' had been a most interesting one, making her wonder if the soup would provide an equally interesting experience.

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Fuyuko silently gazed across the table, looking at Haka's pale face and amber colored eyes. Watching as the young ladies brain tried to puzzle all the things together. Watching as if she was trying to solve a connect the dots puzzle that didn't have any numbers attached to the dots. A puzzle in which only Haka could find the answer. While Haka's eyes only gazed back, returning the gaze that Fuyuko was giving her. It intrigued Fuyuko greatly, wondering what thoughts were running through the young ladies mind. Was she simply overwhelmed by that she was told and so incapable of replying all together or was she just meticulously churning over the words. Dissecting the sentences and looking at it piece by piece. To try and truly understand the meaning of what Fuyuko had just told her.

The silence lasted for quite sometime. At some point even feeling like there wouldn't ever come an end to it. However at some point something seemed to click inside of Haka's mind as she would start to speak again. However what was spoken left Fuyuko completely dumbfounded. Was her explanation, which wasn't even that in-depth already too much? Did it just completely go by the young ladies mind. Fuyuko couldn't help but let her head drop forward. She was lucky that she had moved the bowl forward because otherwise her face would've landed inside of it. Instead it would land on the table now, creating quite a bit of a noise. Rattling the silverware and other things that were positioned on the table. She raised her head and looked back up to Haka with the most dumbfounded look she could possibly create. "Why did you only reply with an even shorter answer?". The answer that Haka had given her would go and be forgotten. The length of the reply simply just making her not register the word that was spoken.

Fuyuko rested her head now on her hands, her fingertips against her temples making small circles. Trying to cope with the absurdity that Haka had just displayed. The whole ordeal was pretty mind boggling to her. Sure you can have a dislike for talking and choose to minimize it, but what Haka tried to achieve just seemed so contradictory that it just made no sense whatsoever to Fuyuko. Her trail of thought would be interrupted by Haka speaking up once more, but to her surprise it wasn't an inquiry about anything, rather it was a request to try the soup out herself. Fuyuko didn't mind with her appetite having gone away by the bizarre conversation the two were sharing.

"Yeah sure go right ahead and take a bite or more if you want." She gestured that as well with her hand and arm. As Haka would most likely take her time with eating and tasting the soup Fuyuko thought of where to take the conversation next. Speaking didn't seem to be all that good of an approach for interacting with Haka, but she was unsure how to do it otherwise. Talking was just by far the simplest way in most cases to share and gather information. Maybe it was better to still use more words, but let the young lady decide. "So is there something you want from me? Want me to do something or teach you something? Tell me." Fuyuko said with a small sigh as she leaned with her head on the palm of her left hand.


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The human had agreed to the tasting of the soup, and as such Haka stood up, placed the chair back in place and walked around the table to halt next to Fuyuko. Being this close, she took a few seconds to look that Fuyuko as if trying to figure out if there would be any other odd, illogical actions such as head bonking which would follow. While no more weird actions followed, the spider-nin noticed the chestnut brown coloured eyes were the same colour as her hair. They seemed slightly brighter than the dirty brown earth she had crawled through for... long. Longer than spiders usually lived, probably. But they were also far darker than her amber eyes. She found them holding a certain warmth and strength of character she had otherwise not been able to notice in other humans. Well, she had never really approached a human this close.

"Haka likes your eyes.", she said before abruptly turning her head to eye the spoon, her soft voice almost an apathetic contradiction to the truth they held. She picked up the spoon carefully, making sure she held it just like she had seen Fuyuko do and scooped up some from the bowl before putting it into her mouth. The soup still rather warm, she frowned slightly as the unexpected heat hit her tongue and swallowed it in one gulp. An odd mixture of unfamiliar nourishment and lack of saturation glided down her throat. Haka tilted her head, looking at nothing in particular. This was... not bad a taste, compared to her usual diet. Moving her gaze to the kitchen where the soup had come from, an idea formed into her head as Fuyuko asked her straightly if she wanted to be taught something. Turning her head to Fuyuko, she gave a short nod.

"Teach Haka about food."

She pointed at the kitchen where a large amount of utensils and ingredients could be found and provided enough room to have half a dozen of servants be occupied with plenty of space. What wasn't stored in the kitchen could be found in the larder. Haka was about to leave already, not waiting for a reply on Fuyuko's account, when she realised the soup wasn't finished yet. So instead, she gazed at the soup for a moment before shifting her gaze back to Fuyuko.

"After soup?"

There certainly was more soup in the kitchen still, and if not, Haka would probably not mind trying to make some new soup. There was just no saying what random ingredients would end up in said soup.

---

434
Total: 3172

Fuyuko’s eyes slowly followed Haka as she moved around the table once again. Her head slowly turning as she moved only for her to stop turning. Her gaze returning that of Haka as she just seemed to be standing there. What did she want? There was enough space for her to be standing next to her and try the soup out herself or did she want to take the seat she was sitting in so she could eat properly. It was somewhat vague what was going on and Haka was saying what she wanted. Haka’s lips would part and sound would come out of it. However the words that the sound made was not what she was expecting at all, it caught her kind of off guard. With the words spoken Haka would move herself closer to the soup and go through the normal order in which things were done if one ate soup. While doing that Fuyuko would reply to the compliment she had just received; it was a compliment right? “Thank you. Yours are quite pretty as well.”

After that she would just quietly observe the young girl as she tried out the soup. She seemed to be surprised by what she could only be was the flavor at first, but eventually did end up liking it or at the very least it was edible enough for the young lady. The young girl would then proceed behaving in her normal way. With little to no emotion and as little information as possible. She asked if Fuyuko could teach her more about food whilst pointing at the kitchen. It was somewhat vague but Fuyuko assumed she wanted to be taught how to cook. Because teaching someone about all the possibilities of food would simply just take way too long. Before Fuyuko could reply Haka had already almost moved herself away from the table before she would turn her gaze towards the soup that was in front of them. While she agreed it was probably a little bit wasteful if they left the soup for what it was, at the same time, if she were to teach Haka about food they’d probably end up eating a lot. Which meant that if they ate the soup now they could taste less things later on.

“We can just make a new one or something else. I’ll try not to talk too much, but no promises.” Fuyuko moved the chair she was seated in back and got up and walked towards the kitchen ahead of Haka. When she arrived in the kitchen she was kind of amazed. Her kitchen at home was nothing compared to this. She kind of liked cooking, but doing groceries for the cooking was often too much of hassle and as a result she often just ate very simple. However she could find herself cooking in this kitchen a bit, she pulled the cupboards to check all the supplies that were available. The possible ingredients were more than she could think of, it was comparable to that of a supermarket, if you could think of it, it was probably present. She got up and looked in Haka’s direction again. “So what do you want to know? What do you want to make?” A hint of joy was present on her face, in her eyes and her voice.


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Her genuine compliment seemed to have effect as Fuyuko replied to her in kind. Though Haka liked the positive note in it, she also wondered if this was just a predefined reaction from humans to return kindness with kindness, or if she was simply caught off guard by her randomly saying something that had nothing to do at all with the current mood or context. To the spider, much like Nova's patting on her head before, it meant little as the humane subtlety and intent of such social interactions did not register with the wolf spider. It did not hurt her, and as such she had no need to retaliate.

After having tasted the soup and hearing Fuyuko agree to teach her about other human foods, the human stood up and walked towards the kitchen, upon which the spider-nin followed in her footsteps. When Fuyuko entered the kitchen, she seemed amazed by the newly revealed room in front of her. To Haka, it was a room as any other, which meant it was just a space created by four walls and a roof, filled with various objects to keep up the imagery of humanity for those who visited the manor. Spiders did not need such things, even though the servants here had come to take a liking to the shapes and utility of the furniture in their daily life. Much like the servants generally frequenting the kitchen, and bowing briefly towards Fuyuko, the human girl seemed to regain her spirits, happiness shimmering through in her eyes and voice.

"So what do you want to know? What do you want to make?"

A peculiar question to the spider, who had no clue what exactly could be made with all these ingredients. Nothing of what was displayed, hanging, drying or stashed looked like soup. Well, nothing but what was left of the soup in the cooking pot, then. She had seen grey fish being turned to gold as it hit the frying pan, she had watched the servants turn potatoes to long sticks and observed the assassination and dissecting of vegetables before they ended in a pot with water, but nothing seemed to explain a logical realisation of how these ingredients turned into the splendid dishes they brought to the table. Eventually spotting a plumed turkey and remembering how she had hunted these animals before as a spider, she quietly walked over to the fowl and grabbed it with her two hands to bring it in front of Fuyuko.

"Let's turn this to food", she said calmly, obviously having no clue as to how much work it took to prepare a turkey decently. She wouldn't mind devouring it as it was, but she knew well enough that this was not very humane. No, humans liked their prey prepared. Now she just wanted to know where that road lead to.

---

481
Total: 3653

Fuyuko blinked a few times as Haka came walking up to her with a raw turkey. “She isn’t going to want to prepare that right?” She asked herself in her head, afraid and well aware that the answer to that question was going to be that she did want to prepare that. She could only let out a sigh and let her head drop for a second as it was indeed what Haka asked of her. It made her slightly regret saying that she would teach the young lady anything. Now what she going to tell Haka, would she tell her no, because she didn’t really know how to prepare one herself or would she accept the challenge and go for it anyway. Fuyuko wasn’t one to back down from a challenge. “Well, I’m not sure how, but lets find out how to do it. So let’s find a book that can tell us.” She said with a determined face and tone.

With her words spoken Fuyuko would scour through the kitchen, hoping to find any cooking or recipe books that could guide her through the process of preparing a turkey. “Aahh, found it!” Fuyuko would exclaim once she had found a promising book. She brought it to one of the many tables and started flipping through the pages looking for the one she specifically needed in this scenario. If Haka would stand by her side by the time she found the right page she would tell her the following “Look, this is the list of things we need.” Fuyuko told her as she pointed to list with images. “You bring me those and I’ll show how it’s done, that a good deal Haka?” Regardless of the answer Haka would give her Fuyuko walked over to the wall where a bunch of aprons were hanging. She would grab one of them and put it on.

However at this point a thought would creep to the front of Fuyuko’s mind again, one that she has been suppressing for a while, but couldn’t hold it back anymore. Why was it that Haka knew so little about cooking and food. Actually, why did she know so little about almost everything. Fuyuko would be able to understand if Haka was not well informed about the less common things of the daily life. But she seemed to lack knowledge and common sense on a lot more. In fact Fuyuko would lean more on the side of that she was lacking in about everything. Not just unique things but everything. If that were the case it would explain her rather unnatural approach to things. How she seemed to follow the most logical path, a path that was already carved out before by someone else. The path that would lead to the least amount of resistance. Despite Haka’s answers to her questions being extremely short they were always on point and most likely just described what she was feeling with the fewest words possible. She said she disliked talking and she seems to be of the age where she would at least be capable of proper speech. However Fuyuko was hesitant to believe that for some reason and it made her want to ask her.

So as she moved back to the counter where she had opened the cook book to continue on reading about the preparations for the turkey she asked Haka a question. It was this time a short and simple question. One that didn’t use too many words. “Haka, how old are you?” Fuyuko asked without really looking at her.


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Fuyuko agreed to show her how to prepare this turkey the human way and started to search through the kitchen. Haka's eyes followed her, unsure what exactly she was looking for, until she returned triumphantly with a cook book. Bringing it to the table, she opened it and flipped through the pages, upon which Haka shuffled closer to watch what exactly the contents of the book were. Dish after dish appeared and disappeared, leaving the spider little time to read what they were as Fuyuko dug to find the recipe she needed, upon which she pointed at the images and told her, “Look, this is the list of things we need.”. Asking her then to gather the ingredients, Haka observed the page's content and its listed ingredients after giving a short nod to the agreement. Imprinting the whole list in her mind, she allowed her eyes to wander for a moment and proceeded to dig within the treasure trove of ingredients that the kitchen was. In the meantime, Fuyuko had found herself an apron, returning afterwards to read up on the exact preparations required to prepare the turkey, and would soon find her immediate space be filled with just about everything that Haka read within the book. Seasoning, tools, ingredients... Bit by bit she found and brought the goods to the table, placing it all neatly around the cooking book, making sure Fuyuko and the book remained untouched in the progress.

It was then that Fuyuko asked Haka probably the one question that the spider would never expect hearing in her life. The concept of time was already alien to Haka, who as as a wolf spider only cared for day and night, but at least she had learned to read time-related schedules such as the clock and the calendar. But to ask her how old she was... That question simply shook the carefully studied foundations of the concept of time she knew so far. With a sack of vegetables in her hand, Haka halted in her tracks for a second as her mind tried to wrap itself around the question, unravelling it slowly in an attempt to find a proper answer. To know her own age, she would have to know how many time she had been running around as a spider, and how many she had been running around as a human. While the latter allowed for an easy estimation, the former was more like a bottomless pit in time. Momma had never given her an exact birth date and the only time she had noticed Sero back when she had already outgrown most of her own species, he had told her she would have to grow even more before finding a means to track him down and meet him. Her number of days as a spider were certainly greater than most of her species. She had seen competition around the manor rise and fall. She had seen spiderlings grow to maturity, find a partner and breed all within a single year time. Most were trampled, eaten or simply died after mating, with mostly the males dying within the year, but within all that time the spider had not cared on iota for the human concept of time even though she was far smarter than her own kind. It was only in the middle of the second year, when the chakra 'activated' as it were and allowed her to start changing into a human form that she had begun observing humans. Picking up their language, reading, time, the phases of growth, all these things had changed her perception as a spider forever, yet had failed to make her unearth its potential so far. At best, Haka could identify herself with a 'young teenager on the verge of undergoing puberty', but that was hardly a number worthy to give Fuyuko. Deducting she could not give Fuyuko a correct answer, she answered her with a, "I don't know.".

Even if she felt no need to know such a number for herself, she felt like it was an integral part of human life. It defined humans, divided them into these 'phases' of a lifetime, telling them what to expect and what not. Though Haka would certainly not fit within the typical division of human life-phases, Sero's orders urged her nonetheless to find a place within that societal behaviour and as such she picked out a number that seemed 'likely' for her physical appearance.

"Does thirteen sound acceptable?"

Placing the vegetables on the table next to Fuyuko who was still reading, she would observe Fuyuko in turn and compared it to the human form of other spiders in the manor as well as the photos she had been shown in teenager magazines. Fuyuko was clearly older, but she still seemed to hold something of youthful spark Haka had not found back within the category labelled as 'women' who were said to be 'adults'. Fuyuko looked more like being in between her category and the adult tier, something generally linked to the eighteen year olds, and thus she told Fuyuko, "You look eighteen."

Right or wrong was not so much Haka's concern, but in the game of question and answers the two had been playing all this time, Haka found it necessary to share her analysis. After all, Fuyuko had told her just a brief moment ago that talking was the best way to know what went on in the mind of a person. Even with few words, Haka had already discovered every word spoken was bound to trigger a reaction from Fuyuko, and at the incredible pace this two year old spider was supposed to cram thirteen year of human experience within her mind and body, it would come to no surprise to those able to read her mind that she was already changing her strategy to the most optimal one.

---

986
Total: 4639

By the time Fuyuko had finished reading the preparation for the turkey she realized how full the counter already was. Haka had managed to find about all the ingredients in an amazingly short time. Perplexing her as she did so, but it was nice, it meant she didn’t have to wait and could continuously work on the turkey itself. Haka had been continuously walking from the counter to a cupboard or a larder or something to grab one of the required ingredients. The noises from the hinges on the doors telling her position and only briefly before that would the stepping noise disappear briefly. But not this time, now it stopped without a follow up sound. It made Fuyuko raise her head and turn in the direction where she had last heard the stepping noise come from, wondering what had happened. It happened briefly after she had asked her question about her age. Apparently it was a question that didn’t register all too well with the young lady. She seemed somewhat dazed by it and at the same time somewhat confirming her suspicions from earlier. It didn’t matter what answer she would give to the question, it confirmed to her that Haka was lacking severe basic knowledge of things.

Fuyuko turned back around to the counter and grabbed a knife and one of the onions and chopped off one of the buns of the onion. Just as she was about to chop the other side of the onion off Haka made her reply to the question. It caught Fuyuko off guard once again slightly losing control of the knife and instead of cutting the end of the onion she made a small cut into her finger. It wasn’t that deep so it didn’t bleed a lot, but it was a nonetheless. Fuyuko let out a small noise as the cut happened, prompting her to drop the knife and bring the cut finger to her mouth as she sucked on the blood in an effort to leave no drops of blood. She walked over to where she had gotten the apron as there was a first aid kit hanging on the wall as well. Grabbing it from the wall with her free hand and placing it upon one of the many tables. Opening it up and grabbing a singular band aid from it. Fuyuko realized that there was a big chance Haka was going to ask what she doing, so if she did she would answer with the following. “I’m putting a band aid on a cut I just got. It’s to prevent the blood that’s dripping out of it getting onto everything. If the blood would get onto the food, it would be spoiled and not really edible anymore.” Fuyuko refrained from giving a longer reply as it would most likely just fry the young ladies brain again.

Haka would continue on to surprise her once again. She had still managed to deduct an age that seemed plausible for her physique. “That age sounds about right.” Fuyuko said as she picked up the knife again and started working on the onion again to chop it up into small pieces. Whilst chopping up the onion Haka had made an estimation for her own age as well and surprisingly enough she was spot on with it. “That’s right, I’m eighteen years old, it won’t take all too long before I turn nineteen though.” She said as she moved the finely chopped onions into a small bowl. Fuyuko didn’t really talk much from here on out seeing as Haka was more of an observer than a talker. She put a skillet on a medium fire and put about a cup of unsalted butter in it. While the butter would slowly melt inside the skillet, she’d quickly prepare some of the celery as well. When the butter had melted she would put the onions and the celery in the skillet to sauté them stirring them occasionally so they wouldn’t get burned adding some salt, pepper and sage as well for more flavor.

Whenever she wasn’t stirring through the onions and celery she would be dicing up some bread and putting it into a deep bowl. Once the onions and celery had been sautéed properly Fuyuko would slowly poor it over the crumbs that were in the bowl. When all of it was pored in the bowl she would start to toss the cubes in the bowl, making sure every bit of the bread would be soaked with the flavor. With the flavor properly spread across each breadcrumb it was time to stuff the turkey. Fuyuko would get the turkey over and open it’s bum up, grab a handful of the stuffing and shove it into the animal. She would repeat this process over and over until she it would be properly filled. When the turkey would be fully stuffed she’d grab a piece of rope and tie the legs together to prevent the stuffing from dropping out. She’d measure the weight of the whole thing to determine the time it would need to stay in the oven. With it measured and the turkey ready to go she put in the oven and set the timer for four hours. She’d walk over to the sink and talk to Haka again. “So now we need to wait 3 hours before the whole thing is cooked properly.”


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Coincidentally, Fuyuko cut herself when Haka gave her reply, making a little noise and dropping the knife. The small cut was not much, but what liquid came out of it was unlike what Haka would have expected. It was not colourless like hers. It had a deep colour. Like red, or maybe rusty brown. While it was too fast to distinguish the actual colour, Fuyuko already having put her wounded finger in her mouth to suck on it, the difference in hue was too obvious for the spider to not have been spotted. As Fuyuko moved on to find some band aid, Haka's eyes trailed to he knife she had left behind. As the spider-nin moved closer to the table to place the sack of vegetables, her eyes fell upon the red colour glistening on the knife. To see the knife take red blood was a curious finding for the spider-nin as her had been colourless, making her wonder if this was the normal colour of human blood, and all together wondering if she had somewhere failed at copying the human body. It was hard to say...

Fuyuko then returned with band aid, explaining her what exactly she was doing with it. Though Haka had yet to see band aid and the application of first aid, she could somewhat assume that everything was related to the wound she had been suffering. And indeed, applying the band aid to the finger, it stopped the bleeding and covered her finger with in one go. Seemed logic. What didn't seem as logic to the spider was why having blood on the food would make it less edible. Blood and body fluids, to her, were exactly very edible and nutritious as they generally formed the diet of any spider. However, Haka would not say anything about, merely noting that blood did not go well with human food. Besides, the recipe did not include any blood to begin with, giving her another reason not to be concerned about what seemed to be a lack of nutrition in the eye of the spider. Humans probably needed some other sort of sustenance.

As the conversation about their age came to pass, the remainder of the activity seemed to be cloaked in silence. Whereas Fuyuko was putting her best effort in preparing the dish, Haka was observing every bit of detail she could perceive. The movement of the hand, the way of grabbing, seasoning, chopping vegetables. The order in which everything was prepared, warmed, sauteed, and how the turkey was stuffed, bound and measured. To the spider-nin, it was astonishing how much work humans put into the preparation of their meal even though it was already dead. An expansive ritual of sorts, almost as if they honoured the dead meat before they'd actually eat it. Still, the good scent was mouth-watering and almost drove the spider to grab a piece and try out the 'ready' dish were it not for Fuyuko stating it needed another three hours before it was ready while she put the turkey in the oven.

Eyeing the clock in the kitchen to see where that would set the time, she concluded a three hour wait was not the hardest of things to deal with as waiting for prey could take even longer at times. As such, she simply placed herself on one of the clean kitchen tables, already prepared to wait a full three hours to hear the 'ding' of the timer. Why this had to remain so long in the oven was, of course, beyond her, but she was not about to dispute the human's ways or the recipe from the cookbook. It was as it was. What she did wonder was if Fuyuko would even be able to remain seated for three hours without saying a single word. Probably not, if she was anything alike to the general behaviour of the humans Haka had already observed.

"What do you do while waiting?", she therefore asked Fuyuko, who had already seemed unusually quiet compared to the amount she had been talking before the cooking had started.

---

691
Total: 5330

“What do I do when I’m waiting?” Haka had asked her a question that she didn’t really think about herself. Her initial reaction was just to reply with ‘other things’. But that would most likely not satisfy the young ladies curiosity. No, Fuyuko had to think of a better reply that would satisfy Haka’s curiosity. She brought her finger up to her cheek and started to slowly tap on her cheek with it as she gazed around the sleeping and starting her reply. “That’s a good question… What do I do?” She paused a couple of seconds as she thought of some things that she could mention to Haka. “I suppose you could make more things while waiting, for instance a dessert for after the main course. There is also the possibility of making cookies or other kind of snacks.” While those were possible options for what to do in the downtime, they probably weren’t things that she would do herself. If anything, she wouldn’t prepare a turkey herself. It was nice to have it done once, but never again. It was too much effort and the work you had to do for it felt somewhat icky.

“For what I personally would do, sit outside under a tree and just enjoy the presence of nature. Although that’s not really something I think I would enjoy doing on this island.” She said as a shiver went down her spine. She didn’t want to imagine being out and exposed in the open with the ever looming feeling of darkness that shrouded the island. The way she relaxed and enjoyed nature, would definitely end up getting her killed on the island. “I suppose my final option for relaxation would be to enjoy some sort of art. There are many kind of different arts, that one could enjoy. Music for instance, listening to someone play on the piano can be very relaxing. Reading a book and getting lost in the stories of imaginary people. Or perhaps writing a piece of poetry myself. In any case, there are a lot of option to choose from. It all depends on what you like to do yourself.” Fuyuko glanced over into the direction of Haka when she finished talking, only realizing by that point what she had really done. She had probably been talking too much again and not giving Haka enough time to think about what she was just told. “Ah sorry, I probably said too much again. Anyway I’ll be going and do something…” She said with a bow and left the kitchen and headed back to her room, not returning for another 3 hours until the turkey would be ready to be taken out of the oven.


[Exit Thread]

wc 462
twc 6076

Training:
C-rank: Minor jutsu sealing [6076/1000] + 150 ryo
C-rank: Minor counter seal [5076/1000] + 150 ryo
C-rank: Lesser polarity shield [4076/1000] + 150 ryo
C-rank: Minor Oceanic current [3076/1000] + 150 ryo

Total ryo: 600.

Fuuinjutsu B > A [2000/3000]

discard 76 wc.

Fuyuko knew a great deal of hobbies, revealing one by one all the things she would or could do during a three hour wait. Making cookies seemed to make sense to a certain degree, but she doubted Fuyuko was out to do that currently. The girl was already unsettled enough as it was from being around Haka, and the idea of sticking around another three hours was most likely not something the human was looking forward to.

The other hobbies sounded as alien as most other human things. Enjoying nature? Sure, Haka knew enough about nature to talk books about it considering she had lived outside for two years straight as a spider, being able to tell the do's and don'ts and explain the perception of weather and other dangerous from the point of view of so much as all the spiders in Spider Island, but she couldn't quite grasp what Fuyuko meant by 'enjoying' it. The idea of enjoying a bird flying over your head and trying to devour you wasn't something fun, neither was running and finding shelter for the water drops. Not only were those highly annoying when they hit the spider, but they could also create small water currents and real floods that could easily drag her away. But those were probably not the scenes Fuyuko envisioned when she spoke about nature. Humans had different perceptions. They only had two eyes, too.

Art, on the other hand, was something that made Haka tilt her head. It was a word she hadn't heard yet and thus a concept she couldn't quite grasp. Music, piano, reading stories, poetry. She named a few, but its magnificence eluded the spider. Sinking in thoughts for a moment, Haka wondered if there were means to discover this 'art' and how far it reached. Whatever it was, Haka had made up her mind. She would try to discover this world, and wanted to ask Fuyuko about where she could find this music, a piano and poetry, but the girl seemed to have left the kitchen, leaving the spider by herself for the next three hours. When Fuyuko would return for the turkey, she would still find the spider-nin sit there on a chair, watching the turkey slowly turn a crispy brown.

---

[EXIT]

385
Total: 5715

Training: