Fuyuko was kind of dreading the situation she had gotten into. She doesn’t even really understand why she was chosen in the first place. Yes sure the reasons that were given to her as to why she was chosen for the mission made sense. But it could’ve been with any other unknown genin right? She shook her head. While it was true that she was hoping that she wasn’t in the current situation, at the same time she was… happy? Happy that not someone else had to ‘suffer’ by the aura of Sero Osada. Being the kind hearted girl that she is, she much rather want to bear the cruelties of the world herself than have someone else go through them. It was a task she had taken upon herself, try to make the lives of others as joyful as possible and shoulder the darkness by herself. It was a task of which she didn’t actually truly understood the meaning off. With her mind lost in her thoughts she had just been aimlessly following Miyu back towards the mansion, only being a step or two behind her as she showed the way.

The silence between the two of them did start to bother her however. With the attitude that Miyu showed her earlier she wasn’t quite certain about her mood. It was worth trying to figure out how she was feeling about her, however she should be careful in her approach. It was very unwise to aggravate the daughter of a man that could snap her like a twig. Especially when they were going straight towards that particular person. Furthermore her curiosity wasn’t really satisfied by the answer that she was given earlier. It was too vague for her. “Say Miyu, what had prompted you to say that I should talk with your father again about the laws? I get that from the statement you made my views don’t align with yours and presumably that of your father. But that is normal, is it not? Not one person is the same as the next and therefor holds their own believes. Are my views that different from what is normal?” Making sure that a sense of doubt could be heard in the last question. Hopefully it sounded honest enough to make Miyu feel like Fuyuko was doubting herself. A way of hopefully ensuring she wouldn’t invoke the wrath of her or her fathers.


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As they both walked silently back to the manor Miyu was pleased that Fuyuko continued to keep a step or two behind her. She supposed that perhaps there were benefits and drawbacks to both positions. She was vulnerable to attacks from behind, as she could no longer rely on her vision to aid her. Which may concern the average person, however she was not concerned with such things. Time would tell whether that was a grievous error or not, but for now she felt comfortable in her surroundings. As for the benefits of walking forward of her companion, more than likely they were just social. But she did not undervalue that, social cues seemed to be incredibly important to humans. There was an interesting hierarchy from what she’d observed, and she was eager to find her place within it.

She was perfectly content to travel back to her father’s manor in silence, though it seemed that Fuyuko was not. Her questions were a bit jarring at first, as Miyu had all but forgotten the reason they were travelling back to the manor. In her own mind she had considered the issue settled and had let her mind pass on to different things.

“Say Miyu, what had prompted you to say that I should talk with your father again about the laws? I get that from the statement you made my views don’t align with yours and presumably that of your father. But that is normal, is it not? Not one person is the same as the next and therefore holds their own beliefs. Are my views that different from what is normal?”

It was an interesting concept to be sure, that a person might view the laws of a place as subjective. She was glad that, at least from the humans tone of voice, she seemed unsure. Where there was room for doubt, there was room for change. Or so she thought. She walked silently for a while longer, considering her reply carefully. As they came back towards the path leading to the manor she would pause and gesture towards the tree where warnings to criminals present hung in the branches.

“You see Fuyuko, those that break the laws are not just hurting a handful of people. They are hurting each and every one of Kirigakure’s citizens. While no doubt your experience with that criminal was a good one, he did save you after all. Who did he hurt in order to save you? Who did he steal from, or murder? I would like to think that all citizens of Kiri think the same way that I do, though obviously that is not the case. If it were, then there would not be any criminals. I have not spent much time outside of my father’s manor and the surrounding islands, though I trust my fathers judgement implicitly.”

Miyu continued walking before speaking again. What she had spoken was not an outright lie, she had not spent much time outside of these islands or the manor. Much being any. The rest of what she had said however was the straight truth. She doubted that the human girl would notice the difference, of all the things that could possibly be going on, it was fairly unlikely she would suspect she was speaking with a spider. The notion brought a smile to her face and she would speak her thoughts, a bit gentler this time.

“It sounds as though you haven’t had many people to help you with your doubts. I assume that there are many that don’t love Kiri as fiercely as my father does. That’s why I thought we should go talk to him again. It’s one thing to have my opinion, as inexperienced as I am, it’s quite another to have a powerful and experienced shinobi explain things. Don’t fret too much, he is wise and very intelligent. It has been my honour to learn from him, and I suspect that you’ll find some semblance of peace in your beliefs after hearing what he has to say.”

With her final words on the subject spoken Miyu would walk gracefully up the steps to the main door of the manor and lightly rap her knuckles upon the wood.

719

Chakra 145/150:

The healing baths had done her good, both physically and mentally. The wounds she had caught as a consequence of her trying to figure out if Sero's blood was similar to hers were gone, but the tool with which she had tried to achieve this personal goal was not. What was more, was that the tool had harboured a secret - it contained a sigil of sorts. A secretive language that simply worked like a switch. One moment the kunai would be there, the other moment it wouldn't. Though the wolf spider was still trying to figure out how exactly she could reproduce this effect for herself, the key probably being chakra, she was intrigued by the simple logic the concept followed and had decided to make that concept hers. Much like she had done with the milky wax-like liquid within the healing baths.

Now hungry and mildly exhausted by the chakra use in the baths, Haka walked through the hallway from whence she came, halting briefly before the massive doors which now kept Sero's armoury out of view. She remembered he had been unsealing the gates just a bit ago, but could not quite grasp how he had done so just yet, so instead she made a mental note to explore this area some other time as hunger gnawed and pulled her attention elsewhere. Moving forward in quietude, she eventually ended in the hallway at the front of the manor, following her human nose towards the origin of a mouth-watering scent. Until something outside rapped on the wooden doors that lead outside, the very same door she had walked through to step inside this very manor and to meet Sero.

Haka halted, turning her head towards the door. To find her now in the position of the servant that had allowed her inside... Had he opened the door because she had been rapping as well? Presumably. As such, Haka walked up to the door and pulled back a little, just enough for her to be able to peek her head through the opening and see two girls stand in front of it - one really close, somewhat about her size, and another girl standing more in the back, clearly taller and older than herself.

Without a word and her face showing no distinct expression, she gazed at Miyu. Her white hair, the sharp fangs, the look of someone ready to kill at a whim's moment. She had every semblance of a monster in her own right, and were it not for the fact she was regally dressed and in a human form, Haka would have allowed her inside the manor without the slightest of resistance. Monster manor would welcome monsters, would it not? Instead, Haka did not move out of the way or open the door completely. Even if she looked anything like a normal thirteen year old school girl, the monstrous aura that surrounded her left no doubt about the predator she was by nature. While it was a pale shadow compared to that of Sero, she was unmistakably his creation - an Unmei - and as such her presence was a power in its own right.

The girl in the distance, on the other hand, looked... casual. Natural. Innocent, if that was the right word to describe the children of Man compared to the killer instinct of the Unmei. Nothing about her had the semblance of a spider, and were it not that Haka could not correctly read the expressions of humans just yet, she looked almost fearful of her surroundings. If Fuyuko was a human, indeed, it would only mean opportunities to this little Unmei, her only question so far being: why had her sister not killed this specimen yet? Surely Miyu was hungry, too?

Shifting her stoic gaze back to Miyu, all she asked was, "Why the human?"

---

645

Fuyuko just patiently and quietly listened to what Miyu was telling her. She wasn’t trying to continue the conversation after Miyu would answer her questions. It was simply to gauge her, were the answers she gave genuinely her own or just merely the copy of her fathers? But more importantly it seemed that the tone she had put in her voice had worked to keep her at bay. At least for the time being she wouldn’t be broken in two. In the end it seemed like that the reply Miyu was giving wasn’t entirely her own, it seemed heavily if not completely based off what her father had told her. The key part of coming to that conclusion was her saying that she had spend very little time away from the island. If you don’t spend time away from the island, how could she possibly know about the general state of the public? In her own experience, a lot of the villagers of Kirigakure no Sato were okay with its current state. But they were no big fan of it, as long as you followed the rules, you would live a decent life.  But a single misstep could easily lead to your death, quite a few people found it a little bit harsh, if not almost tyrannical. And despite having a lot of respect for the current Mizukage, she couldn’t help but feel that she was overstepping her boundaries. But just like the general populous, what was she to do? A rebellion was definitely …..

Her trail of thought was cut off by Miyu giving an extra reply. She assumed that after Miyu went silent again that was it for the ‘conversation’. But it seemed there was still a little bit left on her mind to talk about or maybe just inform her about. It would appear that the latter option was her main subject to talk about. Telling her to not worry about her father’s presence. “Thank you for the advice Miyu, I’ll try to remember it when I’ll be speaking with your father.” She replied with a small nod as a token of thanks. But no matter what Miyu would tell her, there was no way she would be able to keep her cool in the presence of Sero Osada. At least not until it was clear that she wasn’t going to die at any second. But would that moment ever come? Even if she were to submit to him, which felt really like the only option, would he be gentle on her? It was an encounter she would just have to fight through. If she would make it out, she was sure she’d be wiser in one way or another. If she didn’t, it most likely just meant that she wasn’t strong enough. The realization was somewhat terrifying, putting her on edge once more this day. Especially when Miyu would know on the front door of the mansion.

The two of them waited for the door to open up. With Fuyuko still standing behind Miyu as they had been the entire way back to the manor. It wouldn’t take to long for the hairs all over Fuyuko’s body to rise up. Telling her that she should get out of here once more. The presence had returned, the presence that she was merely pray. The door slowly opened only to reveal a child. Her being still on edge, but still she would feel a sense of relief when Sero didn’t seem to be around. Looking over at the young girl she appeared to share the same hair color with Miyu, were the two of them sisters? She and the new person locked their eyes, analyzing each other. With or without her knowing her facial expression was slightly fearful. The presence of ‘a killer’ had not completely frozen this time around, leaving room for herself to express herself. That gaze would continue until the little girl would break the contact and focus on Miyu again.

A rather weird question was asked. As if she was something different than the two girls that were standing in front of her. Despite her fear, she couldn’t help but blurt out her thoughts. “What you do you mean with that? It almost sounds like what Miyu is doing is wrong and she isn’t allowed to take people into the manor.” With her thoughts blurted out she couldn’t help but notice a vague shadow moving in the back. It was rather big, but it was rather difficult to get a proper look through the small gap in the door. Her body tensing up once more at the thought of it possibly being Sero lurking in the back of the entrance of the manor.


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OOC: Sorry if there are a lot of spelling/grammar mistakes. Thinking is hard while sick.

Miyu was taken aback by the small girl that opened the door, she looked somewhat similar to herself - her illusory self anyway. And small of course was a relative term, the girl was smaller than herself, but not by much maybe an inch or two. The difference was likely negligible to most others, but to Miyu who was quite young and still felt the need to prove herself it was significant. Ordinarily she would have skittered inside the manor using a window, but with Fuyuko with her, and her father’s strict instructions to keep her spider form a secret for now, she had opted for the door. As it turned out it would likely have caused less of a fuss to have Fuyuko wait by the door while she made her own way in. She could have at least then avoided the young girl’s odd question.

“Why the human?”

Her eyes would narrow imperceptibly as the human in front of her dared to challenge her right to enter her own father’s home - her home. She had spent a good deal of time in this place, and had not yet seen this human girl. As Miyu’s temper flared and thoughts of slowly dismembering the body in front of her filled her head, she remembered that she was supposed to be a human. And while she understood at least from the little she’d gleaned so far that humans were notably horrible, she doubted that their first instincts were dismemberment when faced with an obstacle. The other thought that filled her briefly; What if they know I’m not a human? And more importantly, how do they know? It was unsettling to say the least, as so far no one but her father and Fuyuko had seen the form she wore, and seeing as she had been with Fuyuko this whole time. . . As quick as it had arrived Miyu pushed the treasonous thought away. There was simply no way that her father, Lord Sero Osada would give her a command and then break it himself. It was unthinkable. No, the answer here to this strangeness was something more mundane she believed. An honest mistake. Taking a soft breath - almost a sigh - and affixing a genial smile on her face Miyu would turn her face halfway towards Fuyuko, still keeping the girl in the doorway in view.

“I believe that this servant is new, as I’ve never seen her here before. Staying here takes a certain amount of strength and composure that most don’t seem to have the stomach for. And as I’m sure you’ve heard there are tales of monsters in these parts, it is remarkably easy for the young to have such fear induced flights of fancy.”

Turning her full attention back to the obstacle in question she gestured with her left hand gently, making a motion to indicate her intentions. Confused or no, the girl did have to move.

“Now my dear would you please be so kind as to step aside and allow Miyu, daughter of Lord Sero Osada, entrance into her home?”

524/1243

Curious. Her 'why' question triggered once more a flood of words from the person it was directed too. However, this time, the reply was not directed towards her but towards the girl in the back. Only when she had finished speaking, referring to Haka as a servant - what an odd thing to say - she decided to reply to the young wolf spider in disguise. And she named his name. Sero. Sero Osada. Haka's eyes rested calmly on Miyu's demanding gaze. It felt not as hunger reaching out, but an attempted similarity of authority that Sero and Momma held over her. Unlike that of her creators, it didn't affect her like when Sero compelled her to do something, but the word 'daughter' remained lingering in her mind. She knew what that meant - Miyu was her sister.

Shifting her eyes at Fuyuko once more, she found it unfortunate the 'why' question had not exactly explained why the human was to enter the mansion, but to Haka that was actually of lesser importance. She merely wanted to try out this 'humanity' thing, as Sero had requested her to do. Like asking questions to keep prey occupied while the Unmei's superior hunting instinct, further enhanced by evolution and chakra, could think of the perfect strategy to swiftly take down their prey when they least expected it. The difference being now, that this would be done while in human disguise. Because that was what humans did, did they not? Use their self-made claws, like the kunai given by Sero she had tucked away, to kill their prey? Perhaps her sister, whose name she had just been given, was just out to lure this prey into her own invisible web.

Guessing she would not be able to play games with the human, Haka decided she should indulge her sister's little play and observe the two in quietude. After all, from her superior vocal expression and the clothes she wore, it was obvious that Miyu was far more experienced in being 'humane' than Haka was. And thus, Haka stepped aside, leaving enough room for them to pass, while opening the door wider. As she did so, she shared once more but few words, spoken just loud enough for Miyu to hear them.

"Yes, sister."

Holding the door open for those outside, Haka thus allowed them to enter the manor. As they'd enter, her stoic gaze would simply observe them - their way of moving, their clothes, their mannerisms - while her monstrous aura would, so to speak, taste their aura as they passed by. Even if Haka held still, refraining herself from trying out any 'experiments' she had in mind, there was no doubt that the spider was not already plotting a way to achieve her goals. A spider was anything if not patient.

---

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OOC: I didn't ignore you, Haka simply didn't notice Nova!

It seemed like her words had fallen on deaf ears, well at least that was her impression from the situation. While she was certain that the person she was speaking to wasn’t deaf, they at least certainly ignored her. It made Fuyuko slightly aggravated, it was rather impolite to not reply when you’re spoken to. Although she might have been a little bit out place herself, just blurting her question like that. But she wouldn’t think about that herself, she was too occupied by the anger that was building up because she was ignored. However she would do her best to contain her anger, make sure she wouldn’t show it in any manner. No change in facial expression or tone of her voice. She had to contain herself, at least as long as she was in the mansion and she wasn’t sure how the lord of the house would reply to her actions. The emotions did however suppress her fear for the time being, they had become more intense than the feeling of danger that was still looming.

Miyu turn her head at least partially to give a statement about the behavior of the servant, before she would turn back and give a demand to the servant. Although Fuyuko could slightly understand what Miyu was trying to tell her, she wasn’t sure if she was buying the story. It didn’t feel right, but there was no real basis for her feeling this particular way. The only thing she really had was that it made little sense for a new servant to open the door alone. But beside that there was little to go off, so she brushed the thought to the side for the time being. It was worth an investigation later on at some point, if she were to remember it. After Miyu had given her command the servant would quietly move to the side and allowing the two of them to enter the mansion.

And just as the two of them would walk in something would fall from the ceiling. Fuyuko wasn’t prepared for it and made her jump scare a little bit. It quickly followed up by a familiar voice and the clanging of metal against the stones from the manor. Being not inside of the manor yet left Fuyuko with no clue of what was going on inside. That was until a familiar face was standing in front of them. It was Nova, one of this year’s Chuunin exam participants just like herself. But what was she doing here? Sure she was a Kiri ninja like herself now, but that still doesn’t explain why she would be here of all places. “Well this is something I had not expected at all, I wouldn’t have guessed in my wildest dreams to encounter you here Nova. What a nice surprise, what are you doing here?” her face expressing her surprise. It also made her feel just that little bit more safe. While she wasn’t sure about Nova’s choice of moving about she at least knew she was ‘normal’ like herself.


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As Miyu walked past the girl by the door her ear twitched imperceptibly as the stranger spoke. She was intrigued, and yet still wary - she had not been aware that any of her other siblings had progressed past phrases such as “food” or “kill them”. The apparent evidence that she had been at best unaware, or at worst mistaken in her thinking all of her siblings as ‘lesser beings’ was unnerving. She had spent a decent amount of time wandering outside the Manor, so it was possible that she had merely missed the ‘ascension’ to full intelligence in one of her siblings. It was also just as possible that the girl was lying - to what ends, she could not imagine. She supposed that it made sense to want to gain entrance to what was decidedly the safest place on the islands. At least it was the safest in her limited view. Here nothing tried to kill you unless you well and truly deserved it. Whereas beyond the boundaries of the Manor’s influence there were things that lurked that did not adhere to the strict rules and laws of Kirigakure.

Walking into the Manor proper, she was surprised as something fell just past her head and landed with a soft sound on the ground beside her. Her instinct was to pounce on the fallen object, tear it to shreds and then look for more, her instinct was difficult to override. As a daughter of Mama she felt the bloodlust growing as the subtle sounds the falling object created vibrated off the walls of the foyer they stood in. Taking a shallow, though long, breath she would turn to observe the source of the disturbance. A thin white eyebrow would raise ever so slightly as she watched what appeared to be a large metal spider descend from the ceiling. While impressive in its own right, it appeared that the spider also had a ‘rider’, a young girl who now was apologizing profusely for her error. Miyu would say nothing as she bent down gracefully, moving her skirts out of the way to retrieve the piece of food from the floor. She took hold of the food gingerly, as though it was somewhat distasteful to her to be holding it in her pale and small hand.

As the metal encased girl spoke to Fuyuko she would turn the morsel over in her hand while carefully studying the group of girls that stood near her. She found it interesting that the girl - Nova - seemed to know Fuyuko. She found it more interesting however, that neither girl was expecting the other. She had not been expecting to find anyone at the Manor of her father, other than her father of course, the occasional servant and her mother. She was only mildly concerned about this turn of events, it was not the first time she had observed visitors to the Manor, but it was the first time there had been so many at once. Perhaps her father had something planned? Or they may simply be food. The thought of food reminded her that it had been some time since she had eaten, and she became mildly irritated at what now seemed to be a hurdle to acquiring such. Holding her hand out towards Nova in an expectation that she would retrieve her fallen meal she would speak in her demure voice. “I believe this is yours. It is a pleasure to meet you Nova, and you?” She would turn towards her ‘sister’ with a questioning look on her face. “I don’t believe we have met. What, may I ask, brings so many towards the front entrance of Lord Sero’s Manor?”

619/1862

Standing next to the door, still holding it open for everyone to enter the manor, her amber eyes observed how something small fell out of the sky in between the people standing at the door. It seemed to be a meal of sorts, picked up by Miyu with certain disgust before she reached out to return it to the girl that clambered down in a metallic... spider? She seemed to be terribly sorry for dropping her meal, as she should be,j so thought Haka, who considered losing prey as a sign of obvious weakness. After thoroughly apologizing she introduced herself to them all as Nova. Much to Haka's surprise, the human brought in by Miyu knew the girl in the spider even though the spider-nin herself had yet to meet any of these people to begin with.

No matter, as brief human interactions took place, Miyu seemed to be pleased with the presence of another human, subtly urging Nova to pick up the food she was holding out before she raised an eyebrow questioningly at Haka before asking a question seemingly aimed at all of them at once. Haka could not say the reason why these humans were here, and least of all why Miyu was guiding one of them to the mansion, but she assumed they'd simply serve as meal. As for herself, however, Sero has asked her an unknown time before to seek him out. That had already happened, making it so that the spider-nin simply lived in the mansion now, lurking wherever her arachnid felt like sleeping - bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen. Any place she felt comfortable with was a good place.

"Haka lives here...", she thus replied to Miyu, amber eyes devoid of emotion, her voice as soft as the mist that lingered on the island. Lacking proper human etiquette, it didn't dawn to her to reveal she was Unmei, nor to mention she was Sero's daughter too. She had heard knocking on the door as she passed, and logic dictated the door had to be opened. That was what she had done. "...and heard you knocking."

---

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