[.}Walk&Talk{.][Enixale?]

[Wolf Tears]

Ordinarily, pet-sitting made Bohdana very happy. It was one of her favorite jobs, not just because it brought in a decent amount of money but also because she almost never had to come into contact with anyone. Everyone thought that the fliers she put up were distributed by some company, and as long as she made sure to continually change the names listed on those fliers, no one was the wiser. All she had to do was check the mailbox she had set up and either send out letters saying the “company” couldn’t take the job (if there were time conflicts) or go pick up the pets. The service had existed before she had taken it over, so it was well-established and very few people ever asked for interviews. At most, she had to actually stand face-to-face with other people and converse with them for about two seconds while they briefed her about the job, and they usually explained the pets’ needs in the job request so that never took long. Add all that to the fact that she got to hang out with animals for hours on end, and you had one unusually cheerful Bo.

Today, though, there wasn’t much that could make her happy. Even walking a lovely kai inu and three shibas, all of whom were fantastic to talk to, couldn’t quite calm the anxiety. She only had herself to blame for it, of course; she was the one who had decided to wear yellow today, despite the fact that wearing bright colors went against every instinct she had. She naturally tended toward darker clothes, because they helped her blend in; bright colors made people notice you, and noticing was bad.

She had had no choice, though. Someone had tried to talk to her yesterday, and they had been rather persistent about it, too. It had been obvious to her that the people had almost caught up to her, and she couldn’t just let that sit. Actually, if she was really being careful she should be underground right now, not walking about in broad daylight; unfortunately, she needed this money too badly right now to let a job slip by. Even turning her hair black (it had been blonde yesterday) and popping in her white contacts (so that her slate-blue eyes looked faded and a little cloudy, almost as if she had cartaracts) wasn’t enough; she had to take a risk and do something she preferred to avoid. She had to wear bright colors, because they were looking for someone who didn’t like bright colors. Unless they had already thought that she would think that, in which case they had anticipated her and were looking for bright clothes, but she didn’t think so, because no one had even tried to approach her today.

“Aiko!”

It took her a moment to remember that Aiko was the name she had chosen for today. She looked around, perplexed, then realized that the smallest shiba inu was staring at her. “Yes?” she asked softly, tilting her head to one side to match the slope of the dog’s gaze.

Anyone else would have just heard barking, but the kai’s voice came through loud and clear for Bo. “Are we walking or not?” the big dog asked. He thumped his tail back and forth impatiently. “You’re just standing there.” The other dogs woofed quiet agreement, except for one shiba, which drifted off to the side and began sniffing the ground intently.

“Oh!” Bohdana hadn’t realized that she had gotten so lost in her thoughts as to come to a complete stop. She shook herself and wrapped the leashes, which had begun to loosen, around her wrist again. The dogs sensed that she was getting ready to go and began tugging on the leashes; laughing, she lengthened her stride to allow them a little more reach, and the quintet set off once more down the (thankfully empty) road.

[Enixale]

Kizuna Akimoto

“Wow, look what you did. It’s all your fault.”

I started walking around the Kabuki District. It is so strange walking in broad daylight. I was used to everything being dark and a city being lit by lanterns all day. The sun was out and shining happily. I hated it. The sun just had to go be bright and happy. It reminded me of Rai's death.

I could remember it like it was yesterday. The sun was out and Rai continued teaching me how the vital spots of the human. I looked up to him like an older brother I've never had. Everyday was like adventure!...somewhat. I kinda got yelled at every 5 minutes... Anyways! It was sunny, just like today, and then random Amanto ambushed us and killed Rai. He didn't need to die. He is a nice, caring person. And it was my fault. I was weak and couldn't do anything. I hated being weak. That is a reason why I hate the sun. Stupid bad memories...

Walking by, I noticed a girl who was walking some dogs. She seemed to be talking to them. Are the people in the Kabuki District crazy these days? I didn't want to talk to someone crazy. It might cause me to be crazy but Zia is crazy and weird enough. I don't need to talk to random, crazy people (or a RANDOM PERSON).

Minding my own business, I walked into a dango shop and a dog attacked me! I'm the leader of Hyakka and yet I'm getting beat up by a dog. What the heck! I glared at the dog.

Note to self: Glare and yell at the owner of these dogs.

ooc: If you don't know about the underlined, capitalized words, I will smack you.

[Wolf Tears]

(OOC- *laughs* Yay, Random Person!)

“Look there!” The kai inu had pulled the entire group- dogs, human, and all- to a halt so he could stare furiously at something a few meters away. “Look!”

Bo blinked a bit of the contact-induced fuzziness out of her eyes and followed his gaze to a small dango shop. Frowning, she looked back at the dog. “What, are you hungry? I didn’t think dogs liked dangos, but we might be able to find one with some meat for you or something.”

“Person,” the dog growled. He stepped forward, ears pointed back and teeth ever-so-slightly bared.

She glanced back at the shop and realized that the dog hadn’t been looking at the shop itself, but at the person standing outside it. A girl who looked to be a few years older than Bo was angling as though to go inside. Bohdana shook her head and looked back at the dog. “So what?” she asked, fighting to keep her voice level (the stranger hadn’t seen them yet, right- right?). “It’s just some random person. Let’s go.”

She started walking, but the kai wouldn’t be budged. He just stood there, taking no notice of the collar pulling at his throat as he stared at the girl down the road. “She smells like...” His ears flickered back and forth as he growled. “I have to attack her!” With no further warning, he kicked his legs into gear, and the black dog turned into something more like a black blur.

Now, Bohdana had been yanked by dogs in the past, and she was used to it. She had learned, small though she was, to keep even large dogs from becoming the walker and turning her into the leashed one. She wasn’t expecting this, though, and once they were in motion she was helpless against a medium-large dog with the advantages of strength and surprise. It was all she could do to run quickly enough to not get dragged across the pavement. The shibas trotted along, looking slightly amused but mostly bored.

The moment they were in range, the kai jumped and started trying to get his teeth into the stranger. Bo paused for the briefest of moments to catch her breath, then began pulling on the leash to try and keep the dog down.

“No!” Bo wracked her mind for the dog’s name. “No, Akira! Bad dog! Your owners will be hearing about this when I bring you back!” She tried to force it down, but Bohdana could hear the shaking in her own voice. What was this dog doing, taking her to a human? She had asked them if they would please not draw attention from humans, and now this blasted kai was actively seeking one out. This was horrible. What if the human recognized her, or if the commotion drew the attention of someone else who did recognize her? And even if nothing bad happened (which it would, she knew it would because bad things always happened if she wasn’t careful), no one really deserved to get randomly jumped on by a random dog. That too.)

“Don’t care,” Akira snarled, straining at the leash. “She smells like- like- like dangerousness. I have to attack her!”

Bo glanced at the shiba inus. All three appeared to be used to this- or at least, they made no comment about it. One of them even sat down, yawned, and put her head on her paws. “A little help, you three?” she pleaded, but they just looked at each other and ignored her.

“Let go!” Akira snarled. “Have to hunt!”

“No- you- do not!” Bohdana struggled with the leash for a minute, then gave up on that. It was a risk, putting herself so close to another person, but the people in the shop were beginning to look, so she jumped forward and physically dragged the dog away from the other person. He continued to bark madly and try to get past her, so she used both hands and clamped down on his muzzle. “Bad,” she reiterated, glaring at him from above. “Your owners will be hearing about this. I am not happy with you, and they won’t be either. Now sit.”

Looking sufficiently quelled, the dog did as he was commanded and sat. Bo breathed a sigh of relief and re-wrapped the leash ends, which were coming loose again. “Better,” she said forcefully.

The dog was subdued. Next task: to get out of here before anyone started asking questions. Bo began muttering a profuse stream of apologies that were just loud enough for the stranger to hear but just too quiet for her voice to be distinct (and therefore recognizable). “Sorry, so sorry, he’s not usually like this, at least I don’t think so, I’m only walking him, sorry ma’am, I’m so sorry, I’ll just go now, sorry again, you know how kais are, what with the prey drive and all that, sorry, no harm meant...”

Hoping to usie these as a distraction, she slowly began to drift toward the door, all four dogs in tow.

[Enixale]

Kizuna Akimoto

“Wow, look what you did. It’s all your fault.”

“Sorry, so sorry, he’s not usually like this, at least I don’t think so, I’m only walking him, sorry ma’am, I’m so sorry, I’ll just go now, sorry again, you know how kais are, what with the prey drive and all that, sorry, no harm meant...” the random person started saying. After she finished apologizing, she went towards the door.

Strange girl, I thought. Wonder if she would get along with Zia... One of her dogs tried to kill me. I'm not going to forget about this. Her presence was strange, like her. I closed my eyes and focused. Opening my eyes, I saw her aura.

This was an ability that I don't use much. No one, not even Zia, knows about this. It was strange and all kinds of shades of blue. It seemed a bit... scared and indecisive. Usually scared and indecisive people are the ones that don't like Amanto much. I was about to be one of those people but I swore to avenge Rai.

I was still in the dango shop. "A dango, please!" I ordered. I haven't eaten dango in a long time. It has been like... well, forever. Most of the food in Yoshiwara seemed dangerous like sake and alcohol and such. The food... it was okay but I really didn't like it.

Once my dango appeared, I took a bite out of it. Same old dango, I thought. I started thinking about that girl. If I ever meet that random person again, I'll try to talk to her... maybe. I'm not the one who like talking much but hey, it wouldn't hurt... right? I'll remember her aura. I won't forget.

[Wolf Tears]

(OOC- Sorry it sucks. :/ This is what happens when I try to rewrite stuff, it gets worse and worse with every redo.)

The stranger didn’t say anything in response to the stream of apologies. Bo took that as her cue to leave; she stopped talking and inching away and switched to full-blown flight, walking quickly toward the door and hauling the dogs. They didn’t put up a fuss; even Akira was calm now, thankfully. Still, she didn’t feel great about the situation, and it wasn’t just the fact that this would be remembered. Actually, it was almost like someone was looking at her...

She glanced behind her, just in case, and accidentally caught the woman’s eyes. She flinched away automatically, dropping her gaze and jumping a few inches toward the door. Why was the stranger watching her? Most people didn’t do that, they just ignored her. Was it the outfit? (She knew it, she knew yellow was a bad idea.) Was she familiar for some reason- had she, heaven forbid, actually been recognized?

With a great deal of effort, she forced herself to be rational. It was almost certainly the dog thing. Getting jumped on and almost bitten by a large dog was something that most people didn’t forget about right away, and it was natural to be curious about what was going on. She was, in fact, lucky beyond belief that the stranger wasn’t trying to talk to her or even press charges or something.


“I’m just some random person to her,” she told herself quietly. “It’s nothing to worry about. It’ll be fine.”

“What are you talking about?” One of the shibas- the smallest, a little white dog named Miko or something like that- pawed at her leg and looked up at her. “Are we staying here?”

“No. We’re leaving.” There was nothing Bohdana wanted less, actually, than to stay here with that woman who kept giving her strange glances. “You all ready?” Without waiting for an answer, she began walking away; without a word she slipped through the door, carting the dogs behind her, and began walking once more down the empty street.

[Enixale]

Kizuna Akimoto

“Wow, look what you did. It’s all your fault.”

Munch. Chew. Chew. Chew. Swallow. Munch. Chew. Chew. Chew. Swallow.

The dango was good, as always. There was barely any good dango in Yoshiwara. If there was, it didn't taste as good as the one in the Kabuki District. This was strange. I could actually try to relax on my day off. I didn't really want to have a day off anyways. I was forced by my so called 'teammates.' It doesn't matter. As long as I get some training done and get some good food, I'm fine. I need to find that girl too.

"I'm leaving the money next to my plate!" I called out to the dango shop owner. I left my money and went to walking around the town. There was several people, a combination of Amanto and humans. It felt strange walking around here. It was sunny and the people are interacting and laughing. I've seen some people in Yoshiwara laughing but it's just to seduce the opposite gender. It creeps me out. The people here are different. It felt... natural.

I guess it feels a bit nostalgic. Probably since Rai showed me around the Kabuki District a long time ago. I shook my head and focused. I wanted- no, I needed to find a place to train and get stronger. From my opinion fact, I am weak. I also need to keep an eye out for that girl. She rushed off before I could say anything to her. Whatever I was going to say, it might have been a little mean... nah, more like extremely mean. I don't like animals, and yet I have to come in contact with a rampaging dog. Great...

I started walking around, most likely in circles, since I didn't know where to go or my way around. I'll end up somewhere eventually. I spotted the girl with the dogs that attacked me. She, being the weird girl I considered her to be, continued talking to her dogs. Did she know what they were saying or is she just crazy?

"Hey, you!" I called out. The girl looked startled. Her dogs started barking loudly. At least I'm keeping my guard up now. They won't injure me now. I don't know why I want to see this random person but still, she doesn't seem much harm, besides her looking like a weird, strange, crazy, and insane female. If she tries to run, I will corner her.

ooc: It's okay. I have no idea about the plot though. What's gonna happen next?