A Cold Day [Invite]

Blake must have been quite the sight in others’ eyes. The slouched genin sat on the floor with his lower back against the wall in the warm hospital waiting room. The lights were bright, and the smell of freshly waxed linoleum filled his nostrils. He loved it. Each breath he took he savored the undoubtedly familiar scent. A few new workers at the hospital asked him if he was okay. What they were really asking was if he was crazy. Blake would just nod. They would wait awhile, watching him, until they were eventually ushered away by veterans who knew the boy well. On most days he wouldn’t like the attention, but today it didn’t matter. His home in the Lower City of Tonkatsu was far too cold to shy away from a few perplexed spectators. At least the hospital had a heater. Besides, Blake could spend his time reading the medical books he had already read through at least twenty times, or he could try to diagnose patient he saw entering the hospital, or, and probably the most likely, he could sit and let his gaze drift into the lights and take in his surrounds. Naturally he chose the latter.

As his gaze wandered he reflected on how he came to be a sitter in the waiting room. Of course he knew the answer inside, but his sadness wouldn’t let him admit it to himself. Instead he threw out minor things like “I always wanted to be a medical ninja” or “Helping people is my dream”. In all actuality he came to this hospital for one reason, and he still wasn’t ready to admit it. The truth was it was the reason for everything, good or bad in Blake’s life. It was the reason Blake found his calling, the reason Blake had grown so close to his family emotionally, yet so distant physically, and even the reason his family now lived in the Lower City. Hospital bills add up, and hospital bills plus a penthouse in Upper City is far too much for two chunin parents to handle on their own.

Blake wasn’t bored, but he wasn’t exactly excited to be sitting back reflecting on life. He wanted to make a difference whether it was small or large he was ready to make some sort of change to his life. He wanted to be noticed, but maybe not exactly heard. Words are a powerful weapon that the young genin didn’t quite have the ability to use. Another couple passed by and stared. Blake began to wish someone would come through the door that wouldn’t just look at him. Someone who wouldn’t just stare and wonder why a grungy teenager was sitting alone in a hospital waiting room, but rather someone would actually acknowledge or maybe even sit next to him. But he figured that that was asking too much. Instead, he stood and took a seat in an actual chair. “Maybe now they’ll stop looking at me,” he said to himself.

Blake sat awestruck. He had just happened to glance to his left at the perfect time to see a green plant begin growing out of the wall inches from his face. Blake’s eyes got even wider when he saw the plant open, and inside two heads, well no, it was actually one head just separated by opposite colors. One side of the head was black and the other white. On top of the head sat silver hair. Blake had never seen a person… Wait, was this a person? The face certainly looked like it, but the plant trap around the upper body did not. Since the lack of necessary information Blake settled on specimen. Anyway, Blake had never quite seen a specimen like this.

The shock he displayed when the specimen began to speak to itself was astoundingly more enhanced than his first encounter with the specimen. Blake scrambled out of the chair he had been sitting in. Blake was wide eyed and bushy tailed. His eyes were so wide they looked ready to pop out of his skull at any moment. He slowly turned back to the specimen he had just looked away from. He began to reach out a hand to touch the large green trap that seemed to be attached to the specimen, as he did so he uttered a single phrase. “What are you?”

(Sorry it is short, I had to update my tournament fight at the same time)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQQ6QBmRAFA

Blake froze and stopped his hand mere inches away from the green plant protruding from the wall. The thing hadn’t even turned to him, yet she spoke as if she could see all around her. He could now tell by the tone of voice that it was a female, but maybe that wasn’t the greatest indicator. The voice wasn’t exactly high and it was very threatening, but it had a girlish note to it. The girl’s threat did not fall on deaf ears (well not both ears). The genin quickly withdrew his hand away from the wall and even took a couple of steps back. Of course he was still intrigued, but he had no idea if she was bluffing or not. The situation was too dangerous to risk it. Blake went with a thought that if something randomly sprouts from the wall and threatens you, you should probably listen.

Blake regained his composure and remembered words the girl had spoken. ‘Genetic Material’, Blake was familiar with what it was, but what did that have to do with this plant girl thing. A normal hero would, after hearing words like that, assume this thing was an enemy and immediately attack. But Blake wasn’t a normal hero, in fact he isn’t a hero at all, which may be the reason he waited around and heard another voice coming from the same plant. It was unlike the other. In fact it was almost opposite the other. This voice was definitely a girl’s voice and wasn’t threatening at all. Blake was so perplexed he couldn’t believe himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV0QJSVZDXk

You could imagine the face he had as part of the plant sucked itself back into the wall. Blake continued to stare in disbelief at the wall, until he heard someone say “look at the registration desk”. Blake quickly took the advice and saw a white head and arm protruding from beside the desk. They shuffled and struggled slightly until the arm managed to grab hold of a couple of pieces of candy from a bowl. Blake sighed. “All that work, just for candy?” he asked no one in particular. The white head and arm slowly sank back into the wall. Blake looked back at the black part that had remained. A smile formed on her lips and he couldn’t tell if she was smiling at the white part, or the white part was smiling for her. It was all very confusing.

When the white part reappeared and the two were halves once more, the white part began to talk about the enjoyment of the candy and the black part nodded in unison. It was quite the show, and Blake couldn’t help but give a light chuckle. He now saw an opening to finally get some answers. He walked over to the desk and took the bowl of candy. As he returned, he could see the excitement in the girl’s eyes. “You know they are free, right?” Blake stated “But I guess it wouldn’t be fun that way.” Blake held out the opening of the bowl to the girl, but as she attempted to reach in for another round, Blake pulled it back. “First, who are you?” Blake asked “I am Blake.”

Blake noticed the hand slide into the bowl and take out a few more sweets. He didn’t want to frighten the two halves, so he acted as though he didn’t see it. They were making introductions a little more complicated than Blake wanted. He was hoping for an “I am blank and she is blank and we are a blankity blank blank”, but of course the conversation was being made difficult. Blake reached his hand into the bowl and pulled out two more sweets. He held out his hand and dropped them into Sho-chan’s outstretched hand.

He had to do a little thinking as to how he would approach his next question. He had asked it before, but not gotten an answer. This time however, he had the candy. Blake had two options. He could ask Shokubutsu, who would likely ignore him again, or he could ask Sho-chan, who would probably give him a whimsical answer. After moments of thinking and another stealing attempt Blake realized a logical step.

“So, Shokubutsu, I will give Sho-chan the rest of the sweets bowl, if you tell me what you guys are,” Blake mentioned to the Black half, “If you don’t, I might have to eat some of the sweets myself.” A wicked grin flashed across his face. Blake no longer wanted to know what their anatomy was, he was now just generally interested.


My Character's Theme
[url=]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb1NaqB_thg[/url]

Something Blake had said had made both the girls squirm only slightly, but a squirm nonetheless. Blake knew that his bluff had gotten him nowhere, if anything he had regressed in his progress, but it no longer mattered to Blake. As quickly as his interest had been piqued, it had died down. Blake knew well that if there was something that someone wanted to keep a secret, they would keep it a secret. In fact Blake had secrets of his own that he would never voluntarily share. Blake looked at the growing angriness on the girls’ face and he sighed.

“On second thought, you two can have the rest, even if you don’t want to share any more information with me,” Blake said after reflecting “I’m sorry if I offended you.”

Blake offered the entire bowls of sweets to the girls, and even asked the desk woman, who he had known previously, if she had anymore. The desk women brought out three more bowls of many assortments of sweets. Blake offered the desk woman a quick thank you, and turned his attention back to Sho and, well, Sho. Blake took the three bowls and put them on the floor under the Shos. “I don’t know if you should eat all this, in fact I know nothing about your body systems, but feel free to take as much as you'd like.”

Blake’s gaze drifted to the lights on the ceiling as the person/plant/thing in front of him devoured bowl upon bowl of sweets. A small thought had been growing in Blake’s head, but noticing how defensive Shokubutsu could be Blake wondered how exactly to ask. Blake rubbed the back of his neck a few times in the hope that it would help his thinking, but it made no difference. Blake looked back to Shokubutsu as she was inhaling another bowl. Blake slowly sunk to a sitting position on the floor. He then crossed his legs. Blake leaned backwards while supporting himself with one hand. The other hand rested on his lap.

“So, are you sisters, or related, or…?”

Blake finally shot his question out. He said it strong at first, but began to trail off at the end. Honestly, in the time before spitting out the question and actually asking the question, all the confidence he had built up had been drained. Blake wasn’t sure what to expect for an answer. He didn’t know whether he was going too far into their business or if it was a common question. After finishing the question, Blake shifted his eyes away from Shokubutsu.