The Thief in the Market [Open]

Post #1

From the lush green forests of Konoha, to the beautiful sandy beaches of Kiri, then to the hot endless seas of sand that were Yokuchi: Cheshire and her sister Jinx had traveled to them all. They never stayed in one place for long and they likely never would: a few weeks in one place, a few weeks in another, then onward to a new location. It had been Cheshire’s life for nearly a year and it had kept her out of jail on most occasions: she had been caught once or twice in the beginning but she had always escaped and alluded recapture.

Now, Cheshire and her sister had set themselves up in Hana. They had found an Inn to stay in within the market; Cheshire having paid for the single room her and her younger sister were sharing with the last of the money she had saved from the odd jobs she had done in their previous village. Unfortunately, that had left them with nothing to spare for food and considering Cheshire had yet to find a job – she really didn’t like the idea of going to the mission board for them since it meant her name would be registered in the village – she had resorted to stealing. She didn’t eat much herself but she had to make sure her sister was taken care of: she owed her sister and their parents that much.

This stealing had of course brought some attention to herself, not from the village guard or police but rather the other ‘criminals’ and thieves within the village. She was good at what she did, better likely than any human could try to be, and the fact that she got in and out so easily when it came to stealing had caused several to come inquiring about her skills. There were bands of bandits and thieves who had wanted her skills for themselves: they had promised her gold, jewels, money, so on and so forth, to try and convince her to join them.

She had turned them all down. While most accepted her choice there had been an occasion or two where it had turned violent and she had had to kick one person or another’s ass to prove that they couldn’t force her into it. She just hoped that today wasn’t going to be one of those days.

She was leaning in the opening of a back alley, an apple in her hand which she had just taken a bite out of and was busy chewing. She was dressed in her normal tan colored attire, hiding her feline features as much as possible as to draw less attention to herself. From her left, deeper in the alley way, came a deep male voice, “Hey there, pretty lady. I’ve been looking all over for you. Do you realize just how hard you are to track down?”

Cheshire didn’t even bother looking over – instead she kept her gaze on the village officer whose was being yelled at by the stall owner whose stall she just robbed. She had got away without being seen by either the stall owner or the village police and the stall owner was placing all the blame on the other male for having not noticed what he himself hadn’t. He was ranting and raving and Cheshire couldn’t help but chuckle: she hadn’t taken much, just a few apples, a loaf of bread, and a few other assorted fruits for her and her sister to share. ”If I was easy to track down than I wouldn’t be doing my job very well, would I?”, Cheshire commented, suddenly remembering that the male who had approached her was still waiting for a response.

“I suppose you wouldn’t, no.”, the man commented with a frown. “So, I suppose you’re wondering why I was looking for you in the first place….?”

”Not really… I’m pretty sure I know what you want and the answer is no.”

“But I haven’t even asked yet!”

”You don’t need to. You commented on my skills, tried to sweet talk me by calling me ‘pretty lady’. You either want to fuck or you want me to join your little gang of misfits and criminals so that I can go steal jewels and gold from hardworking folks to line your greedy pockets. Hell, I’ll probably get like… ten percent… if I’m lucky when the spoils have been divided out. Fifteen percent if I sleep with you. Am I close?”

The man opened and closed his mouth several times and Cheshire didn’t give him the chance to respond. Instead, she took another bite of her apple and walked into the market, her tail slipping down and swaying behind her as she walked through the streets – the village police had left and she didn’t care if the stall owner saw her or not since he hadn’t seen her take the goods in the first place. The man scowled and went back into the alley way – he wasn’t a fool enough to follow her down a public street, but he certainly wasn’t done with her yet.

Words: 855

Post #2

Cheshire was no fool, she knew the guy was following her or at the least keeping tabs on her. Eyes stared at her from various alley ways that she passed by; each person turning to disappear as she passed on. She assumed they were spies for the guy who had just tried to proposition her skills, and had a feeling that since the guy hadn’t taken her verbal no she was going to have to give him a violent one to get him to actually back off.

Another bite was taken out of her apple and chewed as she continued to wind and twist her way down the street, doing her best not to bump into the people coming and going. A few stopped to stare when they felt her fluffy white tail brush up against them, but Cheshire disappeared deeper into the crowd before too many people could get a good look.

As she made her way through the market she began to think more and more that getting into a violent altercation with another group of thugs was probably not a good idea. Her sister and her had been in the village no more than three days, and had paid to stay at the inn for the next few weeks: she didn’t want to see them thrown out and the money end up lost, especially since she didn’t have anymore ryo to rely on for the time being. With this thought running through her mind Cheshire picked up her pace and neared a nearby wall. She jumped onto a barrel, then from there an awning, and finally up onto the roof. She made quick work running to and up a wall, grabbing the ledge, and hoisting herself up onto the next roof. This vantage point gave her a great view of the city around her, including the alley across the way where she was being watched. She stuck her tongue out, a childish move perhaps but one that caused the man to go red in the face with rage, and then ran toward the next building. Cheshire jumped at the last second, launching herself across the gab between the buildings and onto the next one.

“Get up there and get after her!”, she could hear the man grumble due to her advanced hearing. Several of his goons pushed and shoved their way across the busy market street and started to attempt to make their way up to her. One of the three got halfway up before falling painfully onto his back, the other two scramble up a lot sloppier than she had.

”If I were you I’d just walk away now… no good will come of this for you.” Cheshire called back over her shoulder as she took off running around and took a skilled leap over another gap between buildings: putting more and more room between herself and the goons attempting to follow her. Cheshire turned once she landed in a crouch, standing gracefully to see the goons still struggling to reach her. A cheshire like grin spread across her face as she folded her arms across her chest. ”You’re going to break your necks if you keep trying...”

“Shut up, pussy cat! Or we’ll turn you into a new fur coat!” One of the goons after her retorted, right before tripping over his own two feet and falling onto the roof.

Words: 575 + 855 = 1430

Post #3

Another individual, this one much faster and skilled than the others: she could handle the goons easy enough but she didn’t know how she’d fare against someone of that skill level. Cheshire felt a spike of worry mixed with fear shoot up her spine before witnessing what was going on below – this person, whoever they were, weren’t on the side of the goons as she had originally thought. In fact, it looked like he was cutting them down one by one. Eventually this stranger made it up onto the roof and again made quick work with one of his weapons, slicing them down.

Eventually there was only one goon left who had a weapon pointed at him. But it wasn’t the goon she was focused on, it was the stranger himself. His appearance had caught her attention and held it: the feline characteristics, especially his ears. This person had to be from the same clan as her. She had never thought to ever come across anyone else from her clan: she had thought the majority of them killed outside of her sister and herself.

”I dunno.. that sounds like a pretty fair trade considering what you and your friends were going to do to me.”, Cheshire commented as she took a running leap across the gap once more and landed on the roof top that her fellow Neko clan member and the goon were on. ”I can only imagine what you all would have done had you caught up to me.”, she added as she moved closer while keeping at least some distance between herself and the goon. She reached up, pulling her tan hat off of her head as well as her goggles: revealing not only her stark white hair but two feline ears that were tinted with a light pink colored fur on the inside. Her ears twitched and she found herself reaching up and scratching one absently, sticking her tongue out between her lips as she did so from the enjoyment of the feeling.

As if realizing suddenly what she was doing she quit scratching herself and looked toward her fellow clan member. ”Thanks for the help, by the way… I haven’t seen someone move like that since… well, in a long time.” She had almost said since the days she had watched her brothers train but had thought better of it – not because she didn’t want the helpful stranger to know but rather because if the goon was allowed to live she didn’t want to give him anymore information than he already had: she had her sister to protect after all and most scum weren’t above using other people as hostages to get what they want.

Cheshire toyed with her had between her fingers, waiting to see if this stranger was going to end the goons life or not: it really didn’t matter to her either way. So long as this situation didn’t come back to bite her on the ass later on she didn’t care – she just didn’t want the trouble. Besides, she had questions burning she wanted to ask, questions she wouldn’t ask while people were around who could use the information against them.

Words: 540 + 1430 = 1970

Post #4

The Neko stranger kicked the man hard enough to cause him to lift up in the air and go flying off of the roof: she couldn’t tell from where she was standing when he hit the ground but she was pretty sure that if the fall hadn’t killed him he was definitely severely injured. Either way he wouldn’t be a problem anymore and if she was lucky what had happened here would serve as a warning for anyone else in the future wanting to ‘acquire’ her skill set. The best part of the whole situation of course was the fact that so far no village guard had shown up which meant the chances she was about to be asked to leave the village were slim.

When the Neko stranger finally looked toward her he closed his eyes and let out a sigh: he looked content. Cheshire almost expected him to say something when he opened his eyes again but instead he put his cloak and hat back on jumped back down into the street below. ”Wait! Hold on a second!”, Cheshire called after him loudly. She had so many questions she wanted to ask him!

”Please don’t go! I have some questions!”, she added as she too jumped off of the roof and landed in the streets below: landing in a crouch and standing quickly. She ignored the gasps and stares from the people around her as she kept as much of her focus on the other Neko clan member as she could. She normally didn’t try and be a bother, in fact she normally kept to herself or rather herself and her sister, but she had too many questions and it seemed like she might have found someone who could answer some of them.

”Please! I… just want to know what happened!”. She was desperate. Her and her sister knew nothing of what happened outside of having seen the aftermath. They had guesses, assumptions, but no hard facts. They could guess who was behind it all, who had caused all of the mass death and destruction, but they were just that – assumptions. She wanted the facts, she wanted the truth, even if it would hurt in the end. She had to know though, she had to have that closure: her and her sister deserved that much, didn’t they? Cheshire could only hope that the stranger would stop, that he would give her the information she sought after so hard. She didn’t like being a pest or a bother, but in this situation she was willing to step out of her comfort zone and do just that – at least a little: it wasn’t like she was going to follow him all over the village if he didn’t want to answer her after all.

Words: 470 + 1970 = 2440

Post #5

Jubei glanced back at her and then walked into the inn: Cheshire didn’t hesitate to follow since he left the door open. Cheshire glanced around as she stepped inside, closing the door behind herself as she did so. The lobby area was empty except for them and as she turned her attention back to her fellow clan member she noticed him pushing his scarf down so that his face showed. She waited patiently, silently, for his response to the question she had called out to him.

Sure enough he gave it to her, and it was just as she and her sister Jinx had feared: the village had been attacked by rival humans. As was normal with most humans they attacked because they were scared: scared of the Neko clan and likely the things they could do. From what the stranger mentioned though they had done well with fending them off however the sheer numbers of the humans had been overwhelming. The stranger here was saved by his own father who pushed a sword into his hands and threw him into the river valley. When he woke up everything was gone: a feeling she was all to familiar with herself having returned home to much the same thing. He didn’t know how many survived or if any of his family had. She was the first Neko clan member he had come across since everything had happened.

”I… I don’t even know what to say. It’s what I feared; what my sister and I both feared. But to know now… to be positive of it.” She paused, contemplating what all she wanted to say. She didn’t know this stranger, even if they were from the same clan, but she felt that she owed him some sort of an explanation considering all that he had just told her. ”My mother was a seamstress, my father owned a stall in the market selling clothing and fabric. There was a special project my mother had been working on that required specific dyes – she preferred making her own, and the supply of berries that the market had needed weren’t ripe enough for her liking. She sent me and my baby sister out to go find some… we came home much much later to everything gone, and everyone dead.” Sadly, Cheshire shook her head before sighing softly. ”I’m sorry if my question brought up bad memories I just had to know… We guessed as much, but to hear it actually happened like that...”

Cheshire was concerned: she didn’t know how she was going to tell her sister about this. Her little sister was happy enough, and Cheshire always did her best to make sure she was taken care of, but her sister had been jumpy and easily scared since that day. To go on and tell her that their assumptions were right, that humans had destroyed nearly all of them… well, she wasn’t sure how her sister was going to handle that – she wasn’t sure how any child would handle it for that matter.

”I’m Cheshire, by the way… My sister Jinx and I are staying temporarily here. We haven’t really found a place to settle for a long period of time. We just go from place to place: I take odd jobs as I can find them….”, she didn’t mention the other things she resorted to doing if she couldn’t – she was sure he’d have a good enough guess considering the kind of people had just gone to battle against.

Words: 595 + 2440 = 3035

Post #6

A distortion in the air began to appear and from it a young individual with the strangest outfit she had ever seen came forth. Such things would have scared her normally, but judging by the way her fellow Neko was reacting this individual wasn’t a threat – or rather, more clearly, was a friend and not a foe. Considering the guy – from the way the voice sounded – was floating and the way he physically looked fit he was definitely a threat. After making a joke the individual asked her fellow Neko clan member about something called Weapons Tech, but cut himself off when he noticed her.

He flew in circles around her, calling her a cute cat lady and asking if she was Jubei’s girlfriend or sister. Before Cheshire could respond though Jubei did; explaining that she was a member of his clan, the first he’d seen since what had happened back home. He explained that she was a guest in the village, and had run into some trouble. Figuring it couldn’t hurt to explain things, especially considering Jubei had involved himself in the situation and helped her out, she spoke, ”Name’s Cheshire. Jubei here helped me out because some guys wouldn’t take no for an answer – apparently they expected me to act as an expert thief or something for them.”

Just then she heard the door open behind her and without glancing back picked up on a familiar scent: her sister. Her sister stood only about three feet high since she was only five years old. She had the same coloration as Cheshire though unlike Cheshire who was dressed like she was raiding tombs or something her little sister was dressed in desert way; a white pair of pants, a very long top, and a yellow shawl looking cloth up over her head – though it did nothing to hide her ears. Jinx looked to Cheshire and then to Jubei and the floating boy. She backed up a step, looking between them and her sister, clearly a bit weary – as she had been since the day they had discovered their dead parents.

Cheshire calmed her sister though by reaching a hand out to her, a gesture Jinx took to mean everything was okay. She stepped forward instantly, taking her sisters offered hand with both of her little ones. ”This is my sister, Jinx.” Jinx smiled, but didn’t speak.

Words: 405 + 3035 = 3440