[raimaa futago]

Ohh, that was cute. She stammered out a bit more, and then ran away over to an unfinished building nearby. She did pretty well, as well. Weaving between crowds was one of the training methods used for advanced defensive style. And then, at the end of her run, she even gave a little wave, which was perfect. So, Raimaa would copy her new friend's action and vault the taffrail herself. Raimaa didn't use any wire to slow herself down, merely landing gently on the deck. Using the Ghost Fist style concept to spiral force up her legs and disperse it.

And then, Raimaa would begin to walk. Her glimmer eyes never left Homare for a moment, and she didn't seem to shift at all, walking a straight line through the crowds. And yet, despite them not making any efforts to get out of the way, she never hit anyone. Simply seeming to glide through them like a ghost. Despite the walking pace, there was an inexorability to her, that seemed as if nobody would escape her, however fast they could run. And then she would enter the building, and Homare lost sight of Raimaa as she climbed the unfinished construct.

"You know, running from a predator is the best way to get them to chase after you" Raimaa would whisper into her little spinnerrete's ear. Having appeared like the breeze, and with the presence of a spectre, she cast her gaze out to the dock and beyond. Hoping to see something worth seeing.

[Mayonaka Homare]

Homare feels pretty proud of herself for having managed to make it through the crowd from the ship and into the building so quickly as the construction goes on around her, and she watches somewhat curiously as Raimaa drops from the ship, though with nothing to stop her, she wonders how exactly the kunoichi managed to disperse all the energy of her fall; it doesn't even look like she crouches as she lands, so it's even more confusing for the Mayonaka ninja. Her movement as she walks through the crowd is also quite notable, and she's nearly breathless at the sight of her seemingly able to just walk through the crowd without even engaging in any movements to avoid walking straight into one of the other workers.

She watches in awe as Raimaa moves through the crowd and straight into the unfinished building, moving like an actual ghost past the living until the woman whispers in her ear, nearly making her fall from her perch. In fact, she does fall from her perch, but with the sticky spider string attached to her hand, she manages to avoid falling more than a couple feet before the springiness of the spider silk allows her to leap back up onto the same perch, giving the legendary kunoichi a little bit of a frown at least.

"Spiders are the predators, not the prey..."

She stops at the end of the refutation, not sure what she should call the woman now. It seemed a little odd to simply call her by her first name without any "Miss" at the front of it to show her politeness, but judging by the previous interaction, they might be... friends, of a sort? Didn't Shizuka say that friends gave each other nicknames? And hers was Bādoītā when she was with Shizuka, so what was Raimaa's? She has to keep her eyes on Raimaa's own. Her clothing was very distracting, and she's starting to feel that it's the whole point of the way she dresses, walks, talks, and acts. Was all of it a ruse, or was some of it genuine? It was hard for Homare to parse, as it normally was for her with other people, but she was supposed to be learning how to become more personable. She finally comes up with a nickname, though...

"That settles it. My nickname for you is going to be Kunisada."

[raimaa futago]

"Everything is prey to something, little doll" Raimaa would reply. Homare gave a cool little showcase of falling off the ledge and then springing herself back up. If you were a Shinobi, you should be capable of that much at least. The frown she had was so cute as well. Gods above, everything about this one was cute. Life truly could be unfair at times. Though, that was just Raimaa being greedy. Mei had everything she could ever want in a wife. Not that that was stopping her from making Homare somewhere between embarrassed and confident in her beauty and femininity.

And then, announcing her nickname, Raimaa would give a gentle laugh and appear in front of Homare. It wasn't just the speed at which Raimaa moved, but the fluidity as well. No wasted movements, everything led into the next thing with the immediacy of rushing water. Her hair flitted in the moment, like a peacock's splayed feathers. Half to dazzle, half to attract. Clearly, there was a reason why she kept what was by rights a liability in combat. A soft hand would then cup Homare's cheek, and lifted her head up to stare into the glowing pink eyes with a gentle force behind it that merely implied strength, rather than outright use it.

"I would prefer Mistress, if we are giving nicknames. To have control over such a body would be a delight. But I shall play ball. What does Kunisada mean, my little web-slinger?" Raimaa would ask, her head cocked softly off to one side.

[Mayonaka Homare]

Homare is feeling just a bit odd when she's called a little doll by Raimaa; she's never really felt this way towards another woman, or towards anyone really, and she has to keep her desires in check. After all, they were mostly surface-level, and she didn't personally know Raimaa all that well herself, nor did Raimaa really know anything about her. The suddenness of the same woman appearing directly in front of her face nearly makes her fall over again, but this time she keeps still, terrified a bit into completely freezing when the hair wildly flies around her head like a corona around a darkened sun, with the pink glowing eyes only adding to the effect as a hand lifts to cup her cheek with a firmness that ensured compliance, despite the softness of that same hand.

The idea of calling her Mistress actually makes her a bit dizzy, especially with the suggestion that she would have control over her body, but she gulps once in order to focus on the question that Raimaa asks, as soon as she remembers how to actually form full sentences and not just stammer.

"K-kunisada is a name for a 'lady ghost'... M-Mis-... Erm, Miss Raimaa."

Although she'd felt somewhat compelled to actually call her Mistress, it seems she lost her nerve halfway through, and simply defaulted to the more formal name with a "Miss" in front. Homare's poor face was kept quite red, and she was certain she would eventually end up passing out from the blood rushing to her head from all the attention she's getting from the older woman, and especially the teasing passes at her from someone so lovely. She was lucky she could keep her spider silk under total control, or she might have ended up making a mess from just pure nervousness.

[raimaa futago]

Raimaa would stay still and in front of Homare, the smile gentle but unwavering as the stare she pinned Homare to the spot with. And then, when she finally did speak, there was a glimmer in Raimaa's eyes, and a gentle shudder to them as Homare barely avoided getting her tiny brain blown wide open.

"Ha! You were about to, weren't you?" Raimaa would ask, her totally in control commanding persona fading a bit towards something more akin to a teenager having a great amount of fun bantering with a friend. The emotional flexibility was either a boon or a curse. Maybe it wasn't even something she was in control of anymore.

Raimaa would step back and spin, more animate and vigerous than before. Her adrenals were on a hair trigger these days, and a cute lil toy almost saying the words was enough to make her body flush. Not the chakra-empowered hijutsu stuff, just the normal stuff. But that was potent enough.

"Haha! Ahh, this has been perfect. I was kinda worried, the last guy I went on a mission from Kiri with was kind of a square and he then broke the god-damn boat with his need to show off probably. And I got a cramp" she exclaimed, her speech now faster and more frantic than it was before. "It's kinda fine we didn't even get anything to fight. I got a lovely new friend and a great story to tell for the rest of my life. That's a fine trade"

[Mayonaka Homare]

Homare, perhaps getting a bit nervous from the hard stare of the other, older woman, is starting to feel more and more uncomfortable as she sees the glimmer in Raimaa's eyes, but only because she's close enough to be very nearly in kissing distance. These thoughts came unbidden to her mind, and she wonders if perhaps the pink eyes have some kind of effect on her after all when Raimaa's air of command disappears, shattering into a more fun-loving personality, and the whiplash of the two differing sides of Raimaa's interaction nearly leaves her dizzy, though the teasing gets her worked up as well, just in a slightly different way, and as the Yukigakure kunoichi steps back and spins away, she gulps to get down the nervousness she'd felt previously.

"I'm not afraid to call you Mistress, if that's what you think!"

Of course, she didn't actually prove it, since she didn't truly call the other woman Mistress. The story she gets from the strangely now very talkative woman is hard to follow, except that the last man destroyed their boat somehow, and she'd ended up with a cramp from it. It was particularly disappointing that this shinobi she was talking about apparently didn't even fight anyone; such a show-off couldn't have really come from Kirigakure, could they? Then again, after experiencing some time alone with Raimaa, she certainly thought a lot of people would do a lot of things for this woman, if they thought they'd get something out of it.

"Yes, well... I think we should move on out, Mistress, the work on this building is nearly done, and we'll need to part ways again once it's done."

She moves down nearer to Raimaa as she speaks, and when she uses this new nickname of a sort, one of her upper hands reaches over and around to tap Raimaa on her left shoulder while Homare approaches from behind on her right, and soon after bumps her hip against the other woman's own before she slips out through a window opening, since they hadn't put the glass in just yet. Such a fragile building material was one of the last things installed into a building, after all, and it gave Homare an escape after such an embarrassing thing. From her two lower arms, she tosses out spider silk to to the wall so she can fall safely to the ground and land gracefully on her own two feet.

[raimaa futago]

Ohh, the haste at which she made any attempt to reclaim what little bit of pride and ego she had left. It was such a cute thing to see, she had to tell Mei all about this when she got home. The woman would probably get jealous about the flirting and the being with a cute lil Shinobi, but that was all part of the fun.

Unfortunately, pride ran away with Homare, and she said it. She said the words. Raimaa was still and silent as Homare approached, tapping her shoulder and even when the spider-woman bumped her hip. If Homare would glance up after landing, Raimaa would still be stood there, here swaying in the wind and skin bright red as if embarrassed.

And then, she was not. In a heartbeat, Raimaa vanished like a spectre. It was so quick, so perfect, one had to question if she was even there to begin with. She hadn't jumped off the railings or anything, and there was no chakra smoke to imply body flicker or substitution had been used. Could even be a Genjutsu...

"Well then~" a voice spoke in Homare's ear. Like a velvet-wrapped sword, it was smooth with a violent undertone. It promised such things, of all spectrums. It sounded somewhat like Raimaa's, and yet much more than anything she had said before. If Homare span around to see who it was, there was nothing but the wind. "Sleep well, little spider. For one day we will come to you, and there we will take you away to a land of enchantment. There we will make good on the words you have recklessly spoken here today. For there is no way out now"

[Mayonaka Homare]

Homare is somewhat confused that Raimaa is still standing there where she'd left her, with her skin bright red, and she wonders if calling her Mistress had been going too far, and perhaps she should have stuck with simply calling her Kunisada. She's about to call out an apology to the other shinobi when her form seems to just disappear, and not even in the method of seemingly-teleportation she'd seen from the use of the Shunshin technique or one of its variations. She had physically vanished from her sight. It's rather like a flash of lightning suddenly appearing and then instantly disappearing; you know you saw something, but you're not sure what exactly the shape of that something was, except that you can now see the emptiness where it once was.

The voice in her ear startles the Mayonaka, and it takes a lot of self-control not to physically jump upwards and away from where she hears the voice coming from. It somehow also sends a shiver up her spine, though whether it's from fear or from... something else, she isn't sure. It was somehow both terrifying and exciting, and the line between the two is dangerously slim and unclear. Homare at least has enough control over her own actions to instead turn her head, only to see that there's no physical embodiment there; not that it means much, as evidenced by the way Raimaa had once been there and then abruptly disappeared from her view. The... threat? promise? of being stolen away to a land of enchantment was also similarly exciting and thrilling... but also chilled her to the bone, and she wonders what exactly she had signed herself up for. Not to mention who Raimaa had meant when she'd referred to a plural "we", rather than the singular "I".

Not wanting to give the legendary ninja too much more than she's already given the other woman, she simply turns back towards the ship, where some of the builders were returning, in order to leave behind the tradesmen and shipwrights that would need to be left on the island for its business as a trade port to continue for months without outside interaction. Of course, those builders wouldn't need so many supplies, as Kirigakure and Yukigakure were likely to immediately start sending ships out to them for easier trades. She follows the builders back up to the ship, though she's still worried for her future and what exactly this legendary kunoichi has in mind for her...

[EXIT THREAD, MISSION COMPLETE]